Kinda vacation

So far I've had one whole week of home work days. These are days where I'm supposed to do any work I have at home. It's technically not a day off, as I can be notified at any time that these days can be turned into on-call days. I have one more week of home work days before I'm officially off work until the next school year starts.

This week I've been able to do a lot of drawing and painting, which has been so amazing. I'd love it if I could just stay home and do that every day. We did also go into Tokyo to visit Asakusa again. We were looking for a specific traditional doll figure and we thought we might find some there. We did find some options but honestly nothing better than what we could find online. Asakusa is very much a tourist market. Not to say it isnt insanely fun!

The most interesting thing to happen to us lately involves our local Family Mart convenience store. Its only a block or two away from our neighborhood, about a 4 minute walk, and a couple months ago it closed down. It wasn't a huge loss at the time because we had been going to the (further away) 7 Eleven a lot. Family Mart was constantly out of stock on nearly everything, and we eventually realized that was because they were planning on closing. The building was torn down and the lot was completely dug up. Soon they began construction on a small building and we prayed it was another convenience store. While we still had 7 Eleven, a closer konbini would really make quick trips a lot easier. A couple weeks ago we found out it was, in fact, still a Family Mart and on Friday it opened up again!

It might seem like a small thing, but its really been the most exciting thing to happen to our everyday lives lately. The new Family Mart is fully stocked and even sells some Muji products, like skin care and school materials. They've also built in a seating area so you can go and eat or hang out there. For their grand opening they were selling these ¥500 mystery bags so we decided to get one. We filmed a video opening it up, to be posted soon!

Well I hope my tales of foreign excitement and wonder have brightened your day. I'm gonna go drink some coffee and practice some watercolors while I watch Friends on Netflix. Oh, life in Japan is so remarkable.

K+K