Finally some Fall

(Side note: Hopefully I will post some pictures later. I still need to put them onto my computer.)

So it's been a long time! I know it has, I get so distracted with so many things, I forget that I have a blog to update! I think I wanted to have this blog full of pictures of everything I am doing, so I didn't want to update until those were posted. Probably a bad idea.

Anyways, the leaves are finally changing! The weather has cooled down a lot, but it's still not too cold. This week is in the 50s during the day, at night it goes down to about the 40s or 30s. It has not even gone below freezing yet. But I keep warm with good ol fashioned Japanese baths and my nice heater that I bought on amazon.co.jp. I love it because it is a oil heater, which just radiates heat instead of blowing hot air. The oil stays in, you never even see it, so it's probably one of the safest heaters you can buy, and the warmest.

The one thing that is so crazy is that even with the leaves chaning, you can still see flowers everywhere! There are roses and sunflowers and so many others. It feels so odd to think that the flowers haven't died yet from the cold. I am so used to Michigan where it will be super cold mid-October and you dont see flowers again until April or May.

With the cold I've been trying out a whole bunch of new recipies. I have attempted to make tomato soup, it turned out great! I am really happy with it, and I have some frozen leftovers still. Good for those days when I dont want to cook! I also tried to make Chicken lemon rice soup. That turned out okay... it tasted pretty good, sort of strong though, and the egg in the soup didn't cook right, but it was still yummy!! I will have to give it a try again. Nothing is better than a hot bowl of soup on a cold day.

A couple of weeks ago I went on a trip to Mt. Kouya (or also known as Kouyasan) it was a lovely adventure. A friend and I stayed the night in a temple, where we got to eat vegitarian monk food, and meditate with the monks. We also got a couple of tours of the famous places on the mountian, like Okunoin, which is a famous grave yard that has people from all over Japanese history either buried there or have a memorial there. Also we saw the famous temple and lecture hall that the mountian is known for. It was a great trip, I loved going and I want to go again when it is a bit warmer.

This past weekend I showed a friend around all of Nara park. We saw Todaiji temple, Nigatsu dou hall, and then we also got to see Kofukuji temple. We were really lucky because at Kofukuji temple they were having a special exibition of the 5 story pagoda, the east lecture hall, and the octagon hall, which only happens for one month once a year. We got there on the last day, and we were able to see some really beautiful things, but no pictures were allowed for anything inside. It was a great trip, I got to see a lot of Nara that I don't normally take the time to see.

Well, that is what I have been up to lately. I will be having a couple of Thanksgiving parties with my friends, that way we can cure our homesickness a bit during the holidays by eating tons of yummy food and being with friends. It will be a lot of fun, but I will sure miss not being able to be at home!