Snow time

Blizzard
Originally uploaded by BeingWanderLust.

Well we have a blizzard here. The rest of Japan had been getting recored snowfalls for a week or so but none in Osaka....until today. It is amazing for this Aussie to watch. I even rang my parents back home to tell them, where it is 40 degrees. Ouch! Talk about extremes.

Have a look.

FWC Christmas Party 2005

FWC Christmas Party 2005
Originally uploaded by BeingWanderLust.

On Saturday a group of foreign wives (and fiancees) met for a Christmas party at my place (aka the shoebox). It was a really fun night, some got pleasantly tipsy and all were stuffed with good food.

Here we are holding our secret santa gifts.

What does a drawing of a pig say about you and your personality?

This is so cute, I gotta add it.



What it showed about my personality.

-you are a realist (yes)
-you are direct, enjoy playing devil's advocate and neither fear nor avoid discussions (yes)
-you are emotional and naive, you care little for details and are a risk-taker (first two yes, last two no)
-you are insecure or are living through a period of major change(last one definitely!!
-you are an OK listener (hmmm?)
-your sex life is WOW (hehehe....)

Have a go yourself. Draw a pig

Australian Politics Test

This is an interesting test to show how you fit into the Australian Political system. Have a go, you might be surprised by your results.
Australian Politics Test

I tend to be centre left with no political party being very much aligned to my views. The closest were Family First and The Greens.
My Results

Being White, the new uncool?

This has been an ongoing thought of mine for a while now. I was going to take the time over a few days to write it out and word it properly but i've been getting a bit impatient for other's thoughts. I obviously have too much time on my hands but so be it.

My thoughts on being 'white'.

It seems that being 'white' isn't very cool. I used to find myself jealous of people with varied cultural backgrounds, who celebrated interesting festivals and ate different foods. The girls of Indian decent I went to high school with always seemed exotic to me with their whole other world going on once they got home. They could
speak another language and smelled of spices and visited family in different countries in the school holidays.

Minorities around me always seemed so passionate about their culture and families and I often found myself so intrigued by their way of life. Maybe this was what first led me to leave Australia and date guys of other nationalities? I always wanted my kids to be able to speak another language. I always thought that i'd love to be different and have my Mum come from some exotic country (she's British and I always wished she was from a non-English speaking country, so I could have had the opportunity to be bilingual).

I find people from non-white backgrounds (this is probably not very politically correct) being proud of what their culture is and has done. African Americans have their great musical talents, Aboriginal Australians have their intimate knowledge of nature and fantastic arts and crafts, Japanese have their long long history and
traditions. And I find myself thinking, what can I as a white Australian be proud of?

Well, my ancestors built ships and found new lands- but then proceeded to kill the natives and stuff up the environment.

It just seems that being 'white' (and I guess i'm mainly talking about being white in Australia) is not something to be proud of. In some way I feel relieved that my kids can at least get some 'culture' and 'history' from their Japanese side.

OK, I think it's all out now. I know this is all over the place but that is the state of my mind at present.

Your thoughts?

Our first wedding anniversary

Anniversary Flowers
Originally uploaded by BeingWanderLust.

Yutaka and I have just celebrated our first wedding anniversary. This past year has flown. Our next anniversary will be in Australia! Yay!!

My parents sent us this gorgeous big basket of flowers. Aren't we blessed?

Tokyo trip

We just spent a weekend in Tokyo. I thought Tokyo was great, it felt much cleaner, safer and friendlier than Osaka. Maybe they're just more gaijin friendly? I went to the Edo Tokyo museum and would fully recommend it to anyone. Free guides are available in many languages (I got one lovely English speaking lady all to myself). You can ask stupid questions and get the inside knowledge that may be difficult just walking around by yourself. I have a distinct lack of knowledge about Japanese history, so I got a lot out of this museum. Here is a link with Japanese, English, Korean and Chinese Edo Tokyo Museum

Check out the huge bus and the really long cool escalator going up into the Edo Tokyo Museum.

www.flickr.com

What slanguage do you speak?

Your Slanguage Profile

Aussie Slang: 100%

Victorian Slang: 50%

New England Slang: 25%

Prison Slang: 25%

Southern Slang: 25%

British Slang: 0%

Canadian Slang: 0%

What Slanguage Do You Speak?

Expat get together

A few of us ex-pats (with Japanese husbands) had a bit of a get together last week in Nara. It was great! Good company, lots of chat, yummy food, noisy kids, beer, wine....ahhh.... I've met some awesome women in Japan. Another cool thing was the mix of nationalities, we had two Americans, one British, one New Zealander and an Aussie.



That's one thing I really love about travelling and meeting people, you can be in a group and realise you're the only one of your nationality there. And in some strange way it makes you want to be careful of how you portray your nationality. You become an ambassador of sorts. I think i've become more patriotic than ever by travelling and living overseas. And coming home.....wow do you appreciate the small things. Even the simple way a bus driver at Sydney airport greeted another driver, with a "g'day Rosso". Made the bus crack up laughing and made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Last Post

Some of you may remember fondly my large cucumber post. Well, I had to delete it. It had stuffed up my whole page and I was too much of a technophobe to figure it out or too lazy. It's bloody hot here in Japan at the moment. It has sucked all my energy. When you wake up and see it is 30 degrees in your house, it aint a nice way to start the day. Bring on Autumn!

Our Honeymoon

Well, a couple of weeks ago we had our honeymoon on Yakushima. A little world heritage island to the south of Japan. However, both Yutaka and I were a bit ill and so have decided to just call it a holiday and have another honeymoon some other time (yay). Some interesting links to Yakushima;

World Heritage Natural Property
Yakushima

Info from World Conservation Monitoring Centre

Here are some pics:

The world heritage forest.


A foot onsen (hot bath).


Magnificent coastline.


Having a lunch break after hiking up a mountain.


Breathtaking waterfall.


Turtle laying eggs.

Violent Smilies

I just gotta dedicate a whole post to some of these great smilies I found. Made me laugh so much. You can find them here WebSmileys

OK, here we go... Should I place a warning? Nah, in your face!!



OK, just for balance and to prove I am not evil....


Enough.

Ohanami by night

Last night we had a Cherry Blossum picnic with my Panasonic students near Osaka Castle. I just love this picture even though it isn't very clear. A branch of flowers in front of a tall office building with many lights on as workers are still at work at 10pm....



More pwetty flowers...



Us, the couple.

Which Rock Chick Are You?

Gotta love procrastination.


Which Rock Chick Are You?

Rararara!!!!

Cherry Blossum Time

One of the beautiful things about Japan- Cherry Blossums.

Japan Today - Quote Of The Day

Japan Today - Quote Of The Day - If you walk into the Rakuten office around 3 a.m. in the morning, you'll probably see about 70 or 80% of the staff still working. - Japan's Leading International News Network
Hiroshi Mikitani, president of Internet shopping mall operator Rakuten, saying the diligence of his young staff (mostly in their 20s and 30s) is the reason for his company's success. (Kyodo)

What company president would be proud to say this? A Japanese company president of course. The staff mentioned here must have such a fun filled, joyous life.

Excuse me while I go and puke.....

In Memory of Jay

Our beloved family dog died last Friday.



We had Jay for about eight years after we received him from the pound as an adult dog of three years. He was a breeding dog, passing his Weimaraner genes on until the day his breeding owner passed away and he was sent to the pound.

My parents used to own a female dog of this breed and they had been very fond of her. One day while out and about in our home town my Father saw a lady walking a weimaraner and asked her about the dog, where she had gotten her from etc. This lady informed my Father that a breeding couple had been sent to the pound after their owner died. This lady had taken the female but as far as she knew the male was still at the pound. So as soon as we could (maybe later that day or the next) my Father and I set off to the pound. We found 'Jay' and asked the staff about him. But those smart ladies at the pound knew a family looking for a dog a mile away and they promptly gave us his leash, bowl and the dog. And we'd only gone to the pound to look at him!

So being unprepared to take on a dog at such short notice, Dad and I had to stop at the shopping centre on the way home to buy food etc for Jay. We were also in Mum's *new* car and so had a bit of explaining to do to Mum when she came home that night.

And so Jay became a loving member of the family. A fierce watchdog by night (scaring off at least one would be burglar, who probably stained his pants by the panicked 'shit' Mum heard him say while frantically trying to climb back over the backyard fence). But a docile, friendly, give anyone a lick dog by day.

He was Dad's dog. He even did the security rounds with Dad for a year or so and loved even minute of that!

He used to come and help me get the chooks eggs, always running ahead but turning around to make sure I was coming. He loved people and people loved him!

Thanks 'Jay Jay' for the memories, we'll miss you boy.

Sick of teaching American English

I am AUSTRALIAN hear me roar!!!! I am so sick of teaching American English. Yesterday when teaching kids new food words using flashcards, I got to the red sauce stuff you put on meat, potato chips etc..... Do we all know what i'm talking about?? TOMATO SAUCE!!!!! This card had of course, Ketchup written on the back. So I taught the kids both words.

Please take heed, a sweater is a JUMPER.

Fall is AUTUMN. When teaching a kinder class the seasons, I didn't even have the option to say Autumn, as only 'Fall' was written on their worksheet, as you can see here;



Oh and for the record, does anyone know what a castinet is?! Yet another new word I am supposed to teach, yet don't know.

Sick of smog

I am so friggin sick of smog. This is the first time in my life to live in a city and i've been doing fairly well I reckon. But I have just had it with the smog!!! This is a pic from our study window....I zoomed in, so you can see more detail than if you just looked out.



I'm surprised my asthma hasn't been worse since we moved here. I miss the fresh air from back home and being able to see the distant hills.

Cooking

For Australia Day on January 26th I made a traditional Pavlova. Yutaka wasn't sure what to make of it and thought the crispiness of the outside was weird. But I thought it was the best bloody pavlova I had ever made.





Then for Valentines Day yesterday I made a chocolate cake. I'm still getting used to this pokey little oven, so I overcooked it a bit but with all the chocolate in and on it, who cares.

Snow again

Well we got snow again on February 2nd. I know i'm a bit late in posting this. In fact i'm a bit of a slack blogger hey...don't post for ages then post a few ideas at once. Oh well, shit happens. Back to snow, second time this winter. It felt wonderful, the snow making everything look pretty. It's funny how we've only got snow twice this winter but north Japan is buried in meters of it!

Japanese garden

As much as I bitch constantly about this country (sorry Taka and Pook). There are lovely things about living in Japan. Yesterday Yutaka and I visited a cool nursery with an awesome Japanese garden section.



They had pots and pots of one of my favourite flowers- Tulips!!!

Have you ever seen blue orchids? They were worth going to this nursery if nothing else.

Engrish

Seeing as I pass a million and one examples of Engrish/Japlish everyday, I thought i'd start a special section devoted to the butchering of my native language by the natives of this other country i'm living in.

Here is one I saw yesterday. Made me shudder at the thought of what they're putting in their loaves.