pinku

Another five things....

So I'm behind on my things I'll miss about Japan list.

Here are another five things that I'll miss:

* AWESOME shopping, but I'll especially miss my fav store HANJIRO (every trip there puts a smile on my face)

* Having a convenience store located within 100 metres of absolutely any location in Tokyo - thereby allowing us to buy beer at anytime

* Drinking beer ANYWHERE (trains, parks, walking home, etc)

* Hanami where beer drinking is highly encouraged....oh yeah and the cherry blossoms look really cool too.

* The best craft stores in the world and in particular our local: YUZAWAYA.

FIVE things I won't miss:

* The unavailability of low-fat products!! ha!

* Our ridiculously small kitchen...

* Renewing our visas every three years

* the fact that Japanese people DON'T do breakfast you know like Sunday morning breakfasts at cafes

* Japanese dentists

A sign of age

When we were in Kyushu recently for our friend, Tyler's wedding, we decided to travel to Fukuoka after the wedding since both Darin and I had never been. It's a lovely sized city - very Brisbane actually. Anyway we finally got around to doing something that I'd been wanting to do for a while. Purikura (Japanese photo booths) with Jake.

Wow, purikura machines have really changed since I was a high school student in Japan. We could barely keep up with the multitude of options available and what you see here is the final result. It made me feel old. I bet those 13 year old girls in line knew how to work those machines like nobody's business.

(click to see the larger image)

I personally love the I HEART ME one!! And Darin was excited to turn himself into a Panda. Oh and I loved being Snow White with my many Darin dwarves!!!

No cupcakes in Japan

After I read Mariko's post about cupcakes, I thought to myself - I've never seen cupcakes for sale in Japan.

I live in Tokyo, one of the world's largest cities - SURELY there is at least one cupcake store. I started on my quest to find at least one (via google), but all I came up with was a bunch of Japanese people blogging about all the awesome cupcake cafes/stores in New York, LA and London. I did read about some shop on an American air base that makes cupcakes, but I want one in Kichijoji. It could totally be the next big thing.

The photo is taken from one of the first pages I found - see some more amazing cupcakes here.

I totally think cupcakes would be the biggest hit in Japan - why has nobody tapped into this yet??!!

I also would love for someone to prove me wrong and find one in Tokyo....coz I so wanna go there. Sure there are PLENTY of other amazing desserts here in Tokyo, but of course we always want what we can't have. I guess in the meantime I'll have to make my own. This isn't a problem, but I can guarantee you that I'll eat more than one. That's the danger.

Happy Holidays!!

Wow Christmas is done for another year. Hope you all had a relaxing and fun day. We had a great day that consisted of spending time with friends, talking with family on the phone, opening presents, drinking champagne and eating croissants with new and old friends, baking, baking and more baking and then finally some relaxing, eating, drinking and we also watched Dolly in 9 to 5. It was a great day all round and a big thank you goes to our sweet hosts C&J&R.

my sweet sugar wrapped up and ready to go for a family portrait shoot

C&J looking festive in their cracker hats

And the newest, cutest addition to C&J's household is a lovely kitten, Rio, who here is enjoying a stretch by the heater.

daz and tyler and lots of delicious food

a special cuddle

You can see the rest of our xmas 2006 photos here.

I have two more days at work and then I have six days off - woohoo! Daz and I are heading to the snow with our buddies Tyler and Sachika. We are going to soak in as many rotenburo as possible, we are going to ski/snowboard (daz's very first experience) and we are going to drink and eat and be very merry.

New Year's Day this year (1 Jan 2006)

New Year's Day next year - prediction (1 Jan 2007) - um, without the naked guy. I'll be on the girl's side which I hear is bigger!!!! I'm so excited about visiting Maguse Onsen which is pictured below. It looks amazing.

Public Service Announcement

If you are staying in Japan, please remember to go to the ATM and withdraw wads of cash as ATMs are closed for THREE whole days over the new year - when will Japan jump into the 21st century banking age!! HA!

ps I'm going to try and blog both tomorrow and the next day before our big trip. I just did a quick review of my knits in 2006 and it was a pretty successful and productive year. FULL REVIEW TOMORROW!!!

Three day weekends rule

Last Friday was a national holiday in Japan known as Culture Day (Bunka no hi), so to get our fill of culture we headed to Meiji Jingu to see some Yabusame (Japanese archery on horseback). The weather was glorious and the park was as beautiful as ever.

Saturday involved lots of soaking at the onsen and massage chairs, and on Sunday I had the pleasure of finally meeting Mariko and Kelly in person and taking them on a crafty tour of Shinjuku and Kichijoji. I had a great time and learnt a lot about fabric.I failed to take any photos (kicking myself), but I will be catching up with those ladies again before they leave so I'll be sure to take photos next time!!!!

This is what we saw on Friday!!

This guy hit the bullseye!!

This guy missed!

At the main shrine there were tons of parents with their kids celebrating Shichi-go-san (a festival for kids that are 7, 5, or 3)

And as you will often see at Meiji Jingu there was also a wedding

There were also many aikido demonstrations

See all the photos here!!

In My Life

What a great weekend - summer is FINALLY here and we enjoyed a perfect day yesterday here in Kichijoji. I FINALLY got around to documenting a day in my life for Leslie's In My Life flickr group. Actually I kept forgetting to take photos all day, but we did manage to capture most of the fun.

Morning with our piggies

Noon at the kiddy pool/fountain

Afternoon with my good friend Bree

Evening eating the best summer dessert ever - kakigori (shaved ice with condensed milk)

You can see the rest of our photos from yesterday HERE!!! Hope you all had a good one!

My new obsession

It's Friday and it's hot. Yes I think today is the hottest it's been in Tokes this year and personally I love it! Of course I say this from the comfort of my air conditioned office but I mean it (except when commuting and some hot sweaty guy's sweaty skin is rubbing against your arm). Martine and I have talked about this before but have any of your Tokyo dwellers out there noticed JUST how hot Shibuya station is (particularly on the 1st floor from the Ginza sen exit down to around where you walk over to the Inokashira-sen. Sometimes I think that if for some reason I couldn't get out of there, I'd die from the heat. Yes die.

But I digress. My new obsession is black sesame pudding. They just recently started selling these at my work cafeteria and it is the most delicious dessert I've had in a long time. It's cool, it's tasty, it melts in your mouth, it's not too sweet and you end up with the sweetest aftertaste of black sesame seeds in your mouth. They also cost a measley 60 yen (and yes I've been tempted to buy two) They look gross being a slate grey colour and I only have a crap phone pic for you, but here is my latest obsession:

I'm on the verge of a long weekend here in Japan and I'm excited. Monday is Marine Day in Japan and that means we are going to head to the ocean where the sand is black, but the beer and fun will be overflowing. Have a good one!!!

purasutikku

It is great to read this article about some convenience stores in Japan trying to cut back on the usage of plastic bags. For anyone that lives in Japan or has visited at some point will know that BAKERIES are the absolute worst offenders. I actually can't stand to watch their bread packing antics - it's completely absurd and regularly makes me angry. If you bought two croissants, a curry bread and a loaf of fresh bread straight out of the oven, the two croissants would more than likely be bagged in plastic together because they are the same and this plastic bag will be taped shut, then the curry bread will be put in another plastic bag and taped shut then the loaf of bread will be put in a paper bag because the bread is still hot but the bakery will provide you with a rolled up plastic bag and tie to put your bread in once it cools down and then all of these go into another plastic bag. I actually feel heat rising to my cheeks while typing this description. We also have a close friend that is a baker at a major Japanese bakery and she told us that she has seen bakers being hit and punched for messing up a loaf of bread. Can you believe it - bakery abuse....but that's a whole different story.

One local chain of stores in Kichijoji called VIC has recently started charging for plastic bags and it's such a great idea. It'll make everyone think about whether a bag is really necessary. And I know that a lot of supermarkets encourage shoppers to bring their own bag with a point card system or even charge for plastic bags as well.

That being said Daz and I were only discussing yesterday about how much recycling we do in Japan - the city we live in provides us with a recycling calendar to remind us what to put out on what day - it's very necessary as it's a pretty complicated process. We separate cans, bottles, PET bottles, scrap paper, magazines, cardboard boxes, milk cartons, burnable and non-burnable trash. At work the recycling is even more complicated and we have signs everywhere and everyone is in charge of separating the rubbish from their own bin.

Another positive point regarding rubbish in Japan - our local park has NO rubbish bins and it's a very popular park for eating and drinking. They encourage everyone to take home their rubbish. At first we found this really inconvenient but now we think it's normal and the park is really clean. I don't think I've ever seen anyone litter.

This is one of Japan's interesting contradictions.

Six super cool things

Sometimes I have nothing to write about and then I get inspired and have about a million things to write about and get so excited that I have to do it all in one post. That's just me. Here are six super cool things I'm into right now:

Super cool thing number one

Amy has embarked on an up and down tour of Japan starting in Hokkaido and finishing in Okinawa. She's travelling in a van with a bunch of young Japanese people and you can read about her adventures on Japan Hopper. Japan Hopper is a new type of travel blog that is looking for native speakers of English living in Japan who can write about different regional areas of Japan. I just signed up because I'm going on a short holiday tomorrow and thought I could share all of my travel information(see Super Cool thing number 6).

Super cool thing number two

Isn't this an awesome exhibition poster!! While surfing the internet the other day I came across this artist/craftsperson, Rei Ricketts and her amazing bags. There are house bags, super duper handbags shaped as zebras, with trees and cherries on top, and tote bags. This is one more reason to love Tokyo and Kichijoji. For those of you lucky to live in Tokyo, you should check out the Rei Ricketts exhibition at the Niji Garo Gallery in Kichijoji (march 16-21, 12pm to 8pm) - I will SO be there.

Super cool thing number three

This free pattern on Elann! So cute and I am loving the fact that it's knit is one piece from the top down with no seaming. The recommended yarn is 100% cotton and I'm a bit worried it'll be heavy and I won't want to wear it. So I started swatching with some leftover Rowan All Seasons Cotton last night - we'll see how that goes. If I go with the recommended yarn (which is SO cheap) I'm going for GOLD!!

Super cool thing number four

This cool watch/bracelet kit, which will be available at the Shugei Cafe this Sunday (March 12) at Uplink Factory in Shibuya. Fellow Tokyo SNB member and all round crafty lady Taeko has been hard at work crocheting decorations and rallying the troops for this Sunday's event. She has also come up with a brooch kit which will also be for sale for about 300 yen. There will be music, free knitting patterns, and a vintage/new craft book library where you can browse through everyone's craft book treasures. I'm sad that I can't go.

Join us for 'Shugei Cafe' on Sunday, March 12th from 11:45am to 5pm

UPLINK FACTORY - 37-18 Udagawacho Shibuya-ku

Free admission (you have to order at least one drink).
Knit and Craft Cafe, Free Patterns, Musical Live, etc.

Super cool thing number five

Tony and the gang are back THIS SUNDAY. Love this pic of Carmela, Tony's horrible mum, and Meadow and AJ when they were so sweet.

Super cool thing number six

Darin and I leave for Okinawa in 17 hours!!!! The forecast for Tokyo tomorrow is cloudy with a MAX of 11 and MIN of 7. The forecast for Okinawa tomorrow is SUNNY with a MAX of 24 and a MIN of 16 - that's more like it. I have my denim mini, my new hanjiro tshirt, my pink Australia flag hat packed and ready to go...well actually I haven't packed at all, but I've planned my packing. We will be attending a friend's wedding on Sunday so it should be fun - we'll be back on Monday night no doubt complaining again about the cold. On a positive note, there's only 12 days until the official start of spring. Bring on the sakura - can't wait!

See you all next week!!

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Americans out there!

It's November 24 here in Japan, but it's not a holiday. Luckily for us, yesterday was a national holiday, so to celebrate we threw our third annual Thanksgiving lunch. No turkey though - you see my oven is the size of a shoe box making it tough to cook for 10 people!! We did eat garlic and rosemary roasted chicken (quite a success considering it was the very first time I roasted chicken), apple and cranberry stuffing, cornbread muffins, gravy, cheesey potato bake, lots of vegies and thanks to Jo, we enjoyed German chocolate pie and apple crumble. Thanks to everyone for coming esp our guests from afar, Steph and Keith!! I wish I had some photos for you but I was too busy cooking and eating. We did however make everyone draw a turkey and here are their pics.

**** We were going to judge Pinku's second photo contest yesterday but we were one judge short - hopefully we get around to it on the weekend and I'll announce the results next week when the US is back from holidays!! Thank you all so much for your entries. I love all of them and am glad that I don't have to choose the winner. ****** View all entries here!!

Have a great long weekend and see you next week!