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?

Ready to go

I am finally packed up and ready to go! I hired a small, local moving company to move most of my furniture for the one and a half hour drive to my fiancé's place. The movers are very friendly and colourful characters. One is Greek, one is Italian and one is Australian. The weather forecast is predicting rain. I hope it holds off until we finish moving.

Last supper

Today, my fiancé came to my place to help with final cleaning and packing up before I move to his place with my cat. He is not too happy about my cat, because he is allergic to cats, but he is accepting her for my sake. After a hard day, we enjoyed our last meal at my place with a glass of wine.

Locquat Larceny

In my old house, I had some fruit trees, one of which was a loquat tree. It was fairly small, but gave quite a good harvest. Unfortunately, the birds would often get to enjoy the fruit before I could, so I put some netting over the tree to keep them out. The birds were not put off so easily. They worked out that they could get underneath the netting and fly up to the branches to get to the fruit, but they became trapped and couldn't figure out how to get back out. I felt sorry for them, so I lifted the netting for them. When they were released, they just walked away. They seemed to me to be so fat and full that maybe they couldn't manage to fly away.

The Birds

I have recently moved in to my fiancé's place. I am settling in gradually, but there is a lot of cleaning, renovating and improvements to be done. The house definitely needs a woman's touch.
One morning, I was surprised to see him suddenly run out of the house and bang violently on the roof gutters with a broom. I asked what he was doing. He said that birds had been getting inside his roof and nesting there. He could hear them scratching around from inside, waking him up very early. Then they have chicks and they make a lot of noise and a big mess. He says they a a real pest.
In the past, when we were walking together, he would always impress me with his knowledge of birds. I always thought he was a big birdwatcher and lover of birds, but his behaviour shows a big contradiction. He is not friendly to these creatures at all!

Japanese collection

I recently moved in to my fiancé's house. I am happy to be moving from a dodgy area with a high crime rate to a lovely seaside area. We had to reduce both of our belongings drastically, because we had to fit two house loads of furniture and all of our many possessions into one quite smaller house. My darling had a very big Japanese collection, including furniture, kimono, scrolls, kokeshi dolls and more. I didn't like many of these things and said that I think it's time to say goodbye to them. He complained to me "Why do I have to get rid of all my beloved Japanese things?" I replied to him
"You don't need them anymore, because now you have ME!" He laughed and agreed with me.

Mobile make up.

When I sometimes go back to Japan for a holiday and to visit my family, it is quite common to see people reading, sleeping, messaging or playing games their mobile phones, but recently I have been surprised to see a lot of women putting on their make up on the train. They don't seem to mind going out in public with unpainted faces and applying make up in front of everyone. Not just teenagers, but adult women too! Maybe they value their sleep and can't be bothered to get up 15 minutes earlier to do their make up at home. This is something that I have never seen in Australia. For me, this is like getting on the train naked, and getting dressed in front of everyone.
Am I too conservative and old fashioned?

Black tie baka!

Even an ordinary person like me is sometimes invited to black tie events. I used to wear an evening dress to this type of function, but either it shrank, or more likely, I might have grown a bit. At this particular party, I decided to wear a kimono. I didn't know many people, so I was glad when a gentleman approached me and gave me a top compliment on my outfit. 'You look lovely!' he said 'Where do you come from?' I thought to myself, obviously he knows I come from Japan, so he must mean where in Japan do I come from. I told him that I was from Kobe, near Osaka, but he just looked at me with a blank expression. I came to realise that he was asking me what country I came from. I couldn't believe it! I thought everyone knew about Japanese kimono. Oh well, I guess a black tie is not necessarily a sign of sophistication.

Onsen intruder

My fiancé has been to Japan many times. He loves Japanese food, including sashimi, and he can even eat natto! He also loves sake. He is a friend of Japan. 
On our first trip to Japan together, I wanted him to enjoy a special onsen, so I splashed out and we stayed at a lovely place in Hokkaido. He has been to onsen before, and enjoys it, but can not understand why we like to go several times in a day. For him, once a day is enough.
We both left our room to go to the onsen, and later, when I returned to the hotel room, he had already come back. I asked if he enjoyed it. He said it was nice at first, because there was nobody else there, so he didn't feel embarrassed. He soaked in the hot water enjoying the beautiful garden and forest views through the large windows. Then he heard a female voice call out something and in came a middle aged cleaning woman. He was quite surprised and sank lower into the water to hide.  After that he couldn't relax and soon returned to hotel room.

Lost in translation

Some of my Australian co-workers can speak a little Japanese language, but one guy can speak it quite well.  One day he rang me (he was speaking in Japanese) to say he would not be coming in to work because he had to go to the hairdresser. What?! I thought this was very strange, until I realised he meant to say 'hospital'. The words for hospital and hairdresser are very similar in Japanese - byouin and biyouin. I could easily understand his mistake.

I also sometimes make mistakes with English language. I remember I was having a conversation in English with a couple of colleagues. We were talking about the constitution, when suddenly they both burst out laughing. I had no idea why until they told me I had mispronounced the word 'constitution' and had been saying 'constipation' instead. Embarrassing! 

Flower thief

Since I finished my job, I have started to notice a lot of things that I normally wouldn't see. For instance, several children on their way to school, stop in front of my house and wave to my cat who is basking in the sun by the front window. I started to wonder what else I had missed while I was at work.
The other day I was watering my front garden early in the morning, when I saw an old lady walking along my street. She stopped at my neighbour's house across the road and pulled out a pair of scissors. She then began snipping a lot of my neighbour's flowers from her rose bushes and placing them into her bag. She wasn't taking the stems, just the blooms of the flowers. Maybe she was making potpourri or something. I really don't know.
She didn't seem to mind that I was standing there, watching her. In fact she looked right at me, but just kept on cutting the flowers. I was quite surprised by her cheek. I wondered how many gardeners would wake up and be shocked to find their lovely blooms missing. I wanted to shout out at her to stop, but you never know how people will react. My neighbourhood can be quite a dangerous place. More and more I am looking forward to moving.

Waterbed

I really love my water bed! I have slept in a water bed for more than 20 years. I always fall straight into a deep sleep, usually with my ipad or a book on top of me and my light still on.
Unfortunately my darling doesn't like my bed. He teases me and calls me a swinger or something, still living in the 70's. He says he thinks that it is strange to have a waterbed in these days of modern gel and latex mattresses.  Once he even said he felt sea sick! He always exaggerates. I'm sure that in his mind, he thinks he is bobbing around on a kind of giant hot water bottle in a choppy sea. I wish I could show him the structure inside. Actually it has a lot of support for the back. 
I don't know why waterbeds are not popular in Australia these days. Maybe it's because Aussies are heavier than they used to be.
It is certainly difficult to move a water bed. An expert has to be called in to drain and dismantle it.
I am moving in with my fiancé soon. I will miss my waterbed.

Contrasting service

Recently, I witnessed some big contrasts in service.
First I went to my local phone shop to enquire about getting a new phone. The girl there gave me a big smile, but her eyes were not smiling. I could see she had one eye on the clock. I didn't realise it was approaching 5.30pm. Closing time! She took some details quickly and hurried me out the door, telling me to come back tomorrow. I turned to ask her a question but she had already disappeared. I guess she had something better to do.

On the way home, I was feeling a bit flat. I felt like I had been escorted out the door by security at that shop. I thought to myself 'I am definitely not buying a new phone from there!' I stopped into a bottle shop to buy some wine. The salesperson was really knowledgeable and helpful and went out of his way to make sure I was looked after. Although I know I can not expect the very high level of service outside of Japan, where the customer is king, but my faith in people was restored.

Hold up at the check out.

When I was in line at the supermarket checkout recently, I realized one guy in front of me was trying to pay with a can full of silver coins. 

He opened the tin and turned it upside down on the counter.

The young cashier's face changed colour.

The he and the cashier started to count a mind-bogglingly huge amount of silver coins by piling them up into stacks of ten.

Everyone in the queue behind me soon moved away to find another checkout. I wanted to as well, but I had already put all my groceries on the conveyor, and there was too much to move.

I decided to help them, so the three of us counted coins together.

I still remember the total of his bill - $65.50! All paid with silver coins!

When we finally finished counting, the man said to me with a wink, “You should not pay with coins anymore.”

He walked away quickly.

The young lady and I just looked at each other in bewilderment, then both laughed out loud. 

Hot towels

 

I always make a cup of Japanese green tea for visitng guests at work.

It does not matter if they are Japanese or not. It also doesn't matter whether they like Japanese green tea or not. To make my Japanese boss happy, I do this.

I guess it has not been popular to serve some tea to guests at work anymore in Japan.

As well as green tea, I also serve wet towels to high titled guests from H.Q.

First I roll them up ( the towels, not the guests) and put them into the microwave for a few minutes to make them warm for the VIP's.

One day I made a small mistake.

I left the towels in the microwave for too long. They were much too hot, and the important guests were throwing them from one hand to the other, to try to cool them down.

After a while, they wiped their foreheads and backs of their necks as well with the hot towel.

They looked to be very refreshed and nobody made a complaint. (phew!)

Sometimes I feel like I am working somewhere in Japan in 60’s.

Sex Party Misunderstanding

 

A funny thing happened the other day. Because of the recent election, people were handing out political pamphlets promoting their candidates at the local train station.
First I say someone for the liberal party and then there was a young woman handing out flyers for the Sex party!
They are campaigning for legalised marijuana, gay marriage, better sex education, etc.
One older gentleman was talking to her. He must have misunderstood her message and asked.
'So, how often do you have these sex parties?'
I couldn't help myself. I laughed at loud. 
The poor girl.

Vegan sermon

There are quite a few vegetarians and organic food lovers in my surroundings, but they seem to be either very skinny or obese.

One of them is a strict vegan who goes to Yoga lessons enthusiastically, but he always seems to be sick. He has been struggling with chronic migraines, sleeping disorders, skin problems, food allergies, etc. He has to take various supplement tablets and prescription medicines.

I can't help wondering if this is a good lifestyle choice for him.

Another vegetarian always looks pale with extremely fat.

When I sat down on the same table with him at a business function, she did not stop giving lectures about being a vegetarian to all of us. She says he does it for her health, and yet she is also a heavy smoker! I don't understand this at all. She went on and on about the benefits of a vegetarian diet and how healthy it is, and how bad it is to eat meat, but they don't seem to be healthy specimens at all.
I don't really think they are good ambassadors for this lifestyle.

I respect people's choice of diet and their individual beliefs, but please don't try to force them on me!

Origami

 

Some time ago I volunteered as an Origami instructor at a cultural event in Melbourne.

I showed the children some of the easiest Origami; tulip, fox, elephant, etc.

For the adults, I encouraged them to take more of a challenge by teaching the to an Origami crane, which is the most popular internationally.

Japanese people learn origami from a young age, so we are know how precise the folds have to be, but most of the people I taught that day, had a quite a bit of trouble folding the papers into a neat  triangle or square by matching the corners accurately.

It is very important to get these basic steps right or we can't achieve our desired result. 

Which reminds me, I quite often see shop assistants, who cannot staple dockets, tax invoices and credit card receipts properly in Australia. They just clump them together without worrying if they are straight or not. I guess it's not important to them, but we must do these things in Japan.

Sometimes I am also disappointed by the gift wrapping service offered to me. Excellent presentation and attention to detail are critical in Japan. The customer is king there, and expects a high level of service. Maybe my expectations are too high. Things are much more relaxed here in Australia. 

Ladies First

 

An Australian gentleman in a suit, three Japanese female tourists and I were all waiting for an elevator.

The middle aged ladies all seemed to be very cheerful and I overheard them say how much they were enjoying their stay in Melbourne. 

When the elevator finally arrived at our floor, the gentleman invited the ladies to go first, saying 

“after you.”

I thanked him and stepped into the elevator, but the other ladies hesitated to enter. 

You see, we don't have a 'ladies first' policy in Japan.

The ladies also said “after you” in Japanese to the western gentleman again and again.

The western gentleman also repeated “after you” by conveying his messages with gestures to the ladies.

The lift door started to close, so I held my hand between doors and pushed the 'open door' button quickly.

After all three ladies came in and the gentleman then hurried in.

Everyone was smiling at each other in the lift.

Japanese people have a reputation for being polite, but I also think there are many polite customs in Australia. 

Free Shopping cart

 

The other day, when I was on my way to do some grocery shopping, I saw a woman who was carrying a plastic supermarket basket.
She was walking alone on the street, quite far from the shops, with a nonchalant air.

Nobody seemed to think it was strange, except me.

Soon after she walked past me, I saw an old, Asian lady pushing a shopping trolley, from the same supermarket. They both seemed to be walking home with them.

I wondered if the supermarkets allowed their trolleys and baskets to be borrowed, similar to the way  you can borrow an umbrella from some railway stations in Japan.

There's no problem as long as you return the umbrella after you borrow it. It is an honesty system.

Somehow, I doubt it. I am sure that no supermarket offers this kind of service to their customers.  Sometimes I see shopping trolleys abandoned in parks or streets. Maybe the ones I saw wethat day were destined to be laundry baskets.  
Many supermarkets have introduced a system where you have to put a coin in the trolley's lock and chain system, then the trolley must be returned to get your money back. 

Cinema applause

I recently went to see a Japanese film called “Like Father, Like Son”,  which was the winner of this year's Cannes film festival.

The movie did not have any famous actors in it and was not a blockbuster, by any means.

It was a just simple, thought provoking story about families and blood ties.

I really enjoyed it.

When the movie ended, I was surprised to see the audience clap their hands in appreciation. I have never experienced this before! We don't do this in Japan.

I wondered if anyone would hear the applause.

I like Australian audiences!

If they enjoy something, whether it is a movie, concert or sporting event, they are really enthusiastic to show their feelings with generous applause. 

 

Disabled?

I sometimes see obese people parking in the disabled car park. 

They have a disabled sign on their car, but they usually don’t have wheelchairs or walking sticks.

I don’t know if they are overweight because of their disability, or if they are disabled because of their weight.Perhaps if they parked further away and walked a greater distance, it might help improve their condition.

I am curious as to what the criteria is for granting a disabled sign.

Funeral Attire

I have been to a few funerals since I have been in Australia.
Here, people don't seem to mind how they dress so much. Many people choose not to wear black, as we must in Japan. We always wear formal clothing, suits and sometimes formal kimono.  
Although some people wear suits here, I have seen people wearing very casual clothing and even some teenage girls wearing very short skirts, as though they are going to a night club. 

I was surprised to learn that sometimes Australians even play rock music, have a drink and tell funny stories about the dearly departed during the ceremony. 
Many Australian people like to celebrate the lives of the departed and see them off in a fun way, instead of having a sad and depressing funeral service. 

Cigarette packs

 

One of my co-workers, who is a smoker, removes all of her cigarettes from the packet, which has shocking health warnings and very disturbing images of cancer victims on it.

She then puts the smokes into a nice cigarette case, so she doesn't have to look at the ugly packet and be reminded of the damage that smoking can cause. 

The taste and damage to health is still the same, no matter what type of box they come in!

Last year the Australian government banned all tobacco companies from printing their commercial logos on cigarette packs.  

More than 75% of the front of the cigarette packet and all of the back, now show shocking health warning pictures. For example, terrible gums affected by disease, horrific damaged eyes, etc. 

All because of smoking.

At the beginning of this month, the government announced that the tobacco tax will be increased by 60% in a step-by-step manner for the next four years.

In four years time, a packet of 20 smokes will cost more than A$20.

Even if becomes $50 or $100 per pack, I'm sure many smokers will continue to pay the price, and also all of the health damage caused by passive smoking will continue.

Scary!

Barbie party?

 

Not only is English very difficult to learn, but then there is also Aussie slang to contend with! 

Australians like to abbreviate many words, for example: Uni for university, bikkie for biscuit, pressie for present, hanky for handkerchief, etc. etc.

Soon after I came to Melbourne, one of my co-workers invited me to a 'barbie'. 
I later learned that this is a summer party where they cook the food outside, but at that time, I didn't know what a barbie was. My first thought was that it must be something to do with the famous doll.

Don't judge a book by it's cover

 

After I parked my car in the city, I went to the vending machine to buy a parking ticket.

Just before I started to insert some coins, a guy approached me.

I was a bit worried because he looked very kowai (scary). He was covered in tattoos, even on his neck! 

In Japan, tattoos are a sign of the yakuza, a criminal organization. 

But, to my surprise, he was very nice to me!

He offered me his parking ticket, which was good for 2 hours, and he had only used 15 minutes.

He didn't seem friendly at all and did not smile as he spoke to me, but even so, I thought this was a very kind act.  

We should not judge a book by its cover.

Vet waiting room

Most of the pet's owners at the vet are very friendly and talkative.  
Every time I take my cat (sakura-chan) to the vet, I am warmly welcomed by them when I enter the waiting room. 
They all love to talk about their pet's health problems, their age, etc. and they always give nice compliments about each others pets. 

We all listened sympathetically as one lady told us about her dog's recent lack of appetite.  Another lady replied "Oh, the poor thing. He looks quite pale."
Pale? The dog was black!
I thought it was a joke, but nobody was laughing.

I stared at the dog, looking for signs of a pale complexion, but he still just looked black to me.