Juri, if you are hair obsessed with 1000 posts, what does that make me? 

What an exciting experience the JET program will be for you.  I hope you can keep us updated on how it goes for you!

BB--*lol* No offense intended. But compared to how I was in pre-LL days when I just ran a brush through my hair and was good to go, this is quite a change! Now I have a whole routine for my hair and even wonder about whether or not I'll find coconut milk in Japan. Oh, and as for posts, when I first joined LL, I thought it would take years for me to reach 1000+ posts; not 14 months. 

As for JET, if I have good internet connection, of course I'll keep everyone updated!  Hopefully I'll have interesting stories for you all. 

Lisabelle 'nee san-- I should be so lucky to find a guy in Japan! If I did, my grandma would be thrilled as she's repeatedly said that she can't die until I get a BF...not that I want her to die or anything. Well, you get the idea. 

Hahaha, you should dress as Sadako for Halloween! I think it would look rather neat.

Lisabelle 'nee san--I know it's being said from a place of caring, but there's only so many "get a boyfriend before I die" I can hear before it gets old. All of my other cousins either have a BF or are married, so my grandma is probably worried about me being alone. She kind of had to lower her expectations, though, because she used to say she hoped I'd get married before she dies. But since I entered my mid-twenties and still don't have much interest in dating, she had to settle for me finding a BF.

That was a really sweet thing for your dad to say before he passed on. I'm glad he was able to tell you that.

Doggie blues and rant--Some backstory before I launch into the main event. Mom's BF finally moved out of the house and took his puppy Ubu with him. Mom and I missed Ubu and so the BF, John, said we could "borrow" Ubu's mom, Chasuble (she was living at the house of one of his employees because Mom didn't want multiple dogs in the house). Anyways, Mom and I love Chasuble so she's been at our house since last week Monday. It took a day for her to settle in at our place, but after that she'd roam around the house and seemed happy to be here and.

Okay, so yesterday evening Mom and I took Chasuble to a beach park. Towards the end of the walk, this small terrier some how broke free from it's owner's grip and started running towards Chasuble. I thought maybe the other dog wanted to play, but instead it immediately started to bite and claw at Chasuble's face. The dogs were pulled apart rather quickly and the terrier's owner apologized and spanked his dog a few times. At the time we thought Chasuble was okay because she didn't seem that phased by what happened and she's normally on the timid side. I think I was more shaken up by what happened than she was.

When we got home, however, Mom discovered that Chasuble had a bite mark on her eye lid and the area was kind of red and swollen. Today the area is still red and the eye is producing rather a lot of mucus. We'll most likely going to take her to the vet by tomorrow night if the mucus doesn't clear up.

While I'm worried about her injury, the saddest part is how traumatized Chasuble turned out to be. When I woke up this morning I found her cowering on a shelf in the closet and unless I'm holding her on my lap she'll either try to hide behind the couch or behind the toilet in my bathroom.  I took her out of her hiding places several times, but she keeps going back to hide behind the toilet. Poor dog! I tried looking at pet forums to see what I could do to help her, but most of the posts about dog behavior were about house training or what to do with aggressive dogs, not ones that got attacked by another animal. I'm not sure what to do for her, so I'll just keep an eye on her until Mom gets back from work.

Man, I just want to give that terrier's owner a good smack. Okay, I wouldn't actually hit the guy, but I'd demand to know what got into his dog (and tell him to pay for any vet bills). Chasuble and the terrier were twenty feet away from each other and didn't exchange any growls or anything, but the terrier still attacked Chasuble.    I wonder if the other dog had been previously mistreated by a larger dog or has some sort of hormone imbalance, 'cause it was less than half of Chaz's size.

Okay, glad I got that off my chest. Um, I like terriers, don't get me wrong, but that particular one...

Hair--I'm hoping the henna samples will arrive within the next couple of days. I got a big plastic mixing bowl and measuring spoons from the dollar store that I'm anxious to take on a test drive. Oh, that and brand new bottles of cloves and merlot to try and darken the henna mix.

Juri chan,

I am so sorry to hear about your dog.   Some people don't know how to take care of dogs and let there run wild or worst.  My friend with the St. Bernard has a habit of not putting his dog on a leash, it ran after a Jack Russell the other day and thankfully it's owner scooped him off the ground before the Saint got him.  Eddie just wanted to play but at 120 pounds he could have really hurt that little Jack.  I am happy to hear your dog is starting to feel better, poor little thing!  Hugs to Chasuble!
Wow the henna/Indigo thing sounds interesting!  I hope it turns out great for you!

Love
Lisa One e San 

Lisabelle and AngelSpun--Thank you very much for your support and canine anecdotes!  Mom and I have been giving her extra TLC, but there's only so much we can do to make her feel better. The sad thing is that before the attack, she had made herself at home, but now she tends to hide in small places. When we took her to the vet this afternoon we found out that she has an ulceration on her right eye so that may explain some of her current behavior. We have to take her back on Saturday for a follow up visit, and I'll you know if her eye got better (hopefully it will!).

Hair--When I looked at the henna/indigo strand this morning, I was really surprisied to see that the greenish-brown area had turned dark brown/soft black. There's a very slight green tint if you hold it up to sunlight, but overall the difference in color between the bleached portion and the virgin hair isn't very noticable. Good enough for me! I'm going to send in an order for henna and indigo on Thursday. Woohoo, goodbye two-tone hair!

Obon--It's now bon dance season in Hawaii. Yay! For a quick intro on bon dance, Wikipedia has a description of it (scoll down about half-way through the page). The Honolulu Advertiser* had an intersting article on bon dance in Hawaii. It compares the difference between bon dance in Japan v. Hawaii, and has some pictures of the first bon dance of the season. I don't know why the article says the Hawaii bon dance season is only two months, because the season lasts from June to August and there's even one or two in September. Anywho...

When my grandpa T was alive, I used to go to a lot of bon dances, but after he died, I lost interest and got into British culture. Since last summer, however, I became re-interested in bon dance and now I'm trying to see how many I can attend before I move to Japan...where bon dance "season" is only one weekend long. Ack.

*I couldn't get a direct link to the article, so click "backissues" and then the link for June 4. You'll be taken to a page with a selection of articles from that day and the article is called "Drumbeat rises on bon dance."

Hi Juri Chan!

I found the Obon festival interesting!  It almost the same thing my family would do on Easter.  We would visit the family graves and clean the stones then replant flowers from the pervious year.

Good luck with the henna!   

Love
Lisa One e San

Juri, I'm happy to hear Chas is improving.

Looks like we'll have a 4 hour layover in Japan on our way to Singapore.  Do you think I'll be able to find any nice Geisha style hair accessories?  I can't remember off hand which city the layover is in-don't even know how many airports are in Japan.