hmph!

its late, nearly midnight again, and am tired after another day of house hunting - how quickly things change from hell to perfect back to hell again....

so the first place we went to was great position, only 3-4 mins walk from station, but on a quiet street. position, position, position, so we say, lets bite the bullet and take it. ring up real estate agent to put in request, and get told that we are actually 2nd in line. hmph. so while waiting to hear back if the people 1st in line are going to take it or not, we look at another RE agent. and they have a terrace house 20mins walk from the station.....but we look anyway, and it is GREAT! IT HAS A (granted, small) GARDEN!!!!!! It is just like having our own home! We love it, we want it, we apply for it, and TURN DOWN the other place that is 3-4 mins walk from station - think about the family and living environment yadi-yadi-yah.

About to pull into sushi train for a celebratory dinner when we get the phone call. our application has been rejected. why? It's all because of me! Apparently an Aussie girl who is fluent in Japanese and has lived in Japan for nearly 10years and who's visa is all above board and who has worked for both Japanese and Aust government organizations is not a suitable tennant. well, excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me. it is alright to play a piano in the place, but not to have a dirty foreigner in there! (rolls eyes till they nearly fall out of my head). so here is my "all the things I wouldn't do as a tennant, so I think they should let us stay in the terrace house" list:

I wouldn't:
* walk inside with my shoes on. I cant even do this at home in Aus anymore
* bring over my whole family and remotely related relatives into Japan to live with us
* have a bon-fire/hungi(sp?) in the middle of the living room
* cook smelly food (I hardly cook at all, lol!)
* throw the rubbish out on the wrong day, or not separate it
* and any other stupid reason that they can come up with, I reckon I wouldn't do it!

So the house-hunting saga continues.
BIG *SIGH*

thirsty

I used to drink a lot, both "grog" (aussie slang for alcohol) and non-alcoholic drinks. Lately I have been drinking a lot of "fizzy drinks" as mum says. J and I never usually drink soft drink, but have been sucked into buying pepsi nex coz it is so cheap at "donkey" (a.k.a. "don quiote" ) I just finnished off a hot lemon drink now as J came back from the conbini across the road with an American Dog (a.k.a. Dagwood Dog in Bris) for me, yes, at nearly midnight, and oden and a beer for himself. I had a sip of his beer - not bad. But my alltime list of favourite drinks would have to go like this:

• champagne. we had a bottle of Lanson for our wedding champas - it cost near $100 a bottle at home. here you can buy it for $30-40? we felt special though!


• chocolate milkshake. especially a maccas chocolate shake. yum


• milk. love my milk. must have it with chocolate or biscuits. and usually have it with dinner, if I do an Aussie dinner, like with mash potatoes


• oj. my other favourite dinner drink. I am such a kid!


• fruit mix juice that they sell here in Japan

all this talk about drinks is making me thirsty!! gonna go check out the fridge for something else to drink as a nightcap.

what's wrong

am buggered, house-hunting is tiring. and of course things never go as planned (or hoped). just when you think a place is gonna work out, you have a good look and realise that:

1)the 日当たり is all wrong, so it is cold/dark during the day (or a bloody furnace during the day in summer)
2)it is right on the main road
3)there is a cement factory right beside it
4) there was an "incident" where someone fell/jumped off the balcony there..... bad vibes?
5) you are in the middle of nowhere and have to walk then catch a bus for 15 mins just to get to the local train station (from where you have to catch a local train (god-forbid))
6) they say "pets ok" but the actually mean just hamsters (mini-me would have been ok) or cats...
7) a 9DK that is located right next to the front door, with the bathroom, toilet and 2 other rooms coming off it really only works out to about a 3DK in actual usable space
or the big one -
8) the place is already taken, even though you just rang up about it 5 mins ago (apparently apartments that you can have pets in are snapped up VERY quick! and there are not that many choices to start with.

*sigh*

put in a request for one place anyway, 8min walk to station, big DK that is useable. wait to see if we get it. also gonna ring about some more places tomorrow. the search continues.

house-hunting

seems like we are on the move. not sure of details yet, but we are going house-hunting (well, at least 3DK-apartment hunting) tomorrow. I haven't ever really had to look for an apartment by myself before because:

• I lived at home until I graduated uni. my parents are still in the same house IW as born in, they moved around a bit before I was born, though.
  


• when I started on JET (my first job out of uni), the apartment was all ready for me, thanks to my office and predecessor.
  


• when I started my job after JET, my lovely friend, "gaijin wife" managed to get me into the apartment a floor above hers! then another friend ended up 2 floors above me. 2 others were in the apartments beside gaijin wife. it was very 90210!
  


• when I moved to Tokyo, I just moved in with J.
  

so this is all sort of a first for me!we have an appointment with a real estate agent tomorrow at 10am, to see our first choice. fingers crossed it works out well!

friends are like flowers...

beautiful flowers
friends are like flowers
in the garden of life..

are you a daisy?
are you a rose?
are you a dandelion?

you can be what you are
I'll be what I am
we can be friends
in the garden of life.

(a song I remember singing in primary school!!)

tomorrow I am going to catch up with a J, a friend from when I was in Japan on exchange as a wee 17 year old! I was just thinking about how we have friends from different periods of our life. some of those friends we stay in contact with, others go out of our life. others we stay in contact with, but sometimes think for what reason are we still friends? sorry, getting philosophical here. anyway, am excited about seeing J tomorrow, haven't seen her since our wedding party in 2005, after which she moved to the big apple. J is one of those friends that no matter how log you haven't seen each other, you can still find something to talk about and have a good time. I thought I might list up the types/groups of friends I have:

1) friends from pre-school, who live close-by my parent's house
2) friends from primary school
3) friends from high school
4) friends from exchange year
5) friends from uni
6) friends from JET
7) friends from work after JET, oita
8) friends from work, tokyo
9) friends from tea-ceremony
10) friends made through K (hospital and play group)

I always think that some friends (the ones you meet along the way) are supposed to be around for certain time only, that if you tried to be best friends with everyone on your friends list, you would wear yourself out, well I know I would.

In Japan, the friends you went to pre-school/primary school with are called your 幼馴染 osananajimi. I am lucky that I am still in contact with 2 good おさななじみ friends. And thanks to facebook, have been in contact with a few more lately too. one of my おさななじみ that I am not in contact with, M. we used to be best buddies all through primary and high school. even after school, I was dating the brother of her sister-in-law (bris is a small place, hehe) so we would still see each other at family gatherings etc. But I havent seen her for years now, athough mum sometimes runs into her family or (gossipy) neighbours down the street,so I get a bit of an update. I ran into her once in a shopping centre at home, just before she was getting married. we exchanged numbers, and I rang her to catch up. she said we should meet up, but of course when push came to shove, the dates didn't suit etc etc, so we never caught up. shame. I wonder when I will see her next, if ever? am getting all nostalgic, (and rambling!)think I should quit and go to bed. now have got that stupid "friends are like flowers" tune in my head - hope I can sleep tonight!

going potty

ok, I realise that K is still not even 1 year old yet, so this may be a bit of a pre-emptive strike type situation, but I am looking for a potty chair for her, in the hopes that we can start toilet training (in some very loose sense of the word training) once it gets a bit warmer. Actually, I am looking for a particular potty chair - one like I used, and my nieces and nephew all used. It is just like a low-chair, with a tray on the front so you can strap the kids in there and they can't escape until they have done their business (haha). They can sit in the chair and eat snacks etc to try take their mind off the business at hand. But do you think I can FIND a potty chair like this...anywhere???????

I can find a potty chair that:
1) looks like a throne
2) plays music when you piddle "Tinkle toonz"
3) is so ergonomically designed its not funny
4) even has a book rack!!
5) is a travel potty chair
6) is a wooden potty chair
7) looks like a miniture real life toilet
8) is designed with every cartoon character under the sun.....

but I can't find a simple chair like potty with a tray. That is all I want. Perhaps they don't exist any more?? (*sigh*)
well, I guess for now the search for the elusive potty continues.

happy easter

it always surprises me how Japan has never taken to Easter.
They mustn't realise the chances for consumerism related to Easter. I mean, this is the country that has split Valentine's day into 2 separate events - one for the women to give chocolate, and one day a month later in March for the men to give back chocolates. And not only to boyfriend/girlfiends, but to people you work with!?! Always gave mea bit of the jeebies when I had to , (yes obligatory giri-chocolates) give chocolates on Valentines day to my 課長. But yeah, I wonder why you cannot find any easter eggs around? I *think* it might have something to do with the fact that the date of Easter changes each year, perhaps it is too めんどくさい for the Japanese. I sorta understand. I always forget when Easter is!! The only reason I know this year before the event (I usually find out when mum and dad ring to wish us a happy easter on sunday morning!), is because:

1)a friend got married on Easter Thursday, back in Aus - she looked gorgeous too! I saw photos.
2) someone asked me what I was giving up for Lent a few weeks ago. I said I was "giving lent up" for lent.....
3) K got an Easter card from Aunty E and it has been displayed in prime position on the top of the TV for the last week. It is the only Easter card we got....


our plans for the day? well, since it is Easter, perhaps I had better go and buy me some chocolate, you know, to keep up with traditions and all.

shopping

after a slow morning inside, decided that it was too nice a day to waste all day, so took K in the pram for long walk. we ended up at the shops. but I was very very good-here is a list of all the things I DIDN'T buy!

* chocolate shake from Maccas
* apple pie to go with chocolare shake from Maccas
* very cheap 3/4 length top. nice, but it is very 秋らしい, probably not so good for coming into spring/summer
* socks for K
* some new underwear for me (on sale)
* pjs for me
* anything at all from the 100yen shop, FROM BOTH SHOPS I WENT INTO!!

I am very proud of myself for showing such self-control. (She says as she finishes off the Mr. Donuts J brought home last night, hehe)

junkie

My friend Junko Ono went to Australia for a one-year working holiday a few years ago. She had a great time, and even improved on her English She was a bit miffed though, about how everyone couldn't really pronounce her name right...they all called her junkie! lol.

One day when she was walking around the houses in the suburbs, she saw what she thought was her name on the letterbox! It said "no junk mail"....she thought that they were just missing 2 o's! haha, get it, (O)no Junk(o).

She is the same person who couldn't believe how many "Onos" there are in Australia selling things -she was looking at the bulletin boards with things for sale, and the prices listed as $100 o.n.o. (Or Nearest Offer)!!

Love ya work Junkie, ah, I mean Junko!

So of course, today's list is of the junk mail in our letterbox today.



* 2 flyers for removalists. You can also pay for them to take away any unwanted furniture etc. April is the start of the new school year, work year etc, so lots of people are moving around this time.
* a notice about some construction on the town gas pipes in our street.
* a flyer to try to get us to sign up to an internet provider
* 2 flyers for delivery pizza (look tasty!)
* and a flyer for the local gym - the one with a woman grabbing her buldging belly fat. The caption says "is your body alright?" I think the captions should have said "did you just order a delivery pizaa?" hehhe.

I kinda think it is funny that the gym puts in a free trial the same day that 2 pizza places have their specials in!! Does that mean it is ok to order the pizza, as long as you go to the free gym lesson? Sounds like a plan.

ROFLMAO (or at least giggling)

Here are the Japanese comedians that still get me going:

* Fujisaki fleamarket "ra-ra-ra-rai"
* O-pa-pi. Yeh, I do like Kojima Yoshio!
* Hiking Walking. The guy with the long hair in red underpants who does his "super illusion", which is him downing a bottle of coke in one go, then reciting all the train stations on the yamanote line without burping. He always burps after about 3 stations. It gets me everytime.
* Tokyo-03. There are 3 of them.
* Taka and Toshi. Best real life experience with this was when I was coming out of the city hall, and a group of young-ish guys (I think they were fire fighters) were going in. After I walked past one of them, I heard him turn to his mates and say "欧米か？" I had to giggle.
* Nishioka Sumiko (da yo~!)
* Zen. These are a bit of a favourite at the moment. J doesn't seem to like them that much, but I think they are v. funny.