Whoa! A Blog Post!

Today I saw a centipede that was seriously longer in inches than my hand is from the tip of my middle finger to that little butt-shape where my hand meets my wrist, in inches!  And it was alive and scurrying, right out in front of where I work.  And since it was alive, I didn't go near enough to take a photo.

But seriously, that's not what I wanted to write about today.  I wanted to just mention a couple of things I may or may not have done over the weekend.

On Saturday after work we had a farewell party for an employee who has left the company.  We all went out to dinner and then back to Snack Boo for drinks and karaoke. Then I got home and was like "I'm not really ready to go to bed yet" so I sent my friend a message and said "I'm not really ready to go to bed yet" and he took me to this lovely bar.  Actually, that one time I ate ramen and that one time I ate horse were both at restaurants owned by the same person, who also owns this bar.  So I always have a good time when I go to any of those places, because they know me.  Well, I've only been to each place once, but I like to make myself think I'm pretty popular.  Anyway, here's a delicious snack dish we ate at the bar, and you can see from my beer that this bar is in Mexico.  I was also served a red wine and cucumber juice cocktail, which was really good--it tasted summery and light!  I think I'll make it some day.

After that, I was ready to go to bed, so I did.  But not before going back to the apartment.  But then the next day, my friend called me and said "Wanna go somewhere?"  And I was like "Yes."  And he was like "Ok, I'll pick you up." And I was like "Ok."

First we went to a place where I forgot to take any pictures, so I won't tell you about it but it was pretty cool. But hopefully you're distracted by this picture of peacocks, so I'll pretend we went there first.

First we went here to this Peacock Park!  There were a bunch of peacocks also two ponies.  And a great view of the bay from the top of an abandoned building.  And little go carts shaped like a tomato and a police car.  But did I take pictures of any of that?  No!  I kept forgetting to take pictures.  So, I apologize for that.

So what do you think happened after Peacock Park?  Well, I'll tell you.  We went to a place with a boardwalk and a row of shops near a couple of bridges.  Here is where I saw the bear claw machine from which you have the chance to catch...um...lobsters?  Or maybe gigantic shrimp.  I wasn't really sure what these were, now that I think about it.

There was another bear claw machine with live giant beetle larva, but my photo of that one didn't turn out.  But trust me, it was there. So then we went for a walk on this bridge.

 

That's my friend Sumihiro waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay up ahead of me trying to leave me behind.  Under this bridge, you can see a whirlpool formed from the collision of two currents!  Unfortunately you can't see it ALL the time, and we didn't get to see it, but you could see lots of smaller swirls all around.  And the bridge has a couple of floor windows so you can look STRAIGHT down.  It's kind of terrifying.

From this bridge you can also see that bridge over there.

Apparently lots of people plunge to their death from that bridge every year, which could be why the walkway on the (newer) bridge I'm taking this picture from is fenced in on all sides.

Here is a beautiful flower garden by the shops that are by the boardwalk by the bridge over the bay.

From this flower garden you can see a view of...

...my friend Sumihiro trying to leave me behind again!  I don't know why he's always trying to ditch me.  You can also see the bridge over the bay.

Finally, having become exhausted from all of the bridges and delicious food eating (oh yeah, did I mention the delicious food we ate?), we left Sasebo (that's the city we went to) to head back to Omura (that's the city we live in), following at least part of the way this cute hippo bus.