Cathryn Visits: 長島スパーランド (Nagashima Spa Land)

Despite our waterfall exhaustion, we decided to wake up early the next day and head to the theme park in Nagashima with Martin and Zack!

We got there a few minutes before it opened at 9:30, and we were a bit nervous, as no one else seemed to be there. We were assured, though, that the park would be opening as per usual. Relief.

Because of the lack of people, there were practically NO lines to get on the roller coasters, which on the one hand was AWESOME, but on the other meant that we didn't really have any breathing time between roller coasters. I get motion sick.

First, we went on the Steel Dragon!

As you can see, Zack is totally Steel Dragon ready!

Then we went on the water ride (whatever it was called, I don't remember), and after much hesitation, we finally decided to go with wearing the ponchos.

Turns out this was a smart plan as

the splash looked something like this before it was even at its' largest.

The ponchos, though, of course didn't stop Zack and Martin from getting soaked.

After several more rides, I was feeling extraordinarily motion sick, so Cathryn and Zack decided to go on a spinny ride while Martin and I tried not to die. Turns out the ride was awesome, though, so Martin and I had to check it out. Super fun, indeed! It might have ended up being my favorite there.

We checked out most of the rides in the park, and, aside from Cathryn who was feeling totally fine, we were needing a break.

I was dying of motion sickness, Martin's knees were killing him because the rides aren't made for people with long legs like his, and Zack was having neck issues!

So, after a brief lunch, with one of the more adorable caterpillars I'd ever seen, we decided to hit up the ferris wheel.

Great view of the whole park from the top!

Then Zack and I decided to go for a little boat ride.

Then a little cable car ride around the park, which Cathryn and I seemed to enjoy way more than Martin and Zack.

After that, we did a couple more rides, and we'd pretty much finished with the park. Earlier, though, we'd seen this pink monkey stuffed animal, and everyone was all "Audrey, that's SO you! You have to try to win it!," and I was all "eh. . ." But then everyone was walking around with them, and it turns out they had these HUGE heads and ridiculously long skinny arms, and I fell in love. So we had to go back and get me one.

Luckily, the game involved throwing a ball into a jar, and I had a Martin with me. His arms were practically long enough to touch the top of the jar, so very little throwing was involved. After three tries, I had a new pink monkey!

Me and Cathryn and きらっづちゃん(Kiraddzu-chan)!

Isn't she cool?

And with that, our day at Nagashima Spa Land came to an end. It was super fun and once again super exhausting! This didn't stop Cathryn and I from getting up early the next morning and walking through the pouring rain to eat Martin-made delicious vegan Belgian waffles with maple syrup! Yummy!

Cathryn Visits: 阿寺七滝 aka Aterenana Taki

While Cathryn was here, we went with Rin and Martin to see this waterfall that was supposed to be AMAZING! Even though it was super close to Okazaki, because of the lack of trains to get there and then the lack of buses once arriving, it somehow took us, like, 3 hours. In a car it might have taken half an hour.

It was a lovely train ride, though, and we were given lots of random souvenirs by random Japanese people in the train and at the bus stop.


These bracelets were made by a man waiting for the bus with us. Martin's was for traffic protection, and ours were to drive away demons.

We were originally going to walk to the temple once arriving at the station, but some every sign we saw kept saying it was longer than we originally thought, and then finally some dude told us it was around 6 km with a treacherous, insect filled path. So we decided to wait for the bus, and in the meantime, we did some exploring!

And we did some sand writing! Mine says "rad," as you can see, which is a super rad word, right? Cathryn's SAPD is for the San Antonio Police Department. And then I made Martin draw a heart. :-P

We also found some tori gates, which as I've mentioned several times, I illogicaly love!

Us exploring!

We did eventually make to to the waterfall, though, and it turned out I'd already been there.

The lovely waterfall.

The time before, though, it was super rainy, and it was after a long day of hiking in the rain, so it was hard to appreciate. This time, I found it quite lovely, and in any case, the getting there was way more fun!

Good fun was had, and by the time we got back to Okazaki, I think we were all so exhausted we were just about ready to die.

Cathryn Visits: Okazaki-jou

So, when I got back to Okazaki, CATHRYN WAS WAITING FOR ME!!!!

It was SO good to see her. I really can't think of anything that could have possibly been more wonderful. I had sort of reached a point in which I more than needed my best friend.

For several reasons, we decided not to leave Okazaki while she was here, so we just had a GREAT time chillin' in the area! We played lots at Wing Town!

And we watched TONS of Jane Austen! It's amazing how healing watching Jane Austen with your best friend can be!

We also went up and explored around the castle area!

We got to be samurais!

I still haven't figured out why there's this random anchor there, but I figure there must be a story, and I'm interested.

The cute little turtle face looked angry, so we decided he needed some love!

So yeah, the castle area is super nice, and it was great for Cathryn to get to see a bit of the older, more cultural side of Japan. This creepy dude told her she was pretty, though, and offered her like 1000 yen (or 10,000 yen, I can't remember), to touch her. So that was creepy.

And now it is my bedtime! More Cathryn's visit to come soon!

Stateside: Cathryn

After the fantastic New Kids on the Block concert and the fantastic weekend in Dallas with the fam, it was time for me to head down to San Francisco to spend some much needed time with my BEST FRIEND EVER IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD, Cathryn - also known as Spiggy. I honestly can't even remember the last time we got to spend some real quality time together.


After a brief trauma at the airport (we somehow managed to be waiting for each other for over an hour in different terminals - I have to admit that I was freaking out a bit), the fun began!!!! First in San Antonio, and then she drove me back over to Louisiana.
We seriously had a GREAT time together just talking and eating delicious vegan food (isn't it awesome that my best friend since I was 7 and my boyfriend are both vegans like I am?!?)and watching movies and exploring San Antonio, of course, making a New Kids on the Block music video.

One of the movies we saw, Sugar Sweet, was a Japanese movie about a lesbian film maker, and I seriously think it might be one of the worst movies I have ever seen and actually pseudo enjoyed- on a totally DIFFERENT level than Sheitan - see previous entry - which was definitely worse since Sugar Sweet was actually slightly entertaining at least. But whoever decided on the music for this movie (and the dialogue and what would happen in the tordid twisted sex scenes, for that matter) definitely had something, well, interesting going on in their head. Apparently it's also the first Japanese movie ever about lesbians. Cool.

Now, I am sure you are wondering what I meant when I said: making a New Kids on the Block music video. Well, we decided that, to amuse ourselves, we should make a music video of one of the awesomest songs of all time, "Cover Girl." Unfortunately, it is I who has all of the separate clips that we made and who is supposed to compile them all together to make the song. And since I have been basically computerless for the past month, this still has not happened. When it does finally happen, though, I will be sure to post it. Or at least a link to it. In the meantime, PICTURES!!!! And I'll let you, the reader, draw your own conculsions about some of them.

THE MAKING OF. . .


Anyhow, aside from that, it was just really cool getting to hang out with my bestest friend ever again. And I was so psyched to get to meet her pseudo boyfriend and to get to see some of the people and places that I am always hearing her talk about. I wish we could hang out more often. CATHRYN!!!!!!!!!!!! I MISS YOU!!!!!!!!! And you'd better be thankful that I didn't post a certain picture of you (with a certain object) that I am still just DYING to post.

While I Was Home: San Antonio

On Thursday morning, I drove to San Antonio to spend the day with Cathryn. We had SUCH a great time - it had been FAR too long since I last saw her, and we had an amazing time together, even if both of us were dead tired me because I was super jet-lagged, her because she had just started working the night shift.


We ate at the one restaurant in San Antonio with vegan options: Green It was delicious, and we both ate too much, so we were all doing jump'n'jacks (HOW do you spell that?!?) and push-ups to try to be able to fit all of our food in. In the end, though, there was sadly no room for cake and ice cream.



Then she brought me on a brief tour of San Antonio, showing me the prison and where she reports in now for work (she's a cop, if I didn't mention that before), and she showed me the obstacle course where she trained with the police academy. It was SOOOO cool! I tried to do it, and was able to to pretty much all of the obstacles, although not up to cop standards at all. I am a weakling. Cathryn, however, was AMAZING! Notice from the pictures how awesome she looks compared to me.







So, it was awesome to see my police officer best friend, even if we really didn't have all that long to spend together. I miss her lots and lots! She has started to carry a gun everywhere she goes, which for her makes sense, but I have to admit that *I* would be freaked out to do such a thing. I would probably accidentally shoot my leg off. We made a voodoo doll and had a little ritual (white magic, bien sur) that night before she had to go off to work, and it reminded me of old times. We have so much fun together!