The Long-Awaited Costume

Well here it is, folks: the long-awaited BeeTank picture!!!!
Feast your eyes and tremble at the cuteness! It's even cuter in person because the wings kinda flutter when he walks!


Here is a comparison shot of Tank with Tony (Boris?)

By now, you're probably wondering who this new guy is. Well, he's our bark-happy, walk-happy little terrier by the name of Tony (formerly Boris, though I tend to stick to his old name). He is our new foster dog, because we didn't think he'd work out as a permanent adoption because he doesn't play with Tank and instead lazes about all day. We renamed him Tony because, well, look at the next picture:

Yeah.... he loves that shirt! And he likes nothing better than to sit around and chill all day, taking occasional breaks for gobbling down anything at hand. Sound like anyone?

The only downside is that he's a bit of a barker (though we are working ferociously to remedy that). Also, he REQUIRES at least 3-4 walks a day... He is fully housebroken, so that obsession is both a blessing and a curse. Tank loves to steal his treats and bother him by licking in his ears and less mentionable places. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this dogtastic post!

Warning: Image Heavy Posting Ahead :)

After several demands that we get our act together and make another post, we're caving in.
Here is all about our Japan trip... and a special Tank picture at the end. :)

As most of you know, the Japan trip was a disaster (as far as procuring a visa is concerned...). However, it would be pretty stupid to complain about a company sponsored vacation to Japn. lol.

Let us go from the beginning...
Here's Paul at the airport. We got there 2 hours before boarding (better than 2 hours after boarding is called right?) and sort of bummed around. Here is Paul stretched out at our empty gate. No one was around! lol


Upon arriving in Osaka, we checked in at our hotel, the New Otani Hotel. I'm not sure what it means. It was a gorgeous hotel!

Here's the view from our window :)

Too bad it was in the middle of some lame business district. There wasn't too much around us... except for the King Festival... It was at the palace in Osaka. I forgot to mention that it was BLISTERING HOT AND HUMID!!!!!! I think I almost died. At one point, I think I actually did come close to heat stroke... I don't think my gray sweater-thing helped.

Yes that is a massive shaved ice thing I am holding. It melted almost instantaneously.

The palace was located on a huge hill. Here is the view from the top.


At night, we decided to go walk around to see what was outside... there was basically nothing but a few shops that closed way early but right outside of our hotel, the trees were decorated with pretty blue lights.


At the palace, there were some painted cows from Europe. Teehee.

This one represents the entire EU, I think.


Here is Amy with the German cow... (Yes, I, Paul, have taken over writing this entry!)


After almost dying from sunstroke, heatstroke, heat exhaustion, dehydration, etc., we headed over to the vaguely-nearby city of Nara in Nara Prefecture. There, we decided to go to the Todaiji Temple, which I went to on my high school trip to Japan. As it was one of my favorite places in the world, I couldn't miss the opportunity to see it again.

Soon after heading out from the subway station at Nara, we ran across my favorite car in existence, namely a Nissan Skyline GTR R34. And it was in my favorite color, to boot!


After I had calmed down, we moved on. Soon, we entered deer territory. As some of you readers may recall, my last run-in with these fellas ended with holes in my new leather jacket and bruises in unmentionable places. Today, they were fairly well-behaved. Perhaps the heat was keeping them down a little, or perhaps they were already tired from a long day of terrorizing innocents (it was late in the afternoon when we got there).



And yes, I even dared to TOUCH one of those mangy ruminants...


Amy overcame her initial, though very well-placed, fear as well.


He wants our bakery box!


After passing endless hordes of deer, we made our way deeper into the complex towards the massive Todaiji Temple. Here I am relatively close towards the main temple.


Well, it turns out we got there too late in the day to actually go to the temple. :-(
However, we had a great time wandering the grounds and checking out all the docile deer and tame turtles. It was like being in a horrible parody of a Disney movie, with animals flocking from all sides in search of food.





Oh, well. Maybe we can finish this date the next time we go to the Kansai area.

After leaving Osaka, we headed towards the Southern-y port city of Fukuoka.

Here I am with this awesome little car that borrows HEAVILY from vintage Mini Coopers.


After freaking out at length over not being able to get our visas, we managed to relax a bit and enjoy the rest of our stay in Japan. We spent more money than we are pleased to admit on UFO catcher machines. UFO catchers are like those stupid claw games found in every grocery store and Wal-Mart back in the States, but they are rigged to let you WIN. Yes, that's right: WIN! The attendant will even come and set the prize back into a fortuitous position if you ask nicely! All in all, we ended up with a cute little family of bears (including a rabbit and a giant, pink, anthropomorphic poo).

Here I am with my hard-earned Pokemon, Floatzel.


Here is Amy with her big, royal bear.


There was this really nice park in Fukuoka (Ohori Park) based around a central lake bordered with an epic jogging path. There were swan paddle boats, fishing areas, and herons and turtles everywhere. There were also an Asian Art Museum as well as a traditional Japanese garden, but both were closed by the time we got there.


There were also a number of little concrete thingies around the lake with traditional childrens' songs and games on them. The one on the right in this photo conjures to mind a rather un-PC song Amy and I remember from our respective childhoods.


Well that's about it for this time! Stay tuned for the yet-to-come CUTEST picture of Tank yet!