Winter is coming...

I spotted snow on top of the mountains yesterday.  It's mid-October.  

*hisses* back, winter, back!

RENT

From what I've seen so far, living in the Japanese countryside (the inaka), is pretty cheap.  Even within the "biggest city in the prefecture" (which really isn't saying much... I'm pretty sure Lexington is more "city-like" than Aomori), most of my friends pay 10,000 yen or less monthly for rent (generally not including water).  I have a friend who is waaaay out in the inaka whose rent is less than half of that, though, and her house is huge!  But, on the other hand, she does have to drive a car if she wants to go anywhere.  I guess there are pros and cons to both sides.    

Mission Improbable

Apparently you can't escape the missionaries, even in a country where less than 1% of the population is Christian.  In fact, most Japanese people usually say they don't feel especially religious at all.  Religion in Japan is a mixture of Shinto and Buddhism, and the lines between the two often get very blurred.

 

I had a pleasant little chat with the missionaries about their experience with trying to spread Christianity in a predominently non-Christian country, but when the discussion turned to "my image of God" I declined to answer and wished them good evening.    

Chicken in the Water!

 

A few weeks ago, a group of us were at the beach and there were a couple of jellyfish in the water.  One of my friends pointed to the jellyfish and called it "karaage" (fried chicken) by accident instead of "kurage" (jellyfish), which lead to a nearby Japanese child looking very surprised and confused!