Nagasaki Lantern Festival

My first visit to Nagasaki Prefecture (known for its 99 islands + the opening scenes of 'The Last Samurai' were filmed there) was a short 1/2 day trip filled with some Chinese food, MOS Burger, and of course, thousands of lanterns.

If you're ever in the area, don't forget to try a yummy pork bun!

Futon to Full-Size! Upgrade

My neighbor, Kim, had the best idea for us to get beds, REAL beds! We both had been sleeping on a futon for a while and were getting sick of it! If you have never slept on a futon bed, just imagine a thick comforter right, smack dab on the ground. Yes, almost like camping. It's a tradition Japanese bed and at the beginning I didn't have a problem with it. But, after awhile the futon mattress started to flatten out to a point where it felt like I was sleeping directly on the floor. Not to mention that during the summers you have to hang your futon outdoors, most likely on the railing of your balcony. Futons are too big to wash, but due to the amount of sweat it collects from your body during the summer you have to hang them out to 'dry' or else they'll start to grow mold. The mold will then spread to your tatami mats and well, it ain't pretty. Then during the winters since the futon is on the floor, it's extremely cold. Bleh....
Obviously, a real bed sounded very tempting so, 50000 yen ($500) later it was done and a new full-size bed was en-route to my jutaku in Nishijin.
We had to wait a few weeks for the mattressed to get delivered and when the deliverymen FINALLY arrived they told us our staircase was too narrow to get the beds up and that they would have to come back in a few MORE weeks, with more men, to pull the beds up our balcony. It was a long, gruesome wait but the beds finally made it into our apartments and boy, they were definitely worth the wait!

Futon.

Delivery men trying hard to pull the beds up. Yes, that's rope they're using! LOL

End result, my lovely, extremely comfortable bed!