Amusing?!?! Interesting?!?! We thought so.....

We just finished our weekend and these are some things that we heard/saw that made us chuckle or caught our attention:

1) The other night we went out for drinks with some people from work. We were chatting with the Branch Trainer from Jamie's school and all of a sudden he burst out laughing. We asked him what was up and he said he was just reminded of what one of the front desk staff had said to him earlier on in the day.

***REWIND -- One thing that Jamie dislikes about his profession here AND his job back home is the fact that he unfortunately has to shave everyday. He decided to take advantage of our stretch of days off during the holidays by growing a beard. For those of you who know Jame well......it didn't take long at all!

Jamie was in the voice room leading a voice class (a time for students to chat about whatever) and Dave (the BT) was doing some photocopying. All of a sudden Shoko (one the the front desk staff members) looked at Jamie in the classroom and said to Dave "Sugoi---Jamie---Wildman!!!" Not only were her choice of words funny "Cool/awesome...Jamie....wildman", but Jame's comment on how he spoke to Shoko several times during the day and she hadn't mentioned anything about his beard.

Men with beards are so rare here, so I guess that is why she was surprised by Jamie's...even though it was a total delayed reaction. So, just to let you know if you come to visit us and you have some facial hair...be prepared to be called a "wildman". Ha ha ha!!

2) Since we have been here we haven't rented any movies. Jamie came across a video store and decided to pick up a couple of rentals. We thought it was interesting how the the dvd's were put into a nice blue bag with a tight velcro seal. Only in Japan -- packaging capital of the world! I love it!!

What did we rent? "The Fast & the Furious 3 -- Tokyo Drift". It was ok, but it was interesting being able to relate to what we saw ---the Japanese scene and langauge. We also watched "Into the Blue" with HOTTIE Paul Walker & Jessica Alba!!!

**Here is a photo of my "wildman" hubby holding up the sweet DVD bags**

3) It is taboo to wear shoes inside someone's house, some restaurants, and even the changing rooms of clothing stores. Many people are constantly sliding their shoes off and on to the point where the heal completely breaks down and the shoes look like slip-ons.

Jame just bought some new Asics runners and this is what was attached to them. Ha ha ha!

4) Yesterday we walked around downtown for a bit after my acupuncture treatment. Bad idea...I should've just went home afterwards because my back/hips couldn't take the walking. Anyways....the Shinsaibashi/Namba area is by far one of the busiest places in Osaka. I have no idea why people ride their bikes on the sidewalk amongst the crowds and crowds of people, but they do. They have some serious skills!!! I saw this man weaving in and out of pedestrian traffic with (I am assuming) his daughter. Nuts!!!! I took the photo while they were stopped at an intersection.


5) Lately both Jamie and I have become sooooooo addicted to Gin & Tonic (Gt's with the g & t). The good thing is that Bombay gin is pretty cheap (as is all other kinds of booze), but the unfortunate part is it is so difficult to find tonic water. While we were downtown, we went to the one and only place we know of that sells tonic water to stock up. Across the street from the supermarket I noticed this odd lookind building. Jamie told me it was a pet store. I love the animated signs and the pug at the top, but what's with the space age architecture?? Poor lil' animals aren't allowed sun-light a guess!