Faux-to

I've had my iPhone for around 2 months now, and I have taken nearly 2000 photos. Dear god! So here is a random assortment of them. Let's entitle this series 鉛奈多魔. You'd think this was have some deep and beautiful sentiment, right? WRONG. It's just random Kanji I can't even read. But, with that title, doesn't it SEEM like I am now pro at Japanese, and photography? Double win. Oh yeah!

Vending machine party near my school

Adorable vegetable PENS!

Crabtastic at the Hokkaido Food Fair in Tokiwa Department store

Preparing for my lesson on Ozztraya

Okonomiyaki flavoured Pretz!

Kimono

Ah, your country doesn't have pink bunny pole holders?

Kids at my small elementary school sweeping up the thousands of beautiful yellow leaves which fell

View from my house

Kids book on boobs.

Cool musical clock in town

LINE toys!

Awkward finger twister. So Japanese.

At an amazing cardboard object factory!

Japan Rail band playing Christmas songs in Beppu station!

One of my favourite manga characters- Nameko. He is a mushroom. And I hate mushrooms. Gosh I'm so ironic.

Just another questionable Japanese ad.

Your own personal fan you can wear around your neck. Ingenious!

Breathtaking view of Beppu Bay

Chillin' by the river

My mind is blank with exhaustion... I don't quite understand why this job is so tiring. Maybe it's the fact that I'm constantly switched on to "happy happy joy joy" teacher mode. Maybe it's the monotony of doing the same lesson countless times. Maybe, to be frank, it's that my heart isn't completely in it.

I've just spent the last ten minutes sitting next to Oita river in the grass, hearing it rattle against the wind. I have to get up and go again now- isn't that always the case- but, for those minutes I felt completely chilled and it was the best feeling.

Anne and Mikey in Oita: Day 1- The Hells

A couple of weeks ago my very awesome and every-good-adjective friends, Anne and Mikey came to Oita to visit me! It was a much anticipated visit- my first friends to visit my new home and take a glance at my new life.

Boy, did we cram a lot into a couple of days! It was just like old times- hanging out, joking around, catching up, seeing my area's landmarks and eating copious of food- I couldn't have envisioned a greater time!

We started off their stay with dinner- Oita style- i.e. too much food and a high motivation to finish it all. Or maybe that's just me...

Day 1, Saturday:

First lunch. Toriten, my region's speciality food. TEMPURA CHICKEN. Yep, as healthy as it sounds. Man it was good! (Oita fact #4366- Oita is the largest consumer of chicken in all of Japan. Yeah!)

Then we visited "THE HELLS"ー 地獄. What a name! It's basically 8 different natural onsens (hotsprings) which are only for viewing, rather than bathing. Each has its own characteristics which set it apart from the others.

The first three- absolutely spectacular!

We were all in awe at the beauty of the sea hell (Umi Jigoku). It was the most stunning blue water I have ever seen. We couldn't help but try one of the creme caramel puddings made in the onsens- yum, yum, yum- I highly recommend!

The mud hell (Oniishibozu Jigoku) was also a marvel- watching the onsens bubble as if they were alive was mesmerising. The splattered edges of the onsens looked like a Jackson Pollack art work!

The white pond hell (Shiraike Jigoku) was also very interesting- it featured onsens with milky-coloured water.

And then, things got weird and unethical.

The next onsens featured caged animals. A LONE elephant, a lone hippo, monkeys, with diseased bottoms, and a single black swan in an enclosure with flamingos. Thr there was the crocodile onsen, which had about 60 odd cricodiles packed in a tiny, tiny pond. Animal hell indeed!

We were all really upset seeing these animals treated so badly. They looked sad. They had no spirit in them. It broke my heart!

We didn't get time to see the last three, so I'm not sure how they are! My recommendation is skip the animal and crocodile ones... And instead savior the beauty of the first three.

.