Super Supporters」カテゴリーアーカイブ

Saturday Brunch at Machida Garden

There’s something magical about cooking food that people enjoy.
Flowers

I have never been a cook. I tried being a cook in my college and early adult days, but after many failed attempts, like setting the toaster oven on fire, making furry spaghetti and almost slicing my left thumb off, I just gave up and resigned to frozen dinners, Subway and pizza.

Upon moving to Japan, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my work schedule kept my mornings completely free so I started using my
free time to learn how to cook. CookingwithDog and RunnyRunny999 became my go to YouTube channels on Japanese cooking. I also searched
for recipes on www.allrecipes.com. I’ve learned how to make a mean miso soup and amazing french toast. After months of practicing, I felt
confident enough to invite some friends over to enjoy Kenkoku Kinenbi (National Foundation Day) together and merge my love of miso soup and
French toast.

Brunch menu:
First course: Miso soup, scrambled eggs and sushi
Second Course: Fruit salad
Palm Tree Fruit Salad

Third Course: French toast
FrenchToast
My friends also brought wine, juice, soda and sweets.

It was delish! Good people. Good fun. Good times.
Alexis & T
Brunch Group

Namaste

超級起伏的心情

In short, 諦めたい。

很氣憤,我連解釋自己的行為或商量的機會都沒有。

就是因為我嘗試喜歡他,怕他自己沒信心,他就這麼得意洋洋,說甚麼我喜歡他太多,覺得重,。。。
誰都會認為這是個不能承受責任的人吧。

有別人喜歡自己,而如果自己也有興趣,享受這些 “被愛” 就可以吧。

說甚麼已不想親密,要像朋友一樣 。。。真的諷刺到令我感惡心。簡直就是和我說,你一點魅力也沒有吧。

真的越想就越覺得過份,越想就越覺不服。

只是因為種種原因,令我有過份的行為,為甚麼不早幾個月認真和我說?不早幾個月認真和我相談?

連給時間我解釋,一齊尋找處理方法,給時間我去改善一下, …  甚麼都完全沒有。

以為自己甚麼都不直說,全世界都一定會知道你在想甚麼嗎?

真的以為這世界一定有這樣的人嗎?

在這短短的人生,真正喜歡自己的人已經不多,不但不珍惜,只會覺得 “太多太重”,這不是反賤嗎?
換句話說,這是不成熟的表現,太易得到,不需珍惜。

我真笨,以往就算有男的約自己單獨外出,無論是多好看和有趣,都會拒絕,誤以為這是專一,正所謂己所不用,勿施於人,覺得,如果自己看到男友和別的女孩單獨在一起,自己也不自在吧。

怎麼會知道這世上的男性,你越LOYAL越簡單他們反為越不在乎你,真的不知所謂。

以後我絕不會再有這愚蠢的想法,無論最初你以為怎樣好的人,最後也會對別的人有興趣,對不起自己吧。值得自己100%專一的人,恐怕是不存在的,因為他們全都是男,無論外表怎麼不好看,男的就是這樣,真是可悲致極。

既然你竟然這樣自以為是,這樣不在乎你身邊最關心你的人,不懂珍惜身邊的一切,我也看不出有甚麼理由叫自己去繼續接受你,去接受一個我原本根本不太喜歡的人。認識你後,以為你和其他人不一樣,原來也只不過如此。

失望到極點。

我不在,每天很快樂吧,以為和我一起沒自由吧。
我就自那天後每天都不知怎樣。

真的越想越不憤。算吧,那你繼續你的自由自在。
這個世界不是只得你一個男生的。

既然你可以這麼狠當我不存在,
我也會同樣的對待你。

さよなら, i hate you, the person who made me suffer at the last.

New Supporter: Jordan

Hello! My name is Jordan, and I’m a writer from the U.S. This is my second time in Tokyo, and this time I’m hoping to stay. In undergraduate I studied abroad for half a year at Sophia University, also in Tokyo, and I’ve been wanting to come back ever since. Now I’m here attending Hitotsubashi University’s International Corporate Strategy (ICS) program and getting my MBA. Needless to say, full time graduate school is a little more of a workload than a semester abroad, so I haven’t seen as much of Tokyo as I’d like, but every chance I get I go out and about to experience this amazing city.

Oakhouse has been a big help in taking the stress out of housing. Talking to my classmates who searched for their own apartments, then had to buy furniture, washing machines, set up internet connections… only to be leaving in a year? School is enough stress, I don’t want to deal with that, too. When I arrived last August, I rolled off the plane, got myself to Otsuka station, and met my manager at the gate, where he drove me to the house. Signing contracts while jetlagged wasn’t ideal, but it was certainly better than apartment hunting, furniture shopping, utility-setting-uping, and all the other stuff I could have been doing. I can’t imagine anything worse than coming off a twelve hour flight from the States and not having a bed to collapse in.

Now that I’ve gotten used to Tokyo life, I’ve really come to like my share house. It’s an all-girls house on the Yamanote line, which couldn’t be better: convenient location, friendly and quiet housemates, and no fear of cross-gender judgment when I stumble downstairs with my hair a mess, without makeup, in rumpled sweats – because come on, we all do that. The Yamanote line is also beyond convenient, and no matter where my adventures have taken me during my half a year so far I swear I’ve only had to transfer once to get where I was going.

Someday, when all my time and money isn’t going to school fees, and I actually have a paying job again, I may dedicate the time and effort into finding my own place. But for now Oakhouse and my sharehouse are there to take at least one stress out of my life and make my time in Tokyo much more enjoyable.

Are you prepared?

We all remember what we were doing on March 11, 2011- I had arrived at the Himalayan Institute in Honesdale, Pennsylvania 8 days prior. I was suffering from insomnia at the time so I was wide awake laying in my bed around 2am when I received a text from my mother that read, “There was a 9.0 earthquake in Japan.” 9.0, surely, it was bad.

I am a Los Angeles native so earthquakes are nothing new to me, but 9.0, that’s scary. My mother taught me to always keep shoes by my bed just in case I had to run outside suddenly. I’ve always done that, but storing food and water, keeping emergency supplies and having an emergency backpack ready never made it to the list of routine tasks to do.  I always knew about the importance of preparing for a disaster, but I’ve never felt the need to truly be ready…until now!

Since coming to Japan, I haven’t been worried about earthquakes but the one on January 1st unsettled me a bit. My former housemates had starting preparing emergency water and food supplies last March, but most of the water and food were reaching their expiration date, so I decided to clean out the supplies.

whiteboard

Then, on January 28th, we felt a rather large and steady earthquake around 7:10am.

earthquake

Ironically, I had written that note to my housemates just a day before this earthquake.

-If you don’t have an emergency backpack, go to a website and find out how to prepare one.

-If your shared house does not have an emergency plan, create one.

-If you don’t have emergency food, water and supplies, buy some.

Are you prepared? I’m not, but I will be.

Namaste

Train Etiquette

I must admit that the Japanese have some quirks about them.  Some things, to the western mind, seem ridiculous. Lots of things actually. However, at the same time there are some things that the Japanese have perfected and Western cultures wouldn’t be any worse off taking note. One of these things are the train system in Japan.

The trains are super clean, unbelievably punctual and can take you anywhere you need to be. One of the things that helps the trains run so nicely is the line etiquette.  In America the train doors open anywhere on the platform while here in Japan they open in specific locations. At those locations everyone lines up and files into the train. Very orderly-like. Although it does sort of turn into a dog-eat-dog moment with grannies pushing for their rightful seats. Stick to the etiquette and good luck!

trainetiquette

Elementary Newspaper

Lately I haven’t had a lot of time to dedicate to studying Japanese and at my job I speak English all day. Considering I am more of a student at heart than a worker it sort of breaks my heart that I don’t have that time to study. Therefore, I have been trying to come up with creative ways to get some Japanese into my everyday life.

So recently, I subscribed to the local Asahi elementary school newspaper and everyday I have been trying to read at least one article plus the section of a story that runs everyday. Because the audience of the newspaper is young children all the kanji characters have the readings next to them. This isn’t necessarily good for my kanji skills but because there is still a lot of vocabulary I don’t know it is good for me now. After a bit though I may move on to the middle school newspaper.

elementarynewspaper

感覚 。。。

この世に、二人が一緒にいる時楽しいなんて、こんなこと、あまりそんなたくさんじゃないと思う。家族とか、友達とか、特に恋人。

ドキドキの感覚があれば、それはもちろんボナスと思うけど、私は最初からもドキドキの感覚がなくても、この一年間嬉しいと思う。理由は、恋愛の関係は、最初どんなたくさんドキドキがあっても、いつか、きっとだんだん少なくとも少なくなるはず。べつに悪いことと思わない。

自分と超似合う人がいるはず、一秒でも思わない。でも、80−90%くらいでもいいじゃないのかなぁと思ってしまう。

人間は生まれてからもう別々の個体で、性格、習慣、育て来た環境、言葉、色々全く違うし、二人が一緒にいる時、問題が現せる時、ちゃんと厳しく詳しくて話さずに、お互いに教えてくれないと、関係が良くなると思えません。

この世に7兆の総人口の中で、君と出会ってお互いに好きになって、あなたは、それでも珍しいと思わないのかなぁ 。。。偶然だけってと思うのかなぁ 。。。簡単に捨てても構わないと思うのかなぁ 。。。

時間はいつも私の天敵である存在している、多分私だけではなく、皆も、いつも一番嬉しくて幸せ時間に止めることができません。

一生できません。

生きていてから今まで、苦しい度に、何回も繰り返してアノ一番幸せ時に戻せばいいなぁと思ってしまう。何故か嬉しい時間はいつも短いんだろう?

昔、何でも分からなかった時代に、何でも満足できなかった時代に、 幸せとは一応試して、とても素晴らしくて、短くても嬉しいことだ、それもう十分の幸せだと思ってしまいました。短い嬉しさは幸せと思ってしまいました。

違います。もの凄く。

もっと生きてきて、それくらいようやく分かってきた。

短い嬉しさは、どれくらい素晴らしくても、幸せとは言えません。本当の嬉しさは、毎日幸せと思うそういうことです。

普通けれど、幸せなんてそんなことがあります。

この頃、今幸せと思う人が絶対にいるはず。

ただ、今の私は、幸せなんて全く言えません。

ずっとどうやって長く時間そんな気持ちを掴むことを考えていたけど、最近は絶対あのゴールまで、モット遠くなってしまう。

私の一部の大げさの性格のセイで、遠くなってしまう。

許してくれないのかなぁ。

軽く遊び言葉と気持ちをしなく、相手のことをリスペクトして普通の人間としてもう一度 。。。

映画 Matrix の中で、一つの言葉は ” この世界は、悲しさがなし、嬉しさもなし、でもこんな世界は、人間がいられない、全員はすぐ死んでしまいました。”

昔の私にとって、この言葉が響けなかった。

昔の超嬉しさと超悲しさを受けてしまった私は、この言葉の本当の意味が分からなかった。90%の嬉しさを受けたら、きっと90%の悲しさを待ってる。

今から、生きてるため30%の二つを受けても大丈夫かなぁ、君と一緒かぎり。。。

大げさな言葉、役に立たない 。。。

he always wonders why, …

… why i always take so many photos,

because no one ever knows, when i will have the chance to see this again; and even though u go there again, the person next to you can also never be the same.

PLUS, my memory is poor.  見られないと覚えられない。

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all these are from Disney Sea last year. the beginning of Jan.

you might find it very strange, how come all these photos,
not one picture with the person that i went with,
yes, i intentionally did not take his photo.
i have 10,000 of the above, but not 1 he was in it.

一年だけ、たくさん変わってきた。

何故だのかなぁ〜

今、逆に、

相手は think it is 重い, but isn’t it that he just took it too seriously?

long time ago, one friend used to tell me …

“do you realize that, people do not know if you ARE joking, or you ARE NOT …”

that was a surprise, i never know people not know, i thought it was OBVIOUS when i was kidding / exaggerating …

same here, in order to try to make the other party feel good, at first i tried to say all the things that gives him 自信、安心、好きになりたかったですから、だんだん、もっと慣れてきて、言葉もっとおおげさになって、わがままみたいになって 。。。

何故か好きになりたかったんだろう?

私の人生の中でけっこう一番落ち込んでいた時、彼は現せて、he brings a little color and brought me to see things i always have wanted to see, … even though i do admit at that time, i really wished it were someone else, but later on, だんだん感動してきた 。。。

だから、later on, i also want to show my appreciation by doing something, and that is … by telling him things i thought that would make him feel good, would make him not to worry about how i feel about him, to make him feel someone cares about him …

( でも、そんなこと、本当に永遠のことですか?

明らかでしょう?しばらくのことなんて、

這些都是,日子久了,就不需要再說的東西。だんだん, 我也會覺得說也沒趣, but when i realized maybe i needed more time to spend on my own thing, when i tried to stop mailing for a while, someone stopped me earlier than i stopped myself from these habits … )

but i was wrong, males obviously do not need that even from the beginning …

大げさな言葉、役に立たない 。。。

大げさな行動、実は面白くない 。。。

面白いと思ってたのに、実は相手にとって、面白くなかった。

それは、本当にすみません。誤解しましたのね。

私も相手に誤解された。

the way he said things to me, it just like how my ex. was right before he left me.

ただ、it was in a much smaller scale. because the years were also much fewer.

i do not think for one moment it is only temp., because once someone is not around for ANY reasons, and refused to EVEN work it out with me gradually/seriously, sit down, talk like an adult, and tell me he wants to fix our relationship, so it can last longer, but instead, he just told me what he wants and left.

i do not think for one moment it is only temp., because even though when he come back in the future, how can you possibly like him remembering what he did to you this time?

he obviously gave you no chance and not care about how you feel, right?

how sad and disappointed.

if he does not come up with this conclusion all by himself, i don’t know what type of silly friends he has been hanging around with, but obviously they are not telling him anything constructive.

how wasteful, if you are still happy with someone, why not sit down and talk seriously and try to work it out?

isn’t that childish not to even know how to do this?

if you really do not care, you might as well said,
“今から、私たち一生会わなくてもいいです。一生一緒のチャンスが絶対ないですから。no matter what your reasons are for your behavior, whether they are only temp. or long-term, i have no interests in knowing why, or trying to let you fix it. because i have absolutely no interests in you and just want to give you up.”

それでいいんじゃない?

4 days could not eat, the Amazon saved me …

私は今までも恋愛のことまだ全くわかりません。

so i did some research online (日本語で), 初めて日本語で恋愛の悩みのため …

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

… こういうタイプの男性は追われると逃げたくなる人ではないでしょうか。

( まぁ … 男だけじゃないのかなぁ、… i think this whole world, if you treat someone too nice, they will use that and 逆に be not nice to you … except me. however, too bad, in this world, no one really values me in that way, that is why i am always so alone … )

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

… 追えば男は女を捨てて逃げる!

( interesting comment … i guess i am too easy, 追われても too lazy to 逃げる, 必要がないし、と思ってね … まぁ、私は残念ですけど、男じゃないからさ )

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

… >重い
この言葉を言う人とは残念ながら将来はないと思う

(でも、私べつに将来のこと考えていないけど…, 結婚なんても興味もないし, but if the author meant, any boyfriend, if they say 重い to their girlfriend, this guy is just a person that wants no responsibility = they will be around when you are healthy, they will disappear when you are sick … then, i think i might have to rethink about something … )

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

なのに、なんで。。。なんで思わなかったこと言われたのかなぁ。。。

turns out, after he said something shocking to me on SUN night (Jan 29), i got so shocked and weak, the whole night i could not sleep, shivering and crying all night, thinking we are no more. my heartbeat went super fast and i woke up after only 2-3 hours of sleep and could not go back to sleep again. my roommate said … 罪深いって。。。一生忘れない。。。

MON, i took one day off. PM went to immigration to renew my visa. i was so sad while i was in the immigration. last year, when i had no real job, i was so grateful that the boy, who i just started being with, cared so much about my staying here or not. 感動した。 now, this year when i was in immigration, he did not even know that i was there (in immigration), i doubt if he even care if i can stay in japan or not now …

TUE, i went to work and my boss told me to see the doctor. and on the way to the clinic i already knew i got something … when i arrived i felt fever already … chill all over my body … in the clinic, the nurses told me, “インフルエンザでしたって”, i was super shocked, after all, i took the vaccine だよ!2000円で、勿体ない!the doctor said i belonged to the 60% that does not help even took the 注射。

but thanks to the sickness, i could finally sleep and stopped the shock from him for 1 night. cause my head hurt so bad i could not think of anything.

WED, THUR (today) stay home, … only later today i could go convenience store to buy tofu and more lotion tissues.

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i was so hurt and sick there were 4 days i could not eat anything …

but luckily, i bought mineral water from the Amazon Japan for the first time last week, who would have known, this week, turns out i can drink HALF the box of the NATURAL MINERAL WATER … from Italy, without them i have no water in my room and had to walk far away to boil water and wait and boil more … and spread my germs while my body was so weak … not a good idea, right?

sigh. なぜか、私が辛い時、いつもそばに誰もいないのかなぁ〜

べつに、誰かいれば助かると思わないけど、でも、一番気になる人はいつも自分の悩みとか分からなくて、なんか寂しくてガッカリする気持ち堪らなく。。。

New Supporter: Alexis

Let me introduce myself.

My name is Alexis. I also go by Alex, Lex, Lexie and even Moo. This is my third time living in Japan so I must like it. The first two times I lived in Shikoku, Kagawa prefecture. Now I live in Machida. I’m an English teacher. In my former life, I was a social worker for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health. Work stress, traffic, gas prices and LA hipsters made it easy for me to quit my $60K a year job on September15, 2011, sell all of my stuff including my precious new Jeep Patriot, and move to the land of the rising sun which many people have feared visiting since the Great Tohoku Earthquake.
Despite the decease in salary, frequent tremors and cold weather, I have enjoyed my stay so far. First of all, I love  Machida Garden! My room is huge. There is a garden. It was more like a jungle when I moved in at the end of September. We have spiders, snakes, a neighborhood cat and other creatures out there. Plus I only have four roommates now and we each have our own rooms. No room share for me. I graduated from college over ten years ago! I like knowing that other people are in the house, but not too many as I enjoy having personal, quiet time. I’m an INFJ if that means anything to anyone. We are not a party house by any stretch of the imagination.
Second, I love my job. I have ZERO work stress. I only work about two days a week. The other three days I work just a few hours and then I have two days off. I teach children and adults. Sometimes I teach at the school or I go out to a company. It’s a diverse job and the work conditions are excellent. I used to work for NOVA and in comparison I feel like I won the best job in the world ticket! My perspective may change next month, next year or never but I enjoy now.
Last, my lifestyle is quite comfortable and relaxed. On an average day I wake up at 10am, cook my breakfast and lunch, take a yoga class, study Japanese and teach for a few hours. I feel safe and secure. Sometimes I walk close to the curb to avoid getting hit by a taxi but other than that I almost always feel calm and at peace.
So glad I came here and look forward to sharing my perspective, thoughts and experiences with those who live in a shared house or are thinking about living in one.
Namaste. ALEXIS