pinku

Five idiosyncracies

Decided to do this after reading about how Lucy sleeps with her teddy bear and is obsessed with Jessica Simpson. Don't worry Luce, I love Newlyweds too.

1. I have to eat curry or other rice+runny food dishes with a teaspoon. I mean I can eat it with a larger spoon but I just don't want to if I have a choice.

2. I am obsessed with dried salted plums. My family calls them salty lols. My dad used to keep a jar of them in his personal cabinet space next to his seat at the dining table. I was constantly accused (correctly...) of stealing them and eating too many. I was sometimes teased at school for eating them - kids would ask me why I'm eating dog food (kids are so sweet, huh), but all of my BEST friends and husband have loved salty lols from the first time they tasted them and most of them (my friends and husband) aren't even Asian. That is true love.

3. I have a clothes pile. Darin can attest to that. Actually so can my mum. It can accumulate for weeks and it's not all necessarily dirty clothes, it also includes clothes that I have tried on and then decided not to wear. Way too much trouble to fold them and put them away. But when I clean, I really, really clean. You know like the poem, 'Good little, Bad little girl' My mum used to read it to me and kind of said I was like that - when she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid!

4. I am a complete warm weather person. I think snow looks cool and all, but essentially we don't get on. I can't stand it when my extremities are cold. It renders me useless actually. I guess it's to be expected when you were brought up in the Sunshine State! Way spoilt.

5. I had two major celebrity crushes in high school - River Phoenix and Ayrton Senna (F1 driver). Both died young.

Reveal-ing

Why didn't anyone tell me about Reveal? This came out in 2003 and I only see this sweater for the first time today! Has anyone made this? This is definitely on my fall/winter knit list and it's right at the top actually - well after I finish Florence (have finished the back and the left side), and the turtleneck shrug (TNS) for Miss Twiss. I cast on for the TNS with four dpns, then switched to a 4.8 mm 40cm circ, but I think it's coming out to big, so I will be switching to a smaller needle tonight.

Reveal by Leah Sutton (Rowan 34) in Rowan Cork

Reveal is totally something I would wear in the colder months. I'm not into bulky knits and even though this is a large guage project, I love its figure hugging qualities. I am also going to knit a cropped bolero vest (found via Purly Brites).

So what are your must knits for the upcoming colder months?

Twiss-tastic

So as you may have noticed I am taking part in the Stitch Ya Neck Out swap organized by Jacqueline and Kris. I have been waiting patiently for the yarn to arrive from my pal who I will be knitting for. Well......it arrived!

Here is the Rown Designer DK Wool I will be using to knit Miss Twiss's turtleneck shrug

It's a great blue-greyish colour and I think it'll perfect. I've never knit with this type of Rowan yarn so that'll be fun. But wait - that was not everything in my package. Here's the rest of my haul:

A fantastic silver leather flower pin in the top right hand corner and below that is the coolest 'make your own glam t' kit put together by Miss Twiss herself. I am SO excited to embellish and cut up my tee! Thanks Miss Twiss - this is the most perfect present for me! Now the last package contains different colours of fleece tied up. I am not exactly sure what I am meant to do with this, BUT there are flowers drawn on the plastic bag, so I think I am meant to make a flower. Am I right? It all makes sense now that I know Miss Twiss is a fashion designer and sewing teacher!

Wow, today I was reminded why it is so much fun to participate in swaps. I can't wait to cast on for the shrug. It'll be perfect Tokyo train knitting. Now I just have to finish reading the latest Harry Potter - that book is just way too heavy to be carrying around on my commute!

Sayonara Kanoodle

Thanks for all of your help! It definitely seems that everyone in Japan can't see the ads, which is dumb. So I scrapped the Kanoodle plan and have reverted to Google Adsense. All the better now that Google offers electronic transfer to Japanese accounts. Maybe I should buy some of the google shares going on offer???

So click away my friends out and help to keep pinku on the web. I am $22.67 off my next $100 cheque, so that'll cover this year's hosting fees - yay!

Am I crazy?

Recently I upgraded my typepad subscription because they offered text ads by Kanoodle. Currently I have a google adsense account which has been great, but they only offered payment by cheque to people living in Japan. This is a big pain because when you deposit a US cheque in your Japanese account they take nearly half of the value in fees. Luckily I took my first check to the US in June and begged a lovely Citibank manager to cash the cheque for me so I got the total amount unlike unfortunate others. Typepad have hooked up with Kanoodle to offer text ads for they pro users, the money made goes straight to paying my yearly typepad fees and any other money is paid via paypal - very convenient BUT.........................

I don't see any Kanoodle ads on my site. DO YOU?

I upgraded and put the Kanoodle ads at the top of the sidebar on the right just under the bloglines subscribe thingy BUT they aren't there. I have been conversing with typepad support people and they see the ads fine, which means there's something blocking the ads from showing up on my work computer and both of our home computers. If I can't work it out I am going to downgrade and stick with Google adsense as they JUST added the option of electronic transfer for bloggers who live in Japan - woohoo!

To spice up a completely boring post, I can tell you that I received my SAMPLER in the mail. It was so much fun sorting through everything. Details with photos tomorrow. Lucky I signed up for three months because the next round of Sampler subscriptions sold out in five minutes! crazy!

Kitijoji!

Things have settled down now, thank goodness! That wasn't my first earthquake but it certainly was the biggest that I have ever felt at work - very unnerving. Especially since each earthquake is different - some rock sideways, some go up and down. Yesterday's started off slow and small but got bigger and bigger and the building just kept shaking. They say it's safe up here but it certainly doesn't feel like it, and I always worry about fires. But moving onto happier topics.....

Working as a translator in Japan, my goal is to reproduce Japanese documents in natural English, so they are accurate and easy to read. However one of the phenomenons that constantly entertains but sometimes annoys us is Japlish/Engrish. So you see, I am torn. As a professional I cringe, but as a visitor in a strange land I laugh out loud. It's a dilemma. We recently made a trip to our local city hall to have some documents updated and while I was there I found these two gems:

This extract is from a yearly crime update in our city:

Dude - what is old-man hunting??

The next one is from the monthly English newsletter produced by the city. After reading the many gems in this, I decided to subscribe. I've never been one to turn down free entertainment.

Since reading this Darin has been keen to try out the cold towels around the groin trick.

Completely changing the topic - have you seen the new Fall VK ?? I just had a quick flip through at the bookstore because I won't shell out $20 for a magazine. Anyways, one of the feature articles is about knitting in Japan (hooray), AND there is a feature on the area where I live: Kichijoji. I was surprised that they didn't mention Avril, but they did cover most other fiber-related stores in the area except Kimuraya, but that's pretty tiny anyways (they do have great bargain bins though). I can't tell you how exciting it is to live so close to so many fantastic craft-related stores. I still have to go to a spinning lesson at Ananda, but it's definitely on my must-do list.

Scarred for life

Tokyo may have really cool cafes, cute clothes, awesome restaurants and fantastic shopping in general BUT it also has EARTHQUAKES. You know some say that small earthquakes are kinda cool, but they are SO NOT! I figured that out while crouched on the floor under my desk on the 20th floor of my work building scrambling for the phone so that I could call my husband.

SO.NOT.COOL.

Great friends!

The last few weeks have been filled of reminders of what great friends I have. First Joy told me she was putting something in the mail for me, and I was so excited when it arrived. I had no idea what would be inside. I would have never guessed that it was my very own chewie!!! When I was in the US in June, we went to a bunch of Burger Kings looking for the elusive Chewie but there were none to be found. I love my Chewie! Thanks Joy - you are the best!

Then we had some great visitors from Singapore - my good friend Buu-Kim and her husband, Jason. They were the best guests ever and were eager to do anything and everything. It was so nice to have a friend visit from home.

Then our friends Claire and Jess brought us some goodies back from Hokkaido where they had been travelling for two weeks. Even though Claire couldn't bear (no pun intended) to part with one of their very cool bear magnets, we did score some bear ramen and check this out - choclate potato chips!!!!!!!!

Bonus pic of daz downing one of the chips!

Last but certainly not least, we spent last Saturday night celebrating our buddy, Simon's 30th bday. I had such a great time and it was the first time in a very LONG time since we walked home in the daylight. Unfortunately excessive singing at karaoke brought on a bout of TMJ disorder - damn it was painful! It was all worth it though. Happy Bday Simon! It was also our local buddy Josh's birthday a couple of day ago, so happy bday to him too! Also to my dad whose birthday was yesterday!!!

Thanks for all of your kind words about Bernie. He will surely be missed.

RIP Bernie

Bernie was our friend Jamie's dog. He was our local dog buddy. You see we can't have a dog in our apartment, so we would really enjoy it when Bernie would come and visit. Bernie went into hospital last Friday after having an ear infection and died yesterday from complications that were probably 'lost in translation'. The terrible thing is that Jamie left for Korea on Tuesday to get married, so he wasn't here to say goodbye. His roommate Tyler and their landlord have been an absolute troopers though, and dealt with the hospital etc. A strange turn though (maybe not strange in Japan) was that Tyler had to bring Bernie back to the house last night after he died. I couldn't believe that the hospital could not deal with this. Anyways, Bernie was laid on his bed, covered in ice and the air conditioning was turned on - you see it was 35 degrees here yesterday. The dog cremation people are picking up Bernie at 11am today and Jamie has to decide whether he wants to keep Bernie's bones.....

Bernie we'll miss you buddy. You were found abandoned on the street and then taken in and loved by Jamie. You were really good at the 'guess which hand the treat is in' game, and would never start eating your food until someone said 'yosh'. You were always the center of attention when we took you to the park, and everyone always wanted to stop and play with you. You made a lot of people happy.

Take care Bernie! R.I.P.

Look at her hair!

So as some of you have noticed, I finally got around to assembling a gallery for the Pinku Secret Swap of hair accessories! Whew! Some of you sent me photos and some I stole from your websites (sorry!) so you don't have to bother emailing me another pic. I have heard back from most participants and everybody should have received something - if not, email me. I may have heard from your partner and forgot to email you. I know that some packages were returned to the senders!! So go and check out what everyone received - we are very lucky girls!! Thanks to all of you for making this such a fun swap!

Click here to visit the gallery!!

SP, Showa Kinen Park, Hanabi

So about a week and a half ago I received two great packages in the mail: one was from my Secret Pal and the other was a RAOK from Priscilla. They both made me really happy. It's taken me ages to get around to taking photos, but here they are:

Soy silk in my fav colour, a knitted flower kit, a cute card, wool soap, and the cutest stitch markers from my SP - thanks!! You may notice the empty lolly packet in the photo - no, my SP didn't send me empty packets - that would be too cruel. You see I ate all of the contents of all of the packets before I had a chance to take a photo - ha!

And Priscilla's RAOK - some knitpicks shimmer (which I have been hankering for - how did you know??!!), three cute hand-beaded flower bobby pins, a notebook, some lip gloss, a small bag, and another cutey cute flower pin - I am spoilt! Thank you so much!

So to read about my weekend and last night's fireworks, click to continue!

Lately our weekends have been so busy that I have little time to catch up on any kind of mundane chores - that's why every country in the world should have three-day weekends as the norm. Two days to have fun and one to do every you need to do to get ready for the (4-day) week ahead. Anyway on Saturday after being lazy and watching A LOT of Gilmore Girls episodes (I've been keeping my GG addiction a secret as I didn't want to know what happened in S5 - it's all ok now as I have completed watching ALL five seasons in the space of about a month!!!) , we headed to our friend, Martine's new house which is just a 20 minute walk from our place, for dinner. Yum, yum, yum - nachos made with lots of cheese, Darin's fresh salsa with coriander and lime, and beans!! Sorry no photos....

On Sunday the three of us headed to Showa Kinen Park in Tachikawa. What an amazing find! The place is massive and full of greenery (including grass), fun things to do, pools, a lake and really the list is endless. After having a picnic, we headed to the Rainbow Pool to cool off. This water park normally costs 2200 yen, which is a little pricey if you ask me, but if you wait until 2pm (the place is open til 6:30pm) you can get in for half-price (1100 yen) and this includes entry to the entire park which costs 400 yen anyway. At the water park there are water slides, a wave pool, a current pool, adventure pool, clover pool (it's shaped like a clover), kiddy pool area etc. It was super packed, but it was very refreshing anyway. You can leave the water park at any time and go back into the park and then re-enter the pool area as much as you want in one day. You can even do it in your bikini (not an option I exercised). After our dip, we went back into the park to check out as much as we could. First stop was the sunflower fields.

Then we spotted some 'net idols'!!! Supposedly there are some girls that get famous on the Internet among 'otaku' (geek) guys and they arrange to meet in public places so those dudes can take photos of them. So weird. Anyway, here's those guys taking photos of those girls.

Darin then thought he'd try his luck as a net idol. Unfortunately I was the only one that wanted to take a photo.

Moving right along. There are 11 different species of sunflowers in the park. This one is called Sailor Moon because it is light in colour just like the moon.

Then we headed to the kid's play area coz you know, we are all kids at heart. And look what we discovered!!! Trampolines in the shape of white clouds. I would have to say this was a highlight of the day for me. If for no other reason you want to visit the park, this should be enough to get you to go!!!

We did a lot more in the park, but I guess I didn't take that many photos - that'd be right. I know that Martine has a bunch of great photos that she took, so once she puts them up you can check them out!!!

So last night was the Jingu Gaien Fireworks display. The national rugby stadium just happens to be right outside my office window, so after work we bought a bunch of beers and together with family and friends watched the fireworks. Every work day should end like this.

The view from my office at dusk - you can see the skyscrapers of Shinjuku to the left, and the stadium that's all lit up is the baseball stadium - the home of the Yakult Swallows.

And then the fireworks began....a great way to finish a great weekend!