Hisashiburi!

Well, the vacation week is winding down. We didn't do a whole lot, but it was still a nice vacation. I did have to work this week, so that was kinda poopy. Chris and I would hang out, but then I would have to disappear for four or so hours. I think Chris would get bored when I was gone.

Let's see...what did we do? I know, lets go from start with the most interesting parts!

On Friday, Chris and I went to Yonago to see Spider-man 3. Ooooo. It was a pretty good movie. Not as good as 1 or 2, but still an excellent comic bookmovie. Way better than Fantastic Four, X-Men 3, Hulk, Ghostrider, etc. It's kinda on par with X-men 1. It's a little too long and some scenes go on way too long. Still, it's a good movie and I feel like I got my $18 dollars worth (stupid Japanese movie ticket prices).

Anyways, heading home is where this story gets really interesting. We were 20 minutes outside of Yonago, just be-bopping along when our car shudders and starts driving really funny. It sounds like we are riding on a piece of highway were they are doing construction and it's really ridgy and makes that loud noise and the car is hard to control. The car behind us was flashing it's light so Chris decides it's probably not the road (which is normal and not constructed on at all) and pulls over.

Smoke curls up over the left-front wheel well. I get out (remember, opposite sides, passenger sits on the left in Japan) and look. Our tire has pretty much exploded. It had three huge holes in the side of the tire. Not the tread, where they normally wear out, but the sides! The holes look like someone slashed our tires. Scary! Even scarier is that we already had a flat tire this week, but it was on a completely different tire (though we got it plugged and didn't have to change it or anything). It kinda implied that our tires were old as Moses and probably set to detonate at any point in time.

Anyways, Chris is the hero of the piece. He calmly get out of the car and looks at our stupid blow-out. He calls Mihara-san but doesn't get an answer, so he does what any good man would do. He rolls up his (metaphorical) sleeves and sets out to change our tire. So manly! I think I almost swooned. It was my job to hold the lug nuts. I'm such a girl. So he changed our tire like the champion he is. I should mention that we were on a highway were people are going around 100 km/h so he was having to do this with cars zipping by (although, the flat wasn't on the side closest to the highway, it was still freaky). Poor dear, his hands got all mucky and his palms are bruised from loosening and tightening the lug nuts. I just pranced around with tissues wrapped around everything so my hands were fine.

So he changed our tire. Yay, and we got back onto the highway. But it's the highway where everyone wants to go fast, but we wanted to go slow. Highways are two lane in Japan, how lame is that? So we quickly got off the road as fast as we could and limped back home. Yay! Now, we are waiting for tomorrow to get the tires changed. I am adamant that all four tires get replaced because the ones we have are old and dangerous. We were very lucky that even though our tire essentially blew out, Chris never lost control of the car and we could safely pull off into the pull-off area and change the tire. I am not riding in that car until the tires are changed! Hmph!

Yesterday, I made my husband his special dinner. We had chili cheese dogs. Hooray! It was very tasty, I might say. I even fried up some french fries for him. That was his tire changing meal.

Also yesterday, we went shopping! Hooray! We bought things that we didn't need but wanted anyway. For Chris, we got him a small magic trick that will BLOW YOUR MIND. I don't know how it works. He won't tell me. For me I got...well...let me show you...






Petite Jenga! It's so small! It comes in a little carrying case that you can clip to your keys (though that seems like a great way to break it or lose pieces). It also comes with a little poking stick! You have to use it to poke out the pieces. It's really hard to play because it's so light you kinda just push the entire tower around. But still, it's cute and was only $5 so what the heck, right? It's a cute gag that I can freak people out with. Jenga on the go!

Also, we got another dexterity game. It's called Tumba. At first glance it seems like a Jenga ripoff, but it's by far a much better game. You stack multicolored bricks by matching colors. I have some pictures. Have a look!







This is several games and shots of Tumba. Chris took all but one picture. I'm sure you can figure out which one that is. Haw. It really is a fun game and I will probably make you guys play with us.

It gets hysterically tense. More so than a really tall tower of Jenga. It just gets so wobbly. Chris and I were suffering from the giggles and having difficult times placing the pieces. You see, you have to place them so the colors match from top to bottom (side to side doesn't matter). So looking for a place and trying to keep physics in mind is a trip. It's even trippier when you balance a block that should not be able to balance according to all laws of man and nature.

Good times, man, good times. Who would think that such a simple game would be so fun.

Also...we got whipped cream! So I'm going to go have some Chocolate Milk and whipped cream so we can play some games!

Seriously, that's about all we have done. We got some ice cream from Baskin Robins. Bought some boxes. Watched a lot of stupid Grey's Anatomy. Cooked meals together. Nothing super interesting. So that's that.

Too bad you guys couldn't have had awesome vacation like us, eh?