Forgot to post pictures last Monday, when I meant to, mostly because I`m lazy. 😛
Last Monday was a day off of school for me because I`d had to work Saturday, when the Jr. High had their school festival. (Which was fun and the third years made a haunted house again). But anyway, because everyone was at school on Saturday, we all got Monday off.
I`m in touch with and sometimes talk to the mother of a couple of my students, Mrs. I. We got to talking one time when they came to one of the Girl Scout events, and we`d kept in touch since. And she`d asked me if there was a day that I wasn`t working but that her kids were in school, could we go out for coffee? I said sure.
So we met up, drove around for a bit, got taiyaki (which is basically a pancake filled with adzuki which is red bean paste. They`re really yummy):
We didn`t end up getting coffee and instead went for lunch. I got omrice, which is usually a safe bet when I`m not sure what to get. All it is is red rice, ketchup, and an omelet. Sometimes it has some kind of sauce on top of it. That`s where the name comes from. “Om” = omelet and “rice” = well, rice.
We drove around a bit more, visited a bakery I hadn`t been to before, visited what seemed to be a small farmers market (I got apples! They were cheap compared to the supermarket!) and then we found scarecrows. All along one long street were scarecrows everywhere!
I sat down next to the hitch-hiker scarecrow because I thought it would make a funny picture. ^_^
The last thing we did was go to a place where you could see lots of koi fish. I didn`t get a picture of them, but I got a decent picture of the view!
Oh, and this was the cake from the bakery, which I ate later. It was an interesting strawberry and chocolate and orange fruits kind of thing. I had been going to pay for it myself, but Mrs. I bought it for me. I owe her cookies or something.
Then today, there was also no school, because it was a public holiday (it made for a very short week!). And the Volks store up in Sendai was having a grand opening! They`ve been open since summer, but this grand opening was for the doll part specifically, since that had been closed since before last summer. They had sent a postcard in advance, saying that if you brought it, as long as supplies lasted, you would get a present. And what was the present? A little bottle of umeshu (plum wine)! Apparently it was made with plums from the garden of the original Volks store in Kyoto.
The main thing for today was that there would be outlet items for sale, and at 2pm, there would be a group doll photo taken. And because it was a grand opening, they let you take pictures all around the store, even though they usually don`t let you! I took pictures of the dolls modeling clothes around the store:
This was when everyone`s dolls were posed together…can you spot mine? 😉
There he is! Right up in front. I put a music note under so you could see where:
But since that is a lot of dolls, here`s a closeup:
Everyone else`s dolls were all dressed up. And there was Ilya (my doll) in khakis and a sweatshirt. >.>
The little doll to the left with dark hair and bunny ears is named Mae. I talked to her owner for a bit while we were waiting for all the dolls to be set up so that we could take the pictures. ^_^
The only other picture I took was on the train ride home.
It was only once I`d gotten all the way home that I realized that I`d forgotten to go to the import store to get more peanut butter. Aw well, I`ll just get it on Amazon.