Tottori

So I realized, I don't think I ever wrote about any of my trips to Tottori, the prefecture north of Okayama where I was staying. Surprisingly, (since Tottori is considered one of the least two populated and one of the two most rural prefectures I believe?) I've actually been there several times, though all different places.

One of my friends from undergrad was posting on facebook on how she was on a train to Tottori, and I couldn't help but feel nostalgic. I actually really enjoyed Tottori, and kind of wish I had spent more time there despite our initial assessment that it was totally the perfect weekend trip spot. In theory, a weekend is enough to hit all the big "to do" spots around Tottori city, especially if you're relying on public transportation to get everywhere. That's not even including the other larger city to the west, Yonago, and the area around it. And Mount Daisen, one of the tallest (also ski-able in the winter) mountains in the region, as well as I'm-not-sure-if-it's-okayama-or-tottori-but-it's-pretty-much-in-between-Hirzuen, where all the delicious milk products come from in my area (and beef -- also, I'm still referring to the region like I live there but I can't help but feel like it's my adopted area still).


The big things to do in Tottori, anyways, are the sand dunes and the sand sculptures when they have the exhibit there. I think I always meant to post about those... and then forgot. I have those pictures somewhere. Maybe that'll be my new summer project, for the short duration of summer we have left. Upload pictures, finish reading for my independent reading course so that my adviser doesn't think I'm a slacker (so much for an actual summer vacation). Other than the sand dunes... the curry. It's a weird thing to go to a prefecture for, kind of, but Tottori has the highest per capita consumption of curry (keeping in mind as well, that Tottori has one of the lowest populations, though in my opinion, that's still pretty impressive).

I was journeying with one of my JET friends at the time specifically to see the sand dunes, and when we arrived at the station, we were perusing the information booth with the million fliers and brochures, when one caught our eye. It was something like, "the curry walk" or "curry street" or something like that. Basically, a guide to the top curry restaurants in town and places that you absolutely had to try if you were in town, as well as rankings and everything for which curry was the most popular, sweetest, etc etc.

Seriously, at that point I think I knew that Tottori was going to be a place I liked (as a kid, Japanese curry and rice was my favorite food, and only sophomore year where I consumed like, at least three packages of microwavable curry a week changed that). Actually, if I think about it, if I were to choose a place to live again in Japan, Tottori would be in my top 3 list, possibly even tied three ways for first with Kobe and Yokohama.

We ended up trying this pear curry close to the sand dunes, along with pear gelato. Oh my god. It was amazing. I was highly skeptical of putting pears (and fruit in general) into curry, which usually is pretty savory and not very sweet). Also though, by pears, really I mean nashi which we identify as "Asian pears" though my whole life I've always considered them more apple than pear. They're that kind of yellow or golden color, with the small white spots and the crunchy insides that almost snap as you eat them? They're really crisp and delicious. Also, now I totally understand why we call them Asian pears. Cause they're actually called pears in Asia.

They had a TON of pear flavored products in Tottori (as Japanese places with local flavors and specialties are wont to do). Pear cider, pear wine, pear candy, pear soda, pear curry, pear soft serve, pear... pears, and my absolute favorite, pear shaved ice. Holy. Cow. Best flavor syrup for shaved ice ever. It tasted exactly like pear, and not like some overly sweet syrup, and was also light and refreshing to taste. Paired (or "pear'd." as several of my friends would say -- also oh dear, they're rubbing off on me) with the cool yet light and almost fluffy ice, it really made the pear flavor come through more clearly than it had in the soft serve version. Also, I love shaved ice.

The sand dunes themselves were also pretty cool, while still being not quite what I had expected. In my head, when I hear "sand dunes" I think something like, "Sahara desert" or "those amazing sand dunes in Journey" (Journey is a PS3 game with an amazing soundtrack and even more amazing visuals where you go on... a journey... through this desert like world. It's really an amazing game that's not quite what you would think of as a "game"). In reality, it is much much much smaller than that, but still surprisingly energy consuming to walk across. They also had camels that you could ride around on too (and, walking back up the hill on our way back, we wished we had a camel). Running down it was surprisingly fun, and somehow, walking around to make paths and tracks never got tiring, nor was it only enjoyed by young people. They actually (they being the sand dune volunteer group thing) had a dude stationed at the bottom of the giant hill to make sure people didn't run graffiti into the side of the hill, not that people didn't try. We actually watched him stop several groups. One group was walking around in a circle. Another couple was trying to make a heart. They almost got it too, but he made them walk down. We spent a good portion of time scheming ways to distract the watchman with one group while the other completed a picture behind his back while he was busy scolding the first group. It would totally work too.

The hills were also surprisingly steep. On the way back down I ran back part of the way, and it was kind of exhilarating in the "OH MY GOD I CAN'T STOP" kind of way, though running at an angle helped.

On the other side of the giant hill though, wasn't more sand dunes. It was the ocean. Or well, the Sea of Japan (so technically not ocean, but large body of water). Tottori is actually home to a really awesome looking geopark a couple miles down from the Sand Dunes; regretfully, I ran out of time to go before we left and I never had enough time to return. The dunes overlooked a small beach, which you could run down to from the dunes at an abrupt and steep angle. Running back up however, was much more difficult. We chose to not run down to the water, choosing instead to just sit there and snack on our conbini sandwiches (and the inevitable sand that got into them) and enjoy the view. Mostly I think this is because neither of us wanted to have to walk all the way back up hahaha. We were kinda short on time as well. Buses, and all that.

Pretty much right next to the sand dunes was the sand sculpture museum (kinda). Every time they opened it, they invited people from around the world to create sand sculptures around a certain theme, and after they were done, they'd build walls around the sculptures. Every time. New walls. They also didn't look quite as janky as some fairs in the US that come around once a year and then close shop and come back a year later.


In 2012 (a whole year ago now), the theme was the UK. So there were a bunch of kind of medieval sand sculptures, one with the Globe and a play going on, the Tower of London, one of the Queen, one that was a scene of rainy times and people walking around with umbrellas, another of Galileo I think? And some other famous scientist, I don't remember. They were really awesome sculptures. There was also one of King Arthur and the sword in the stone... I think.



Oh wow, I just realized it's been almost a year since I've been back in the US. Technically a few days short, but wow. I haven't gone anywhere since I've been back, nor have I traveled nearly as much as when I did over there. I have, however, gone home WAY more often than when I was living in Japan. Ahem. Anyways.


Those things were all part of day one, and I want to say we went somewhere else too... but honestly, I don't really remember. We stayed at a business hotel though, I can remember that much. The day after, we decided to split up. My friend went to see a castle I think and went to the Detective Conan (a really popular manga/anime about this high schooler detective genius who gets turned into a little boy but retains his deductive genius) museum, while I, on the other hand, couldn't resist the siren call of large bodies of water and the beach, and went off to find a beach to go to, along with the other thing I couldn't resist: an aquarium called 鳥取かにっこ館 (Tottori Kanikkokan).



This aquarium though, was by far the most specialized of them all. It was a crab aquarium, and I think literally, they had over 70 species of crabs there. It was actually a pretty small aquarium, with this really awesome touch zone for small children that had a ton of those small crabs and like, hermit crabs and stuff there for people (ie: kids) to touch. There was also a couple of small tanks with examples of the wildlife found around Tottori (which honestly, is why I like to visit so many aquariums, because they all showcase the local marine life) as well of course, as the crabs that could be found in the area. Apparently, the crab was supposed to be delicious.


Right next to the aquarium, they also had a bunch of seafood restaurants as well as a fish/seafood market -- you know, just in case you started to crave the things you were looking at. I mean, I think we do that here in the states as well, but Japan takes these things to a whole new level that people here I think, would be shocked at haha.


Fortunately for me, also next to the aquarium was this amazing small beach that wasn't really that crowded, though regretfully, I had not brought along a swim suit. Instead I walked along the beach where the waves break and the sand is wet (since if you didn't you risked burning the soles of your feet because the sand was so hot), walking in and out of the water. It was super refreshing, and I really regretted not bringing a suit. The further away you got though, the fewer people were around until I was in a small, almost cove-like area by myself with the closest people a good 200-300 feet away. I think I took a nap there until it was finally time to go back and meet up with my friend so we could return to Okayama, a trip that would take at least 3 hours, if memory serves me correctly. Plus another hour+ to get back to my house from Okayama.


But just being able to reconnect to the sea again was energizing and invigorating. I felt completely recharged after that. :) I'm definitely a water kind of person haha. Walking up and down the beach is still one of my favorite activities. It's kind of therapeutic. No land locked places for me... even being here at Stanford feels like it's too far away from the ocean lol, though really, it's like a 40-1 hour drive to the ocean and even less if I'm okay with settling for a smaller body of water.



My first trip to Yonago on the other hand, could probably be classified as a disaster, but also as awesome. I swear I thought I posted about it, but I've been trying to look, and I can't find anything. The night I arrived/the day after, a typhoon decided to BLOW ON THROUGH THE CITY and it poured super hard, rendering it kind of difficult and miserable to do any sort of site seeing around the city. I did, however, the following day, take a day trip out to this place called Mizuki Shigeru Road, a like... 1.5 hour trip from Yonago by train I believe? I went because I heard there was a museum about 妖怪, yokai, which are like fantastic creatures like ghosts and goblins and supernatural spirits in Japan. They're kind of fascinating to read about, and there's a super popular comic in Japan called Ge Ge Ge Kitaro which is about, to the best of my knowledge, this kid (I think he's also a "good" spirit... maybe... I honestly am not too sure) and his interactions trying to help others and keep the bad spirits from being too evil. I think. I watched one episode, but I kind of forgot what happened. Minor details. But this city is the hometown of the author to Ge Ge Ge (Mizuki Shigeru) so they decided to honor him by commercializing the hell out of their city and installed statues all along this road complete with stamps that you could get of each of the yokai in the book (which you could stamp in this handy passport booklet they sold, which then semi-obligated you to finish and collect all the freaking stamps).

There was also a museum for the yokai and a museum-- wait. Wait. I think I remember posting about this. Because in addition to the yokai museum, there was also a museum that had "living" in its title and I thought I was going to see a real sunfish and SURPRISE it turned out it was a TAXIDERMY museum and everything, including the giant sunfish, was STUFFED and I was horrified and incredibly creeped out by it. I remember writing about that. I remember the picture I put up of this one room that had at least a hundred small tiny pufferfish that had been preserved. Hanging from the ceiling. Some of them had googly-eyes glued on them. Creepy. As. Hell. This picture:

It looks upon museum patrons with murderous eyes

I can't find the post associated with it, but google says I posted it? I can't seem to find the post though. :x Actually, that was when I was still writing my newsletter home, so it might have gotten put into that. Alas, I take way too long to write about things. As proof, I sat down to write this post an hour and a half ago, and I'm still typing. This is actually getting kind of long huh. I should probably go to bed. This is what happens when I have nothing to regulate my sleep schedule... ugh.



Oh, I also realized this now, but my astrological sign is Cancer... the crab. Hahaha. Maybe that's why I felt so relaxed and enjoyed myself so much there, both at the beach and at the crab aquarium. Coincidence? I think not!

Anyways, long story short (or the TL;DR version), Tottori was awesome, had a crab museum and pear everything and a beach in addition to sand dunes, and I want to go back some time.

451

That's how high up you can go in the Tokyo Sky Tree, out of 600something kilometers. That's about 280  up miles 1479 feet/.28 miles (451 km, I mean).
EDIT: I don't do units. ._. As my sister points out, at 280 miles up, you probably wouldn't have enough breathable air.

I suppose that's tall.

I went up expecting just another tower kind of view, since I've seen a couple and usually it just ends up being cityscape. And when I saw pictures other people took, it was like "well I guess that's okay."

Really though, it's something that needs to be experienced.

I went up there on my last full day in Japan, and spent the night with a spectacular view of the Sky Tree. Really, it was quite a perfect last day that I had, which makes up for the slightly-rushed-ahhhh-lunch-hour-stress I felt as I was going to the airport on the 25th haha.

We got up there - by we, I mean my Japanese-cousin-(maybe)-on-my-mom's-side-who-did-a-homestay-With-us-in-'94 Iori and her four year old (who, while adorable, made me realize that I do not want children any time soon) - it was about 6 pmish and not quite sunset. But wow. You could see buildings for miles and miles, just nonstop as far as the horizon extended. Tokyo tower, surrounded by tall (lols) buildings, seemed almost puny. I think Iori mentioned that Tokyo Tower is about half the size of sky tree (which is still pretty large). Of in the distance, amidst a crowd of people taking pictures, you could see Mt. Fuji as well, making for quite a nice view. they also had digital maps of the area which displayed time-lapse videos as well as maps (with names and train lines) and 360 panoramic views.

Looooook Mt. Fuji!

The opening theme for Game of Thrones (if you haven't seen it, you should, it's quite excellent) was playing in my head the whole time during the day. I suppose it was a little appropriate.

By the time we finished walking around the regular level - at a mere 350 m - the sun was well on its way to setting, and then we went to the upper deck (cost an extra 1,000 yen though). The upper deck kind of spirals up around the tower, so you're constantly going up. You can actually notice a difference though; I didn't think it would matter much but the buildings are noticeably smaller. All the city lights were just coming on as well, shining like small gems out in the distance. It was absolutely beautiful to walk around, watching as the sky got darker and the land got brighter.

Honestly though, the Tokyo night view beats the pants off the daytime cityscape, in my opinion (though as Iori pointed out, you can't see Fuji, so my solution is that twilight is the best because the lights are coming on, but you get this awesome silhouette of Mt. Fuji). But there are just so many lights, and the bridges are lit and colored, and we even saw fireworks way off in the distance.

It looked like a giant sea of stars, all bright and twinkly. Just... so many lights. You could see Tokyo Tower off in the distance near some other buildings, but from that far up they all looked like small toothpicks. Poor Tokyo Tower.

That small red thing is Tokyo Tower at dusk.

Oh, it's worth mentioning that while we actually went up to the Sky Tree Observation deck around 6ish, we actually had to come to the Sky Tree much earlier. They were handing out reservation slips for times that you could come buy a ticket - kind of like a fastpass (think Disney) but where you still have to buy a ticket. But you go for a time when you can buy said ticket, and you need one ticket per person who's going to go up; you can't just send one person to buy them all (though you *can* send one person to get your "fastpass" ticket reservation time cards, just make sure they get enough) since you'll be going straight up to the observation deck from the line. The line is just the start of your "standing in line" experience. Actually, once you get it, you go through a small security area, and then up some magnificent elevators (they're also all twinkly! Ours had a phoenix on it). That actually was maybe a 10-15 minute wait, so not too bad. Actually, once we were inside, standing in line wasn't all that bad because they had giant TV screens with "scenes" from around Tokyo (they were animated, in a kind of giant-Where's-Waldo?-world-sense). But they also explained certain cultural things about the Tokyo area, or general Japanese culture things (in English) so it was actually pretty interesting to wait in line! ...or maybe I'm just nerdy.

No, actually, I'm really nerdy. Tokyo Sky Tree got me the final two prefectures I needed to tag in the 3DS's streetpass game (they're this thing where you can wirelessly swap information via your "Mii" character, including, if you choose, what country and state/prefecture/province/area you're from). So exciting.

sunset

Anyways anyways. I think we got our reservation slips around 1 or 2 pm, and the time we could enter the line to buy our tickets was 5:30-6. Paired with the extra 100ish meters, it makes for the perfect time to go up, since you get the day view, the bonus sunset view, *and* the night view. And it's not like there's nothing to do around the sky tree. I think it's one of the HUGEST shopping/etc. areas I've visited! I'm pretty sure you could wander around the whole day and still not see everything there is to see there (excluding the Sky Tree).

penguiiiiins (in the nicest penguin exhibit I've seen)

First, it's called Sky Tree Town (I think? Or Sky Town. I forget) . Second, it has a planetarium (!) and AND AND AND AN AQUARIUM. Actually, the aquarium, on its own, is actually one of the coolest aquariums I've been to, despite definitely not being the largest, nor having the most amount of exhibits. But the presentation of the different wildlife - including the penguins, which normally, I'm not really that excited to look at because EVERY aquarium in Japan has penguins, no joke - were aesthetically pleasing and informative. The tanks were absolutely gorgeous.

The planetarium was also pretty spectacular. I think it was a little misleading; by planetarium, they mostly meant 40 - 60 minute IMAX shows about space and stars, two of which looked like they were made specifically for the enjoyment of small children (though with Japan and its cute characters, who knows). There was one more that looked interesting, and it only showed at night (maybe that was the actual planetarium part). The one we went to see the morning I left Japan was about how the sky looked during the Edo period, which was kinda interesting, but was unfortunately all in Japanese so maybe I fell asleep during part of it.

Other than those two, Sky Tree has a staggering 7 or 8 (I forget if the top floor had things; I don't think it did?) floors of stuff, plus there were shops on B3 and B1 (I don't know about B2?). Granted, floors 6 and 7 were food, but still. Loads of stuff. There was a plastic food shop I have huge regrets about not having enough time to look into, but I was getting a little worried about canceling my cell phone and making my bus to the airport. I thought I would be able to get lunch quickly. Ha! LUNCH CROWDS, YOU HAVE WON THAT ROUND.

My willpower crumbled like a delicious pie crust

That being said, lunch did go somewhat quickly because I went to an "Edo style" standing sushi bar. It probably didn't help that I went and bought the only purse I bought in Japan. I COULDN'T HELP IT. It had tessellations of Winnie the Pooh. How could I not buy something like this? LOOKIT HOW CUTE THE TESSELLATIONS ARE.

Jump back to the night before though - my last night in Tokyo and in Japan (for now anyways). Thanks to Iori, we were able to snag a room at the Tobu Levant Tokyo Hotel (which markets itself as the closest large hotel to Narita) so I didn't have to worry about going all the way back to Chigasaki and then back out to Narita, which was nice. I was able to catch a bus instead (though it probably took just as long). Ta-Q-bin services, which let you send your luggage on ahead to the airport, is a godsend (I had two large checked pieces).

The hotel though. Oh my goodness.

I'm not really used to staying in hotels, let alone nice ones. I think the majority of people my age will concur; hotels are kind of expensive. Recently, I've sprung for business hotels, which are nice, but still rather austere, or for budget ryokan - the Japanese style inns, which are still pretty darn nice (but beds are nicer, after having slept on a futon for two years). The Tobu Levant? Oh. My. God.

This was a *nice* hotel.

And on top of that, our room was the "Sorakara-chan" (Sky Tree's mascot) room. I was just told before that "there might be something with Sorakara-chan in it.

Yeah. This was the door to our room.

This was the first sign something was up.

Then when we opened the door, we were greeted to this:

The ceiling area.

Oh. My. God.

EVEN THE BEDS.

EVERYTHING had Sorakara-chan on it. And that wasn't even the end of it. It was that classic, "but wait, there's more!" Literally. The room had a small room annexed to it.

You walk past the beds and turn to the left and BAM. Holy cow.

This was our view from the window. FROM THE WINDOW.

I think the dogs and the penguin thing were also other mascots. Probably. As my cousin pointed out, the weird penguin with the star on it is a girl, because she has high heels on.

Oh, I should mention the name of the mascot. Sorakara-chan, for those of you who don't speak Japanese, means something like "from the sky"-chan (chan is a kind of cute prefix for small kids or girls). Considering that she's the mascot for the Sky Tree, it's actually pretty appropriate (and cute. Can't forget cute).

But I mean holy smokes. Cra-zy. Crazy crazy crazy. There were so many... character themed things. Even in the bathroom, there were character things. The towels had little pictures on them and stuff. We had the most amazing view of the Sky tree from our bedroom windows, which were also gigantic. So you could go to sleep and see the Sky tree.

This is why my last night in Tokyo, despite my new 4 year old friend being kinda tired and cranky (yet still having enough energy to power an iPhone for a day and a half), was really freaking awesome. I couldn't have asked for a better "last" experience.

*

I've kind of been in this daze ever since I returned home, and as in daze, I mean like, I haven't really done much (did visit one friend) in the almost week I've been back home. I didn't adjust my clocks until yesterday, so I spent most of yesterday (thursday) thinking it was today (friday). Oh, I reactivated my phone and joined a gym. The gym has pretty much been my number one accomplishment the past few days. I did see the Expendables 2 (that was fun). That, and I've logged a probably ridiculous amount of video game hours in, since upon my return home, there have been three games I've been trying to juggle: Epic Mickey, which is indeed epic; Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance aka Kingdom Hearts 3D which I've been waiting for since I pre-ordered in while in Japan; and The World Ends With You, which I've been trying to freaking finish but I lost the game when my DS was probably stolen. Note, two of these games involve Disney, while two involve SquareEnix. Kingdom Hearts, has *both* Disney AND The World Ends With You characters (so it's kind of like getting my fix for all three but not really?)

I've also kind of been thinking about what to do with this blog, now that I've returned home. I think I'm going to keep writing in it? Hopefully I'll be not-lazy and finish writing about my extended monthish of traveling in Japan and bumming at people's houses. That's my goal. I uploaded over 2,000 pictures last night so I think I kind of... have a lot ahead of me hahaha. But yeah.

Just because I'm back in the US doesn't mean that the adventure has stopped. :) Rather, it has simply changed locations. It's cliche, yes, but life is an adventure, no?

Watch out world (and Mexican food) cause here I come!

Basuketoboru

Today has been highly productive, I think. Many things were accomplished, and I feel relatively good about things. One of the JTEs (Japanese teachers of english) is coming over to my place later to help me out with the internet. HOORAY. I'M SO HAPPY.

Plus, I have the day off tomorrow. Granted, it's a forced vacation and really, I'd rather just go to school (and play kyuudo) but oh well. Tomorrow will also be my "get stuff done" day. I have plans. Mostly housekeeping things, like getting my re-entry permit since I can visit things during daylight hours.

I also want to go back to korakuen garden. I've wanted to see it ever since Paul & Ava put up pictures and told me it was in Okayama. It's actually really really pretty, and I even bought a year pass to the gardens. I want time to go down there by myself and just relax, enjoy nature, and think. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's cool with friends, but I've always found something peaceful about gardens. Same thing with aquariums, during non-busy hours. It's just peaceful.

I had no idea I liked gardens and stuff so much haha. I mean, I know I love aquariums. I will pilgrimage to a city that has a great aquarium, just like how I'm planning on visiting the aquarium in Osaka as well as the aquarium in Okinawa. I'm really really excited for that one! X)

But gardens... as someone pointed out to me, I really like them haha. I won't quite make the trek out to find that awesome garden, but if there's one in town, there's an 80-90% chance that I will want to see it, and make the trip out to go visit it. It's weird. I don't... love flowers or grass really. But gardens are peaceful. In Panama, I even went out on an adventure to try and find the botanical gardens near Panama City. And holy crap, was that an adventure. We ended up going to this park area, hiking, finding red ants, taking a taxi out to the real botanical gardens, found out that it was more like a zoo with lots of green leafy things around it, went around and looked at the animals, saw wild monkeys, debated about taking the (supposedly dangerous) bus back, couldn't figure out when the bus was, ended up hitch hiking since we couldn't speak spanish and had no idea how to find a cab since it was kind of in the middle of nowhere, hitchhiked back to NOT panama city, ended up in the City of Knowledge, found other members of the scholar ship, and hitched a ride on the bus back with them to our ship.

Yeah that was an adventure. And an awful sentence and poor display of English. Oh well. :)

The point is, I like gardens, and some of them have given me very memorable... trips.

Oh yeah though. I got kinda sidetracked (something that is quite rare for me...). I finally got the nerves to ask if I could join the girls in practicing basketball! It took the foreign exchange student, Axel Lee (who was born in Singapore) to get me to follow him to the gym and shyly ask the girls team if I could practice with them.

Also, note to self, don't run without shoes for prolonged periods of time. It is painful. My feet sting, cause I was rebounding for them for a little bit and doing some of the drills with them. In my nice work clothes too haha. That wasn't smart. I think I'm going to have to start bringing an extra pair of shoes and change of clothes. Sigh... just when I thought things were going to get simple, I have to go and make it complicated.

I'm really excited though, because it's finally a way I can exercise. I'm horribly out of shape. Kyuudo club is also going to lend me one of their rubber bows (gomuyumi) to strengthen my arms with. Hopefully, between kyuudo and basketball, I will slowly yet surely get back into shape. I hope.

It kind of makes me think though. As JET participants, part of what sets us apart from others is that we're suppose to not only teach, but also... what's the word... propegate? Encourage? Encourage the exchange of culture between our own and Japan. That means joining clubs, because not only are we learning things, but, we also get more exposure to the students, and can start building relationships. Part of the whole cultural exchange is building relationships with Japanese people (and other foreigners!) I think. It's an important part of what we do. God my feet hurt right now. But the more that we can do, I think, and the more we can "hang out" or whatever outside of class in the clubs and stuff with our kids, the more... we're actually working.

This basically means, that unless we're staying in our houses all day, really, we're always working. Depressing thought? I'm not sure. But I mean to have fun with it. :)

That being said, I need to LEAVE WORK. X)