uguisu & hibari

For the past week, I've been fortunate to wake up to the beautiful voices of the uguisu and hibari here. Uguisu is the Japanese bush warbler and the Hibari is the sky lark. Satoshi says that it is unusual to find them in the city and residential areas, as you would usually find them up in the mountains. I've never seen either of these up close, but I did google them to see what they look and sound like.

Today, I started a new bead stitch class, which just continued from where I left off in December. My other classmates are 3 months ahead of me, but at least we are still in the same class. I think I may have another 3 to 6 months before I can graduate from this class. I think after I graduate, I may take up another language or maybe go to a baking class...hmm...

Did you know that today, April 12th, was the first time that Japan ate bread...and it was in 1840 or so? I saw this on a television show this morning. I tried to google this one, but came up empty handed, so I don't know all the details. So anyway, to commemorate the day, I decided to get a sandwich for lunch. When I first came to Japan as a student, I was shocked at how most sandwiches were made. For one thing, they had mashed potato style potato salad in them. And all the crusts were taken off! Plus, I swear they made a sandwich from 1 piece of bread and passed them off as a whole sandwich...talk about portion control!

Changing the subject, when you were growing up, what kind of school lunches did you have? Satoshi and I have talked about this several times and mine were hands down-- "good stuff". The part I remember most about it were the cookies....a bunch of retired Hawaii public school cafeteria workers got together and formed School Kine Cookies.

The base of most of their cookies is a flaky, buttery shortbread. My aunty bought these for us before we left and boy, do they bring back memories of school lunches and of home! (Thanks Aunty!)

The weekend is almost here!