Saturday, September 26, 2009

Off to Japan

We're leaving tomorrow to spend two weeks in Japan.  Going to Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea, experiencing downtown Tokyo, touring the Toyota factory, riding the high speed train, spending some quiet days in Kyoto, going to Hiroshima and going to Costco!!  We'll post pictures when we get back.
.
.
.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Public Urination, Number 2

I actually could post about "Number 2" in public, because I've seen it one too many times, but....

Instead I'll leave you with a poem (thanks to Damon for the inspiration):

Oh, the places you could go...

Not in the lot,
Not off the wall,
Not in my view,
Not in the mall.

Not on the road,
Watch out for the toad.
Not in IKEA
I don't want to see ya.

Turn your back,
Hide behind that bush,
Look there's the bathroom,
Don't show your tush.

It's okay to go outside,
Just play my way,
and try to hide.

Oh, the places you could go....
.
.
.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

The Price Fruits and Veggies




These are the fruits and vegetables that I bought at the grocery store yesterday.  It takes me about 30 minutes to thoroughly wash them all!  The trade off is that most of them are very inexpensive!  Here is what I paid in US dollars - these are the totals, not the price per pound/kilo.

Oranges  -  .15 (the green ones are little sour oranges like mandarin oranges)
Lettuce - .25
Carrots -  .30
Tomatoes -  .45
Apples -  .45
Bananas - 1.50
Grapefruit - 3.00
Kiwi - 3.50
.
.
.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Great Hike

We took a great hike today - Mike, Debi and Yukiko. Left all the kids home at our house, with Damon as the nearby supervisor. We went for 3 hours.

If you remember the pagoda, instead of taking the shortcut up the hill to get to it, we went the long way. Basically a big circle. From our house, looking up at the pagoda, we went to the right, up the road for about 20 minutes, then took a left into the hills, and walked a trail of steps up and down and along the mountain ridge for 2.5 hours. Then down the steps by the beach and along the road back to home to complete the circle. It is amazing that they built this trail along the mountain ridge and basically paved it with stone steps or pathways the whole way.

We plan to do it again soon. The weather is cooler so it is easier to be doing things outside.
.
.
.

Monday, September 14, 2009

The Saga of the Doorbell

Our apartment is one of twelve in our building - six floors, two apartments per floor. There is small lobby downstairs with stairs, elevator, and mailboxes. To get into the lobby from outside, you use a keypad to enter the code to open the locked door. If you are visiting or delivering pizza, you can key in an apartment number on the keypad box and it will ring into the person's apartment (sounds like a very loud phone, not a doorbell). That person will then open the door for you electronically.

We live in apartment 301. The keypad entry code (that everyone uses) to open the main lobby downstairs is *0301. You can see the problem already, yes? When people forget to key in the *, it rings our apartment. At least twice a week. Day and night. Loudly. Even at 3:00am.

Solution #1 - Sign by the door "don't forget the * key"...

Didn't work.

Solution #2 - Note in everyone's mailbox "don't forget the * key...you don't realize it, but you are waking us up"...{not those exact words :)}

Didn't work.

Solution #3 - I asked the office to please disconnect the "ringer" in our apartment. If someone needs us, we'll give them our cell number.

It worked!...Someone came and took the whole box off our wall today (I thought they could just turn it off)...not sure if they are bringing it back...but I can tell you for sure that it won't ring tonight!!!


.
.
.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Public Urination

The ultimate culture clash...Americans who do everything privately and Chinese who don't mind doing some things in public...I've been thinking of this post for a while, and I can't hold it in any more.

Let me start by saying that I technically don't have a problem with urinating outside of a bathroom, but I guess I do think that some locations are more appropriate than others. I figure if it's a place where I'd let my dog pee, then it's ok for people too - like in the grass, where it can trickle down into the ground.

I'm still surprised that nearly every time I go out in the car, I see someone peeing....really! Thankfully most of the men turn their backs to the road... and the women wear skirts... I've seen a few little boys going in the middle of the parking lot at the market. Most of the people are going in the grass (a Debi-approved location).

Even so...surprising...every time...still...
.
.
.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Walk to the Beach

Two blog posts in one day!!

I took a 2 hour walk to the beach today. It takes about 20 minutes to get from our house to "our" end of the beach - the less popular end. Then about 40+ minutes to walk the length of the boardwalk. In the middle of the beach is the "point" with a big rock. Beyond the rock is the more popular section of the beach, as it is closer to JinShiTan (the small town near us) and the light rail stop. On the way back I walked along the water - a nice walk as it wasn't very crowded. We also have beautiful weather today!!

Here are my pictures:

Walk to the Beach

.
.
.

Mike's Birthday

We celebrated Mike's birthday last night. We ate at a local Japanese restaurant and had some really good food! We went with our friends who will be joining us in Japan on vacation, so it was kind of like a preview trip...

Here are some pictures.

Mike's Birthday

.
.
.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Water

I moved to China from Portland Oregon....where the tap water is SO drinkable....yum! All that rain has its benefits! We always drank tap water, never bottled. We have a big variety of water containers - Klean Kanteens, BPA-free Nalgene, Nike and other sports bottles. We'd fill them up in the tap and take our great tap water with us.

So, we moved to China. And, we can't drink the water here. We have a big bottle of water in the house. That's what we drink out of. Being environmentally conscious Oregonians, we brought our water containers with us - which we take when we go shopping. (Although bottled water here is super cheap - usually around 20 cents a bottle - we are trying to make a small dent in the plastic use.)

Which leads me to the surprise that happened to me yesterday....I was watching a movie and the girl (living in the Pacific NW) filled up her glass in the sink and took a long drink...My reaction was "DON'T! You can't drink the water!" How quickly I have been retrained!!!
.
.
.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Playing in the 'Hood

One of the local biker gangs.



Funny jump rope pics. We are trying to teach kids how to double dutch, too.







And, they celebrated the opening of the school library today with firecrackers - hundreds, maybe thousands of them. WOW!
.
.
.