Kamaku-ra

Yesterday we had an impromptu trip to Kamakura....since nothing had been planned, we didn't leave the house until near 11am, but we are now quite close, so got there in time for lunch - picking somewhere to eat in Kamakura without any "research" is always fun, but we chose one of those restaurants that advertise on boards all over the street - it was cheap (for a touristy spot) and filling, about 1000yen for 定食 with halfネギトロ丼halfしらす丼　for me　（J had いくら・さけ丼）some udon, a few bits of tempura and pickles. I gave K my noodles, and half my 丼, really only in the hope that I would have left room to pig out afterwards on the yummy snacks around, but as it turned out, we never really found a "yummy snacks" place...J and K shared some だんご but that was it. We walked up the main shopping street with all the touristy shops, then stopped by Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine and gardens there, where K ran around the whole grounds. I had hoped it would tire her out, but she was still wide awake and asking for ice-cream (the bribe we used to get her to sit back in the pram) hours later still. So we went looking for a nice cafe kind of place that does お茶 - for some reason, whenever I go to temples or shrines or 祭り I just get the urge for 抹茶. But we can never find a nice place to have a 和 style coffee break. There was one joint that did ocha, and the gardens next to the Tsurugaoka shrine, but you had to pay to get into the gardens first, and welll that just wasn't what I was looking for. I remember a cool little 和cafe in Beppu, that had 和desserts, like やせうま　（which is just thick udon type noodles with kinako on it). That was the kinda place I was searching for. *sigh* Anyway, since we are so close now, I will be sure to research for next time in case J comes out with an impromptu "Let's go to Kamakura" again.

So in the end, we ended up at Mr Donuts near the station (I know, I know, was only there 2 days before, oops) and then caught the train home again, home by about 4pm. It was a nice day of ぶらぶら, but I was a bit worn out by the end. And I slept WELL last night, as did K who missed her nap, so was out to it by 8pm (early for her).

Also, it seems that I change my pronunciation of Japanese towns when talking in english, so K now says that we went to Kamakuuura, just like a foreigner, lol.

the bloody kotatsu

had another kotatsu moment this morning.
Well, actually, I got all the way to the train station (the 10min walk away one. and this morning I had K in the ergo on my back, rather than in the stroller) when I felt a flash of dread wipe through me - did I turn off the grill??? I had been toasting bread crusts (for some reason the bread shop around the corner gives me 20slices of crust every time I buy a piddly 8-slice loaf of bread. Now, the bread there is delish, and the crusts are yummy to eat too, but now that K is no longer teething (I originally got them to make rusks) I don't have such a need for all that crust))anyway, I was going to bring the crusts with me to feed the kid to try to keep her quiet on the train (bribery in its best form) but I realised that I didn't have the crusts with me....then I wondered if that simply meant I had left them at home, OR they were burning to a crisp as I waited to cross the road to the train station. I spent a few minutes going back and forth in my head as to whether I had turned off the gas or not, but even though I was 99.9% sure I had turned it off, I couldn't shake the 0.01% chance of the whole house and surroundings burning to the ground if I had forgotten. So we ran/walked home (I am not as fit as I used to be, esp with a 12kg sack of poatoes, or close on my back). Of course the gas was off, but I thought I should just check the kotatsu while I was home, and wouldn't you know it - bloody J had left it on. I know it was him, because he is the only one that uses it in the morning. K and I usually aren't up to use it, but it seems that when we are, he assumes this means that the responsibilty to turn off the kotatsu is then passed on to me. I don't even think that leaving the kotatsu on all day would cause a problem, but I guess I also don't want to have to find that out.

In other news, I have a very bruised and battered ego (and forehead and right knee) after misjudging the baby gate in the kitchen when going in yesterday afternoon to fix tea for visiting friend E. My foot clipped the top of the baby gate as I tried to climb over it...luckily my forehead broke my fall. I must have thumped down hard because E came running over to me "are you ok" while I was all lying face down in the dead-body-on-the-road-with-chalk-round-them pose. I half wanted to cry out of shock and embarrasment, but I ended up doing a silly laugh-to-avoid-crying-thing instead. It *was* pretty funny though. But that, added to my 2往復 to the train station this morning with K on my back (after we had already taken R for her morning walk, of course with K in the ergo), and I am feeling kinda sore all over at the moment. I can hardly raise my arms above my head. Seriously considering flagging dinner tonight and getting take away or meeting J at the cheapie Chinese joint by the station for dinner. Cannot be bothered making anything. But, the rice was pre-set to cook, and I have everything I need to throw together a quick at home chinese (mabo-nasu and 八宝菜 (chicken chow mein minus the mein) so I guess I should just get to it. I will, as soon as I can drag myself up off the sofa........

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

On a bit of a spur of the moment decision, we ended up at:
(cue Wada Akiko voice)
"FUJI
Safari Pa-----ku"
on Saturday with PILs. The ad for this is one of the most annoying in the world! It totally sticks in your head,


needless to say we were all singing "honto ni, honto ni, honto ni, honto ni lion da" all day.

This is a different kind of zoo, where you lock yourselves in your car, and drive around the bears, tigers, giraffes, etc who are all out in the open. The coolest part was when a giraffe walked past our car. Man they are big fellas.It wasn't cheap (2700yen per adult, kids under 4 or 6 free to drive in your own car, an extra 1500yen each to go in the safari bus!!), but it was cool seeing the animals right up close like that. And all of K's favourite animals were there - elephants, giraffes and zebras. There was also a small patting zoo, with pigs, kangaroos and some very sad looking wallabies with their ears all eaten away, possibly by one nasty boss wallaby. We had a good day, but K has had a bit of a persistant cough for a few weeks now, and it seems to get worse when she runs around. So of course she got so excited at the petting zoo and ran all the way to the restaurant where we were gonna have lunch, so that as soon as we got into the restaurant, she coughed so much she up-chucked, everywhere. All over herself and of course me. So everyone else ordered lunch while I got her cleaned up. Then J said they would watch her while I ordered at the counter. There should have been 3 sets of eyes on her, so I still can't work out why she ended up in the men's toilets, with MIL standing at the door trying to bribe her out. Once they got her out, PIL and J were then too busy in some stupid conversation about where that door leads to, that no one was watching K. Even me at the counter ordering had an eye on her, but not them. I stuck it up them - 3 sets of eyes and not one of them on her!! Am sure I hav been labeled psycho gaijin mum now. At least it might give them a kick up the butt to be more vigilant in watching her, if only to stay out of my wrath, lol。

hai, o-ka-pi!

Last Wednesday was a public holiday so we headed out to Zoorasia in Yokohama. (I was singing U2 songs in my head all day for some reason, hehe, which then reminded me of schoolies, as some friends were really into u2, and we were doing some wierd "zoo" dance thing or something. I , myself was more into the chilly willies (RHCP) at that time...but I digress....)

So, Zoorasia, it was an amazing zoo, and I totally recommend it because it has the most amazing range of wierd and wonderful animals, it is really clean and smells like roses (well, maybe not roses, but there is none of that usual Japanese zoo smell around) and the animal inclosures are relatively natural looking.

K's favourites of the day were the elephants (zou-san) and monkeys. I was impressed to see the tree kangaroo, as I had never seen one before, and the Malayan Tapir, which K kept calling an elephant:


but I definately think the highlight was the OKAPI, or as K knows it, the zebra, haha:


very cool

all sausaged and shopped out

First a quick review of the past few days:

Sunday was a crazy busy day. We went to breakfast with friends of my parents from 8:30am (although we were 10mins late since Sunday was the ONLY day so far that K decided to sleep in.) Then we got home at about 11am, only to pack our esky up to go to my brother's house for a bbq. Since he lives over the other side of town, it takes about an hour to get to his place, so I was plying K with all the sandwiches and snacks about the place that I could find to try to keep her quite for the whole trip, so that for whatever reason, she fell asleep like 2mins before we arrived!
We had a nice drink and bbq around their pool area/outdoor deck. K was well behaved most of the time (except when she was "riding" the paper mache zebra, but that was probably my brother's fault for showing it to her) and fell asleep in the car on the way home at 6pm. I was nearly falling asleep driving home too. What a big day.

Monday my friend H came up from the coast, and we left K at home with mum to go to see a movie, "Four Holidays". It was entertaining and I enjoyed it. And the half-dozen cinnamon donuts we shared during it. After the movie, another friend met us and we did their Christmas shopping, had lunch at a cafe in the shopping centre, did more shopping, walked around more so that our feet hurt, so we indulged in a little pedicure (was lovely) and yet again was buggered by the time I got home near 6pm.

Today a friend I have known all my life (really, her parents live around the corner and they knew me when I was a bump!) and I caught up. We had a fantastic tapas lunch/glass of wine/cappucino then cruised around her favourite dress shops, where she bought a lovely dress, and I tried on 4 but bought none. 2 of them were ok, 1 was really nice, but I couldn't justify it - I really have nowhere to wear it in Japan. And it was $175(on sale!) That is too much for a dress to wear once on Xmas day then forget. It *was* a cool dress though, longish with a fab pattern in brownish almost paisley pattern that reminded me of a peacocks feather for some reason!?, halter neck type top with a band of glittery bling under the bust. It matched my toenails too (painted purple yesterday @ pedicure). Got home and skyped J which was nice, and just fell asleep before in front of the TV because I was stuffed yet again. I did manage to wake myself up enough to watch "Judging Amy", my latest TV addiction. I am gonna miss THAT when I leave. I doubt they have it at my local video rentals place.


*********************************************************************************

I love bbq sausages, and miss them when I am in Japan. There is something about the bog-standard aussie bbq sausage that floats my boat. But after having had sausages 3 days in a row since Friday night and the 2 bbqs on the weekend, I think I am a bit over them. Luckily Xmas here is not a bbq. I will probably ask for one more sausage sizzle before I go back to Japan though, just for good luck.

As for the shopping, all I have actually bought since back here is 1 singlet top and 1 tshirt, a pair of togs for me, a pair of ugg boots for K and several Aussie animals reading books for K. Even when I can go shopping without K I do not really find myself that interested in it. Even when I find nice clothes/shoes I can't bring myself to buy them, because a) I already have so many clothes that I never wear and b) I honestly can't see myself wearing the clothes once I get back to Japan. I have no need for strappy high heels and slinky dresses there. I used to think it was because people in Japan are more varied in their fashion (as in it is acceptable to go out to an izakaya in a t-shirt and jeans where as in Aus I would want to dress up to go out) but I think it is more my mind set. I don't want to dress up, I don't feel the need to dress up in Japan. Does that mean I have become fashionably lazy, or just fashion lazy?

Reporting back...

Operation De-clutter:
well, there will be no photos of the declutter, because I am too embarressed to show everyone what a really pathetically small area I am talking about, hahah! But I think it is a great idea, which I will use for my own reference only in the future! On Friday, I actually did manage to get the area around the phone and genkan, and the table all de-cluttered......and all the clutter moved to form another pile of clutter!! Some of the stuff went in the "I will deal with this later" pile sitting in the bedroom clutter. I am trying, but I think my body us not built for keeping a house clean tidy and decluttered, *sigh*. Baby steps, right?!? I still have the area around the TV to do, as that was the most cluttered, and I am going to be brave and post the pre-clutter picture here. The original idea was to keep K away from the TV, by using her playpen, but gradually all the stuff that we didn't want her to touch, and other random stuff ended up there.

Stay tuned for an de-clutter update sometime in the next millenium.

Sew it:
Nothing happening on the sewing machine front yet. I am still thinking of buying a machine, but haven't looked any more into it. It will probably be another dust collector, anyway. I might go into the Janome shop down the road one day this week for a squiz. And I am going to check out that link, thanks illahee.

My time:
This weekend just gone, I had my very first bout of "my time". J looked after K for the whole afternoon, from her after lunch nap until she went to sleep at nighttime, while I was off at the movies (THE MOVIES .... I haven't been to the movies since J and I went to see the documentary movie Deep Blue several years ago. Oh, he did remind me last night that we saw some movies, including DaVinci Code while we were on holidays in South America. But the last movie in Japan was Deep Blue!!)
A friend and I went to starbucks (where I ordered a VENTI (?? the hugest one anyway) sized frappacino and a poppy seed cake) then to see Sex and The City (while pigging out on a L size popcorn and a soft drink) then finished it off with a few chuhais and skewars at a yummy yakitori place. Hehe, I think I got carried away, but I was excited about being "free"!! I really enjoyed SATC, so glad we saw it on the big screen. It was funny, and entertaining and pulled on the heartstrings too.
This is the first time that J has looked after K for such a big chunk of time. Actually, only the 3rd time he has looked after her while I do something other than go to the dentist. One time, was when friends were here and I took them out to TOkyo Tower at night, and the 2nd time was a nomikai with the local mums group, that he rang me up at 2 and half hours after it started asking when I was coming home. Hm. That didn't do down well!
But yesterday, they had fun together, and so I think it was good for him too. Am already planning my next mini-getaway

But can I be a real wuss(and oyabaka), and admit that on the train ride home, I was soooooooooooooo lonely - it didn't feel right just being me on the train, without having to entertain a 1 yo with random songs, or pulling out more snacks etc. I missed K. We have been lazing around all day today, as she wouldn't leave me alone most of the morning, I think she missed me too (haha).

Gari-gari-kun (it's an ice block):
I am eating a cola flavoured one as I write this. Yum!
J always says to get one from the bottom of the freezer because they are the lucky ones. They have had this competition going with gari-gari-kun for like the last 30years or something that you can win a free gari-gari-kun if you get the lucky one, with "winner" on the stick. We got a winner the other day, actually, but that was when J picked it. The last several we have eaten (ok, it is our summer addiction for this year) I picked out of the freezer, and I have no luck whatsoever so they have all been losers. Oh well. Guess it just means I have to buy more!

Miyagi Trip (finally)

We went on a 4 day road trip up to Miyagi for O-bon, hoping to escape a bit of the heat. But it turned out to be pretty hot up there too!! And rainy! We took the tent with the intention (haha) of camping out, but a serious lack of camping areas meant that the tent never got to see the light of day. A week later here is the round up of our trip.

Wed August 13th
We left home at about 8:30pm, so K pretty much fell asleep right away in the car.And she stayed that way until 10minutes after we stopped for "the night" at about 4:30am at a service area, when she decided to wake up (just as J and I were finishing counting sheep) so I had to then entertain her in the back of the car (as it was raining outside) for 2 hours.

Thursday August 14th
When J woke up we drove to the nearest town, stopped again and we all had a very average breakfast of soba noodles at a 道の駅.
Today we went to Kesennuma city, to the Ice Aquarium, which I had seen on TV recently. It was bloody cold in there - they have the aquarium in a walk-in freezer, basically, and hand out thick coats to wear as you are going around. It is only really tiny, thank goodness - only took about 3 mins to walk around it, because did I mention it was cold in there?!? Not really worth it, but hey, you get that. It was still raining and K was getting grumpy after this, so we stopped off at Aeon to get some sushi packs for lunch, which we ate in the Aeon carpark then drove on to Onagawa, another sea port, where we set up camp (well, parked the car)for another night.

Friday August 15th
Let R and K run around the sea port in the morning to burn off some pent-up energy, then drove down the Oshika Peninsula. It was a lovely drive - nice coastline. We stopped at Oshika Town for lunch at this little place. J and I both had uni (sea urchin) rice bowls and they were delish!! Oshika (Ayukawa) is an old whaling town, so there was a whale museum there too, but at 700yen entrance fee, we decided to skip it and drive further down the peninsula in search of a camp site to relax at for the day. Found a park at the end of the peninsula that had these gorgeous orchards growing in the wild
I had to really control myself not to pull out a few to throw in a vase!

Unfortunately the beach that J camped at when he was a wee lad with his parents was no longer there, and the only other campsite an expensive "auto camp site" so we stopped off at the roller-slider for a bit of a slide with R and K (they lurve their slippery dips) before heading towards Ishinomaki, then Okumatsushima in search of a better campsite.....only to be dissapointed that there was nothing better, in fact, the closer we got to Matsushima, the less chance we had of finding a campsite, as apparently you are not allowed to camp anywhere in the Matsushima region. Even the youth hostel wouldn't let us set up camp on their lawn, so we got ourselves a dorm room and stayed in the youth hostel for about 4000yen each for the night.

Saturday August 15th
We set off early to get to Matushima, the main attraction of this trip. It is known as one of the top three panoramic spots in Japan. Hmm, I am not sure if I agree or not. It was nice, but I think I have seen more beautiful spots too. I don't know, maybe Matsuhima just didn't do it for me. The town is located on a bay of 260 islands of various sizes, which all have pine trees(matsu) on them, hence the name. The thing to do there is take a sightseeing boat cruise around the islands - 50minutes for about 1400yen. We stopped off at a 7-11 about 1km from the main town area, and I asked for a discount ticket for the boats....well, they showed me the computer ticket selling machine and rushed me through to the boat cruise, so I bought the tickets there for 1260yen - only to find out we had bought tickets for the most obscure boat that only had 2 departures each day, so we had to fill in time before our 10am boat ride, only to find ourselves the only passengers!! At least it worked out well because it meant that K could run around as much as she wanted without having to worry about other passengers. lol.




After the boat ride, we went to the Kanreitei Tea house, which had such a good write up in the tourist books. But I was VERY dissapointed by this. Yes, the view was very quaint,

but the tea they served (at 700yen with a small zunda mochi) was terrible. I am no tea expert, but I have done tea ceremony for a few years(BK), and always look forward to being able enjoy a matcha, but they always dissapoint me. Green tea really needs to be prepared properly to taste nice. This means warming the tea bowl, and definately not using water out of those electric pots because they are just not hot enough. Very very dissapointed (sigh) and I wouldn't recommend anyone going there. Even J's iced macha was bad - it had lumps of green tea floating around in it. Oh, and the thing that amazed me the most - you had to actually put your own tray away - they had 4 different plastic containers to put the tea bowl, plate, tray etc in seperately. That is like blasphemy. The tea bowl is supposed to be one of the most important (and usually expensive!) parts of the tea ceremony, chosen to show your hospitality for your guests. I couldn't believe that any one who actually knows anything at all about tea would be fine with stacking the tea bowls up in a plastic container. (end rant, lol)



After sightseeing we headed off to our pet hotel, booked especially for R! It was up in the mountains, so really quite cool, the first nice cool weather we had - seems Miyagi had a bit of a heat wave for the first few days we were there. Here she is (photo is on the side, can't turn it, sorry) enjoying herself. The pet hotel simply means that she is allowed into our room, as opposed to being stuck alone in the car again. She also got some doggy champagne and cigars when we checked in (no not really haha). The ofuro here was nice, so J and K went in first, then I went in by myself, then later on K and I went in again. We also had a nice morning bath. Being cool outside meant the ofuro was just right!

Sunday August 17th

Had a bit of a sleep in, enjoyed a leasurely breakky and bath, then drove off to see Mt. Zao, but got halfway there and turned back since there was fog about as thick as those o-baka-charachters on Japanese tv, so figured we wouldn't be able to see much there anyway. Also, I got very VERY car-sick on the windy road up there. I never used to get car sick, but ever since being preggars, I guess my body has changed. I get it a lot now. (boo-hoo) Stopped off at a cool little farm that was free to pat the rabbits and goats and sheep. K enjoyed it so much - she is definately not afraid of animals. There was also a cheese factory there, so we spent 30mins sampling all their cream cheeses 20 times over before buying nothing and leaving.

The car ride home was LONG. We got stuck in 2 big traffic jams, the first one 5mins after J decided thatit was time to change drivers as he was sleepy so I got to crawl along the highway at 15km an hour....for over an hour. Fun fun. The second was closer to Tokyo, but just as long. K did a fantastic job for being stuck in a car seat for most of the day, chucking an understandable wobbly at about 6pm when we still had over an hour and half to go to get home.

And finally, last photo is for Gaijin Wife - thought she might like to see that we somwhow ended up in Kunimi!! hahah!


I am buggered now - talk about mammoth post. It has only taken me over a week to get this done, mainly because K really hasn't wanted to leave me alone and gets pissed off whenever I sit at the computer, and because the computer has been playing up a bit recently and making everything twice as long to get done. Congratulations to anyone who read this far - hope I didn't bore you too much, lol!

go aussie go!

I am feeling very nationalistic today.

We went in to the Embassy to apply for K's Aussie citizenship. I have attempted to do this since she was about 4months old, when we took the first lot of photos, but have had several hiccups along the way, mainly trying to find someone to endorse the photos of her (to say it is really her) and sign the application form, again to say (wow, we just had an earthquake, R still seems a bit shocked. It hasnt come up on tv yet, but. there it is, I think it was a "3". The glass doors were rattling, no damage or things falling tho, thank goodness)
where was I? right, so we needed someone to sign the application form as well to say that it really is little K. It needs to be someone who is in a certain profession (such as lawyer, doctor, teacher, nurse, policeman etc) and must have known K since birth. I had several failed attempts to get friends in such occupations to sign - I usually asked them, then forgot to get the documents to them or whatever. Well, finally on Tuesday I got nurse friend to sign away. The photos were taken about 2 months ago when we went to Embassy to confirm what docs were needed, and get the specific photos for the Aussie application forms from the tiny little camera shop down the road from the embassy (Aussie passport photos are very strict about the size of your head in the shot - you look like a giant head in your passport).

So finally thought I had everything under control, stat decs from both J and I to declare that K's name was to be spelt the English way, as opposed to the Japanese way on her birth certificate. As I was completing the application form last night, I realised though that I got nurse friend to sign the OLD application form - it was updated a few months ago apparently. I had a new copy from when I went to the Embassy AAAGGGGHHHH. I was *so* sure they were gonna tell me that no I needed the new application form signed,so would have to start all over again, but they were very nice and said, sure, no problem! Love being an Aussie!!!!

So we went in on the train, about 35mins, so not too bad, and only 1 change of trains. K was an angel on the train going in there, and an angel in the Embassy - we were only there for about 10mins max as we handed the docs over and they took some copies of our passports etc. The we came straight home again. By this time K was hot and getting tired (sick and tired most likely of being strapped to the pram the whole time) so on the train I let her get out and play on the seat with me, then we put her shoes on to walk when we changed trains. The last train ride about 6mins she was not a happy chappy, and screamed nearly all the way home from the train station, and at home she was still upset until she finally fell asleep - she is recuperating in bed now. I know it was a long morning for her, so I guess she did pretty well.

Now, when her citizenship comes through, we have to do it all again and go back to the embassy to apply for her passport!! At least I have all the documents ready.

The Olympics start today - they sort of crept up on me. I will of course be barracking for the Aussies, "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, oi, oi" and "Come on Aussie, c'mon, c'mon, Come on Aussie c'mon" and all that. If I get to see any of their events on TV here in Japan though it will be a miracle! And "ganbare" Japan too!

big few days

We went down to the (PILs's) summer house for the weekend, left Fri night after J got home from work. Decided to try the local roads instead of the highway, and got every single red light for about 40kms straight. J said we would stop at a supermarket along the way to get some supplies, but it was after 10pm before we got to our destination - we were so sure the supermarkets would be shut, but lucked out with one open. J bought up while I waited in car with sleeping K (and sleeping R). When he got back in the car, I said that he should go into the house first and lay out the futons so that I could just run in with K and not wake her up too much. He slapped the steering wheel and let out an expletive as he said "I forgot the keys". We had just driven nearly 2hours, and were 5 minutes away from the house. I did the only thing I could do - laugh! We tried the house just in case his parent's were there (they weren't) or there was a spare key hidden somewhere (there wasn't) then decided that we would head back to pick up the key and come back again - another 2-3hours of driving! Since K was asleep, it didn't really make much difference, except that everytime I was about the nod off in the car, he would turn around and ask a question or make a comment about the car in front or something. Oh well. Finally got to the house (with the key!) at about 1:40am. K woke up and took a while to settle again. Then I couldn't sleep anyway. I think I got about 4hours sleep before K woke up at the crack of dawn. Normally at home, I just let her run amok because really there is not much she can get into, But at the house, it is like one big amusement park (read = danger zone) for K, so I had to be up to supervise her too. We still get to relax a bit(J usually does all the cooking etc on the weekends)but it was a big weekend with lots of playing in the blow-up pool, running around the garden with R, walking down to the fishing port etc etc, so I was buggered by Sunday night.

Tomorrow, a friend is coming over with her daughter who is 3 months older than K to visit. I am usually the visitor - no one ever comes here. And when they do, I spend days before hand SLOWLY cleaning the place up (i.e. I tidy the area near the genkan, then procrastinate for an hour, then I might hit the kitchen, only to wipe the benches before I start thinking about something else and end up on the sofa watching the 2pm drama on tv (which is "鬼嫁日記" or "The Housewife from Hell Diaries" with Goro, comedian from Garage Sale in it. I quite enjoy it, even though I think I have seen the whole series twice already....)oops, double bracket here, see, I am pretty good at getting OFF track....)

so, the friend tomorrow, I met her while I was doing tea ceremony lessons - she was preggars when I joined, then I got preggars, and saw her at the same hospital I was going to, at the preggar's yoga classes. She got a shock to see me there, as I hadn't told my tea ceremony teacher or the others that I was "with child" yet. So we gave birth at the same hospital, and used to catch up with a few other mums from the same hospital for the first several months or so after all the kids were born, then we moved, and I haven't really seen her (or the others) for ages. So she is coming all the way down (nearly an hour by local trains) to see us tomorrow and we are excited!! yay!

Then have another friend coming over Wednesday afternoon with her kindy aged daughter. So with all these visitors (yes, only 2, but as I said, noone ever visits,so I am psyched!) I hit Costco today to get some goodies. Actually, J has been a member for years, and until now, we used to go every other month or so and get stuff, and it was fun going once in a while and buying up big! But we recently moved close to a costco - only 20mins drive away, so I started getting the urge to go there to just buy a few things....like the yummy cakes or muffins, or a frozen lasagna that I could simply pop in the oven tomorrow when friend comes. So I joined up for myself today! yay! But for some reason, everything I wanted, they didn't have it today. There was no frozen anything that could be used for lunch tomorrow, so I am going to have to make a quiche up I think instead (gonna start on the pie crust after I finish this) and I also wanted to buy K this bathing suit that had floaties in the top of it which I saw a few weeks ago when I went, but they were not there any more!!! I was also looking for some unagi (eel) if they had it, to try to beat this dull feeling both J and I have in this heat (夏ばて - why does it sound so stuid when you try to translate it into English?), but it was really expensive there, so I ended up getting it at local supermarket anyway. All in all, a bit dissapointed in becoming a fully-fledged member. Oh, and K cracked a willy-wonker as I was trying to get through the check-out, but that was more my fault for taking her out when it was nap time (I stooopidly thought she would sleep as we went around the store - I was gonna Ergo carry her on my back, but the excitement of Costco obviously got to her too, and she was wide awake, but TIRED!!!and getting grumpy)
We enjoyed the hot dog though.

Right, off to the kitchen with me I guess - pie sheet here I come.

cherry picking, new cars and old hags

it is wierd, i keep on "writing" posts in my head, but when it comes around to sitting in front of the computer, I can't be bothered to actually get them out of my head and onto the screen! hehe. This post has been "in draft" for over a week now!
So probably time to put it all together in another round up of events, maybe

July 12-13
We went cherry picking (not cherry blossom picking as I might have got confused with and told mum, coz she was asking when we got back how the cherry blossoms were, hehe) in Numata, Gunma, with the PILs. We went two years ago, on the first weekend in July. This time, we were already well into July, so the cherry season was pretty much over. Last time we got to try 4 or 5 different types of Japanese cherries, but this time only Satonishiki (nice, sweet) and Napolean (relatively tasteless) cherries were still around. And only a third of the cherry fields/farms/orchards?? (not sure what you call them) were still open, the ones at slightly higher altitude. So we got a discount - 1000yen each for 15mins of all you can pick-and-eat cherries, but they actually said we could stay for as long as we want. Truthfully, though, there is only so much cherry you can eat at one sitting (or picking! hehe). It was fun, and hot! The nicest cherries were to be found at the top of the trees, the branches closest to the top of the greenhouse roof, so it sort of felt like we were eating cherries straight out of the oven!

We stayed overnight in a small hotel at Shima Onsen - the hotel was dissapointing, the food average and the onsen really small and poky. PILs were not impressed. No brownie points for us this time (boo-hoo).
let me take you through the dinner conversation:

MIL - "what do you think the "main" item for dinner is?"
FIL - "there is no main"
MIL - "don't you think these pickles taste wierd."
FIL - "this (insert every single food item that was on the tray) is tasteless"
etc,etc.
as I said, though, the food was VERY AVERAGE. Especially for the price of the hotel. Ok, so we only paid about 13000yen per person, as we booked at the last minute and go a discount, but the usual fee is like 19000yen or so. We *so* thought we were going to get better food and hotel by going up a rank (we usually go for the 10000-12000yen range hotels.)

The onsen at the hotel was pretty dissapointing too, very small (and mouldy! ugh! cos it was all wooden - gotta do that right or else it is a bad result)

Dinner was served in a private room, with little trays, we sit on the floor on zabuton. This was, obviously, a menu for disaster with K - she didn't want to sit down (I think she was high from an overload of cherries) so I spent the whole time running around trying to keep her away from the mini fires on our trays (shabu-shabu on the menu, and rice cooking in the small pots on our trays too, sigh!). But she was an angel again at breakfast which was in the big room with all the guests, again with the small trays, so I can't be too upset with her.

On the Sunday, we drove via Haruna Lake. We tried to park, but the carparks lining the lake are all taken by the little mini old time stores, who come running out to say "you can park here IF you buy something from our shop". Now we are not so bad that we wouldn't buy anything, but we were looking for milk for K, and of course none of these shops had it, so we decided to drive on to see the Haruna Shrine first (which the nice old lady at the shop said was just up the hill...) 3km later we arrived at the shrine (more comments that we should have seen the lake first, now we have come so far away,blah blah blah). And the sign at the entrance said it was a 15min walk to the shrine (PIL - "15mins?? well I guess we should go we have come this far")

But you know what, the saving grace of the weekend was that Haruna Jinja was really cool!! There are some pictures here. It was a beautiful walk up to the shrine, along side the river. The shrine and area had character. (small amount of brownie points for us! lol!)

J and I had a good weekend anyway, and it was cool to see that K is now quite comfortable with the PILs - she runs up to them and gives them hugs! So all good.

Other news.....our new car came! yay! I have been test-driving it every day this week so far. Gotta look out for those new-car bugs; catch any problems asap (lol).

Oh, yeh, one more thing, I think that when I was upset a few weeks ago, and I went to local supermarket and the staff were almost cursing me for being in the road in the ailes, well I am starting to think that they are just actually really rude. See, I went back there yesterday, when I was 100% rational and no hormonal issues, and the old hag, uh, I mean lady on the checkout didn't even say "Irashaimase" or "Arigato Gozaimasu" to me. Thinking it was just me, I listened as the next customer was served, but yet again, there was no niceties. Hmmm. I feel better it's not just me that they are rude too, anyway!

Right, the chu-hai has hit maximum effect. must go before I write about my deepest darkest secrets (lol).....have to get K's dinner ready anyway.

today I ......

* was woken up at some ungoddly hour by K, chucking her water sippy cup at my head. think it was before 6am. Did the "wake-up-early" bug join the mogura from gaijin wife's house on a visit to TJKR's life???

* was stuck at a train station for 10-15 minutes while K chucked a tanty about getting in the pram (necessary so that I could get her and pram up the flight of stairs)on the way to playgroup.

* was almost crying after said tanty was followed by a man cutting me and K now in the pram off as we tried to cross the road. I may have yelled out after him "本当に自分勝手やな、この国” which I guess translates to something like "this bloody country - everyone is so rude!"

* had really had enough of K as she pulled the "prawn" (where she arches her back and throws her head backwards, usually to land on the floor) at playgroup when I took the bag of clapping sticks away from her.

* was thankful that the lady from playgroup who was looking out for the kids while some of us mothers had a discussion, was kind enough to hide the library books that K ripped to shreds.
She told me - "your daughter likes ripping up books!" (gasp!)
"How many?", I asked.
"I found 4 ripped pages....." GASP!!

* realised how crap my written Japanese has become when I tried (unsucessfully) to translate an email E-> J.
No, it was really crap.

*can't remember the html for bullet points *sigh*

but on a funny note....

* saw the lady from the house down the block going through the rubbish before the bin truck came, and caught her taking out paper bags, I guess from nice shops so that she can wow her friends next time she gives them a melon or some laundry soap as a little gift.