From Pennies To Yennies

Summer Reading

May 21, 2013 by Laurel

I have a best friend, and her name is Kelsey Johnson.

Kelsey and I on our first Disney trip together in March 2010

While she’s still in Seattle and I’m here in Tokyo, I could rattle off a million reasons why I’m sad we’re not near each other. Coffee dates, shopping, baking, movies, non-stop chit chat. One of the things we both love though is reading. When we first met, before tablets and Kindles and all those reading devices were popular (aka back in the OLD days, circa 2009-2010), we would go to Barnes & Noble together, armed with peppermint mochas and our rewards cards, and buy insane amounts of books. We even bought matching book shelves at Ikea for our libraries.

And then we’d read. At the Starbucks in Barnes & Noble. On the couch at home. In bed. On vacation together. In Seattle coffee shops. It was such an awesome way to enjoy each others’ company. Even better, she’s a quick reader and gives me the inside scoop on novels and series she thinks I might like.

Kelsey and I bought books faster than we could read them. We loved stocking our bookshelves at home. But then I moved to Portland, and my books had to get packed away. My epic, unread book collection sits in Dan’s mom’s garage, where whenever I visit, I pull a handful out and bring to Japan. Now that eBooks have taken off, I do most my reading on my iPad Mini.

But Summer is coming! And though I don’t have any vacations planned til August I just can’t resist a lazy, fluffy read.

This is my summer reading lineup! Some of these books I don’t even remember buying!
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, David Sedaris- it’s David Sedaris. I’m guaranteed some dark laughs w his dry humor
Weekend in Paris, Robyn Sisman- girl goes to Paris, falls in love. Or something. Good for a beach or plane
Marshmallows for Breakfast, Dorothy Koomson I don’t remember buying this, but it does have a “buy 3, get the 4th book free!” sticker on its cover. So I think that pretty much answers my question.
Walt Disney; An American Original, Bob Thomas I actually bought this book at Disney World a couple trips ago. I love reading my Disney books before a Disney trip!
Bringing Home the Birkin, Michael Tonello I’m currently reading this, it’s a fun read about a guy who sells the famed Hermès Birkin handbag on eBay. Interesting learning about the top tier of the fashion world
Realityland, David Koenig Because one Disney read is never enough!
NASM- The Essential of Personal Fitness Training Oh, the joys of having to read a textbook…

What are your fave genres/ series/ books?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged books, Kelsey, NASM, reading | Leave a Comment »

A Visit to Ibaraki

May 20, 2013 by Laurel

I hope everyone had a good weekend. We did!

One of the best parts about hashing is the variety of kennels, or chapters. Our kennel is a Friday night one in Tokyo, and most the time we stick to the Tokyo kennels. It’s really fun to check out other kennels though, see how they’re run, what’s similar and what’s different. So this Saturday Dan and I took a day trip to Ibaraki for a day with the Ibaraki Hash House Harriers (IH3).

I was glad we were going because a fellow hasher friend of ours was moving back to the UK, and this run was doubling as a farewell BBQ. We caught the Tsukuba Express from Akihabara, making total transit time just shy of 2 hours. Though all the locals know where the usual meet-up spot is, our friend was nice enough to run the 10 minutes out to the train station and chalked some arrows so we wouldn’t get lost!

We arrived to the meet up with no problem and got to know everyone. It wasn’t long til we were off! The first thing I realized is how hot it was. Dan and I normally run at night, so running on a warm day under the sun was a little rough.

About 2.5-3 miles in, the hare (the guy who laid the trail for us to run) set up a funny little drink stop for us runners.

Dan and I aren’t big drinkers in the first place, and especially when I’m dieting, but it was so hot that we split a cold one, and it felt amazing. We hung out and chatting with everyone in the shade for maybe 20 minutes, then got back on trail.

The beer gave me a bit of a sloshy belly, and paired with the beating sun, I wasn’t feeling like a picture-perfect athlete. Luckily a decent amount of the remainder of the run was through “shiggy”, or forested areas. Some of it was tough, but pretty!

Ran around lots of rice paddies. You don’t see that in Tokyo!

Dan making his way down a little hill

About 5.6 miles later (but who’s counting?) we finished and were rewarded with an awesome BBQ and mingled with new running friends. The party was still going when we left, but sadly we had to catch our train back to Tokyo.

Our group post run

We officially have a new Sunday tradition: hot yoga! Before class Dan and I went for a 3 mile run, then made our way to the gym. It was a good class, my only gripe was all the ballet-esque poses we did. Didn’t seem very yoga-like. Oh well.
The camera didn’t really capture it, but we were actively dripping with sweat!

That was our weekend! How was yours?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged cross training, Dan, fitness, hash house harriers, hot yoga, Ibaraki, IH3, Japan, running, Tsukuba | Leave a Comment »

Oh, City Living…

May 18, 2013 by Laurel

Bam!

That would be the line for cabs at Shinjuku Station on a Friday night when the Keio train line is down.

Dan and I had a fun night because it was our running club night! He was also haring (leading the trail) so it was fun to “host” the runners, provide snacks and drinks, etc. After, we spent a long time chatting with people in the park, one of those moments where you start to say, “well, I best be heading out” 3 or 4 times only to get roped into a new topic. Eventually we headed out and decided to go to one of our favorite sushi restaurants, only to discover it was closed (!), and then on to another of our choice restaurants.

We hurried out because we didn’t want to miss last train. We trained to Shinjuku and I knew it before I saw the marquee. There were people standing around, sitting around, passed out everywhere. Now, I know this is the WORLD’S busiest train station, but this wasn’t the norm. And then we rounded the corner, and our train was down. It happens once in a blue moon, but when it does, what a pain! The craziest part was we later learned the halting was caused by a major accident at OUR home train stop! Our stop is pretty small and doesn’t get a lot of traffic, so that’s crazy to think all the ruckus was just outside our apartment.

Cabbing home from Shinjuku would be about $50, so we opted to take another train line that would at least get us to our side of town, then walk. Well, a few hundred of our closest friends had the same idea, and we were packed into the train cars truly like sardines. No one was happy. 15 minutes later we gladly got off, and ran into a friend of ours from running! It’s rare you run into someone you know in Tokyo, so that was exciting.

Dan and I walked home from there, which was only about 3 km. The weather was nice and we chatted. Now we’re home and off to sleep! Here’s to a great weekend and much more entertaining blog posts next week! Tomorrow: we’re off to Ibaraki for the day!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged F3H3, Japan, Keio line, Shinjuku, trains | 1 Comment »

Interval Training and Haberdashery (Swag!)

May 16, 2013 by Laurel

It’s Thursday! As usual I have no idea what I did with my week and it’s almost over!

Today’s exercising was just a run. Let’s be honest, I’m not a fast runner. On top of that I’ve lost some steam since taking a month or two off for my torn achilles tendon. So I decided to do some research on speedwork and see if I can get back to where I was pace-wise with my running. Or faster!

A large part of speed training is interval work. I went back to what Dan and I now call “Nostalgia Loop”, the .2 mile loop around an apartment building where we first began this crazy running journey. My plan was simple: jog a lap, sprint a lap, until I hit 2 miles. I actually thought this would be easy. I’m either jogging and enjoying it, or sprinting and it’s hard, but over fast!

It really didn’t work out that way. I’d sprint, and then need that entire next loop of jogging to recover. After 2 miles I was more than spent! Was going to do a weight training activity but decided to just rest my legs for the rest of the day.

Since I love talking about the Hash House Harriers so much, I thought I’d tell you a bit more about what I do for them.

I’m a haberdasher, which pretty much just means I’m in charge of designing, producing and selling swag that has our chapter on it, F3H3. Does it pay? No! Does it come with respect?! Nope, I can’t get merch out fast enough! But do I love it? YES.

I was inspired to become the haberdasher when I noticed the other Tokyo hash chapters had all sorts of swag. Why did Friday hardly have any? I set out on my first project- fleece jackets for everyone:

The great part is that it was simple, and everyone loved having a jacket with their special hash name on it.

After the success of the jackets, I had Dan’s birthday run coming up. I decided to surprise him and make shirts for the group. Since he was turning 31, I decided to do an ice cream party, and theme it the colors of 31 flavors. I don’t have a picture of the front of the shirt, but I used our hare mascot and put him in some birthday attire:

These days, I have creative control on what gets made into shirts, bags, hats etc. It’s become a lot of fun to play with our hare and give him new outfits!

A kimono?

Perhaps a ninja?

Sine Dan and I fund all of these projects ourselves, we can only do a couple at a time, which is too bad. We make it back as we sell them, and don’t take a profit. For now, I’m working on a logo for my birthday run next month! Dan helped with this one and I love it!

I’d love to turn these into running shirt designs for everyone, or even patches, but that would set us back about $8/ person for shirts, or $2/person for patches, so I’ll probably settle on buttons or zipper pulls. Normally it’s not such a bad expense, but with our other projects in the works it adds up!

So that’s a little bit more about what I do for our running club chapter. Have you all Googled your nearest hash kennel to go for a run with? I’m sure you have… I really hope it’s something everyone can try at least once!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged haberdashery, hash house harriers, Japan, Keroppi, running, speedwork | Leave a Comment »

A Run Through Takadanobaba

May 15, 2013 by Laurel

Happy Wednesday!

First off, I have to thank my future mother in law Cathy! She recently visited the Big Island in Hawaii and brought me back this awesome running shirt!

Big Island Running Company is a neat little running store in Kona, and Dan and I checked it out when we were visiting the area a year ago. On any excursion, I always have a “browse now, buy later” mentality, and was planning on getting one of their tech tees for running, but we were so busy I never got back to that store! So it was awesome that Cathy not only got this for me, but knows I love crazy bright colors (this picture doesn’t do this neony yellow-green shirt justice). Thank you so much Cathy, I love it! I wore it tonight for my Tokyo Ladies hash run in Takadanobaba and got a couple compliments on it, and was please to tell them who gave it to me

In all honesty, it was a bit of a lazy day. I did weight training yesterday, so I didn’t need to do double workouts today. I worked on reorganizing my closet now that I gave a bunch of clothes away, and took care of some other house things and events I’m planning (my birthday with my running group! Race for the Cure! Hash camp out! Tower of Terror 10-Miler! So much to look forward to!).

Penny has been feeling under the weather lately (a common problem with medium and long hair cats in the summer), and whenever I couldn’t find her, I knew right where to look:

She loves sleeping on this shelf! In donating a bunch of clothing (see the bin on the right), we cleared an entire “cubby” on this Ikea organizer. And she just loves it! I put an old shirt down for her to cuddle up on. For some reason, it cracks me up!

Later on I went to Tokyo Ladies Hash. It’s like our Friday group, but instead of having a circle and singing songs after, everyone goes out to dinner together. It’s really fun, but since I’m trying to watch the calories right now I didn’t stay for dinner.

It was my friend Rachel’s first time to be the hare, aka laying a trail for us to run, and since she’s awesome (like, buy all the runners glow-bracelets with your own money awesome) I volunteered to “co-hare” with her, and bag watch at the restaurant.
When I bag watch, I also do “hash cash”, where I take everyone’s money and mark attendance. Penny made sure I didn’t forget the sign in sheets!

My plan was to bag watch, and then after Dan and I would take a run down by the river. But another hasher showed up and recently had stitches and couldn’t run, and I was free to run Rachel’s trail. I was excited about it, but didn’t even think how unprepared I was for a run. I hadn’t eaten or drank anything in hours and was hungry and dehydrated. I also run faster at a hash than I do on my own, to try to stay with the pack, and that plus a grizzly leg weight workout yesterday didn’t make for a great combo. By the time I was done with the 3.8 mile run I was hot, cranky, and hungry/ thirsty!! It was a good trail though and I hope she does another one at some point. Even though I was a little unprepared I was glad I got to run it; I’ve been doing a lot of bag watching lately!

Dan and I decided to get Subway on the way home. We never get it here since it’s pricey (2 footlongs were about $20USD), but sometimes you just want that taste of home! Disappointing thing about Subway here though: you get 2 of each vegetable per 6 inch of sandwich. I had 2 pickle chips on my 6 inch, and then the “sandwich artist” placed an olive slice on top of each pickle slice. Ahhh!!!! I can totally eat a handful of pickle chips, so it’s maddening! But then when you’re eating your sandwich and get that 1 veggie bite, it’s pretty exciting.

Tonight is laundry folding and cleaning the kitchen. The excitement never ends!! Have a good Wednesday!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged chores, Dan, family, hash house harriers, Japan, Penny, running, Subway, Takadanobaba, Tokyo Ladies Hash | 1 Comment »

Costco in Japan and Belated Spring Cleaning!

May 14, 2013 by Laurel

If there’s a word for today, it’s PRODUCTIVE! But before I jump into my Tuesday, Dan and I did something exciting (to us) yesterday: a trip to Costco!!!

Costco is kind of far from us, but it’s a nice little taste of home, and a nice break from the high prices of Tokyo. Let’s take peanut butter for example:
I bought the peanut butter on the left from Costco for about $11 USD, and the one on the right I bought at the grocery store across the street from our apartment for about $6 USD.

I’d also like to point out, we’re not fans of sugary, preservative-y Skippy. The import store stopped selling our beloved natural peanut butter!

The other great thing about Costco? FRUIT!!!
Fresh blackberries

Again, fruit is so much cheaper here than the local fruit markets.

Now, back to today!
It was a good work out day because I got in a weight training session and a 6.2 mile run! It’s definitely warming up here, and I waited til the sun went down to get my run in. Good to get it done though! I’m finally adding decent distance to my runs.

I’m most proud of all the clothing Dan and I got rid of today. Our closet was spilling over, and we just couldn’t take it anymore! So out things went!
Got rid of all this!

And this! (Note Penny napping on my gym bag)

My biggest problem with cleaning out my wardrobe is my classic excuse: let me lose the weight and then decide. When I had a big weight loss last year, I fit into stuff that hadn’t fit since college. But that’s exactly what I looked like when I tried it all on and it fit- a college student! So after holding on to things for years, I ultimately ended up giving them away.

I finally parted with something I was stupidly proud of in college- my Abercrombie & Fitch tank top collection
This isn’t even all of them!!

When I was in college in the early-mid 2000′s, it was very trendy to layer these over each other. Or wear under a polo. I just loved them. I’ve worn them as recently as last fall, when v-neck tees were making the rounds, but other than that, they just sat around. So I gave most of them away. I saved the white ones and a couple colors. Oh, the space it freed up!

I’m incredibly excited about my cleaned out closet, silly as it seems. This apartment is so small and it can be really frustrating sometimes. Up next: tackling all my beauty junk under the sink! wish me luck!

QOTD: Are you a packrat, or do you part with things easily?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged clothes, Costco, Dan, fitness, Japan, running, spring cleaning, weight training | 2 Comments »

Buzz Lightyear + Cross Training = Good Weekend!

May 14, 2013 by Laurel

Happy Monday! Let’s take care of business first: how adorable is my nephew in his Buzz Lightyear jammies?!

I sent him a set of Woody and Buzz pajamas for his birthday last month (which still needs proper attention in the form of a blog posting), and my sister sent me pics of him that I can’t stop giggling at. To infinity, and beyond!

It was a pretty awesome weekend. In our commitment to stay healthy and active, we were out of the house constantly! Saturday we went to a Samurai hash, which is like our Friday runs except just outside of Tokyo in Kanagawa. They usually involve scaling some some mountains and getting good and dirty. The run was 4 miles, and took us up some pretty steep hills.
Scaled up this beast of a hill. May not look steep, but my legs were killing me after!

Reward at the top? The view! Out in the distance you can see the nearby air force base

Did I mention the weather was alternating between pouring and a heavy drizzle? I was freezing after! All in good fun though!

Sunday I got my cross train on. I love running, but it does get repetitive, and a huge part of injury prevention is cross training. Together Dan and I went to our second hot yoga class. It was more challenging than the first one we did, which was good. After, I did a bunch of burpees and another ChaLean Extreme workout.

Remember my goals for May?
Run 75 miles
Cross train 12 hours
1,300 burpees
So far my progress…

So my progress is roughly 20 miles run, 3.5 hours cross training, and 125 burpees. I can catch up on running and cross training, especially as my endurance improves, but I’m struggling with the burpees, I didn’t expect my abs to take such a beating! I will probably fall short on that goal, but I’ll keep trying my best.

Hope you all have a happy, healthy week!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged cross training, exercise, fitness, hash house harriers, Japan, Nate, running, Samurai hash | 5 Comments »

Hiking Mt. Takao

May 11, 2013 by Laurel

With my visitors being from the ever beautiful and outdoor-friendly Pacific Northwest, they definitely wanted to do a hike while visiting Japan. It kept getting pushed to the bottom of our priorities, which is how we ended up making our climb their last full day in Tokyo.

I chose Mt. Takao because it was only about an hour from my apartment. We got up and out early and hit the train. I was pretty excited to be hiking with Brittany and Amanda. For one, I only started hiking last year when I lost a bunch of weight, and have only been on a couple hikes. Two, they were both pretty experienced and love hiking, so I was in good company!

There are many trails leading up to Takao, and we ended up taking a different one than I took the last time I did the hike. The first time, I recall tons and tons of stairs. This time, it was massively uphill. I didn’t mind, but it got my heart pumping for sure!
Brittany and Amanda taking a water break

Brittany at a lookout point

The new path opened my eyes to new stuff I missed last time- like a monkey habitat!

I really like the Takao hike because there’s so much interesting stuff to see. Shrines, statues, vendors offering food and souvenirs.
Amanda posing with some One Piece characters

Brittany, lover of marine life, posing with an octopus

Admiring monkey and lots of photo taking made for excessive dilly-dallying, but we eventually made it to the top!

See that dip in the middle of the mountains? That’s the snowy peak of Mt. Fuji! Darn the cloud cover!

So, what’s at the top of Mt. Takao? A beer garden! Hikers come and hike, and then enjoy a cold one before heading back down. Who are we to argue with tradition?

Another perfect day with my best friends!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged friends, hiking, Japan, Mt Takao, visitors | 3 Comments »

The Portland Pink Sox

May 10, 2013 by Laurel

Hey all! I have awesome news! I know it’s still way early in terms of Portland Race for the Cure (which is September 15th), but as of now our team, the Portland Pink Sox, is in first place for donations!!

I thought I’d take today to talk about the Pink Sox’s history. It all started when I learned my mother had stage III breast cancer in 2010. This was also the time Dan moved to Japan. So much change all at once! I moved away from Seattle and in with my mother, where together I was there for her as much as I could be as she went through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. I’ll spare you the details, but it was brutal. She was in pain, unhappy, sick. So sick. It was so hard to be there for her when I was so scared. I really felt so bad and wished so many times to trade places with her.

Ultimately though, she made it through like a champ. But while she was sick, Komen Race for the Cure came to Portland and my sister and I decided to walk. Then we started to think bigger. What if we invited friends? Made a team? Fund raised? We got really excited by all of this.
Whitney, Amanda, Sandra, me, Katie, Lauren, Thomas, Melissa, Vanessa and Brittany- the original 2010 Pink Sox!

Our first team breakfast

We were a team of 10! We had so much fun! But then 2011 rolled around and we decided to go even bigger…

16! We welcomed Kelsey, Jim, Dan, Cathy, Libbie, and Stephanie. We also made awesome t shirts for the event.
And backpacks!

Last year, we weren’t messing around. We had this down pat! We welcomed Brita, Vicki, Sarah, Alexis, Shana, and who I believe to be the cutest new Pink Sox, baby Nate!

The cutest Pink Sox ever!

This year will be our fourth year as the Portland Pink Sox, and I’m so excited! We’re already off to an amazing start. If you will be in the Portland area Sunday, September 15th and want to walk the 5k with us, please sign up and join us! If you can’t make it, we’d truly appreciate any donation, no matter how small. Donate today!

I would also LOVE it if you like us on Facebook!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged America, cancer, fund raising, pink, Portland Pink Sox, Race for the Cure | 1 Comment »

Running club party and Tokyo Sky Tree

May 8, 2013 by Laurel

Happy Wednesday!

I had a wonderfully lazy Wednesday because it was my rest day! I just worked on cleaning up the apartment and now that my visitors are gone and I have the time, started studying more diligently for my CPT exam. I’m hoping to take the test when I’m stateside this fall! I did end up going on a walk for about a half hour, just to move my legs. Pretty relaxing day!

Anyway, Cinco de Mayo might be old news, but since I just uploaded pictures from my phone to my computer, I thought I’d tell you about our Sunday. We attended the Sumo hash, which was a 5 mile run followed by a Cinco de Mayo party. Since I first heard about this event when I was injured, I forgot I volunteered to be the bag watcher while everyone ran- d’oh! So I sat in the park and read while everyone was running in the sun.
Everyone was told to wear red, white and green, so this was all we could come up with. Not pictured- our red knee socks!

The run and party was thrown by my friends Kuang and Mai.
Mai and I

After the run, Kuang brought out a ton of delicious home made Mexican food. So good! Dan and I also made our GuacAMAZING. It was also Kuang’s birthday that weekend, so I made him a cupcake cake in the spirit of the holiday!

I should add, that was the most phenomenal chocolate cupcake I’ve ever made. If anyone wants the recipe, give a holler and I’ll post it!
With my running friend Yukie and coworker Erica

I thought I’d also share another snippet of a busy day with my visitors- going to the Tokyo Sky Tree
Brittany, Amanda and I with the Sky Tree during the day

The Sky Tree is the world’s second tallest structure. It’s also just really pretty!
Sky tree at night

As you can imagine, the view was incredible. You pay to be taken to the observation deck, and once there you can pay a little extra to go up an additional 100 meters.
So we did just that! And look, even the elevators are cool! Exposed, lit-up elevator shafts

What’s that in the distance? I found Disneyland, then waited til 9pm (only like 15 min) for the fireworks to start!!

Dan and I

Tomorrow: running 5 miles then back to tanabata dance class! I’m excited because I haven’t been since my friends arrived a few weeks ago. Will be good to see my dance pals again!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged baking, cinco de mayo, cooking, cupcakes, Disneyland, friends, hash house harriers, Japan, sightseeing, sumo hash, Tokyo Sky Tree, visitors | Leave a Comment »

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From Pennies To Yennies

runner. baker. mover. shaker.