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.

Weird Sushi

I like sushi. I love sushi train restaurants- where the small plates of sushi roll along a little conveyor belt next to you and you choose whatever looks nice (edible).

Usually sushi consists of maguro(tuna), shake (salmon), unagi (eel), saba (mackeral), hamaguri (clam) yada yada. However at this restaurant I noticed very different types of sushi, such as BBQ pork, corn salad and meatballs!? I kid you not. Take a look

Snow!!

Wow, it snowed here on New Years Eve!!! Not a totally unknown occurrence but not common either. It was very exciting!


As you can probably tell....smilies aint working for me the last couple of posts... Rest assured I will overcome this temporary lack of self-expression-stifledness. I just made that a word. ;-P

Well, that was Christmas

My first Christmas as a married women is over. Wasn't that an adventure...

I got a digital camera from my hubby, so now i'm going mad with pictures. Good thing is I can add more pics to this blog.

Here is a pic for ya of the inlaws/brother in law and I about to dig in...

How about these goodies...

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

The well endowed gingerbreadman

Seeing as i'm getting into the Christmas cooking spirit and making gingerbread 'people', I thought this cartoon was rather apt.

Christmas prep and being sick

Well, I got my Christmas parcel for back home sent off. I hope it gets there by Christmas.

I am planning our Christmas party. I have decided on the finger food, alcoholic drinkies, mingling type party, which may prove a challenge as Japanese are used to the let's-sit-on-the-floor-and-crowd-around-a-little-table type thing, like this

I am sick today. Sympathy please. Isn't that smilie sooo gross....hehehe...

Christmas Party

Well, I think I have finally managed to convince Yutaka that we should have a Christmas party.

I just love this time of year and enjoy getting together with friends. It kind of bugs me that Christmas is all decorations and crappy Christmas songs in supermarkets here, but then that's about it. Just another working day for everyone. BUT this year it's on a Saturday, so everyone is free and can come for lunch!!!!

I'm also planning on cooking a 'traditional' Christmas dinner for my new Japanese family. First Christmas as a 'wife'....yikes... Anyone have a good recipe for Christmas cake?





One thing they do well here at Christmas is, Christmas lights. They are huge, gorgeous and spectacular!!! This gives you a bit of an idea