Inaka (countryside) livin...

Although we haven't set up our Keitai (cell phones) yet, Ben's been able to call me from his city office on our home phone during the day to chat for a minute or two. The topic of discussion in the past couple of days has been about whether or not I should take the train out to hang out after work, or just wait in Kiire for him to get home. It was a particulary tough decision I had to make yesterday, because I LOVE going into the city, since there's pretty much nada to do out here as of yet. Also, since we're still settling in, there's shopping ath the 100 yen store that I can do for household things and the neccesity for getting our cells hooked up (which will be quite the feat, unless we get a more fluent Japanese speaker to accompany us.) Anyhow, we ended up agreeing that getting to know more of our little Kiire would be the better idea, and savoring the not-quite-as-hot daylight hours yesterday made for the perfect evening... we walked to our "big" grocery store, which is about 10 mins away by foot, but stopped to take in some scenery. This was someone's rice field which Ben could tell was just planted. We spoke to a little old woman past too. She thought I was Japanese, and Ben introduced himself as the new "alt= assistant language teacher" here. It's great Japanese conversation practice.
It's funny, sometimes when Ben and I are out together, people look at me as if I can understand Japanese better than him. Other times, Japanese people look at both of us as foreigners; I never know what to expect!
There were a lot of farmers burning their fields, and the smoke smell was strong, along with a really pretty glowing sunset.
Our big grocery store has everything, including lots of clothes and household goods. I thought this razor would be great because it has a nice big handle to grip onto, you know, so no slipping. Upon looking more closely, I realized WHY this one has a big handle. Check out the cartoon, and where she's shaving.
Air fresheners are a must for me personally, I love the sweet smells offered here. I already bought one a couple of days ago that was my fav on our last trip... but then found this one! Lychee smells delicious. And can you imagine a cuter packaging?
In the late evening, with our house lights on, bugs are very attracted to our apartment, of course. We get these cute little guys outside our windows helping us take care of them. They slowly sneak up behind moths and other little bugs and then *quick* make a go at them and snatch 'em up in one bite. Very entertaining.
*he's so cute*
This one I took this morning. These beetles apparently do a number on the local crops.
But they sure are cool lookin.