New 7 Wonders of the World

You can vote on the modern 7 Wonders of the world here. There are definitely some interesting choices.

Extreme Ironing

Now, this is ironing. I am not quite sure I am up to carting an ironing board up the side of a mountain, but it appears to be a new sport in Japan. Extreme Ironing... the new way to combine exercise and housework at the same time. I only question how the iron gets hot without a power source.... but then again, this is Japan, so it is probably a cordless / rechargeable one.

Book reviews

I have started a second blog for book reviews... mainly to try it out and see how it is compared to Blogger. Anyway, the link is in the sidebar on the right. I have got a ton of books that are piled up waiting for me to read them, so there should be several reviews over the coming weeks. Maybe it will give you some ideas for your days off over the holidays, or if you are giving books as gifts this year.

What happened?

I took a couple days off blogging, and suddenly it is a month later! Have lots of things to catch up on. Hopefully will get the chance to update lots of things in the next week or so. Just came back from Beppu on Monday and have some good photos (link at right). Will get a post up about that soon!

Interesting Article: Roots of Human Family Tree Are Shallow

Here's an interesting article I found a while ago. It basically looks at human ancestry ... I wanna do the DNA test thing from National Geographic, but is it really worth like two hundred bucks? Maybe not, but it would be cool to find out.

I was on vacation!

Ok, it looks like I took the summer off from blogging. But, I am back, albeit not with daily posts. Have a backlog of stuff to post about, so will do it as I have time... including some pics of my trip to Kyoto.

I found the Log Driver's Waltz

While surfing the net, I found my favourite Canadian content animation commericial thing. I'm sure all you Canadians will remember the Log Driver's Waltz well. Can't get that song out of my mind :)

I also found another site containing Canadian animation shorts. Enjoy!

George Carlin's View on Aging

My mom sent me this by e-mail, so if you are on her mailing list you may have got it already, but I thought it held a lot of truth. Enjoy.


George Carlin's Views on Aging

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions. "How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key.

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead. "How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone. But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would! So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday! You get into your 80s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!" May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

Crappy DaVinci Code Exhibit

In my big update, I forgot to mention the DaVinci Code Museum thing I went to. Cal mentioned that it was on and it sounded interesting, so decided to go with him. We hit it on the last day of the event... with a fair number of other people as well.

That is one thing that drives me nuts about museums and exhibits in Japan. There is no such thing as crowd control. If they limited the number of people it would make the experience so much better. Personally, I am not good with crowds and in museums I want to just go from display to display as they catch my eye. Well, that is pretty much impossible here because you have to wait ten minutes until you can get close enough to see anything over everybody's heads. And what kills me is that poeple will crowd around stupid things (as in only worth a minute.. 30 seconds?... of viewing time) and spend 10 minutes looking at them. Drives me nuts.

Anyway, this was no different in terms of people. The exhibit basically showed some of the scenes from the movie (in the Louvre and the chateau's living room) and the famous paintings on giant televisions. Now, would it surprise you to know that Sony sponsored the exhibit? In other words I think I paid 1500 yen to see Sony's new televisions. Nice TVs but I could have gone to Bic Camera and seen them for free.

So, my overall review is that it sucked. I think even if there were no other people, it would have merited some interest, but not 1500 yen worth. I think Cal found it much more interesting than I did, however, he has not read the book yet so got a bit of a storyline from going.

Oh, by the way, the movie sucks too... read the book. It is a quick and entertaining read. Don't expect brilliance - it is entertainment, which is exactly what I want from a book. The book gets a thumbs up from me, but the movie and the DaVinci Code exhibit get definite thumbs down.

update

So, I have finally gotten around to putting up some entries. I had been holding off because I have an entry about the new IKEA that opened back in April... only I haven't gotten around to actually writing it. So I haven't written anything on the blog. I figured I had better get back into it, and I can post the IKEA thing later.

I suppose the big news is that I have moved into my office part-time. This was supposed to make my schedule less hectic, however, I seem to as busy as I ever was. Something about having a couple free mornings or afternoons a week which seem to be taken up with other work projects at the moment. I am surprised at how little energy it takes to work in the office compared to teaching. I had no idea I used so much energy during my lessons. It is nice to have a bit of both worlds actually because I still like teaching... but the regular hours of working in the office are also great.

Japanese lessons are coming along slowly. I am actually studying between lessons (as opposed to doing my homework just before class) and it is helping a lot with remembering words and speaking a bit more fluently. Things are starting to click a bit better, so that is good. I still can't have anything more than simple conversations, but that's ok.

I had to renew my alien registration card this week. Five years have gone by since I moved into this apartment. WOW! I was surprised at how easy it was. I stopped into the city office, filled out a form and was out of there in 15 minutes. I was wondering what was wrong, because I was expecting to spend the whole afternoon there... then I remembered it was just the city office and not immigration. Immigration being hell on earth because there is only one office for all of Tokyo area now. The city office is a dream in comparison. So that was a relief - I hate bureaucracy.

World Cup is in full swing and everyone is walking zombie in Tokyo. Well, a lot of people are, myself included. The games are on in the middle of the night here so staying up to watch certain teams play is a killer. Everyone is sad that Japan is out of it now, but no one really expected them to make it anyway because of the strong competition in that group (Brazil for one).

So that is the update. Will try to write more often ... and get the IKEA entry up!

moving 3D picture that I can't see

You know those 3D pictures that were popular about 10 years ago... the ones that are a bunch of colours with a random design that when you make your eyes go out of focus turn into a 3D picture? Well, I could never see them. When they had them in the comic section in the Saturday paper, I would sit for hours with the picture close up to my nose and slowly move it back, and I might have been lucky one in ten times and seen the actual thing... after trying forever. Well, apparently there are moving 3D pictures now. You will either jump up and down at how cool it is, or want to scream because you can't see a darn thing (like me).

Happy Birthday to me

Well, I am 33 today. I feel old. Well, only when I think about it. Normailly I feel like I am still in my 20s. Time is flying by! In Japan, 33 for women is a bad luck year. Although apparently it isn't just 33 like I though, but the year preceeding and after it as well... so if I were superstitious, I could say, that that explained a lot of things.

This is the first birthday where I didn't really care that much though. At least I wasn't totally depressed about it - turning 30 took a couple years to get over you know LOL Hiroshi got me a necklace (he's learning!) and we had cake and that was pretty much it. Fine with me. As I have been telling everyone, I am turning 29 again... and the 5th time round at that.

addicting pictures in pictures in pictures

You can zoom in on this picture (pictures?) forever... be careful beacuse it is addicting.

pigs are flying and hell has frozen over

Yes, prepare yourself for the shock... I ironed tonight! For those of you who don't know, I despise ironing and it usually sits in a pile for months on end (like 6 or more). I have taken to pullling shirts out of the dryer immediately and shaking them out as a (pretty crappy) alternative. Actually, in the seven years that I have lived in Japan, I think I have ironed twice. Yes, you read that right.

Well, my new 1200 yen ironing board from IKEA is a great incentive to actually do it. Before we literally had an ironing board. A square piece of wood that has the heat resistance padding, but no legs. Most Japanese boards, if they do have legs, are meant to be used while sitting on the floor, hence the legs are about 3" in height (ie useless). My new ironing board folds up to the correct height of right around my waist.

Of course I might just iron my own shirts from now on - I showed Hiroshi one of his cotton shirts that I ironed... and I must point out spent quite a long time ironing because cotton is a pain compared to blends... and he couldn't even tell that there was a difference between it and the shirts that were just pulled out of the dryer. Geesh.

The scariest part of this whole exercise was that I actually found ironing relaxing. Next thing you know, I'll be ironing pillow cases like my mother!

20 years ago today...

For all the terrible things that came out of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, one good thing has happened. Wildlife is thriving. Apparently by evacuating all the people, animals have been able to run free in a natural, albeit contaminated habitat.

Inside Chernobyl @ National Geographic Magazine

Here is an interesting set of photos from Chernobyl.

20 years since Chernobyl

April 26 marks the 20th anniversary of the nuclear accident in Chernobyl. It is really sad how the radiation has affected a whole generation with birth defects, cancer and the like. CNN has outlinesd some of these health issues in this article.

The placenta mask

Holy cats! My student gave me a box of placenta masks a couple months ago as omiyage (souvenirs) from Hong Kong. I haven't been too much in the mood to do beauty treatments the last couple months, so I just used one for the first time today. I was skeptical.

The translated description on the package says: "Placenta Collagen Mask can dissolve the dark pigment and balance the water and oil production within the skin, nourishes the underlying tissue and accelerates cell effectively. Frequent use of this mask can improve skin texture elasticity and strength in aging."

Well, it really does dissolve the dark pigment... all the red blotchiness across my cheeks is gone! My skin pretty much has even colour across my face. I was shocked when I took the mask off. It really is amazing.

So of course I tried to find where I can buy it online... and the only place seems to be some dodgy unknown sites. And let me tell you, I'm glad I got this as a present because it is 600 yen (6 bucks) PER mask! So 3000 yen for a package of 5. Yikes! It really does make a difference though. I am going to try it for the rest of the week (the pacakge says to start with doing it every day for 5 days) and see if it makes a difference, and if so I will try to order some more for maintenance purposes. Who knew placenta would work so well???

Haircut and a party

I went to get my haircut this afternoon. I decided to go even shorter this time round. Hiroshi wants me to cut it really short - ie 1 cm sides and curly on top. That is a bit too drastic I think! Last time I cut it from midback to shoulder-length. This time I went from below the shoulders to bob lenghth. Just by my jawline.

It is a lot lighter, let me tell you! I liked it - I even got my bangs sweeping across my forhead to oneside instead of straight across standard. When I went to the birthday party event tonight everyone said how great I looked. Hiroshi's comment - it makes your face look round. So now I don't like it. It isn't supposed to make me look fatter! :( I told him he was mean, and he insists that he is just being honest. I think he should lie when it comes to new haircuts.

Anyway, the party. Two of my coworkers had birthdays in the last few days, so a bunch of us headed out to TGI Friday's for dinner and drinks, and then on to karaoke afterwards. I actually did pretty good with the food. They had a party menu set thing. I had one fried mozerella piece, 2 chicken wings, 1/4 of a club sandwich and a ton of salad with hardly any dressing on it. i was pretty impressed with myself - there are so many yummy things to eat there that are bad for me! I also limited myself to two drinks for the entire evening (rum and diet).

Karaoke was fun as always, but there were 13 of us in one room. That's too many. If there are any more than about 8 you really need to get a second room. The party room is a great concept, but you can't sing! If you are there for an hour, basically everyone can sing just one song when there are 13 of you. It was still fun though. Everyone got to joke around and socialize, so it was good. It was nice to go out and do something... and I even got home before 12 midnight! Living in central Tokyo definitely has its benefits - you don't have to leave the party early (as several others did) in order to catch their last trains home.

Happy anniversary mom and dad!

Today is my mom and dad's anniversary. I'm pretty sure it is their 29th one. Not that it matters if I am wrong, because as the rest of the family will attest to, the actual date of the anniversary changes every year. In fact, every year it changes because they have checked the wedding certificate, "remembered" from last year, or whatever. All I know, is it is pretty darn confusing on my calendar where I mark birthdays and the like! Of course whether it is the 20th or the 22nd (two of the most common date choices) 29 years is still pretty impressive.... congratulations mom and dad on still being able to put up with each other ;D

Queen's 80th Birthday

April 21sst is the Queen's (of England) eightieth birthday. You can learn some interesting facts about the Queen here .... 80 of them actually in celebration of her birthday.

Running feels great!

I went for a run tonight for the first time in ages. Let me tell you, it is a heck of a lot more pleasurable when it isn't near freezing outside! I haven't been recently because the pollen count was too high (I normally wear masks this time of year to cut down on sneezing and sniffling). Of coures it felt so good, I totally pushed myself and I can already feel my musscles starting to seize up - love that feeling :) Of course when I try to get out of bed tomorrow morning I might not be so enamoured with it LOL

The azeleas are out

Suddenly all the azeleas are in bloom. They are really pretty - the seasons first big splash of colour. I was surprised to suddenly see them out. If I can remember, I will take a photo to post here. In the meantime, here are some cherry blossom photos courtesy of Hiroshi because I was too lazy to get my own camera out to take pics this year.

Being productive

Wow, today I am being super productive. I did a huge bathroom cleaning job, including scrubbing mold and soap scum away. Ick. Then I attacked the appliances - cleaned the crumbs out of the toaster, the splatters out of the microwave and the spills and finger prints on the fridge. Then I wiped down all the counters and cleaned the sink as well. This is more cleaning than I have done all year (Hiroshi is usually happy to do it, so I let him go crazy - why clean if someone else is willing to do it for you!).

I've also got some chicken and meat defrosting so I can cook up some meals ahead of time for next week. I eat properly when it is just a matter of grabbing something out of the fridge. Hiroshi will probably die of shock too, because not only have I cleaned, but I also pulled some salmon out of the freezer to cook for dinner. I haven't cooked dinner in eons either. Can you tell that I am not the world's best homemaker? Good thing I work LOL

I guess this will qualify as my spring cleaning. I just need to dust in the bedroom and air out the futon... but it is raining today, so that will have to wait until later in the week.

Wow, it's Easter

Apparently it is Easter weekend. Japan, being a non-Christian country, doesn't celebrate it, so I have been spared the chocolate extravaganza's in every store.

Hiroshi knows Easter as the holiday where you die eggs. I think the first year that we were together, my mom sent an egg dying kit over and we had fun making the eggs wild and crazy colours. I mentioned that it was Easter weekend and he asked if we (westerners) ate turkey... I had to explain ham, hot cross buns, chocolate egg hunts and the like.

I could make a ham and do the Easter thing, but that would require finding one - and then I'd have to search for hot cross buns, or more specifically a recipe for them. Then I'd be baking all weekend... because there are other family breads and stuff that are traditional at Easter as well. So, no chocolate and no ham for me. Luckily Hiroshi has now forgotten about Cadbury cream eggs, or he'd be whining about wanting them. Personally, I'd kill for the Cadbury mini-egg things with the hard outer coating.

Could you pass Grade 8 in 1895?

How many questions can you answer in this 1895 Grade 8 exam? I couldn't even decipher some of the questions!

Everything is green!

Spring is here and everything is blooming. Just seeing the trees lush with bright green leaves kinda makes your day that little bit better. I always love that feeling in spring when everything comes to life and you can smell "newness" in the air. The cherry blossoms are mostly gone now but there are still alot of camelias blooming. One of the things that I love about Japan is that there are always flowers blooming. If memory serves, after pointsettias at Christmas, the first flowers that you really see are daffodils.

Did you miss me?

Wow, I can't believe it has been two and a half months since I last blogged. Where the heck did all that time go? This year has just flown by. Two weeks from now is Golden Week (a week with a bunch of holidays in it).... I haven't made any plans to go anywhere, so I guess I am staying here. Good way to save money I guess ;)

The cherry blossoms are finally fading away here. They actually lasted a full two weeks. There are only a few remaining petels on the trees now... although there is the odd tree of a different type that still has blossoms. In Tokyo the trees tend to be mainly one type of cherry tree though. I had my hanami (cherry blossom viewing) party on the weekend. We had a touch of rain in the morning, but otherwise the weather was great. Sunny and 20C so I got a bit of sun on my face. It felt great to be outside in the fresh air. Although, I am really starting to feel old... just sitting around all day totally stiffened all my hip joints, and I could hardly walk in the evening, let alone the next day. Add that to the fact that I get tired really easily if I have a heavy/long day at work and I am starting to feel older and older. Whatever happened to staying up all night partying and then going to work the next day? Oh yeah, that was like a decade ago. Scary.

Not much has been going on in the past two and a half months. Just working. My job will be changing a bit in the next week or so (but I'm still with the same company) - hopefully my hours will get a bit more regular. The only exciting thing I guess is that Amazing Race is back in its original format and is worth watching again.

I am hoping to get back into the daily blogging thing, so stay tuned.

Finally, an earthquake

I was commenting to a co-worker the other day that we hadn't had an earthquake in a long time. Last night, for some reason I knew there was going to be one. Just a feeling. And then just after 8:30 last night a 5.1 magnitude quake hit. Actually it was two quakes together. The first oen jolted upwards - the whole apartment popped/banged - and then the second one went side to side. That one lasted a while.

Other than the shaking though, no damage here. I'm just glad the plates are releasing pressure. Small quakes every so often are good.

Is obesity contagious?

Wouldn't that be a good excuse! Well, apparently it is being researched - scientists think obesity might be caused by a virus because it has spread like an epidemic and you find obesity in people in areas with limited food. Interesting anyway.

everyone is hanging out at the clinic

I stopped into the clinic today to get some stronger medicine... only to find that everyone in Tokyo had the same idea. Everyone really is sick! There were like 30 people in the waiting room, and a line of people going out the door - all of them waiting to be seen. It took two and a half hours of waiting to see a doctor.

I did the whole appointment in Japanese - yay me! I even managed to do the hose machine. I don't know what this thing is, but after the doctor sees you, they send you into a room with this 1970s looking box with several hoses coming out of it. You put an attachment on the hose, press a button on the 1970s looking panel, and some kind of medicine infused mist comes out. You are supposed to breath this. Usually I end up in coughing fits and they just tell to forget about it. Today I was actually able to sit there and breath for the whole time. I'm not exactly sure what this does, but every ear-nose-thraote clinic I have ever been to has one of this medicine mist machines.

I even managed to communicate well with the pharmacist. There was only one point I was confused on - I blame it on fever. She was saying something about pills and my response was about me not being able to take powder (Japanese like medicine in powder form, but it makes me gag so I always ask for pills). Well, it dawned on me as I was walking out the door that she was probably saying the antibiotic would interfere with "the pill". That would be why she looked at me funny -
Pharmacist: "This medicine will make the pill ineffective"
Me: "I can't take the powder, so I always get pills"

Pills are called capsule in Japanese... and the birth control pill is called pill. Everytime I hear pill I think of tablets though. Note to self for next time eh?

I made chicken!

On Friday I picked up a whole chicken from the international food store and I cooked it up tonight. It was my first roast chicken ever! I forgot to take a picture though.

I was actually going to buy another Turkey, but then remembered I didn't like the quality of the bird so much when I found whole chickens about the same weight and about 30% cheaper. So chicken it ws.

I cut up some potatos and threw some mushrooms around it (got those at the international food store too - whole bunch for cheap). Then I just popped it in the oven and OD'd on yummy roasting chicken smell.

It came out perfectly. Hiroshi hates chicken, so the whole bird is just for me :) I picked off a bit of skin - the best way to eat it, and then threw the rest of it out with the carcass. I grabbed all the meat off the carcass and had about as much as the turkey yielded at Christmas time, so that is good. Lots for meals over the next few days. I froze the drippings too after skimming off the fat. Figure I can use them for chicken broth in a soup or something if I get motivated to make one. Or I can make up gravy one day.

So, now I have made a roast, a turkey and a chicken in my little oven. What should I do next? There were some nice cuts of lamb at the store... although Hiroshi would probably hate it because it isn't fish. But, lamb is an idea...

An alternative to traditional burial

After you die, if you don't want to be buried or cremated, you can always convert yourself into a diamond. There is something appealing about this. Of course generations from now, heirloom will take on a whole new meaning - insead of "this is grandma's ring" it will be "this is grandma".

still sick

I finally gave in and went to the pharmacy to get some medicine. People were saying "That doesn't sound good" whenever I started coughing... and Hiroshi was complaining that I was keeping him up all night.

I was happy to note that my Japanese is finally good enough that I can have a conversation with the pharmacist about which medicine to get. Granted I can't understand everything, but enough to make a real decision about what to buy (instead of eeney-meeney-miney-moe-ing it).

This explains everything!

I now know why I am so scatter-brained sometimes. Or oblivious as the case may be. It boils down to intelligence. Apparently smart poeple ignore irrelevant stimuli and pick out what is most important. So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Different ways of measuring time

I found this article on how we measure time. It is quite interesting and explains the differences between astronomical and atomic time. I didn't even know there was an alternative to astronomical tiem.

Snow!!

I woke up this morning and big, fluffy, giant snowflakes were floating past my window! It was so pretty! It looked so peaceful - the big snowflakes don't look as cold as the small one that the wind dashes on an angle to the ground. They just float peacefully down.

It was beautiful all morning and afternoon... then around mid-afternoon the snow started to pile up and the sidewalks got all slushy. Yuck. No longer pretty at that point! THen when the sun went down it all iced up. It is so much nice looking at snow when you are inside!

I don't have to shovel or drive in it though, so it is all good. I won't mind in the least if it all melts by tomorrow though!

everybody's sick

... including me. Hiroshi went to the doctor to get medicine today. I am starting to come down with a cold / sore throat... and all my colleagues and students are hacking all over each other. Oh, don't you love winter? Apparently the flu is going around Hiroshi's office, so I'm glad he got medicine. I don't want it! It is a good excuse to laze around this weekend though... although I have to work tomorrow.

Hurray! Packages!

I finally went and picked up a pacakge that was waiting for me at the post office. My mom sent me xmas cake and some cookies. Actually I think she sent a card and the package at the same time ... only she sent the package slow mail. Funny thing is, the package arrived the day before the card did! That was one fast boat!

The cookies arrived in pieces, but they still tasted good. I decided to have one piece... only five seconds later they were all gone. Yum yum. They were broken though, so the calories must have been broken too, right? That's my rationalization and I'm sticking to it!

We'll break into the xmas cake on the weekend.

Chinese lunch

Today I met with my older women class for the first time this year, so we had lunch together. Isn't that great? I get paid to go and eat lunch... and they pay for the lunch. It was nice to see everyone and I got some small presents which was sweet of them all.

The Chinese food itself wasn't that great - it was all in goopy sauces. And spiced down for Japanese tastes. You know how Chinese food sits heavy in your stomach too.

Afterwards we walked over to the mall though and sat around in the food court and had coffee. It was nice to catch up with everyone... and relaxing! I couldn't drink any coffee though because I was so full from lunch.

work got crazy

Fun, fun, fun - I get to do stay up until 2am doing development work. Now this wouldn't have happened (probably) if I had done something over the holidays... when I was sleeping and relaxing. Work has hit full force after the holidays. It isn't fair. I wanna be a housewife. Or get paid for showing up and looking pretty ;)

I'm paying for my fun

Ugh... hung over. I don't drink anymore, so I am really paying for last night. Guess I'd better start drinking water... what I really want to do though is just go back to bed! Does this mean I am getting old? Because I never used to get hangovers.

Living it up

Tonight was my friend Shirin's going away party. Her husband to be got transferred to Fukuoka (Japan's southern island) so she is off to a new life. The party arranger chose a really nice restaurant called Tableaux . We had our little party in the lounge, which was absolutely perfect. The walls were lined with book cases and the chairs were all leather. There was live jazz music for most of the night which created a great atmosphere.

We ordered some nice wines. The first one we ordered was pretty good, but wasn't all that balanced. This was the wine the waiter, who spoke limited English, recommended. I don't think he was all that competent. Later in the evening a woman came over and helped me order (I was in charge of ordering) - I asked about a wine that originally intrigued me, and she said it was very good wine. Glad we ordered it - it was excellent. Very interesting flavours. Usually you get that oak aged flavour in whites, but this was in a red, and combined with a berry undertone made the wine really different from anything I have tasted before. (Mom and dad if you can find it - Costers del Gravet 2002 Capcanes Spain Montsant Denomin acio d'Origen)

Of course as the evening wore on, the cost of all this stuff seemed irrelevant. We ordered a second round of fois gras because it was so good - it was served with persimmon. One of the guys tried to order dessert and Shirin and I instantly complained because he had ordered one dessert for four people to share. We set him straight! The desserts were just as good as the rest of the meal and we were in sweets heaven. After dinner we all ordered a cigar and port - 2000 yen a glass didn't seem like that much after a bottle of wine a piece. Funny how alcohol encourages spending.

The cigars were nice though, and the port was awesome. At one point I looked at my watch and had a minor shock - it was 2 am. We were having such a great time, we didn't even notice. This was bad because it was well past last train. So we just stayed around gabbing and relaxing until 4 am and took taxis home.

Overall it was a really nice night. It brought back some good memories for me of previous nice nights out, and it was really great to go out somewhere nice. Yes, the bill for the evening was a shocker, but definitely worth it. We always go out to izakaya which is like going to a bar for a going away party. This was classy, and something I haven't done enough here.

Of course... tomorrow I might regret all the drinking... I think I drank more tonight than I did all last year.

I want a new toy!

Apple - new MacBook - I want! The rumour mill on the internet says to wait because something even better will be coming out, but I want this... now. Anyone got 250,000 yen they can give me? Dual core sounds nice and so does the speed... not to mention the built in camera and updates to software. It will supposedly dual boot Windows too... not that I care to use Windows anymore, it is just cool. Oh, I want new toys.

Work is hard - is sleeping a job?

Work is so draining. It is unbelievably draining. Makes me want to quit and become a housewife... a housewife that sleeps in! Maybe I'm just getting old. I am definitely paying for relaxing so much over the holidays though.

Diet - Day 1

New Year's resolution - eat healthier and workout more. Today was Day 1 of my diet. I've decided to take up running. This is easier said than done... especially when it is only 4C outside. I have new found respect for those people that run all winter. Trust me, even running really hard, you still freeze your butt off. I'm hoping that I'm burning more calories because my body must be burning something in order to keep me warm out there!

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Japan struck by deadly snowdrifts

There is lots of snow in Japan - record breaking amounts. Everyone is talking about how there hasn't been this much snow since 1947. Some towns even have markers showing where the snow reached in 1947 so they can compare how much snow they have in comparison this year. Unfortunately, several people have died and it is getting quite dangerous in some areas as this BBC news article outlines.

Stupid Jumbo lottery

I was convinced that this was my year. I have bought Jumbo lottery tickets every year for the past few years... and have only won 300 yen once. That was last year when I figured out you need to buy a full book of 10 tickets to guarantee you will win 300 yen (they are in order so you are guranteed to get the last number on one of your tickets).

Jumbo lottery tickets are offered three or four times a year and they have really big prizes. Usually the lotto tickets here have fairly low payouts. So lots of people buy these. I always get the ones that come out at New Year in hopes that I will start the new year off as a millionaire.

Of course I was shafted again. Someone picked the wrong number because it wasn't anywhere close to the numbers I had. *sigh* Maybe I should stick to the casino.

I love sleeping

Second day back at work... and I'm exhausted already. I came back from my only class today, which started at the horrible hour of 7:30 am and went back to bed... only to sleep all day long. See, work is bad for me. It must be hard if I need 14 hours of sleep after 1.5 hours of work LOL

Back to work - yuck!

Today is my first day back at work... luckily I only have one class to teach. I enjoyed sleeping late and then having naps in the afternoon! I don't want to go back to work. This is worse than having been on vacation. On vacation you go out and actually do things - I just lazed around for a week and slept!

Year in review

2005 - I actually did quite alot in 2005. That is probably why it flew by so quickly!

I opened the year in China visiting my aunt Jan. It was nice to visit her again although it was quite cold! From her place I moved on to warmer climates in Hong Kong and Macau, thus visiting three places at the beginning of the year.

At the end of January, my mom and aunt Joan came to visit. We did some sightseeing and lots of visiting... and discovered the calming effects of colouring!

February brought the death of my hard drive and general panic when I realized I had lost all my contact data and lots of work data. Lesson learned - back up, back up, back up. Of course, this lesson wasn't quite learned because when I had a major system crash in December that prevented the computer from reading my hard drive, I lost data again. So the new mantra is backup often, backup often, backup often.

March came in with record high pollen counts and therefore horrible allergies. I discovered that the eye drops that are supposed to make your eyes stop itching, are at the expense of making them feel like someone threw sand in them.

The cherry blossoms bloomed in April, but I didn't do any cherry blossom parties this year. Too busy. Hiroshi and I just went for a walk to enjoy them. At the end of April I went to Thailand and had my LASIK done. So I am now fully sighted without glasses, and aboslutely love it! It was totally worth getting done and I can't ever imagine going back to glasses again!

I spent the beginning of May recouperating on a beach in Phuket - lovely! Rainy season was late, so the weather was perfect... to bad I couldn't go swimming because of the eye surgery. I did do a lot of shopping though! The other event in May was turning 32, but we won't dwell long on that.

June and July was another trip, but this time to Canada for the first time in three years. My sister Jen got married, so it was a good occassion. I got to be a matron of honour (that sounds old!) and see lots of family. Of course I went to the casino while I was home. I won some money, but promptly spent it all on new clothes and makeup. Shopping, shopping, shopping!

August was our four year anniversary - yeah, we've been married that long??!! No we still aren't planning on having kids yet - the freedom of being kid-less is too enjoyable!

Nothing happened in September, except the Aichi Expo ended. I had great plans to go but the news kept talking about record attendance and three hour lines to get in to pavillions and that was enough for me to give it a pass. Should have gone earlier in the year. Nothing much happened in October either except I got an oven! After living in Japan for 6 and a half years, I can now cook hunks of meat and bake stuff... which was the exciting news in November because nothing happened then either.

The year ended with a fair bit of excitement... or lack thereof. I made my first ever Christmas dinner and it was a big success. I also finally made it to Kyoto - I've wanted to go for a long time but it has always been cheaper to go to Thailand or somewhere else. It was a great trip, adn was actually the first time Hiroshi and I had been somewhere on vacation together in two years! The year ended with the lack of excitement - sleep! Which was the perfect way to end it for me because I was pretty tired out!

Hope you all had a wonderful 2005 and will have a great 2006!

New Year's cards

My New Year cards arrived today. Japan Post does a great job of making sure everyone gets them right at the beginning of the year. Imagine trying to deliver ever Christmas card you receive the day before Christmas!

One of my former students wrote me a "note" that was just odd. Well, downright weird. He says:

Long time no see! How have you been?
I'm really fine but already elderly...
The lady next neighbour always speaks loudly. She really bothers me. Should I call the police?
Don't I have to do it? I can't stand it any more.
Let's talk about daily routine. The first thing I do after I wake up is go to the toilet. How about you?
Once I've eaten lunch I sometimes take a nap. How about you?...

I have to say, this definitely takes the cake in terms of the weirdest mail I have ever received.

Off to see the Emperor

Today we met up with Yosuke to go and see the Emperor give his New Year's address and hit some museums. All the museums in Ueno were free to enter today, so it was a great chance to go and check out some of the ones we had never been to before.

We started off early and hit Bic Camera on the way to the Imperial Palace so I could buy a tripod. I found a really good deal - I got 71% off! Of course it started to pour rain, so so much for my idea of using it to take pics of the Emperor that weren't fuzzy.

As in previous years, we just walked right in. There is a bit of a line-up to go through when they pat you down and check your bags, but airport security in the US is tighter so it didn't take too long. We actually timed it really well because we only had to wait about 7 minutes once we were in the viewing area.

When the Emperor and Empress and Princes arrived everyone waved their Japanese flags. A lot of people didn't put their umbrellas down, which Hiroshi said was really bad manners. I managed to get some good pictures, but you can see the raindrops falling down!



As usual the audience was about 30% foreigners, which the Japanese always find a bit shocking. Probably because we all hang out in Tokyo during the holidays instead of heading back to our hometowns as the Japanese do. It seemed like there were a heck of a lot more people this year when everyone was rushing towards the gates to get out - but that may have been the umbrellas. It seemed like last time I was there the walk out was much more leisurely though.

After that we spent over an hour trying to find a coffee shop where we could get something hot and dry out a bit. Eventually I just suggested we head up to Ueno near the museums because I was not happy and walking around in the rain was less than fun.

We found a place to grab some lunch in Ueno and sat in there and warmed up... our bodies and our moods. Of course, by the time we got to the museum area it was mid-afternoon so we didn't get to see much. We did wander around for a bit though and I was happy to see the decorated Japanese panels, which are my favourite.

After that we headed back to Shinagawa for Outback Steakhouse, but before dinner we decided to go to the new aquarium. It is actually pretty good. We saw the dolphin show, which was so-so, and the seal show, which was funny, and the penguin feeding, which was very educational. The feeder explained a lot about the penguins and how they were different from each other while throwing fish to them.

There was a big tunnel where the sharks and rays were swimming. Since it was late at night, barely anyone was there, so we had the tunnel practically to ourselves. It was cool to see a big ray swim over top of you. In this tank there were also some sawfish wich were also cool.

After the aquarium we just wandered over to Outback and had a huge dinner. We were stuffed! We got Hiroshi some ice cream for his birthday - I was nice and declined the singing. I figured he wouldn't be too into that. And then we all waddled home for bed beacuse we tired from walking around all day!

Happy New Year!

Today is osechi ryouri day... or New Year's food day. We bought a whole bunch of stuff at the grocery store yesterday and now have a feast of special foods. You can see all the food here, but here is one shot of the main box:



If you click on individual pictures at the link above, there is an explanation of what everything is.

I basically hung out in my pyjamas all day - it was heavenly! In the evening, Hiroshi's friend Yosuke decided to come over, so I had to do a mad dash to get showered and dressed before he arrived. Then we all just sat around eating osechi and watching this super athlete show. I forget what it is called, but basically there are a bunch of strength, speed and agility competitions. In one of the competitions they jump over a gymnastic horse (I think that is what it is called) that increases in height - they get as high as 3m!

So that was my New Year's day - spent perfectly by relaxing all day!