Thursday, December 10, 2015

Colourful cat


Last time I went to Japan, I left Sakura with my friend. She has a three year old daughter who loves to play with my cat. Sakura is a big attention seeker and loves affection, so she also enjoys having a holiday there. When I went to pick her up after I returned, I saw the fur on top of her head was green!  My friend apologised and explained that her little girl had coloured her with a crayon.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Woeful waiter


I went to a nice Japanese restaurant recently. The food was very nice, but the young waiter had no idea. He had a terrible manner and no clue about how to look after the customers. He banged things down on the table without speaking and did everything in a clumsy way. At least he smiled.

Bus stop bugler

 
We were driving on a busy road recently and passed a bus stop. There was a young guy there playing the trumpet. I don't know if he was being a kind of street performer entertaining the cars passing by,  or maybe he was going to a recital or something and was doing some last minute practise.  

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Camera concerns



At a recent convention, two strange guys approached our table. They were chatting a lot quite loudly and it seemed as though they had been drinking. One of them aimed his camera at our pictures and I asked him nicely not to take photos please.  He became very upset and protested that he wasn't taking pictures, he was just looking at some of his photos. He carried on a lot about how dare we accuse him, on and on he went. Eventually his friend calmed him down and they apologised. They even ended up buying some pictures.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Forgotten phone


My darling left early for the market but came home an hour or so later as he had forgotten his phone. Fortunately, the market was in our town so he didn't have far to travel. Without thinking I said to him 'Why didn't you ring me? I could have brought it to you.' baka.

Self service


Last time I was in Japan, I took a night bus from Osaka to Tokyo.  I selected a ladies only bus, but I didn't expect that we would have to load all our luggage by ourselves, while the driver sat and waited. Even an old lady was forced to struggle with this task. I'm sure that if this was in Australia, it would never happen.

Buffet shuttle




During my last trip to Japan, I was staying at a hotel in Hiroshima. It might have been a coincidence, but all the men were seated and being served by the ladies. I don't know if hey were wives or business subordinates, but they were being a constant shuttle to and from the buffet waiting on the men. I might be wrong, but if this was in Australia, I might be the opposite.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Sparkling sensei


On my last trip to Japan, I caught up with some old mates I had known from school. We went out together with one of our old teachers for dinner. My friends and I all had trouble reading the menu and started to reach into our bags to put our glasses on, but our old sensei beat us to it and managed  to read the menu aloud to us without difficulty. We told her that we thought she had aged much better than we had. She is still a very sparkling and elegant lady.

Friday, July 17, 2015

Confusing corridor




We stayed in a hotel when we were at a convention in Adelaide earlier this year. We got to our floor and were looking for our room when we saw a sign that pointed further down the hall, but then we found our room in the other direction! Very confusing!  

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Café Communication Crisis


After a successful event one weekend, we decided to celebrate and have dinner at a Korean restaurant. The waitress was a very nice young girl who was always smiling, but she couldn't speak much English. With some difficulty, we managed to order some beers, entrees and a main course to share. I emphasized for the entrée to come out first, before the main course was served. I asked again to make sure and the waitress smiled and went away. After a while our food came to the table. We wanted to say cheers with a beer first, but the main course was served, then came the entrée soon after, followed by our drinks...with a smile, of course.

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Kombini Cosplay



We like to attend pop culture conventions as exhibitors. We always have a fun time there admiring all the wonderful costumes people wear. One day, I left the convention centre to buy some lunch. I stopped by a convenience store nearby (we call them kombini in Japan). In the queue for checkout,  were several 'cosplayers'. I knew why they were dressed up, but the poor checkout lady looked a bit surprised and confused by all these strange looking people.

Solo singer



Sometimes we are stallholders at St. Kilda esplanade market. There is always a very colourful mix of people there. People watching there is always interesting and enjoyable for me. One day, soon after we arrived and set up our stall, we could hear someone singing. We looked around and saw a man standing outside the Palais theatre with a book in his hand, singing to...well, nobody. We wondered why he chose such an isolated place to perform. After a while he moved on. Maybe his neighbours at home complained about his loud singing.  

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Shoulder bounce-bounce



My cat, Sakura regularly cries out to me straight after I finish my dinner. Even though she is an old lady, she is a still a big attention seeker and loves to be held over my shoulder and bounced up and down.
We call it 'shoulder bounce-bounce' time.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

And dad too!


One day at a market, a man and his son approached asking about drawing lessons. My darling already has a few students that he teaches cartooning to and so said he would be happy to have him. The dad asked if he could come too. We said 'Of course. The classes are always done with the parents in attendance'. He said 'No, No. I don't just want to watch, I want to have a lesson as well!' We were both very surprised but said 'Why not?'

Insurance risk



My darling is sometimes paid by the hour to draw caricatures for various organisations. He is very popular when people see the 'Free' sign. There is always a long queue. One day, a very obese lady sat down to have her picture drawn. My husband is always very kindly to draw them much slimmer and prettier than in real life. Unfortunately, they only provided us with one of those cheap plastic garden chairs. Suddenly the chair broke under the heavy load and the lady came crashing to the ground. I was so embarrassed for her. I suppose this might be a more common occurrence these days.

Monday, June 15, 2015

Fresh eggs 2


Soon after the change room egg incident, I unexpectedly received some more eggs. My husband was at a market recently and was situated nextdoor to an egg seller. By coincidence that guy was also married to a Japanese lady and he could speak Japanese fluently. He asked if he could have a caricature in exchange for some eggs. My darling agreed, even though the caricature was double the price of the eggs. Actually, he offered more eggs but there are only two of us at home and it would have been too many. It's a good thing my darling loves tamago yaki.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Fresh eggs 1




When I was at the sports club, getting changed, a lady came up to me and offered me some eggs. I had not met her before and was quite surprised at her approach. I thought she had chosen a strange venue to sell her produce. She explained that she had chooks at home and was going on holiday so she needed someone to adopt her excess eggs. They were not only free range but also free of charge. I gladly accepted the stranger's kind offer.

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Table 8


 



A while ago, we went to an Indian restaurant in our town. It might have been a Monday night or bad weather, anyway, we were the only people there. After we ate our entrée, we overheard the young, Aussie waitress call out to the kitchen staff, 'Table 8 is ready for their main course' or something like that. I wondered why she had to specify the table number. No one else was there.

Air show accident






A while ago, I went to an air show. I really enjoyed all the spectacular stunts and wonderful aircraft. All of the crowd was watching a stunt pilot flying up and up in a vertical climb. A dad with a small boy on his shoulders leaned back to get a better look, more and more he leaned back looking up, until he finally lost his balance and fell down. No one was hurt. Just embarrassing for him. Funny for everyone else.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Sakura's ghosts



My cat, Sakura is very old. She is 19. As well as hearing loss and maybe slight blindness, I think she has a touch of dementia. Her miaow is very loud, and she often cries out for no reason. My darling jokes that she is arguing with ghosts. He says they are calling her to the next world and she is screaming 'No! No! I'm not ready yet!'

Cool trailer




At some of the markets we go to, there is a Japanese pancake maker (actually they are Vietnamese people and they are not anything like authentic Japanese dorayaki). Anyway, they bought a new trailer to make and sell their products. It is like an old VW combi van. I wonder where they got it from. It's really cool!

Friday, February 20, 2015

Bad example


I was in a checkout queue recently and saw that the woman in front of me was wearing a badge. I moved around to get a closer look, because my darling and I make badges to sell at markets, so I was curious about hers.
Our badges have funny cartoon characters on them, like super heroes and ninja turtles, etc. but this only had writing on it. I managed to get close enough to read it. It said 'Want to lose weight? Ask me how?' She was wearing gym wear, so I guess she was a personal trainer or something like that.  What I found interesting was that she was quite overweight herself and I didn't think she was a good advertisement for her business.    

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Seeing double





I recently saw a couple walking together. Not only were they the same body shape, but they were wearing the same clothing. Matching shirts, shorts, hats, etc. I wondered if they bought the outfits in bulk on special or they just decided one day to dress alike. I don't really understand.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Fish heads








I recently bought some fish heads and was really excited and looking forward to a delicious meal. When I showed my husband, he asked 'Why are we eating the part we usually throw away?' and showed me an unhappy face.  After I told him this was a very yummy, Japanese delicacy he bravely ate it. This is another difference in our cultures.  He was very thankful that he didn't see me eat the eyes earlier.

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Kaiten zushi


Recently we went to kaiten-zushi or a sushi train restaurant as they call it here, we enjoyed some delicious food but were concerned about the fashion conscious employee who had her long hair hanging down over her face. Not only was I worried about finding a hair in my food, but I also thought that young girl might slice off a finger because of her impaired vision. abunai! My husband really enjoyed the food but had one other complaint...they don't sell sake!