The Storm Is Upon Us

It's a typhoon!! But not to worry...we have the Internet, lots of food, books, and a whole stack of movies to keep us occupied.

The wind and rain have been picking up all morning and it's starting to look pretty ugly out there. We've even had a little lightning that's apparently decided to come along for the ride. So here we sit, plans with friends cancelled, but not too terribly disappointed. If we're lucky, maybe this will last for the rest of the 3-day weekend, then go on through Tuesday so we end up with a 4-day weekend! Chances are pretty slim, though, so don't hold your breath for us.




Yesterday we took a little trip to Beppu (the 2nd biggest city in our prefecture). It's pretty legendary for its hotsprings, so of course we had to try one. We opted for the touristy, not-naked style hot springs so that we could hang out together. What's the point in relaxing in a hot tub if you can't talk to anybody, right? It was really fun. There were 3 separate pools: a big, lukewarm one, and two smaller, much hotter pools. There were a couple of little babies swimming around with their parents, so it was fun to watch them laughing and screaming. So cute. We also met a Japanese lady that lives in Seattle, so it was nice to talk to her for a little while.

We also took along a little friend:




I realize my blog has been pretty short on pictures lately (sorry), so I thought this would be a good opportunity to change that.


(The beautiful Beppu beaches)


(A close-up of all the stuff you see above)


(Tsurusaki...our fair city...across Beppu Bay. You can tell Tsurusaki by the factories and towering smoke-stacks)


(A cool sculpture in the park)


(And, finally, a picture of the two of us, fresh from the hotsprings)

Tonight, we're going to make tacos (complete with home-made tortillas) and if we still have electricity...I think we're going to try to make brownies in our toaster-oven. Should be fun. Wish us luck.