i guess even sign shops need to advertise

but for some reason it made me giggle

bits and pieces

I think that 五月病 finally hit me... talk about ギリギリ! If it had have hit me much later, I wouldn't be able to pull the 五月病 card. lol.

So just feeling "listless", add that that a bit headachy, and the fact that it has been HOT the last few days and you get the picture. J also felt sick last night - it hit him all of a sudden too. wonder what it is/was?

Am feeling a bit better now though - might be the 2 glasses of vino I had after lunch!? haha.

Guessing I should do a round-up of things, coz if I try to post everything in full, I will be here all day. Let's see if I actually can brief it (I am known to ramble...)

• chinese for dinner


This dates back to last Thursday night. I made my favourite "chicken and cashew nuts" FROM SCRATCH, and added some 麻婆豆腐(mabo dofu spicy tofu) from the packet, 青梗菜 (chin-gen-sai - which I think is what we call bok choi?) with oyster sauce and some steamed asparagus. It was all pretty darn good too.


• R is back

She spent last week at the PIL's. When she is here, I complian about her going spaz over the vacuum cleaner, and stuff, but I really miss her when she is gone. We took her out last night to play at the park with the soccer ball. She is an amazing soccer player, this dog. And it is soooooo funny to watch.I might try to get her on video doing it one time....


• Ikea

Went to Ikea a few weekends ago, and found this awesome tunnel for K to play in!! And since we are 親ばか we even bought the golden retreiver, who she LOVES.

It's name is "goldie" and when we say "where's goldie" she goes and gets him and gives it a big hug and kiss. too cute.


• Midori Sushi

no, the sushi was not green, but we ate at Midori Sushi on Sunday, the PIL's shouted us (yay! tastes even better when you don't have to pay, lol). If anyone is looking for a great sushi joint, then Midori Sushi is IT! We used to go all the time when we were "courting" (hehe, nice word for it) and BK (before K) but haven't had a chance to go recently. This time though, it was perfect timing as K fell asleep just as we sat down at the counter (I had her in the ergo) and slept through the entire meal. We were there for about 1.5hours.

I went all out this time and had:
1 海鮮サラダ　（seafood salad shared amongst all 4 of us)
1 plate of various clam saashimi 貝刺身 :　赤貝、ミル貝、あわび、つぶ貝
2貫　うに, sea-urchin one normal, one that had been preserved in salt water
2貫　はまち (they didn't have any ぶり so had to go for the はまち。 ぶり (yellow tail) is my ABSOLUTE favourite, but the hamachi was pretty good too.
2貫　平貝　(taira-gai) with lemon and salt YUM!
1貫 こぼれうに (sea urchin that is overflowing off the rice)
1貫　こぼれいくら (salmon roe that is overflowing off the rice)
and 2 beers!!

That is all I can remember, might have had more?! It was all DELISH though. And the best part - K slept the entire time we were at the counter, on my back in the Ergo.

I really recommmend Midori Sushi if anyone wants reasonable but yummy sushi in Tokyo. We always go to the original store, in 梅丘 (Umegaoka on the Odakyu line) about 15mins (?) from Shinjuku. FWIW, it cost about 14,000yen for all 4 of us, and me and FIL were drinking. And MIL only orders the most expensive Tuna and Uni. The sushi ネタ are all so big you get full quick, so we always take our time. and sitting at the counter is the best way to go.　But be warned - we have had to line up here for 1hour sometimes, especially for weekend lunch. On Sunday we went at about 1:45pm and got in straight away!


• Italian for dinner


Last night was Italian...in a bit of a strech of the word. We had タラコ spaghetti, margerita pizza, salad with smoked salmon. And a teeny-tiny bottle of lambrusco that I bought at the discount store for about 200yen!! I had half of it last night, and the last glass today with lunch!

Nothing exciting really, but that was the round up.

silly mummy

went for a morning walk to the local park so K could have a play before heading off to the supermarket/department store about 30mins walk away, just for something to do!! (we have other super/depato about 5mins walk away)

probably couldn't have picked a hotter day for it, lol. anyway, K fell asleep in the stroller on the walk over there, and woke up after I had been shopping around for new socks (for me), t-shirts for K and some other random stuff that I didn't need, but ended up throwing in the shopping basket anyway. When she woke up, she tried to take her teevas off, so I took them off her, gave her a drink and a senbei to keep her occupied while I finished shopping. Went to go change her nappy after we had paid, and when I went to pull the nappy out of her bag, I realised that there were no teevas anywhere!! She only had the teevas for 2 days and I had lost them already?!?! man! but I thought calmly through what I had done, and went back to where I took the shoes off her and gave her a drink ,and there they were, sitting in the middle of one of the aisles waiting for me!! "silly mummy"!!

then I got home to fing a letter from the gas company, hand addressed. thought I was in the sh*t again...opened it to find a letter telling me that I had paid the SAME BILL twice, so they were going to refund the money. Again, "silly mummy"!!

I thought I had lost it when I had pregnancy brain, but I seem to be getting much much worse every day. .... however, I now know all the words for several Japanese kids songs!

I think I need a "socks" tag on here

lovely day today - supposed to be 22degrees! I know it was definitely hot when I was at K's playgroup at the 児童館 this morning. It was our 2nd time, but last week they had a special guest in who takes the kids through a whole heap of songs and dance and stories. Today was the regular mums doing the "leading". So we started off by singing a hello type song, where everyone sits in a circle, and when it is your turn, you say your kids name, and then the whole group sings "where is so-and-so" and then the kid has to raise their arm and say "HAI" (here I am). We have been practising this with K actually at home. Sometimes she does it, sometimes she also does it when we say to Rosie "beg (欲しい人) for food" which is pretty funny. But she was a bit slow on the uptake this morning, so I quickly raised her hand for her. Feel like a bit of a stage mother (hehe). Then about 15mins of songs and walking round in a big circle and acting like elephants... you know, all the usual stuff that would make you feel so embarrassed until you have a kid of your own, and actually find yourself doing it at all sorts of random places and times anyway (like in public toilets, trying to keep K quiet and calm while mummy has a raz. lol!!)

Today we made fish. It was K's first EVER time to play with crayons (and yes, of course, they went in her mouth straight away!! but obviously they don't taste that nice, coz she only did it once, which is a near miracle!!) so I drew the fish

(not bad if I do say so myself) and cut them out while K scribbled. all over the paper and all over the floor. lucky they crayons wash off in water, so all I had to do was a quick wipe over of the floor with her おしりwipes when we finished. And the crayons are triangular! yes,　三角クレヨン so they are easy to hold for the littlies. what a great invention.

so as I was sitting on the floor, busily making my (ah, I mean K's) fish and fishing rod, I happened to turn around to look at someone else's (trying to copy, probably!!) and as my head turned back, I caught a glimpse of my own feet underneath me... AND THE DIRTY ROTTEN BIG HOLES IN BOTH OF MY SOCKS!!

aaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh. major faux pax! if it's not K with no socks on, then it's me with holes in my socks (lol)
I then spent the rest of the time trying not to let anyone see the bottom of my feet, while sitting cross-legged (ah, impossible) or even 正座Japanese style - seiza (just as impossible). I don't think I have done the sock gaffe for a while. Sort of refreshing actually - I guess it means that I haven't turned Japanese yet, hehe!!

oh, and in a timely development, I actually bought 2 new pairs of socks, which arrived yesterday with our teeva collection (bought on-line from REI on sale. Also got a cool orange 3/4 length top. For some reason I am really into orange at the moment! And J got a cool rain jacket. And K got a really cute hat... we bought up big!!) But they are hiking socks, so I might now have to go out and get some "round the house" type socks too. Now I think about it, a lot of my socks are getting a bit 危ない... probably bought them all at about the same time, so the holes are just starting to develop now. So it looks like some sock-shopping coming up soon!

all teeva'd up for summer

new teevas for the whole clan

memo to self

never, I repeat, never ever go back to the supermarket at 4pm.

I just ran down after K woke up from her nap, to get some milk, and some greens to go with planned spag bol for dinner.

OMG, It was like shopping warfare in there. I swear about 20 ba-ba-tarions* jumped over K's stroller (or ran into it, actually) to get past me. I couldn't move. there were people EVERYWHERE. I actually stood in the corner shaking my head at the pandemonium going on around me. wish I had taken a photo!!

as it turns out, got an email from J JUST as I arrived back home to say that he has to go out for dinner with the boss. so planned spag bol is being まわすed to tomorrow night!!

vocabulary list:
ba-ba-tarion: a human-like looking female form with the strength of 20men. Can leap shopping trolleys at will. Can pull 100yen broccoli out of the special cart with one hand, while simultaneously grabbing the largest bunch of bananas for 100yen with the other. Same species that pushes everyone and anyone out of the way to get into the lift/onto the escalators/ through the door first, and makes comments about babies without socks/ hats/ blankets on. Cousin of inaka-ba-baba, often seen at inaka festivals catching mochi with their apron or umbrella.

rain and hats

it's not even the rainy season yet, but another day of rain! Enough rain to make the trains delayed, and our playgroup cancelled (*sigh*) I was looking forward to seeing everyone - we haven't been for almost a month. I even made up sandwiches for K's lunch to take with us, when J msged me to say that the rain and wind was pretty bad, the trains were delayed, and maybe I should reconsider going to the playgroup today. Turns out it was cancelled anyway, so I felt better that it was not just me missing out (hehe). And K's just gone down for a nap now, which is when we would be just arriving at playgroup. She is in that stage where sometimes one nap a day is enough, but sometimes she still needs two. It is hard to gage. But this morning she woke up at 7am, when she usually wakes at 8am (or has been the lst week or so) so I figured she might want to take a morning nap too. (yay, Ergo, for putting her to sleep!!)

Anyhoo, I keep on meaning to recount my recent miracle story. We went shopping to a sports/outdoor shop 2 weeks ago, for J's birthday. We haven't really been to an outdoor shop for a while, so J was SO excited, and wanted everything he saw! especially tents (he "collects" tents, as he says. He has about 7 of them! That means that we can either sleep in a different tent 7 days running OR take 14 friends with us camping, lol!)Anyway, he decided what he wanted for his birthday - these chairs (the second set of chairs, with the high back) and we got one of each in green and maroon (the maroon one is mine!) We used them on our GW camp, and they were SO comfy. One of the other guys had one too - his was navy, so it was pretty funny that we all had different colours!

So we left the outdoor shop, and were just getting off the train at our station when J realised that he didn't have his hat.

It was his "Billabong" baseball type cap that I got him a few years ago from Oz. Of course, I got the blame for it - I must have dropped it off the back of K's pram when I was putting the rain cover on when we left the shop. *sigh*. (Well, granted, I DO often lose bits and pieces, K's socks, hats, blankets off the pram) So while J was away for work last week, I went back to the outdoor shop, 2 weeks to the day, and asked on the off chance if they had found a navy blue Billabong hat near the entrance 2 weeks ago....they reckoned it was a slim chance if we lost it near the entrance. But the staff came back a few minutes later and said they had found one near the toilets, and miracle of miracles, it was J's cap!! I was so excited that we got it back (and that it was found near the guy's toilets, hehe!).

another "wa" dinner...

After a week of J away for work, I had almost forgotten that I was supposed to prepare dinner....it was already 1pm when I frantically pulled open the freezer to see if I could scrape together a meal out of frozen goods.... found the 紅しゃけ　(red salmon) we bought at Costco a few weeks ago. perfect. Add to that a great menu idea from gaijin wife - 豚のネギ塩焼き which I then found on the Orange Page website (how exciting - I didn't know they had a website!!! Means I no longer have to borrow last year's Orange Pages from the library for inspiration!) So there was dinner. Once again I got a "yum, looks good" comment from J. cool. Forgot to take a photo of it though, as J called up at 5:30 to say he finished work early and was on his way home, and to meet him down at the Softbank shop so we could get new phones...we had the old ones for about 1 and a half years, and they were starting to lose it - turning themselves off unexpectedly, answering machine function not working any more, etc etc. So after choosing our new phones, I ran home to slap together the meal, added in some steamed greens and a small salad and we chomped into it straight away, so no photo!!

still trying to make some space in the freezer(must. use. mince.)
, so tomorrow night is going to be spag bol. Works out well, coz tomorrow we are going to trapse across to our old playgroup (which is now about an hour away by train. it is a long way to go at 9am with a very genki 1 year old, but we wanna see everyone again, so I am psyched up to do it!! ) so dinner tomorrow night it going to have to be a slap-it-together dish, as I expect to be buggered by the time we get home tomorrow afternoon.

amazing

saturday night tv is amazingly bad. I thought the acting in the show "Rookies" was bad, but man was the wind knocked out of me while watching the show on after it, "Gokusen".
I am in awe. Or maybe they are actually extremely good actors, to be able to act THAT bad!!?
At least next up is a show that is meant to b funny、゛enta no kamisama゛!

we have had a big day

K managed to get use out of her oversized hat today, as the sun finally decided to make a reappearance. Since it was the first day since the weekend that there wasn't rain around, I thought that we should treat R to a big walk. Usually we go for 2 walks a day. I try to make one of them a "big" one, of about an hour or so.

First off though, at about 9:30am this morning, we went out, K in the ergo on my back, down to the end of the street for R's little walk, you know, the "get the business outta the way" type walk. We walk right past a community kid's centre （児童館), and for some reason, I felt the need to go in an ask if there were any gatherings for 1year old kids. Turns out there was a group meeting at 10am this morning, so we cut R's walk little walk short, headed home and got ready to go back. It actually started at 10:30am, and it was just like a playgroup - so I joined up!

There are about 16 mums and kids about 1-2 years old. K was HYPER the whole hour of the playgroup. She was just running around the hall, trying to get into everyone's bags and drink bottles. Basically she didn't stop the whole time. I hope that she was just excited about seeing so many kids. K is definitely NOT a wall flower. She gets into EVERYTHING and is always trying to get everyone's attention (just like R, actually). I was sort of debating about whether we should actually join up the playgroup, coz if she is like this every week, well, they will probably kick me out. (lol) AND I was absolutely buggered at the end of the hour anyway, coz I ended up chasing her around the hall for the entire time. sigh. hopefully she will be a bit more interested in doing things next time?!

Once a month they have a volunteer come in and do some movement and songs and tell a story (today was it!) The other times they have the members take turns to plan a craft or thing to do for the day. Apparently next week is "going fishing" - we have to take along crayons, scissors and sticky tape to make the fish and the poles I guess?? Anyway, I am glad that I got up the courage to go in to the community centre and ask. And now we have something to do on Thursdays, and the other mothers, although I didn't really get a chance to talk to them, seem ok. A bit of a mix, some youngish mums, all done up like they are going shopping in Ginza, a few more mature mums but generally most of them looked very down to earth and friendly.

After the playgroup, we got home and K had a big lunch (obviously all that running around made her hungry) of rice, with tuna and veges stew that I had left over from her dinner the night before. Then she slept. And so did I. Only for an hour though. But I managed to get K back to sleep for another hour after that, though.

Then we headed off to the river after K woke up from her afternoon nap. I made her avocado sandwiches,2 slices of bread rolled up to make "pin wheel sandwiches" which she devoured most of before we even got to the riverside. and it is only a 10 min walk away! lol.

Along the river, there are 3 walking/cycling roads. The "high road", which is bitumen, the "low road", which is like a dirt road, but pressed down dirt, so it is smooth, and easy to walk along, and "the middle road" which is 砂利, a real dirt road with pebbles, so it is really bumpy, especially in the stroller. Poor K, she just about had the sh*t shaken out of her as we walked along the middle road.

Also they are actually at three different levels. I have to cross the road, and go up the embankment to get to the high road, then go back down the embankment to get to the middle and low roads. There are a few places along the river that have slopes that you can take your bike up and down the embankment, but they are a bit steep for the stroller, so I usually use the slope that is more stroller friendly. But today, I decided to cut to the chase, and head down the grass! straight down!! R was pulling us, and the embankment was a bit muddy from the last few days of rain. I am lucky we didn't go R over Z! I think I will stick to the proper slope next time, even if it is a bit out of my way.

At the riverside, we ran into another Jack Russel terrier. I think we have actually met them before at the river, coz they knew R's name. But I couldn't remember them. Sometimes I wish dogs had meishi (business cards.) Also chatted with the owner of an Italian Greyhound. All the dog owners gather at the end of the golf course at 4pm I think for a doggy playgroup?! (lol). We didn't go though.

So after our big 1 hour walk plus, we brought R back home, then headed straight out again with K to the shops to get some milk, and bananas. It was 5:50pm by the time I actually got home. So then it was a quick grab some things out of the freezer for K's dinner (chicken-tofu burgers, with peas, carrots and corn and mashed sweet potato) followed by a quick throw together whatever I have in the fridge for my dinner (bacon, red capsicum, long onions, asparagus stir-fry with rice, and natto!!). J is away for work, so I am trying to use up lots of left overs and bits and pieces for my meals.

I have rambled on enough -I think the excitement of the day has made me hyper too!! I think I am gonna put the kettle on for a cuppa. there are still a few "coconut sable" biccies left with my name written all over them.

oversized hat:check!

now all we need is a bit of sunshine

only in japan?

umbrella vending machine @ train station!

out & about today

we were at yamada denki, looking at new laptop for J.
K played in the kids area - seemed to have great time throwing all the toys around.

then went to a interior/furniture store,but all we bought was this pair of toilet slippers at J`s insistance.

I never see much use for them, but he says we need them for any japanese guests （think he means his folks!).lol

vegemite on toast!

this morning is k`s first taste! She lapped it up like a little Aussie trouper! yay

one of those days

now, I know that sounds like I am going to start on a big ol' rant, but I actually had a GOOD day, so it is one of those GOOD DAY stories (lol)

This morning R took K and me for a walk, just down to the park at the end of the street which is in the middle of the 団地 apartments. If we go with the stroller, then I usually run around with R while K watches - she loves it, giggling the whole time as I puff and pant around the park. But today we went out with K in the ergo baby carrier. (as an aside here, may I just say that this is THE BEST baby carrier. I had a Ninna nanna (I think it is called) which you can use from birth, but once K got to be about 7kg, it really hurt even just to go around the corner for a walk with her in it, cause there is no support really...she just "hangs" on your shoulders.

With the Ergo, there is a waistband and really thick shoulder straps, so it is like wearing a backpack. I love my ergo! so does K - she tries to put it on herself hehe!


anyway, back to the story....
so we were at the park, just walking around, when we came across some cute flowers growing at the side of one of the apartment blocks. I was about to take a photo fo the flowers, when a little ol' lady came out and asked me if I would like some flowers!! so she picked a few for me to take home. They are now pride of place in the 玄関 on the shoe box.

Then when we went for our afternoon walk, I heard someone calling out from behind me "is that a Jack Russel?" about R. I turned around to see a woman on a bike with a Jack Russel Terrier in the basket that looked JUST LIKE R!!!! The same black with spots - most Jacks we see are the tan and white ones, and the only other black Jack that I had seen was once at home in Oz. So I was actually so excited to see another black and white Jack, just like our little R


and here is R being fawned over by K! K LOVES HER!


Add to those 2 nice experiences that the lady at the bread shop was really nice to me, and I managed to get a loaf of bread sliced into 12 slices, and it only cost 240yen, AND K was a little angel all day, which is much nicer than the last few days of whining that she has been sending my way AND J offered to bring home something from the COZY CORNER cake shop at the supermarket on his way home...but I declined (how good am I!?) .....and ate half a costco chocolate muffin instead with milk for dessert. still have a few left in the freezer, and I really need to clean out the freezer (my excuse for having to eat a muffin a day anyway)!

small things really, but they all added up to make today a nice day! yay!

K`s breakky

this morning I had a big bowl of muesli （which I ate half of)& milk. I also had some of mummy & daddy`s toast! now I am watching my favourite tv show、 おかあさんと一緒 and dancing to my favourite song : ぱわわぷ! mummy likes this song too - you should see HER dance to it!

last post for the day, I promise

so this is what we had for dinner. I think I am going through a 和 phase!
★豚の生姜焼き
★ひじき煮 （ひじき、豚肉、人参、こんやく、油揚げ)
★大豆とキュウリの大根和え
★筍と豆腐の吸い物
★アスバラwithマヨネーズ
★ご飯
j looked at it said 美味しそう - he never says that、 so Iwas chuffed! Only problem was the 吸い物 was a bit lacking flavour. oh well. the hijiki was just right though!

K`s dinner

Change of game plan - cause we were having ひじき for dinner as one of our 小鉢, I decided to give it to K as well...she loves it! I never even realised that Hijiki is actually a seaweed. For some reason I thought it was a "mountain vege".

So here is what K had:

rice dressed with ひじき
pumpkin
tofu
and a cup of milk!

Wierd mix, hey!? lol but she ate the lot, and came back for seconds - some of my rice!

筍

So I attempted to do something with the takenoko bamboo shoots, following the instructions on this page.

This is the bambo shoot I bought.

There wasn't that much left after took all the peel off it...

I wonder if I took too much peel off? Have a look at what I threw away!

I prepared the big pot for simmering the bamboo shoots. It might have been a bit of an overkill. (sorry, don't know how to flip the photo as I sent it from my mobile - still can't get my camera to upload photos to computer.....maybe the 2G memory stick was not such a good idea after all?)

So apparently I let this simmer for like 40minutes or something.

I think I might try to make this recipe for 吸い物 out of it, IF it works, lol

what this kid eats

I have been meaning to write this post for a while, after nay made a comment on my post about K eating her little shirasu fish with rice, and asked what I feed her.

well, it is really a big old hodge-podge of anything and everything, because that is what WE eat! lol. When I started K on solids, we started with Farex baby cereal that I picked up when in Oz. We also started on sweet potato, because it was in season then, so it seemed like a good thing to start off with.
Now that K is over 1 year old, her diet has expanded, to include lots of veges, meats, fish and dairy.

A lot of the food I give her is obviously influenced by the fact that we are living in Japan. I give her tofu a lot, and also use tofu to make little chicken meatballs or mixed with mince to make sausages. She LOVES rice. I reckon she could eat a whole bowl of it with nothing else and be happy. I was getting worried for a bit last month, because it seemed that rice was ALL she was eating. So I started making roll sandwiches (with cream cheese or cottage cheese mixed with pumpkin or spinach) which she loves cause she can hold them in her hand. I also made a little quiche for her yesterday with tomato and chicken, she lapped that one up too, so I think she is back on track for "aussie" food.

I guess, the main thing is that I want K to be able to eat with the family whether she is in Japan or in Australia, so I have to keep trying to introduce her to lots of different foods and styles - not just the rice!! But rice is just SO EASY, it does tend to be the staple food that she eats nearly every day. I try to find some recipes on the internet, and I have a good little book that has Japanese food in it, but I don't get around to making interesting stuff everyday - so we have our regular of rice with "something". sort of like a 混ぜ御飯 mixed rice.

Also, the commercial baby food here is really different from home, and has a lot of fishy meals, or japanese flavoured meals. So I think she is used to these flavours - I don't give her commercial food all the time, but I do make sure that I have a few in the house all the time, as J is prone to announce things like "lets go for a walk to the shops 30mins away(usually said 20mins before K's lunch time)" or "let's have sushi-ro (sushi train) for dinner(usually said after we have been out all day)" or my favourite, "lets go camping for 2 days, and let's leave in 5 minutes" at the drop of a hat, and pre-made food is really a must to have! And bananas and avocados - they have really got me through a few meals on-the-go with K!

So today's menu for K:
breakfast - baby muesli with milk
10am snack - baby senbei(rice crackers); drink of milk
11am snack - banana
12 lunch - cream cheese roll sandwiches; drink of water
:
3pm snack - maybe some tofu (think 冷奴): drink of milk or water
4 or 5pm - probably another senbei OR rusks (toasted bread crusts)
6pm dinner - rice with carrots, peas and corn and home-made sausage: drink of milk

As for me? I had a smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwhich for lunch (yum). Dinner is probably going to be ginger pork (bought for half price at the supermarket at 8pm last night - J needed to get something so we all trapsed down to the supermarket for an "outing" before K's bedtime) and something with bamboo shoots in it, cause I bought a bamboo shoot yesterday, but didn't know for sure how to cook it, so I asked J what to do - apparently I can simmer it in the left-over water used to wash the rice. hope it turns out ok.

me, after 3 days of GW camping wearing sunglasses but no sunscreen during some serious UV ray action