Laughable

Every week I encounter a number of bizarre things that catch my eye and make me chuckle. Usually I don't have my camera on me, one of the many reasons why I will never be a professional blogger, so I just snap a quick shot with my phone. This usually draws the curious stares of other shoppers as I whip out my phone and start snapping shots from different angles. Oh, well!

Here are a few gems that I snapped in the past while:

FaFa laundry detergent, which I am pretty sure is the same as the Snuggle brand we have back home (unless it is just a massive rip off), has a comical line of international scents. I have always thought the Snuggle bear was super cute and being dressed up makes him just that much cuter.

Finnish gnome Snuggle frolicking with bunnies amongst the mushrooms

Arabian Snuggle sandboarding

and Russian Snuggle with these cute little matryoshka dolls

Cephalopods. Maybe not the best word choice if you are going for tasty or descriptive.

I am pretty understanding of most English typos but this one was a bit excessive:

and though this English was written perfectly, number 43 seemed just a tad bit forceful for a family restaurant:

We just couldn't resist trying out these oddly named snacks:

This sign is announcing a butter shortage. This happens all the time and even though it is slightly annoying, the concept of a butter shortage always makes me smile. 

Here is a selection of on the go snacks available at your average convenience store. The boiled wrapped corn cobs always make me chuckle.

This cafe near the library has a vaguely threatening, mafia-esque name:

Here is one of the outdoor public restrooms at the Fukuyama library green space. I would feel just a tad exposed using that urinal, especially at one of the many public events that draws hundreds of people to the green.

Baby spats? Are you trying to dress your child as a Dickensian character or Scrooge McDuck? On a side note, did you know that spats is a contraction of the word spatterdashes? 

and lastly, this ridiculous car:

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

We had an absolutely fantastic Christmas here in Fukuyama. I will be putting up pictures of our revelry as soon as I figure out how to get them off of my phone. Unfortunately, our camera, which has been taking terrible pictures from day one, is slowly becoming only able to take pictures that are not much better than a daguerrotype. A recent addition to its ineptitude is the inability to flash or focus on anything even remotely resembling a subject. The photos are usually blurry and hazy unless the subject is completely still, which I am pretty sure my children are incapable of. I have a deep and complex relationship of dislike and betrayal with this camera, which, as you can see, is turning into semi-psycotic anthropomorphising on my part. We finally gave up on the camera on Christmas Eve and opted for taking photos with the only slightly better cell phone camera. In case you are wondering why we bought such a terrible camera in the first place, we didn't. It was given to us as a replacement when our previous camera (which took decent photos) had electrical problems. Sigh.

Parliament of owls with Theo in background

Last week, Theo's kindergarten had a Christmas presentation. It was held at the Reed and Rose Arena, our city's concert hall, and included two plays and multiple songs played on the melodica. Theo and the rest of the children in the youngest kindergarten class performed a really cute but random play. The premise was as follows: All of the animals of the forest are gathered together because they have found a secret cave. A few animals enter it to explore and come out claiming to have seen great sights. They tell all of the animals to go in and see for themselves, but the foxes are too afraid to enter. It takes the rhetoric of the wise owls to persuade the foxes. After all of the animals enter the cave, they discover that it is a magical portal to the North Pole where they meet Santa, his reindeer, and elves. Santa then proceeds to take them for a ride in his sleigh and give them each a present.

Sucking on his paws

The amazing part about this play was that there was about 80 children on stage at one point. Nobody burst out crying, ran off the stage, or hurt themselves. I didn't think that it was possible to avoid at least a couple of incidents over the course of 15 minutes with that many 3-4 year olds, but somehow they pulled it off. Theo played the part of a wolf and looked incredibly bored the whole time. He spent the better part of the play looking everywhere but forward, pulling at his sleeves, and yawning. If you are wondering which one is Theo in these pictures, just look for the most distracted, glazed expression and it is bound to be him.

Studying the floor

Here is a video of the kids with Theo in front and center singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". The video was cut short by William who decided to burst into tears halfway through the song. 

Any advice on what we should get to replace our excuse of a camera?

Purikura

Karlee and I promised ourselves that we would take photos in a purikura booth before she headed back to Canada. These photo booths can be found in malls and shopping centers all over Japan and can do more than just take your picture. They usually make your eyes look bigger, your skin and hair lighter, and make your complexion look fantastic. There are different levels of enhancement, with some making you look like an anime character and some that are not far from normal. You can also embellish your photos with little stars, sparkles, and cute phrases.


We decided to go for the booth with the most outrageous photos pictured on them. In the mall that we went to, there was even a nook where you could do your make up and hair. No, I did not bring the hair curler with me. They had curlers and straighteners for people to use. It costs 450 yen (about 6$ Canadian) for one photo session which takes about 6 photos and prints you off a few sheets of photo stickers. If I had access to purikura when I was 14, I would have whittled all my allowance away.


Here is a selection of the fantastic shots that we took: