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.

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!  

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.

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.  

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.    

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.

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.

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!

Happy New Year

Sorry I haven't been seen for a while. We have been crazy busy every day for a long time. We hope to appear more regularly in the future.

Falling Sakura




 



My poor, old cat, Sakura is more than 18 years old now. She's becoming skinny and I think she has dementia. Often she cries out to be fed and after her meal, she forgets she ate. recently she has been losing her balance and sometimes falls over when she walks. She might not have much longer on this earth. Every time I tell this to my darling, he says 'You've been saying that for five years! She'll outlive us all.' 

Attention seeker

I was in a queue at my local supermarket when a very loud and chatty guy in the line suddenly pulled up his shirt and injected himself in full view of everyone. Some ladies behind of me were shocked. Me too. I guess he was a diabetic. I guess he was also an attention seeker. Most other people would do that in private, I'm sure.

Kujira cosplay

We have been attending some Pop culture events these days as an opportunity to sell my darling's pictures.  Many people come in fancy dress. It's very entertaining and lots of fun to see all the amazing costumes. But I just wonder about the body shape of some of the people in costume. There are some young ladies dressed as super cute anime girls (e.g. maids, etc. ) and game characters and men and women as super heroes, but some are very flabby and even obese. Many have tattoos too.  I'm sure they check in the mirror at home, but how do they really see themselves?

Pilates Pain

I have been going to the sports club frequently to keep fit and stay slim, usually 3 or 4 times a week. I do Zumba (my favourite), water aerobics and other group classes. Last week I took a challenge to try Pilates.  The class was very enjoyable. We did lots of stretches using our 'core' muscles. The next day, I was in a lot of pain in my stomach. It lasted for several days after too! I guess these muscles have not been put to the test for a long time. itai!  

Cosplay mum

We were stall holders recently at Oz Comic con. A kind of pop culture convention for otaku. Thousands of people went. Many people dressed in cosplay, ( fancy dress) as movie characters, super heroes, etc. It was very entertaining! I was surprised to see one mum holding hands with two young children.  She was dressed up as a super hero, but her kids were in normal clothing. I thought it should be the other way around.

Smoking in restaurants

I almost forgot that smoking is still allowed in many restaurants in Japan. Especially in izakaya, which I love. Almost everyone was smoking except for us. It almost spoiled our meal. I hope that smoking will be banned from all restaurants and cafes soon!

Ginza festival

We went to see the Ginza matsuri. There were huge crowds including many foreign visitors. The university marching bands were so great! The young people were very professional and must have trained a lot. We even saw a Japanese Scottish highland pipe band! There were a lot of interesting things to see including traditional dancing, but we had to rush to see a very special performance. We made it in time to see four beautiful Tokyo geisha performing a dance.  

Travelling in cognito.

Minna-san, sorry for my late posts in English. Now I am in Japan. We arrived last week in Tokyo. On the way here, I tried to sleep, using a blow-up pillow, an eye mask, a face mask, ear plugs and a blanket wrapped around me. When my darling woke up, he couldn't recognise me and wondered if it was really me underneath all that.

Cramp!

 

I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with a big pain from a cramp in my leg. I wake up my fiance to help, but there is not much he can do for me. He tries bending my toes backwards and tells me to walk around. It goes away eventually. itai!

Noisy visitor

I was very surprised to see a kookaburra in our gum tree in the back yard recently. It laughed very loudly and frightened poor sakura-chan. I really enjoyed seeing it there, but after a while I wanted it to go away.

Burmese, after all.

Since moving here, I discovered my Sakura-chan really loves to sun bake. She never did this at my old place. I  wondered if she was scared after the birds attacked her. Anyway, now I often see her stretched out, basking in the sun, even on scorching hot days. Actually a few times I wondered if she was dead, because she lay motionless for such a long time, but she just loves the hot weather. Well, I suppose she is originally from Burma, after all.

Fish caravan

Since moving here by the sea, I wondered where a good place to buy fresh fish was. A friend told me about caravan fish shop down by the beach. She recommended Boar fish, and said she made sashimi from it. When I went there early one morning, they were already sold out of Boar fish, so I bought Garfish instead. It was lovely and fresh. As recommended by the man, I enjoyed the garfish, grilled with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon.
I later found out that my friend had gotten there earlier than me and bought the last Boar fish!

P.S Most fish shops clean the fish for the customer, but here they don't. I managed to do it myself, sweating.

Market research 2

I was at a different market a week or two later and saw another guy drawing caricatures. I thought I should gather some more information about my darling's competitors. So I walked up near his stall and pretended to be just another interested person at the market (actually I was). Then I sneaked out my phone and secretly took a few photos. I felt a bit like a spy or something.  

Market Research

I was at a city market recently and saw another caricature artist there. I thought I should investigate the competition for my fiancé, so I paid the man and asked him to do a picture of me. He was finished in about 2 minutes. Such a quick! I smiled and thanked him but I didn't really think the picture looked like me at all. I think my fiancé is much better, but maybe I am chotto biased..

Washing machine

The first time I went swimming in my new area, I went to a swimming pool. I live close to the beach, but I  don't really enjoy swimming in the sea. I was alone in the pool, enjoying the peaceful water all by myself, but soon after an obese woman came in. She jumped into the water, even though the sign says you are not allowed. She turned out to be a really good swimmer and was moving quite quickly and smoothly through the water. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Of course, whales are good swimmers.

Midnight mozzies

Recently, I have been bitten a lot on my legs in the night. I told my partner, 'I think we might have bedbugs!' He said it was highly unlikely, as we have a new bed and anyway, he had not been bitten. He said it was probably just mosquitoes. I have been scratching and scratching and he always tells me to stop because I am just making it worse, but it is so itchy! Why do they only pick on me?  My darling says they prefer my blood because his has too much alcohol in it.

Friendly town

I have been living in my new place for a couple of months now. It is a more rural area, like a big country town. I am gradually settling in. One thing I love about living here, is that everyone is so friendly. People often smile and say hello, even though we are strangers. When I am out walking in the mornings, most people passing by, smile and say 'Good morning' to me. It's really nice. This rarely happened in my old dodgy, suburban area.

Injured boy?

My fiancé is an illustrator. One day he was drawing and I came in to see what he was doing. He was drawing some very cute monsters for kids Halloween badges. He showed me some of his pictures. There was a vampire, a ghost and some other creatures. I looked at his last picture of a someone covered in bandages and asked 'What is this one? An injured boy?' He laughed and laughed and told me it that obviously it was a mummy. He said that surely everyone would recognise it at once and know it was a mummy. Later I showed this picture to a girlfriend (also from Japan) and she also asked if it was an injured boy. I said to my fiancé, 'See? I am not alone.'
He couldn't believe it!

Morning Mayhem

I am quite happy to do most housekeeping jobs, but I hate making the bed. My fiancé knows this, and one day he said, whoever gets up last, has to make the bed. He is an early riser and usually gets up first. That's why he said it. So now, we play a kind of game. If he starts to get up and I am awake, I usually grab his arm to stop him and race to get out of bed first. It is just a bit of fun. Actually, he doesn't mind to make the bed at all.

Neighbourly Neko

Sakura has settled in to her new home nicely. In our old place, she seldom went outside and never, ever strayed from my garden. Since we moved here, she has become a big explorer and is much bolder than she used to be. The other day, I looked out of the lounge window and noticed my neighbour patting a cat. I thought it was a bit unusual, because my neighbour owns a dog. When I looked closer, I realised it was my cat, Sakura! I couldn't believe it! Later, my neighbour said to me, 'She is a very friendly cat and often crosses the road to come over and say hello'. 

Water resistance

I have been going to water aerobics classes lately with my new friend. At a recent session, the instructor was playing very fast music and exercising to the beat, but I was really struggling to keep up. I thought to myself 'She is forgetting we are in water and we cannot move so quickly as she can'. When I looked around at the other ladies in the pool, they were all smiling and managing to keep up. I guess they were more experienced than me, or was it that maybe their much bigger bodies could cope better with the choppy waves they were creating.

Aussie Chinese restaurant

Recently, I went to a Chinese restaurant in my new town. Being like a kind of large country town, everything is catered to western customers here. There was no chicken feet or anything like that on the menu, just standard things like sweet and sour and lemon chicken. There were not even chopsticks on the table! I was the only Asian person in the restaurant. It was very different to where I used to live in my old, very multicultural town.

Sleep Laughter

My fiancé told me that the other night he woke to the sound of me laughing out loud in my sleep. I have heard of talking in your sleep, even walking in your sleep, but I never heard of anyone laughing in their sleep before.  I wish I could remember my dream.

Kamikaze bird

I was having breakfast the other day, when I was alarmed to hear a bang on the window, right beside me. A bird had flown straight into the window and immediately fell down, stone dead! Sakura and I were both shocked. I called to my fiancée to come. He saw it and said 'Not again!" This has happened several times before. He says that sometimes the birds can not see the glass. They only see the reflection of the sky and trees. We haven't found a solution to this problem yet. kawai sou.

New Lease on Life

Since I moved to my fiancée's place, Sakura-chan has a new lease on life. She has become much more active and genki recently. In my old place, she just slept for most of the day, but now she loves to be outside for a long time, exploring in basking in the heat, especially on really hot days, over 40 degrees. Well, I suppose she is Burmese after all, so it's natural that she would enjoy the hot weather.

Cryptic Cricket.

My fiancée loves to watch cricket. He always tells me that it is really interesting and that there are a lot of subtleties involved. To me, it's just boring! I can't believe a game of cricket can last for five days. Soon after I came to Australia, a friend took me to see a game of cricket at the MCG. The first thing I noticed was that a lot of the people around me were not watching the game at all. One guy was reading a book and a lady was knitting. What for they went to the game?

Nanny....Nani?

I was waiting at the checkout of a department store in my new town, when a strange sight caught my eye. I saw a man and a woman shopping together, but the man was wearing a woman's dress. He was a big macho looking guy with a moustache and hairy arms, but wearing a ladies summer dress and shoes. Nobody seemed shocked or even surprised. Then I noticed that he was the only one in the shop who was wearing a dress. All the ladies I saw were wearing pants. Attention seeker!

Neko nightmare

Before I moved, I remember I was hanging out some clothes at my old place. Sakura, my cat, followed me outside to enjoy the sunshine. She was lying on the ground, stretched out comfortably, but soon after, her peace was disturbed. I saw two magpies swoop down and attack my poor cat. She ran away. I know that cats usually are the hunters when it comes to birds, but my cat is an old lady now, and no match for the magpies. Now that we have moved, she doesn't seem to be afraid anymore. In fact, she loves being outside more than inside now.

Incorrect assumption

 

 

There is a weekly market in the main street of my new town. The have lots of hand made crafts, plants, fruit and vegetables, etc. At one stall, I saw some nice looking strawberries, so I approached to buy some.

The stall owner saw me approaching and greeted me by saying 'nihao' (a greeing in mandarin). He was smiling broadly and was very proudly to show off his language skills. I realise that there are not many Asian people living in this area, but does he think that all Asians come from China? I couldn't be bothered to tell him about myself, so I just smiled and said  'ni hao' back to him. Baka!  

Furniture Mountain

 



Since I moved in with my fiancé, we had a lot of leftover furniture, because we had two houses full, and only one smaller house to fit it into. A lot of the stuff things had to be stored under the carport until we could get rid of it all, by selling it or donating it to Vinnies or something like that. My cat, Sakura-chan loves this new mountain of furniture. Sometimes I have searched for her and eventually found her, sleeping high up on the top of the pile. She seems to have become a much more 'genki' and adventurous old lady since we moved here.   

Poor pigeon

My girlfriend visited recently. She was telling me that she found an injured pigeon near her front door of her place. She suspected that her cat had attacked the poor bird. She felt terrible, so she rang the vet to see if they could help. They apologised, and said they don't treat pigeons. I'm not sure why. Perhaps they consider them to be a kind of pest and not worth saving. It might sound cruel, but I laughed at her story. Gomen. She is very kind hearted, isn't she?