After 2 weekends of elementary school plays I was very happy to have a bit of time to myself this weekend! I got to sleep in woohooo! I had an awesome weekend with friends, just what I needed! On Thursday night I had a few friends and my old boss over for Nabe. Yummy!

My old boss making his 'oishii' face :)

On Saturday I went to see 'the grudge' with Clare and Phil. An awful and disturbing movie remade from a Japanese original. Though it was interesting because the main characters were foreigners in Japan, don't spend your money on it. Watch it at home, alone and then you'll really be scared!

Today I spent the day with Toshie and Koji - and what a fabulous day it was! One of those totally random days that seem to happen more often than not here in Japan. So we headed out for lunch and an onsen in Tsushima, about 1hr south of where I live. The onsen in Tsushima is one of my favourties - nice and big and a huge variety of bathes!

So after lunch the plan was to head to the onsen but Koji suggested that we go to see a nearby Japanese Garden. Originally, I wasn't too keen because I didn't think there would be much to see - - given that it's the middle of winter and all. We found out that there was a Plum Blossom Festival so we decided to check it out! When we arrived we were too late for the mochi throwing event - no Japanese festival is complete without one! But, we were just in time for the Plum Pit Spitting Contest! Or in Japanese the Ume no Tanetobashi Taikai. Toshie and I decided to enter, numbers 20 and 21. Toshie, the little thing that she is spat her pit a whopping 4.70 meters....much to Koji's amusement! Next it was me, and I must say I even shocked myself.......5.78 meters! And guess what, that was enough to win the competition!!! How do so many fun random things happen to one person! As my father always says, I could fall into a cesspool and come out smelling like roses!

Check out the haul!!! 2 tubs of umeboshi, 3 packages of ume somen noodles and a huge bottle of ume chu! I love ume chu - - anyone up for a party? Maybe I'll let it age a bit more until hanami season :)