Oshiroyama in the Winter, A Rental Solution

Things are pretty routine here since the last update.  We've been doing the same old things, work and study, without much in the way of breaks.


The weather continues to completely suck here.  I swear that it rains, snows or sleets a little bit every single day. The snow doesn't always stay on the ground, but there's enough of it to go around.  Nearly all of it melted by this last Thursday and I thought "great! Maybe I'll get to go running!" (The cold doesn't bother me, just having to run on unshoveled sidewalks through 6 inches of snow).  Of course, Friday we get about 4-6 inches of heavy wet snow dropped on the ground.

Oddly enough though, the snow definitely hasn't stopped this weekend from being eventful (eventful for us, maybe not for everyone).  We hiked up to the top of Oshiroyama today with Meghan's boyfriend Yuya.  He had to hang with us while she was rehearsing for the musical and the three of us had a good time.  You can see the views from the top in the pictures we have here.  I decided sometime in the last few weeks I want to get pictures on the top of Oshiroyama for all seasons, so that's two down now!

After going to Oshiroyama we went to what is probably the best western food restaurant in Murakami, Rover's Cafe, and all had the Mexican Plate, a weekend special of probably some of the best Mexican food we've ever had.

After hanging out for a bit, we went to the Subaru dealership run by the husband of one of the teachers Maria works with and we were able to rent a car for a really good deal for two months (hopefully the weather will be good enough by then that we won't want or need a car).  I'm looking forward to this because it means if I drive Maria to school and pick her up, I'll have the means to go to the library during the day without walking half an hour through snow and rain!  Working in the library suits me much better than working at home, I'm not cut out for it.  Apparently I like having my work area separate from my home area after getting spoiled with an office (okay, cubicle, whatever) last year at NC State.

In slightly more exciting news, after a month of pushing, I finally got Maria to watch Blues Brothers with me.  She said it was "fine" and that she enjoyed it.  I'm not sure that I can allow such a lukewarm endorsement of a classic comedy, but for the time being I'll let it pass.  I think that's about all for the updates for now, next week we should have more after a party in Niigata and Maria's two day mid-year seminar! Also, I'm interested to see what will happen at a Festival on the 31st in one of her elementary schools that we're going to.  Should be at least interesting!

PS: After first publishing this post, I thought of something interesting (to ME). Holy Ghost Tent Revival is a band from North Carolina that I've been listening a lot to since I bought their albums after Christmas. It's something like.... bluegrass-folk-blues-rock.... or whatever.  And powered by horns.  So awesome. If their live show is half as fun as their albums, I can't wait to get back to North Carolina and catch a show with them.  Internet review suggests that the live show is, in fact, MORE fun.... so... I'm pretty excited!  It's definitely something to do when we get back.