Petting Zoo & Shrine Sale

I know, it's been a while since I last updated this. Nothing exciting has really happened lately though. School's out for the summer, so I'm done working for now. I haven't decided if I'll do it again next year or not. We'll just have to see how things play out when Ben gets back. Speaking of which, we're down to about 2 months left. YAY!!! But now August just can't come soon enough. I'm way past ready for him to be home. But anyway, I have done a few fun things in the past few weeks so here's a few pics.

These first ones are from a trip to Sagamihara Park with my friend Denise and her daughter Abby. It had finally stopped raining for a while so we headed down to the little petting zoo they have there. It's so much fun going out with them.

About half the animals are animals you would find on a farm back in the states. They even had a cow, but I didn't get a picture of it. I think that's the first cow I've seen since I've been in Japan. You see the everywhere back home. Well, you used to anyway.

Abby was just fascinated with this peacock. Can you blame her?! Look at those beautiful colors!

This raccoon reminded me of my dogs. Smokey likes to sleep all sprawled out. It's rather funny.

Before we left, we went over to the fountain area and let Abby play for a little bit. She's just testing the water here, but she was pretty much soaked by the time we left. There were some older Japanese couples sitting on some benches in the area who were getting a kick out of watching her, and watching Denise try to get her out of the water. She wasn't afraid of it, and sure didn't want to leave. Even after turning around and being sprayed in the face. =)

My next adventure was to the Machida Shrine Sale. The first of every month they have what they call a Shrine Sale down in Machida, which is about a 10 minute train ride from here. It's basically a big flea market on the shrine grounds. That's the best way I can think to describe it anyway.

There are tons of people there, and you can find pretty much anything. From kimonos to dishes, and buttons to tools. And everything in between of course. Nothing really jumped out at me, but I did get a couple bracelets. Probably paid a little more than I should have, but oh well. I like them.

This is my baby Tate. Ok, so she's actually Maryl's baby, but I like to pretend she's mine. We've become pretty good buds over the past year. She's just the sweetest thing with the cutest smile.

I stopped at Starbucks on the way back to the train station, and she wanted to play with my cup once I was done. I'm pretty sure she thought that was the best toy ever! I'm so sad that they are leaving in less than a month. Maryl and her family have become my family while Ben's been gone. I don't know how many times I've been over there for dinner or we've gone out on day trips. I've tried convincing Ben that we need to go to Texas with them, but he won't go for that. Oh well. It is the Army so there's always the chance that we'll meet up again someday.

So that's my exciting news for the past month, which really isn't so exciting. Guess I'll have to work on that so I don't go crazy in the next two months while I'm done working and waiting for Ben to come home. Hmmm... I'll keep ya posted on what I come up with. =)