It's Midterm Examination time here. The students must wear their formal attire to take their tests. Suits and clip on ties for the boys. Skirts and lady-like bow ties for the girls. It really is a strange thing.

Having lived here for four years I brought my belts into school and asked the shop teacher to help me. They call it "Industrial Arts" class. I needed new holes drilled into my belts, all of them. Even the ones I purchased on my last visit to the US. It occurs to me, as I'm asking the shop teacher to do this in my broken Japanese that I've made my belt one notch tighter for every year I've lived in Japan. (It's probably worth mentioning that during the time I worked and ate lunch in Tokio I got fatter. But working in the same town I live and riding my bike to school--that's the ultimate get slim quick trick)

And in four years I've come to a new phase in cultural adjustment. The "I think I'm turning Japanese" phase. The one where I go to a saloon and get a straight-perm. The one where I find myself sitting at a long table filled with Japanese school girl, and can actually understand when they're talking about me and the essence of what they're saying.

After a many months hiatus, I've finally dragged myself back to the PC. Long enough to write another entry. Long enough to scan some of the new Japanese Dr. Pepper bottles I've collected. The true inspiration--the bill for this webpage. Another hundred dollars for another year of web hosting. Anyone else would have allowed the webpage to elapse. Somehow, I couldn't let that happen.

After a long break, otherwise known as WotLK, it looks like I'm posting again. I'll start small, with something that has been on the scanner for longer than I'd care to admit.

More free advertising for Dr. Pepper. Attempt to stick it to the main, /fail

You know how much I love Dr. Pepper... well not the soda its self per se, but the manga they draw on the bottles here in Japan. Looks like this gal is playing around with a Dr. Pepper gun of some sort, and is wearing some sort of an underwear bayonet?

Yes, yes I stand corrected. "Bandolier" was the word I was looking for.

When you've been living in Japan for over a year, the novelty tends to wear off. But not the drastic difference in Dr. Pepper bottles.

NEWS UPDATE: The man who the suicide lady fell on is now dead. And by the way, why did that story get over a hundred views? My average is probably something like thirteen, and then out of nowhere I get over a hundred. Ah the wonders of blogging.

Every time I see a new one of these it amuses me.

I guess the Dr. is committed to an anime theme here.

The secret is out. I'm not much of a Dr. Pepper drinker. But the last time I was at the store, I picked up another bottle of the stuff... just for your guys!

Help me out guys!

This lady has a hip to waist ratio like you wouldn't believe. And by her damsel in distress caption, you'd think she needed a bun in her oven.