Sheep's Bakery & Cafe

[Update: Sadly Sheep's has closed and there is a new bar/restaurant in it's place. I haven't gone to the new place yet.]

Sheep's is a new(ish) bakery/cafe that opened this past April in Towada. It's located near the Bunka Center, across from the Super Hotel and next to Cafe If.

I've never tested it out, but on the bakery side they offer an "order bakery". If the bread you want is sold out, you can ask the staff and they will have it ready for you (hot and fresh from the oven!) in about 15-25 minutes.

There's also a restaurant/cafe where you can have lunch, dinner, drinks or dessert. It's got a trendy but casual kind of atmosphere which makes it a great place to hang out with girlfriends (or to go to with a significant other). It's the type of restaurant you'd expect to find in Hachinohe, Aomori or another bigger city, rather than Towada. ^_^;;

One of their specialties/chef's recommendations is the "Canadian burger." Just out of curiosity, the first time we went into the cafe, my friend (who has been studying/living for in Canada for several years and was only back in Towada for a short visit) asked what exactly made the burger "Canadian." Apparently mushrooms and lettuce make a "Canadian" burger... =P

Anyway, you can get the "Canadian" burger as part of a "beer plate"--which comes with a beer, some nuts and salad--for just under a thousand yen. For non-drinkers like me (or people who just don't like beer), it's possible to substitute the beer for any other drink up to 500yen; I always go for the Shirley Temple because it brings back childhood memories of going out to Swiss Chalet... =P

The store's pastas are also quite good. I've tried the pepperoncino and genoa (I think).

For dessert, I recommend the "Sheep's Parfait" with berries. It's a delicious combination of bread, vanilla ice cream, (rasp?)berry sherbet and (frozen) berries.

Again, I've never tried it out, but if you make reservations at least 2 days in advance (for groups of 2+ people), you can get a 4 or 5-dish meal plus a drink (or all-you can drink) for 2500-3500yen so it might be a good place to keep in mind for birthday or other special celebrations. ^_^

Sheep's Bakery & Cafe

Open: Mon., Wed.-Sun.

Closed: Tue.

Lunch Time: 11:00-14:00

Cafe Time: 14:00-18:00

Bar time: 18:00-21:00 (last order 20:00) Mon.-Thu.
18:00-23:00 (last order 22:00) Fri.-Sun.
Address: Parco Bldg, 1st Flr, 15-24 Inaoicho
Towada City, Aomori 034-0011

(〒034-0011十和田市稲生町15-24 パルコビル1Ｆ)

Telephone: 0176-27-6698

The heat is frying my brains...

Judging from the temperatures thus far, this summer is going to be a scorcher--much like the summer I arrived in Japan. I'm really bad with the heat; it makes me sluggish and stupid. As a result, I'm not as meticulous/careful about things as I should be...

Today, for example, I was supposed to be teaching English in first period at Kirita. Usually my arrival time is 9am, but first period starts at 8:25am, so if I'm teaching first I need to come early and I usually highlight it in my agenda or do something to make sure I remember to leave the house earlier.

This time, however, I suffered from a total brain fart. Even though I got the weekly teaching plan last week (and "1" was written right on the plan for the scheduled period), and even though I looked at today's schedule on the blackboard in the teacher's room yesterday, somehow it completely failed to register that I needed to be at the school for first period.

(O.O;)

As a result, I came to school at my usual time and it was only when I walked into the teacher's room and looked again at the day's schedule that I realized my mistake. (Ironically, I had actually come to school a little earlier than usual and was feeling pretty good about that until I realized that rather than arriving 10minutes early, I had arrived 25minutes late!)

(T-T)

Considering that the lesson today was pretty much just giving out and explaining summer vacation homework, it wasn't the end of the world, but I really really really HATE screwing up.

Well, on the bright side of things, at least I made the mistake on a day I was visiting Kirita rather than another school. The students at Kirita see me "all the time" so one missed class isn't as big a deal as it would be at a school where an ALT only comes once or twice a month. Also, since I tend to stay at Kirita well past my scheduled working hours on regular days, that helps to balance out the occasional screw-up. And my Kocho-sensei (principal) is really laid back and understanding about such things, too. 

But still... I'm definitely going to have to work harder to stay focused/on the ball during this summer heat.

Fireworks & Taiko

This year's Lake Towada Kosui Matsuri (十和田湖湖水祭り) was awesome! The rain held off for the weekend so I was able to enjoy fireworks on Saturday night and taiko on Sunday.

The weather was pretty close to perfect on Saturday night, in fact. It was comfortably cool so I wasn't dying of heat in my yukata. There was also a bit of a breeze which was important for clearing the smoke from the fireworks. Admittedly it was cloudy, but since the fireworks didn't go up that high it wasn't a problem in terms of visibility at all. ^_^

I didn't take many photos since a) taking photos of fireworks is difficult; and b) I wanted to enjoy watching them more than I wanted to take pictures of them, but here are a couple of pics:

Also, here's a pic of me in my new yukata from Uniqlo. When I bought a new yukata last year I told myself that I wasn't going to buy any more yukata, but since it was on sale--only 3990yen for the yukata, obi, and himo (cloth "ropes" used to tie the yukata)--I couldn't help myself. ^^;;

(Incidentally, I just realized that I never posted a picture of the yukata that I bought last year, so here it is:)

Sunday I went down to the festival again, this time with the members of the Suijin Kaminari Taiko (水神雷太鼓) group to watch their two performances. It was the first time I've seen them perform since last year's Aki Matsuri.

Even though I know I'm a far way from being able to perform in public, watching them definitely gave me incentive to work harder at taiko practice. Usually I'm the type that hates being in the spotlight--even peripherally--but seeing their performance made me really want to be able to perform with them. It looked like so much fun!

At the pace I learn I suspect that it will probably be at least half a year if not more before I'll even be close to being deemed "ready to perform" but I definitely plan to work hard to reach that point.

*sigh* If I hadn't taken almost 3 whole months off from January to March (preparing for my Kirita students' graduation) I might even have been ready to perform this time 'round. Oh well. All I can do is continue to do my best from now on! 

Here's a video of the final song from their second performance of the day. (Sorry, the sound and video aren't exactly in sync...) The song is called "Hanamatsuri" and it's pretty much the only song out of everything they performed that day that I can play from beginning to end. ^_^;;

日本人の知らない日本語ドラマ！！ (The Japanese Japanese People Don't Know)

I just learned that a drama based on the popular manga-form essay "日本人の知らない日本語" (Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo, i.e. "The Japanese Japanese People Don't Know") written by 海野凪子 (Umino, Nagiko) and illustrated by 蛇蔵 (Hebizou) will be airing on YTV/NTV (or RAB in Aomori) on Thursday nights from 23:58-24:38 starting July 15th (this week!). You can check out the official Japanese website at http://www.ytv.co.jp/nihongo.

!! I'm excited!! I really enjoyed the books so I have high hopes for the drama as well. The time slot is rather unfortunate (why so late?!) but I rarely go to bed earlier than 12:30am anyway, so I'll just have to make sure that I do all my bedtime preparations before the show starts so I can go to sleep pretty much right after it finishes.

This is shaping up to be a good summer, television wise, with Hotaru no Hikari 2 on Wednesday nights (22:00-23:00) and now Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo on Thursday nights. ^_^