Loudspeakers & pink hair & Taiwanese food

The campaigning for city elections has started, so I was woken up at exactly 8 o'clock on Saturday morning by messages being broadcast from loudspeakers on trucks driving by my apartment. Candidates' supporters are driving around the city all day trying to get our support.You can tell election vans by the people wearing white gloves waving out of the windows and, of course, by the loud speakers. Luckily they are only allowed to campaign for 2 weeks before the election and have to be quiet during the night. But at exactly 8 am, you know that you'll be hearing them.
Here's a sign showing the people running for office in my area:
Also this week, I saw an older woman with bright pink hair (sorry I couldn't get a picture, I was driving). I've often seen older women with dyed hair (sometimes pink, purple, blue...) but have never figured out why they like this style. I'm not sure if it's really better than having grey hair. Anyways, here's a picture of a older woman with blue hair for your enjoyment:
Finally, here's a picture from the Taiwanese restaurant where Ayako & I ate dinner tonight. Good food, good portions and good value...

Earthquakes & cookies

Today, I felt an earthquake for the first time in my life. I'm sure there have been small earthquakes around here, but none strong enough that I could feel. This morning though, there was an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 about 300 km from here.
Japan also uses a seismic intensity scale to describe the degree of shaking at any place. So this earthquake had a 6+ level at the source. This caused an earthquake in my area with a level of 3. It was only shaking a bit, for maybe 15 seconds, but it was still an interesting feeling for me.

It's been a fairly relaxed weekend. The excitement each evening was watching the end of the Osaka sumo tournament. I've been following sumo for the past 2 weeks, and I'm enjoying it much more now that I understand the sport and can recognize some wrestlers. Now I'm hoping that I'll be able to go to the tournament that is in nearby Nagoya in July.

My other activity was baking some peanut butter cookies for a class party tomorrow. My schedule is changing from April and so tomorrow's class will be my last with them. And so here is a picture of me making the cookies today:

Sushi, Pachinko & Sumo

It's a fairly regular weekend, but I guess these three topics were part of it. Last night, Ayako and I went for conveyor belt sushi. I remember I had this style of sushi on the second day I was in Japan. But since that time, I think this was only my third time. It's a cheap way to get sushi...only $1 a plate. I had 11 plates last night and I was pretty stuffed. At the same time, now that I've had more expensive sushi since I've been here, I can see that the quality of last night's sushi was only so-so, but the price was nice.

As for pachinko, I didn't go into a pachinko parlor, but found a silver ball outside of one:
I've never gone into a pachinko parlor since they are super noisy & smoking & an easy way to lose money (like slot machines). The ball is put into a machine like this:And if you win, lots more silver balls come out of the machine which can be traded in for money. I had one student who played quite often, and so I gradually have learned how the game is played without even having to go into a parlor.

I actually found the pachinko ball on the way to the library. The library is actually a new one and is the most beautiful one I've ever seen. It had interesting architecture and allowed lots of light throughout it. I went there to get a book that explains sumo. After watching a few tournaments on TV, I've gradually started liking sumo more since I can understand more of the strategies, rather than it being just 'two fat guys shoving each other'. There's a tournament in Osaka now, and so I'm hoping to watch some on TV today.

Spring has come, the grass has riz ........I know where the birdies iz

On Saturday, Ayako and I traveled to Hamakita Forest Park to go for a walk and do some birdwatching.We could see some birds with my good binoculars but we weren't close enough to get any good pictures. So instead, I have two pictures of Ayako where you can try and guess her expression:
Ayako was wearing a mask since she had a bit of a cold still. But these days, many other people are wearing masks since it's Hay Fever season. There are lots of Japanese cedar trees that were planted north of our city. Unfortunately, many people are allergic to the pollen of it, and so wear masks to prevent breathing it in. Ayako wore one since the pollen might not be best for her cold as well. Luckily I'm not allergic to the pollen yet, but it seems like it might build up in your body over some years and eventually you start getting Hay Fever here.

Anyways, we had a good walk during the day. March is the beginning of spring here, and it definitely was a nice spring day.

At night, we went over to Christine's apartment for a Mexican food/bon voyage party for her boyfriend, Sam, who is going away for a month. Here's Sam (being his usual self) beside his dad:
And here are a couple more photos from the night: