J2 – August In a Nutshell

August was quite a sociable month all-told; plenty of evenings out with friends. We also bought ourselves something we have been umming over for a good few months!

Mitch and I finally went to a local cafe called Fukuro (owl) on the 3rd, and it was a really nice little place. Chatty owner, good coffee and super reasonable prices. Adorable cups too!

On the 4th I went out with my work colleagues (the 3 that entered the company at same time as me). We went for all-you-can-eat okonomiyaki, which was incredibly delicious and I really want to go again!

Delicious!

The 6th was great. I hadn’t had a single day off with Mitch in July, it was all evenings. So I requested the first weekend in August off in order to go to a firework display with Mitch. In the UK, I’m used to fireworks coming with coats, glowsticks, freezing fingers, and hot cocoa. In Japan, fireworks are a summer thing! You sweat like crazy, eat okonomiyaki and drink. We did two of the three 😛

We spent the day on a huge walk around the area first, hence the sweaty. It was about 35 degrees all day, not a cloud in the sky and humid as heck. I didn’t know my forearms could sweat but there you go. That’s Japan summer for ya!

Got to wear my pretty dress today 🙂

Breakfast!

First park on our walk; very cool. Well, actually we were baking by this point.

Handsome man

A really out of the way shrine

This set of stairs was wonderful, until I very nearly walked headfirst into a giant spider…

Gorgeous scenery

Sitting at our spot ready for fireworks!

Ended the evening with games and drinks with a friend ❤

 

After coming home to a rubbish sofa every night for about 5 months, we finally decided to buy an absolutely overpriced, ridiculously comfortable, mahusive beanbag. Best decision we ever made. Made our house so cosy, and way more homely. Immediately felt like we’d properly settled in.

At the shop, sitting on one beanbag, watching the other get wrapped 😀

While wondering around the mall, we stumbled across this amazing Taiko display. The power in these people was astounding!

Taking this massive thing home on the bus

And the train

Home!

On the 20th, we finally managed to go to a huge temple near my work that we had been meaning to visit for months. It was even prettier than we thought! Massive grounds, gardens, and even a pretty gazebo thing over the lake. We sat in it while it was raining and watched the fishies 🙂

The temple was filled with these critters!

Mitch took this one, it’s a beaut.

Later that evening we were invited to a new friend’s house in Narita. It was great! I met Theresa in my shop and we went for lunch a few times, now dinner! She has a gorgeous house, and some of her friends came too. Homemade lasagne! We also went for karaoke all together a few days later 🙂

Karaoke!

 

Let me leave you with some photos from my favourite photo album title ever: “Mexican with a Kiwi” 😀

Super fancy place to go for mexican