An All-American Thanksgiving (hosted by some Aussies here in Japan!)

Thursday, we celebrated that most delicious of American holidays, Thanksgiving, down at Jacob's bar with an amazing traditional spread of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, veggies, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie!  We had a group of around 30 friends representing the States, Australia, Scotland, Kenya, and Japan, and for many it was their first T-Day celebration and feasting!  Needless to say, the prep for this went into industrial-mode:

Besides the incredible food (ALL of which was homemade...down to the amazing pumpkin maple pie) and huge group of great friends, we have so much to be thankful for this year:  traveling, working, having new opportunities, living in Japan, comrades and family all over the world, and being able to experience it all side-by-side with each other!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Things That Are Funny When You're Not Japanese: Health and Beauty Edition

Japan is a pretty wacky place. Especially when you're a foreigner. From all kinds of zany products, to the hilarious Engrish that graces their packaging, it's enough inspiration for a whole new series: Things That Are Funny When You're Not Japanese! Kicking it off are some health and beauty products to get you in the mood to shape up this holiday season:

For those times when smooth skin just isn't enough:

What happens when "Calgon, take me away" goes horribly wrong:

Discerning cute girls know that Candy Doll lip-gloss is not only sweet as fluffy, but also happy as milky.

Hello Kitty face wash...

NOT in the children's section.

Need a little help size-wise in the boobie department? Japan has a pill for that:

Of course, why stop at a "B" when it's tastier to go bigger:

Sadly, for some, a little more divine intervention is needed:

Bob Marley had nothing on these:

The "Hollywood Cookie Diet's" most logical replacement:

Explains so much with the state of people's teeth here.

Sounds more like a delicious bratwurst:

Why should mouths get all the fun?

My greatest beauty find to date! Just 5 tablets a day, and you can have the "heavenly" body you always dreamed of (warning: may cause excessive facial hair and a strange glow).

The Engrish on this box of Jesus Body gives perhaps a better ending to and summarization of this post than I could have ever come up with:

New discovery to be kept secret from others.

This discovery is a secret.

I can lay it down because I am correct.

We will not make you scary.

Pleasure to have the real thing.

I really longed for this.

Best ¥1,800 ($20.00) Ever Spent!

As movie-going here in Japan is crazy EXPENSIVE (about 20 bucks a show!), I figured it was something I could definitely do without until I headed back to the States.  However, when my friend told me that today was the last viewing of Michael Jackson's "This Is It" film, I knew that was something that I HAD to see on the big screen!  Let me tell you, it was TOTALLY worth it:

Seriously amazing!  MJ forever, folks!

Farewell Fall...

Last weekend, after being cooped-up for a week on my sickly hiatus, I headed out to enjoy the last nice, fall-ish weekend here in Sapporo!  First stop, Sapporo Factory for a photography exhibit:

Sapporo Factory was built in 1876 as a brewery, and later became the primary brewery of Sapporo Beer.  Now, it's a huge mega-shopping complex (the Sapporo Beer brewery is now located on the outskirts of the city), but the original red-brick buildings, as well as its trademark chimney-stack, still remain and are particularly pretty in autumn:

One of the buildings of Sapporo Factory houses the Sapporo Photography Library.  They had a really cool show put on by the P.H.A.T. (Pretty Hot and Tempting...ha!) Photo Club here in town:

Of course, afterwards I was in the mood for some self-portraits with my little point-and-shoot:

Continuing the day, I walked clear across town to yet another photography exhibition, The History of Polaroid and Otaru Polaroid Exhibition...a tres fab collection of some magnificent Polaroid cameras, as well as an inspirational display of the fading art-form itself:

The Polaroid exhibit was located in a "grittier" part of Sapporo...of course, in Japan, the grittier parts are usually more interesting anyway, so I was glad to have stumbled upon it:

Finally, I ended my fantastic fall frolic with a stop at TK6 to visit Jacob working, as well as to catch some sumo wrestling on t.v.!  I LOVE that I can go to a bar and watch sumo wrestling here, by the way:

We woke up this morning to a white, frozen blanket of snow, making me appreciate even more the chance to have gotten a little inspiration and to discover a little more of Sapporo on the last perfect autumn weekend.  Okay, winter...it's on!