Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Happy New Year


Sorry I haven't been seen for a while. We have been crazy busy every day for a long time. We hope to appear more regularly in the future.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Falling Sakura



 

My poor, old cat, Sakura is more than 18 years old now. She's becoming skinny and I think she has dementia. Often she cries out to be fed and after her meal, she forgets she ate. recently she has been losing her balance and sometimes falls over when she walks. She might not have much longer on this earth. Every time I tell this to my darling, he says 'You've been saying that for five years! She'll outlive us all.' 

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Attention seeker


I was in a queue at my local supermarket when a very loud and chatty guy in the line suddenly pulled up his shirt and injected himself in full view of everyone. Some ladies behind of me were shocked. Me too. I guess he was a diabetic. I guess he was also an attention seeker. Most other people would do that in private, I'm sure.

Friday, October 31, 2014

Kujira cosplay


We have been attending some Pop culture events these days as an opportunity to sell my darling's pictures.  Many people come in fancy dress. It's very entertaining and lots of fun to see all the amazing costumes. But I just wonder about the body shape of some of the people in costume. There are some young ladies dressed as super cute anime girls (e.g. maids, etc. ) and game characters and men and women as super heroes, but some are very flabby and even obese. Many have tattoos too.  I'm sure they check in the mirror at home, but how do they really see themselves?

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Pilates Pain



I have been going to the sports club frequently to keep fit and stay slim, usually 3 or 4 times a week. I do Zumba (my favourite), water aerobics and other group classes. Last week I took a challenge to try Pilates.  The class was very enjoyable. We did lots of stretches using our 'core' muscles. The next day, I was in a lot of pain in my stomach. It lasted for several days after too! I guess these muscles have not been put to the test for a long time. itai!  

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Cosplay mum


We were stall holders recently at Oz Comic con. A kind of pop culture convention for otaku. Thousands of people went. Many people dressed in cosplay, ( fancy dress) as movie characters, super heroes, etc. It was very entertaining! I was surprised to see one mum holding hands with two young children.  She was dressed up as a super hero, but her kids were in normal clothing. I thought it should be the other way around.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Smoking in restaurants


I almost forgot that smoking is still allowed in many restaurants in Japan. Especially in izakaya, which I love. Almost everyone was smoking except for us. It almost spoiled our meal. I hope that smoking will be banned from all restaurants and cafes soon!

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Ginza festival


We went to see the Ginza matsuri. There were huge crowds including many foreign visitors. The university marching bands were so great! The young people were very professional and must have trained a lot. We even saw a Japanese Scottish highland pipe band! There were a lot of interesting things to see including traditional dancing, but we had to rush to see a very special performance. We made it in time to see four beautiful Tokyo geisha performing a dance.  

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Travelling in cognito.



Minna-san, sorry for my late posts in English. Now I am in Japan. We arrived last week in Tokyo. On the way here, I tried to sleep, using a blow-up pillow, an eye mask, a face mask, ear plugs and a blanket wrapped around me. When my darling woke up, he couldn't recognise me and wondered if it was really me underneath all that.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Cramp!


 

I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with a big pain from a cramp in my leg. I wake up my fiance to help, but there is not much he can do for me. He tries bending my toes backwards and tells me to walk around. It goes away eventually. itai!

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Noisy visitor




I was very surprised to see a kookaburra in our gum tree in the back yard recently. It laughed very loudly and frightened poor sakura-chan. I really enjoyed seeing it there, but after a while I wanted it to go away.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Burmese, after all.





Since moving here, I discovered my Sakura-chan really loves to sun bake. She never did this at my old place. I  wondered if she was scared after the birds attacked her. Anyway, now I often see her stretched out, basking in the sun, even on scorching hot days. Actually a few times I wondered if she was dead, because she lay motionless for such a long time, but she just loves the hot weather. Well, I suppose she is originally from Burma, after all.

Fish caravan




Since moving here by the sea, I wondered where a good place to buy fresh fish was. A friend told me about caravan fish shop down by the beach. She recommended Boar fish, and said she made sashimi from it. When I went there early one morning, they were already sold out of Boar fish, so I bought Garfish instead. It was lovely and fresh. As recommended by the man, I enjoyed the garfish, grilled with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon.
I later found out that my friend had gotten there earlier than me and bought the last Boar fish!

P.S Most fish shops clean the fish for the customer, but here they don't. I managed to do it myself, sweating.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Market research 2





I was at a different market a week or two later and saw another guy drawing caricatures. I thought I should gather some more information about my darling's competitors. So I walked up near his stall and pretended to be just another interested person at the market (actually I was). Then I sneaked out my phone and secretly took a few photos. I felt a bit like a spy or something.  

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Market Research







I was at a city market recently and saw another caricature artist there. I thought I should investigate the competition for my fiancĂ©, so I paid the man and asked him to do a picture of me. He was finished in about 2 minutes. Such a quick! I smiled and thanked him but I didn't really think the picture looked like me at all. I think my fiancĂ© is much better, but maybe I am chotto biased..

Washing machine





The first time I went swimming in my new area, I went to a swimming pool. I live close to the beach, but I  don't really enjoy swimming in the sea. I was alone in the pool, enjoying the peaceful water all by myself, but soon after an obese woman came in. She jumped into the water, even though the sign says you are not allowed. She turned out to be a really good swimmer and was moving quite quickly and smoothly through the water. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Of course, whales are good swimmers.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Midnight mozzies


Recently, I have been bitten a lot on my legs in the night. I told my partner, 'I think we might have bedbugs!' He said it was highly unlikely, as we have a new bed and anyway, he had not been bitten. He said it was probably just mosquitoes. I have been scratching and scratching and he always tells me to stop because I am just making it worse, but it is so itchy! Why do they only pick on me?  My darling says they prefer my blood because his has too much alcohol in it.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Friendly town


I have been living in my new place for a couple of months now. It is a more rural area, like a big country town. I am gradually settling in. One thing I love about living here, is that everyone is so friendly. People often smile and say hello, even though we are strangers. When I am out walking in the mornings, most people passing by, smile and say 'Good morning' to me. It's really nice. This rarely happened in my old dodgy, suburban area.

Injured boy?


My fiancĂ© is an illustrator. One day he was drawing and I came in to see what he was doing. He was drawing some very cute monsters for kids Halloween badges. He showed me some of his pictures. There was a vampire, a ghost and some other creatures. I looked at his last picture of a someone covered in bandages and asked 'What is this one? An injured boy?' He laughed and laughed and told me it that obviously it was a mummy. He said that surely everyone would recognise it at once and know it was a mummy. Later I showed this picture to a girlfriend (also from Japan) and she also asked if it was an injured boy. I said to my fiancĂ©, 'See? I am not alone.'
He couldn't believe it!

Monday, February 24, 2014

Morning Mayhem



I am quite happy to do most housekeeping jobs, but I hate making the bed. My fiancĂ© knows this, and one day he said, whoever gets up last, has to make the bed. He is an early riser and usually gets up first. That's why he said it. So now, we play a kind of game. If he starts to get up and I am awake, I usually grab his arm to stop him and race to get out of bed first. It is just a bit of fun. Actually, he doesn't mind to make the bed at all.

Neighbourly Neko


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Sakura has settled in to her new home nicely. In our old place, she seldom went outside and never, ever strayed from my garden. Since we moved here, she has become a big explorer and is much bolder than she used to be. The other day, I looked out of the lounge window and noticed my neighbour patting a cat. I thought it was a bit unusual, because my neighbour owns a dog. When I looked closer, I realised it was my cat, Sakura! I couldn't believe it! Later, my neighbour said to me, 'She is a very friendly cat and often crosses the road to come over and say hello'. 

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Water resistance


I have been going to water aerobics classes lately with my new friend. At a recent session, the instructor was playing very fast music and exercising to the beat, but I was really struggling to keep up. I thought to myself 'She is forgetting we are in water and we cannot move so quickly as she can'. When I looked around at the other ladies in the pool, they were all smiling and managing to keep up. I guess they were more experienced than me, or was it that maybe their much bigger bodies could cope better with the choppy waves they were creating.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Aussie Chinese restaurant


Recently, I went to a Chinese restaurant in my new town. Being like a kind of large country town, everything is catered to western customers here. There was no chicken feet or anything like that on the menu, just standard things like sweet and sour and lemon chicken. There were not even chopsticks on the table! I was the only Asian person in the restaurant. It was very different to where I used to live in my old, very multicultural town.

Sleep Laughter




My fiancĂ© told me that the other night he woke to the sound of me laughing out loud in my sleep. I have heard of talking in your sleep, even walking in your sleep, but I never heard of anyone laughing in their sleep before.  I wish I could remember my dream.

Monday, February 17, 2014

Kamikaze bird


I was having breakfast the other day, when I was alarmed to hear a bang on the window, right beside me. A bird had flown straight into the window and immediately fell down, stone dead! Sakura and I were both shocked. I called to my fiancĂ©e to come. He saw it and said 'Not again!" This has happened several times before. He says that sometimes the birds can not see the glass. They only see the reflection of the sky and trees. We haven't found a solution to this problem yet. kawai sou.

New Lease on Life




Since I moved to my fiancĂ©e's place, Sakura-chan has a new lease on life. She has become much more active and genki recently. In my old place, she just slept for most of the day, but now she loves to be outside for a long time, exploring in basking in the heat, especially on really hot days, over 40 degrees. Well, I suppose she is Burmese after all, so it's natural that she would enjoy the hot weather.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Cryptic Cricket.

My fiancĂ©e loves to watch cricket. He always tells me that it is really interesting and that there are a lot of subtleties involved. To me, it's just boring! I can't believe a game of cricket can last for five days. Soon after I came to Australia, a friend took me to see a game of cricket at the MCG. The first thing I noticed was that a lot of the people around me were not watching the game at all. One guy was reading a book and a lady was knitting. What for they went to the game?

Nanny....Nani?




I was waiting at the checkout of a department store in my new town, when a strange sight caught my eye. I saw a man and a woman shopping together, but the man was wearing a woman's dress. He was a big macho looking guy with a moustache and hairy arms, but wearing a ladies summer dress and shoes. Nobody seemed shocked or even surprised. Then I noticed that he was the only one in the shop who was wearing a dress. All the ladies I saw were wearing pants. Attention seeker!

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Neko nightmare


Before I moved, I remember I was hanging out some clothes at my old place. Sakura, my cat, followed me outside to enjoy the sunshine. She was lying on the ground, stretched out comfortably, but soon after, her peace was disturbed. I saw two magpies swoop down and attack my poor cat. She ran away. I know that cats usually are the hunters when it comes to birds, but my cat is an old lady now, and no match for the magpies. Now that we have moved, she doesn't seem to be afraid anymore. In fact, she loves being outside more than inside now.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Incorrect assumption

 
 
There is a weekly market in the main street of my new town. The have lots of hand made crafts, plants, fruit and vegetables, etc. At one stall, I saw some nice looking strawberries, so I approached to buy some.
The stall owner saw me approaching and greeted me by saying 'nihao' (a greeing in mandarin). He was smiling broadly and was very proudly to show off his language skills. I realise that there are not many Asian people living in this area, but does he think that all Asians come from China? I couldn't be bothered to tell him about myself, so I just smiled and said  'ni hao' back to him. Baka!  

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Furniture Mountain

 

Since I moved in with my fiancĂ©, we had a lot of leftover furniture, because we had two houses full, and only one smaller house to fit it into. A lot of the stuff things had to be stored under the carport until we could get rid of it all, by selling it or donating it to Vinnies or something like that. My cat, Sakura-chan loves this new mountain of furniture. Sometimes I have searched for her and eventually found her, sleeping high up on the top of the pile. She seems to have become a much more 'genki' and adventurous old lady since we moved here.   

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Poor pigeon


My girlfriend visited recently. She was telling me that she found an injured pigeon near her front door of her place. She suspected that her cat had attacked the poor bird. She felt terrible, so she rang the vet to see if they could help. They apologised, and said they don't treat pigeons. I'm not sure why. Perhaps they consider them to be a kind of pest and not worth saving. It might sound cruel, but I laughed at her story. Gomen. She is very kind hearted, isn't she?

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Ready to go



I am finally packed up and ready to go! I hired a small, local moving company to move most of my furniture for the one and a half hour drive to my fiancĂ©'s place. The movers are very friendly and colourful characters. One is Greek, one is Italian and one is Australian. The weather forecast is predicting rain. I hope it holds off until we finish moving.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Last supper



Today, my fiancĂ© came to my place to help with final cleaning and packing up before I move to his place with my cat. He is not too happy about my cat, because he is allergic to cats, but he is accepting her for my sake. After a hard day, we enjoyed our last meal at my place with a glass of wine.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Locquat Larceny


In my old house, I had some fruit trees, one of which was a loquat tree. It was fairly small, but gave quite a good harvest. Unfortunately, the birds would often get to enjoy the fruit before I could, so I put some netting over the tree to keep them out. The birds were not put off so easily. They worked out that they could get underneath the netting and fly up to the branches to get to the fruit, but they became trapped and couldn't figure out how to get back out. I felt sorry for them, so I lifted the netting for them. When they were released, they just walked away. They seemed to me to be so fat and full that maybe they couldn't manage to fly away.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

The Birds


I have recently moved in to my fiancé's place. I am settling in gradually, but there is a lot of cleaning, renovating and improvements to be done. The house definitely needs a woman's touch.
One morning, I was surprised to see him suddenly run out of the house and bang violently on the roof gutters with a broom. I asked what he was doing. He said that birds had been getting inside his roof and nesting there. He could hear them scratching around from inside, waking him up very early. Then they have chicks and they make a lot of noise and a big mess. He says they a a real pest.
In the past, when we were walking together, he would always impress me with his knowledge of birds. I always thought he was a big birdwatcher and lover of birds, but his behaviour shows a big contradiction. He is not friendly to these creatures at all!

Japanese collection


I recently moved in to my fiancĂ©'s house. I am happy to be moving from a dodgy area with a high crime rate to a lovely seaside area. We had to reduce both of our belongings drastically, because we had to fit two house loads of furniture and all of our many possessions into one quite smaller house. My darling had a very big Japanese collection, including furniture, kimono, scrolls, kokeshi dolls and more. I didn't like many of these things and said that I think it's time to say goodbye to them. He complained to me "Why do I have to get rid of all my beloved Japanese things?" I replied to him
"You don't need them anymore, because now you have ME!" He laughed and agreed with me.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Mobile make up.


When I sometimes go back to Japan for a holiday and to visit my family, it is quite common to see people reading, sleeping, messaging or playing games their mobile phones, but recently I have been surprised to see a lot of women putting on their make up on the train. They don't seem to mind going out in public with unpainted faces and applying make up in front of everyone. Not just teenagers, but adult women too! Maybe they value their sleep and can't be bothered to get up 15 minutes earlier to do their make up at home. This is something that I have never seen in Australia. For me, this is like getting on the train naked, and getting dressed in front of everyone.
Am I too conservative and old fashioned?

Black tie baka!



Even an ordinary person like me is sometimes invited to black tie events. I used to wear an evening dress to this type of function, but either it shrank, or more likely, I might have grown a bit. At this particular party, I decided to wear a kimono. I didn't know many people, so I was glad when a gentleman approached me and gave me a top compliment on my outfit. 'You look lovely!' he said 'Where do you come from?' I thought to myself, obviously he knows I come from Japan, so he must mean where in Japan do I come from. I told him that I was from Kobe, near Osaka, but he just looked at me with a blank expression. I came to realise that he was asking me what country I came from. I couldn't believe it! I thought everyone knew about Japanese kimono. Oh well, I guess a black tie is not necessarily a sign of sophistication.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Onsen intruder


My fiancĂ© has been to Japan many times. He loves Japanese food, including sashimi, and he can even eat natto! He also loves sake. He is a friend of Japan. 
On our first trip to Japan together, I wanted him to enjoy a special onsen, so I splashed out and we stayed at a lovely place in Hokkaido. He has been to onsen before, and enjoys it, but can not understand why we like to go several times in a day. For him, once a day is enough.
We both left our room to go to the onsen, and later, when I returned to the hotel room, he had already come back. I asked if he enjoyed it. He said it was nice at first, because there was nobody else there, so he didn't feel embarrassed. He soaked in the hot water enjoying the beautiful garden and forest views through the large windows. Then he heard a female voice call out something and in came a middle aged cleaning woman. He was quite surprised and sank lower into the water to hide.  After that he couldn't relax and soon returned to hotel room.

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Lost in translation


Some of my Australian co-workers can speak a little Japanese language, but one guy can speak it quite well.  One day he rang me (he was speaking in Japanese) to say he would not be coming in to work because he had to go to the hairdresser. What?! I thought this was very strange, until I realised he meant to say 'hospital'. The words for hospital and hairdresser are very similar in Japanese - byouin and biyouin. I could easily understand his mistake.

I also sometimes make mistakes with English language. I remember I was having a conversation in English with a couple of colleagues. We were talking about the constitution, when suddenly they both burst out laughing. I had no idea why until they told me I had mispronounced the word 'constitution' and had been saying 'constipation' instead. Embarrassing! 

Friday, January 17, 2014

Flower thief


Since I finished my job, I have started to notice a lot of things that I normally wouldn't see. For instance, several children on their way to school, stop in front of my house and wave to my cat who is basking in the sun by the front window. I started to wonder what else I had missed while I was at work.
The other day I was watering my front garden early in the morning, when I saw an old lady walking along my street. She stopped at my neighbour's house across the road and pulled out a pair of scissors. She then began snipping a lot of my neighbour's flowers from her rose bushes and placing them into her bag. She wasn't taking the stems, just the blooms of the flowers. Maybe she was making potpourri or something. I really don't know.
She didn't seem to mind that I was standing there, watching her. In fact she looked right at me, but just kept on cutting the flowers. I was quite surprised by her cheek. I wondered how many gardeners would wake up and be shocked to find their lovely blooms missing. I wanted to shout out at her to stop, but you never know how people will react. My neighbourhood can be quite a dangerous place. More and more I am looking forward to moving.

Waterbed

I really love my water bed! I have slept in a water bed for more than 20 years. I always fall straight into a deep sleep, usually with my ipad or a book on top of me and my light still on.
Unfortunately my darling doesn't like my bed. He teases me and calls me a swinger or something, still living in the 70's. He says he thinks that it is strange to have a waterbed in these days of modern gel and latex mattresses.  Once he even said he felt sea sick! He always exaggerates. I'm sure that in his mind, he thinks he is bobbing around on a kind of giant hot water bottle in a choppy sea. I wish I could show him the structure inside. Actually it has a lot of support for the back. 
I don't know why waterbeds are not popular in Australia these days. Maybe it's because Aussies are heavier than they used to be.
It is certainly difficult to move a water bed. An expert has to be called in to drain and dismantle it.
I am moving in with my fiancé soon. I will miss my waterbed.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Contrasting service


Recently, I witnessed some big contrasts in service.
First I went to my local phone shop to enquire about getting a new phone. The girl there gave me a big smile, but her eyes were not smiling. I could see she had one eye on the clock. I didn't realise it was approaching 5.30pm. Closing time! She took some details quickly and hurried me out the door, telling me to come back tomorrow. I turned to ask her a question but she had already disappeared. I guess she had something better to do.

On the way home, I was feeling a bit flat. I felt like I had been escorted out the door by security at that shop. I thought to myself 'I am definitely not buying a new phone from there!' I stopped into a bottle shop to buy some wine. The salesperson was really knowledgeable and helpful and went out of his way to make sure I was looked after. Although I know I can not expect the very high level of service outside of Japan, where the customer is king, but my faith in people was restored.