月別アーカイブ: 2011年3月

Earthquake Aftermath

As I sat at my computer pondering the idea of starting back up with my blog entries I thought to myself, “Where do you find the words to continue on after what has happened in Northern Japan?” Everything that I came up with seems so trivial compared to the fact that hundreds of thousands of people lost everything and over ten thousand people lost their lives.  But in the wake of this horrible tragedy I have been witness to an amazing amount of community benevolence.  From the people in Japan courageously trying to grasp on to any kind of normalcy in their everyday lives to the funding raising events around the world, I now know that they can and will overcome this.

After a three week hiatus in Colorado, I look forward to heading back to Tokyo.  Sure, I am a little weary of the Fukushima plant ordeal but my life is there.  I can’t wait to see my friends, students and neighborhood.  We will continue onward stronger albeit cautious into our new future.

For further information on the earthquake and all it’s subsequent tribulations as well as organizations that you can donate to, click the link below for more information.

http://www.thetokyopost.com/tag/earthquake/

Potato – Potahto

Recently, I’ve been witness to a disturbing trend within my preschool.  The trend of parents expecting their child to write with their right hands despite being lefties.  While this may not be quite as common in Japanese society as it was 10 years ago,  it has currently resurfaced in my preschool in the last couple of months.

Most of my students are naturally right handers so they seem to be off the hook but those that are not are being forced to write, feed themselves, throw and generally “think” with the other hand.  This often results in tears but I also see it resulting in confusion and a general blockage in their learning abilities.

With all the problems in the world, I can’t imagine why anyone would consider this as an important thing to change within their child.  Can’t we just all get along?

hand

What’s in a Name?

I recently attended my first Japanese theatrical production at the Tokyo Arts Theatre (東京芸術劇場) in Ikebukuro (池袋).  I saw the play, Minami he (南へ) by Hideki Noda (野田秀樹).

When I was a teacher at an infamous English conversation school (I’ll let you take a guess at that one), Mr. Noda was my student a couple times.  He was a pretty interesting guy, had pretty good English and very open-minded.  So I was excited to see and support such a creative mind in Japan.  Despite the high price (when I say high, I mean HIGH) and my lack of Japanese comprehension (and I mean I didn’t understand anything about the plot of the story – although my Japanese friend didn’t either… ), I really enjoyed myself.  It felt so good to be in an atmosphere of creativity and surrounded by the aura of the arts.  It was also a relief to see Japanese people, a people fairly known for their robotic disposition, being so theatrical.

I also got to see two of the handful of famous people I know in Japan, Satoshi Tsumabuki and Yuu Aoi.  I LOVE YUU AOI and she didn’t disappoint.  Both of them have the greatest smiles and like them I walked out with a huge smile, blissfully ignorant to the story of the play but blissfully pleased by the experience.

minami he

Earthquakes = Scary.

With the recent earthquakes and subsequent causalities around the world, I naturally start to feel uneasy about the fact that I live in Tokyo.  Recent earthquakes in China, Haiti, Chile and the recent New Zealand earthquake makes it seem like Tokyo has got to be right down the line.  I can’t help but think morbid thoughts like “it’s just a matter of time”.

However, I do have faith in the fact that Japanese pride themselves on quality and that they have certain codes that one must follow when building a structure (at least the new ones! When was this building built?).  This doesn’t necessarily ward off the possibility of mass causalities however it may give some people a bit of relief.

For example, The Great Hanshin Earthquake in Kobe, was one of the worst earthquakes in Japan’s recent history with 6,000 causalities.  However, according to Wikipedia, despite the extensive damage to the city center, most of the deaths were due to the tiled roofs  (meant to resist typhoons) in the Hyogo Prefecture.

So as I was walking around Shinjuku last night staring up at the huge buildings and trying to fathom how they could resist a huge earthquake, I was a little relieved to know that Japanese building practices are safe, at least that is what it seems.  It’s still all a bit scary and makes me feel like a hardhead for moving here purposely from the natural disaster free zone of Denver, Colorado (although looking at an earthquake website there are quite a few in Colorado!).

Nonetheless, I send out my sympathies to people around the world dealing with this type of disaster and any others for that matter.  I certainty hope that I don’t have it happen to me or my loved ones but if it does, let me handle it with grace and dignity.

More Food

ok, now is March 4, 4:30 am in the morning, if i am telling you i am completely not sleepy, i am definitely lying. but since my roommate not here, so i can type fast and loud as late as i can. it is convenient. don’t get me wrong, i do like my roommate a lot. she is the best roommate one can ever have, at least for me it is. she is so cute and fun and considerate. but she has not been back for 2 night in a roll already. Wed and Thurs night. this is actually the first time i experienced this from her. i hope she is having fun with her friends, since she told me these days are her holidays, but not be in trouble.

since i have to write 4 of these, so i decided to hurry up and finish this last one. with some good pictures for you guys, if i can find some.

3150

びっくりドンキ　(actually i am more びっくり than they are)

Steak? Hamburg?

but geez, the sauce looks yummy でしょう？please do not tell me you do not think so. esp. that egg, yes!

3151

びっくりドンキ

韓流もの

cannot quite remember the name, but trust me, this taste wonderful ^^.

3266

バーミヤン

Beef ?

i really believe so, and it definitely taste better than it looks.

3267

バーミヤン

Shrimp

ok, this is some bigger shrimp, and it is good!

3268

バーミヤン

Beef

this one i am sure it is beef, because this is one of my personal favorite dish no matter which country i am in ^^.

3273

バーミヤン

天__飯

sorry, i do not know how to type the kanji of this … but this is also a taste great one, i love the sauce! cause it is 濃い〜 ^^.

ok guys, hope u like the above pictures.

Udon and Bread

some of my friends are going back to their home countries, this time, Aussie.

before they went back, we went to this Udon place, which my friend and i used to go very once in a while, to have some of their infamous not expensive but yet taste wonderful Udon. it really is great.

3881

(picture above)  向こう、it is my friend who has a huge “vegetable” tempura, i guess if oil is never bad for us i “might” consider having one of those, but fried things, esp. tempura, never crave for them, McDonald’s french fries is another story though.

3883

(picture above)  this comes from my Udon, i ordered one with some white thing and a “half-cooked” egg, geez, i did a good deed for myself that day, haven’t been this generous for a while. not to mention, this great taste “green onion” you see, can be refilled as many times as you want. unfortunately for that shop, i am a HUGE fan of green onion.

speaking of “generous”, since my good friend from hk brought me some great load of food, i think it has literally been “weeks” i haven’t been to a grocery store, isn’t that amazing? well, not to mention i am too poor to do regular grocery anyway. but even that, i still manage to 頼む my lovely Chinese friend to get me some ¥400 麻辣 today when she went to 池袋、what can i say? lazy people always think of things to get around.

talk about this 麻辣, i love it soooooo very much not 1 single day i not think about this taste ever since the first night i tried it. my goodness. i had it tonight a few times, till 2 am in the morning, crying out loud.

3882

(picture above)  this is what my friend called “お風呂うどん”, soooooo cute!!!!! the bowl!!!!! it is made of wood, if u are able to tell from this small picture. so cute. so adorable!!!!! it really makes me have the appetite, however, i still like a real Udon instead.

3887

(ok, alert, this has nothing to do with the just mentioned event — friends leaving)

(picture above)  this is the INFAMOUS メロンぱん、the time i tasted it, nothing special. cause i bought it from a convenient store. but i was fortunate enough to have someone bought this fresh for me from a bakery, and … yes it is completely different, of course it taste better, and the best part is, the Crunchiness of the topping, it makes ALL the difference. PERIOD.

craving for ASIA taste

from the previous post, even an insensitive person can tell i do regard the more asian part as “the civilization”, nothing against any western もの、ただ i personally just feel way more connected with 東方のもの／こと。once again, no offense to any western cultures, just the way we were born, i really have absolutely no interests to spend more than 50% of my lifetime in somewhere that all i can see are natural born blue/hazel eyes or blonde/dirty brown hair, on tv, at work, on the street, even in my nightmares … or even way worse, people that are super overweight who comes from “somewhere somewhere”, or loads of people that gives no xxxx of fashion 365 days a year. not that i am super fond of those fashion crap like some idiot i know, whose whole life is 101% fashion and it invades/twists one’s personal conception sooo bad that it got to the point of no return — got no brain or common sense for other things. and honestly, it is not like this dude has much fashion sense to begin with … sad, isn’t it?

anyhow, enough mean words, let’s get to the point — one of the wonderful things of being here:

3897

Garlic Sprout ~

please do not tell me these green things do not look delicious … cause man, they DO taste great. garlic’s sprout? as i was told.

3889

Raw Liver

try not get deceived by just the look, or the name of it, these things taste just … wonderful … but personally i think i am the most impressed with the very first ones that i tasted, i will never forget them …

3896

Beef with Rice ^^

i cannot quite recall the name of this actually, but it tastes great, esp. the sauce.

ok, now i have some good things on my mind before i head to bed for real.

Hotmail blog is moving to WordPress …

a while back, keep on getting this reminder telling me that Hotmail is no longer holding space for our blogs, and we have to manually do something if we want to keep our blogs and photos around, and the place we have to migrate to is … man, when i see the name it seems so familiar, now i know, cause it is the infamous WordPress that Oakhouse has been using ~.

and while transferring, of course i just could not help but keep looking at the blogs that i wrote years ago, goodness, it was back in 2006. by looking at them, it just so giving me the old feelings back, NOW and THEN, so completely different. the 気持ち back then, i can still taste them when i read the words.

and i came across the following, i just could not help laughing.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

i got the ticket la ~ !!!!!!!!

Posted on August 7, 2007 by orange238

at around 1pm, Aug 7, 2007 US time!!!
call me crazy but i have to write this down, since it is SOOO unexpected!!!

I canNOT believe the timing!!!

SOOOOOOO COOOOL!!!!!!! i did not even know that they have a concert till yesterday, all i heard is that they are going to Malyasia in Chirstmas and i was like … ah … i x know if i want to go “there” … even tho all my good old college friends are there, really, however, …

Fiona you rock la ~ ! Thank you ah Fanny u help us so much!!! Lucky u found the site!!! I am soooo bad at this!!! and u seem also had a crush like i do at the same time i am sure u know how i feel ~ !!!

FINALLY!!! 1 step closer back to the civilization!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “SAY 4”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAY!!!

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

the funniest word is “civilization”. and i still cannot agree more. that is right, i AM in the civilization now. thank goodness.