Nice Scenery, Even in Winter

We went to a coastal park to take in some pretty sights, and while it might not look very cold, it was completely arctic outside. But it was beautiful!

My precious!

Imagine the title voiced á la Gollum from Lord of the Rings...

Anyway, you've probably already heard/read about it somewhere (because I'm obsessed and can't stop talking about it), but in case you haven't come across me on FB, email, phone, IM, or *shock* real life in the past couple days... I have a new camera (a Canon T1i)!

It's my first foray into the dslr world, so I have a lot to learn. This is one complicated little piece of machinery, and I'm sure I'll spend the next few weeks/months/years figuring it all out. But it's going to be one heck of a fun process, I have a feeling. So far I've just been goofing around and figuring out the manual settings. Here's a sample of 4 (out of 125 in one day... see, I told you- obsessed) pics I've taken with it:

This is so fun! :)

Finally some real snow!

Snow shovels, snow angels, snow balls, snow men... it's a snow EXTRAVAGANZA! Last winter the stupid snow gave me a broken arm and a driving phobia, but this year the weather gods seem to be trying to make amends for their past assault against me. I have to say I'm having fun with it so far this year! Dare I say it- it's almost kind of nice.

Last night and earlier today gave us our first substantial snowfall here in Misawa all winter. After Corey made his way home (they were released from work early and his normal 20 minute drive took an hour) and the snow let up, we went outside and had some fun in the fresh winter wonderland.
Oh, Corey and our snowman say "Hi" too!

Produce Packaging

In Japanese supermarkets, one can find produce packaged in very small amounts. Sometimes it comes in handy. For instance, we can buy a quarter of a head of cabbage to add to a stir-fry for one dinner or half a bell pepper for a salad without having to worry about wasting anything or figuring out multiple uses for one large vegetable.

But sometimes it seems a little silly. For instance, if I was going to buy cherry tomatoes (even if I wanted them for just a small snack), I'm pretty sure I would want more than 4. Yet 4 is what you can get in some containers. All that packaging for 4 stinkin' cherry tomatoes. Overkill much?

What I learned about snowboarding...

... IT HURTS!!!

Like, a lot.

We went up to Towadako yesterday with a group of friends to try out the sport for the first time. The weather was beautiful for most of the day (it was snowing the whole time, but not too much wind until towards the end). My favorite parts of the day were the moments of being on the mountain or in the chair lift, taking in the beautiful scenery in silence with snow falling all around me. It really was gorgeous in an almost magical kind of way!

As for the actual snowboarding, it was definitely fun! Corey took to it really well. He even tried the intermediate slope twice. Me- well, I can't say I'm a natural (I literally didn't stand fully up on the board once my first trip down the bunny slope- which took at least an hour, by the way), but I sort of started to get the hang of it by the end of he day. By that, I mean I could do something other than scoot my way down the mountain via attempting an upright position and falling back down, causing the board to slide downward a few inches each time. I don't think that slope has ever seen so much of one butt.

I took one particularly nasty fall (ironically, after my best fully-standing slide down a steep slope) in which my forehead met the ground before I even knew I was falling. It broke my goggles and jarred me enough to end my day.

And today- OH THE PAIN!! Forget the fact that we both have tweaked ankles, knees, elbows and wrists. That's nothing compared to the deep muscle pains in places we never even knew we had muscles! Each individual finger is sore, and I'm pretty sure I have whiplash from my big fall as I can hardly move my neck (it hurts to freakin' swallow), and Corey's upper body isn't faring much better. OUCH!

Still, I guess the fun is worth the pain. We definitely want to do it again. It might take a couple weeks of recuperation, but we'll be back on the slopes!

New Project 365 blog!

Yeah, I'm starting one. I'm a little late to join the trend, I know, but I wanted to do it anyway. If you're not really big into the blog-world and haven't come across one of these, it's basically a year-long photo documentary of life. If you're interested, you can read more about the whats and the whys in the link.

My Project 365

I'll still be updating this blog whenever I have something worthwhile to share, and if you're not interested in following my 365 blog, this one will still be business as usual (so you don't have to worry about missing any riveting posts). :)

Happy New Year, by the way!