BIG CHOCOLATE

"UFO Catchers" or "Claw Games" are very popular in Japan and you can find them anywhere.

Game prizes range from bite-size candy up to I-Pods. Seriously. The prizes here are much better than the ones that are offered in the States.

We rarely play the machines, since their odds aren't favorable AND it takes skill to win prizes from a catcher and that skill is something Chris and I both lack.

But every once-in-a-while my husband surprises me, like today when he won THIS:

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a 15-inch ruler provided for scale.

I was too embarassed to carry the bar out of the arcade, I made Chris do it.

Later, I asked Chris "How am I supposed to eat this huge chocolate bar?"

To which he replied, "With malice of forethought."

This is why I love my husband.

Pantyhose

I was very flattered when Ben Lee asked me to participate in his promotion ceremony.

I want to look nice and that means getting dressed up more than my usual jeans-and-a-tee. It means a skirt or a dress, and either of those mean pantyhose.

I hate pantyhose.

I don't have any pantyhose.

If I hate them, why would I have pantyhose?

Unfortunately, pantyhose are sometimes a necessary evil and cannot be avoided.

Did I mention I didn't have any pantyhose?

Did I mention I hate pantyhose?

So I had to go buy some and it made me cranky.

I can never find pantyhose in flattering shade that's close to my skintone.

The BX has NO selection of pantyhoses.

I couldn't mail-order the pantyhose of my preference in time.

I looked all over for pantyhose, getting angrier and angrier all the while.

Eventually, though, I bought some f*ing pantyhose.

Seriously. See?

Hakodate Trip

Hi Everyone!

We're back from our long weekend in Hakodate.

You can view the pictures on flickr.

Be sure to go to the end to find out about our "really gross food" experience. It's funny now, but it was traumatic (for me, anyway) then.

It was such a great trip. I wish I could have taken you all along with us.

Engrish: Milk Bubble Maker!

Question: How good could a two dollar frother be?

Answer:

Pretty good.

It took me a while to buy the frother I had seen at the 100 yen store, mostly because they kept moving its location around and also a little bit of overload and I would get distracted by all the other crap in the store, all of which could be mine for a 100 yen or sometimes a little more...such was the case with the frother.

It took a bit to pry the frother from its blister pack, mostly because I was trying to be careful of not breaking the damn thing (it looks a little wimpy) as well as trying to preserve the hysterical packaging with its copy full of culinary brio and a shitload of Engrish. Perfect. I needed some content for the blog, anyway.

To my surprise, the extricated frother actually felt pretty sturdy. The stand was a nice touch. Even the whizzy bit on the shaft seemed well-made enough that it wouldn't fling high-speed metal shards directly into my beady green eyes.

I put the mixy bit into the motor housing then and installed two AA batteries. I made some hot cocoa. It was Swiss Miss Fat Free--it's crap but I wasn't about to fuck up my really good Williams-Sonoma stuff. I then stuck the frother in and let her rip. The frother went ZZZZRRRRRRRRRR and it very effectively foamed my hot cocoa, albeit all over me and all over my kitchen. I ended up only having half of a cup of cocoa, but I just made another (also frothed to half-a-cup, but between the two halves, I got a whole) and laughed my ass off the entire time. And BONUS! The frother absolutely scared the crap out of the cat. I chased him with it, just to make sure his terror was legitimate.

Buoyed by such resounding (and entertaining) success, I then tried to froth Chris' left ear. But even with a little tenacity source (as the package states) it went BRRRZZZKKKKKZPLFTH and stopped dead in its whirly, circular tracks. A quick reboot and it was as good as new. Should have seen that coming, since the back side of the package states:

When attached to a skin or a dress, please wash with water.

It obviously didn't work because my husband WASN'T wearing a dress AND he had dirty ears.

Enjoy the pictures, you can click to get a larger, legible size.

PS: Be Sure to wash a mixer after use.

Housekeeping

I removed the links to my kimono and triathlon pages--they weren't seeing much traffic and I was not doing a good job keeping them up-to-date. The kimono page was too much work for so little return and the triathlon stuff, well, the actual months where I was training were interesting, but then it just became a whine-fest. No point in lingering on that.

Spring is trying to come to Misawa, it was a gorgeous early-spring day yesteday, you could just feel the newness of the season in your soul. It was one of those day where I really like being in Misawa, being in Japan.

Speaking of which, unless a miracle (or a large cash incentive) occurs, we will be leaving Misawa in September. 8 months -- a relatively short time if you think about it. I am pretty ambivalent about the situation, as part of me is ready to leave NOW and part of me wants to stay indefinitely. If we're really going to leave, I'd like to be back in the states prior to the start of the fall semester at Loyola, so I can finish up my Masters degree.

And Sly passed her Red Head certifications. Actually, "passed" is an understatement, she CRUSHED. Yay, Sly!

Nico

The folks in the office are taking turns visiting Kelly's dog.
She is the spaz-o-matic 6000 deluxe model.
I was afraid to take her out running with me, for fear I would be dragged all over the place, including across the flightline, which would result in BOTH of us getting shot to death.


I took some pictures of our visit. Of the 10 or so I took, only three turned out:

I had to bribe her with a treat to get this pensive shot. I call it Emo Nico!
(she's sad because she doesn't have the treat yet)I got my face licked just before I snapped this. Urgh.It took a few tries, but INCOMING! Look at her floppy ears!

Asamushi Aquarium

We went to the aquarium in Asamushi on Wednesday, January 24.
We got to see fish, rays, eels, otters, dolphins and even some bonus ENGRISH!

Aquarium pictures on flickr!

Hakodate

Currently planning a long-weekend trip to Hakodate! We'll be going in February. We're planning to stay in a ryokan, or traditional Japanese inn. I'm really excited. At some point this winter/early spring, we also want to go to the OTHER end of Japan and visit Okinawa. There's a Club Med there, and maybe we'll try that, just to say we did. Of course, we just might stay at a ryokan there, too.

Rucky!

My husband owes the Japanese trash collector his life. Chris somehow managed to throw out our 500 dollar digital camera. The trash guy saw fit to leave it alone and Chris was able to retreive the camera from the bottom of the bin. The strap was a little wet, but the camera was undamaged.

For Susann--look! A knitting update! I finished a scarf and a hat. The hat only took me an hour and it came out very cute. Chris was supposed to bring the camera (before the whole trashbin fiasco) so I could take pictures of my kimono teacher wearing her hat, but after reading the above paragraph, you know what happened.

Knitting is not a fiber art that is native to Japan, however, like everything else, they improved and refined it and do it very well. I love Japanese yarn.

The hat is a fluffly, chunky yarn with some slubbing. I knit it on 15's, I think it would have been better on 13's. However, it made a darling hat that I completed in an HOUR! One ball made the hat and a monster pompom (not shown, I decided not to use it for this hat, I'll save it for something else). I have four balls of the yarn left. I may use it for the Around the World Scarf.
This is a scarf I made for Mr. Aizawa. It is burgundy with tweedy bits and is quite handsome. It's soft and warm, too. I made it a little bit too nagoi (long). Mr. Aizawa wrapped it around once and then said "Duburu Pray! (double play!) and wrapped it again. He wouldn't let Eiko help--Mr. Aizawa is very natty and he arranged the scarf just so. I hope he really likes it, and wasn't just being nice. I also ended up giving Eiko the hat and scarf (made from Artful Yarns) I was wearing, because she liked it so much. You can see the hat and scarf here.

What Happened to Winter?

There's no snow. Seriously. It's cold, but there's no snow. How can I snowshoe without snow?!

Engrish: Low Cost Rog House

more of my engrish sightings at flickr.

明けましておめでとうございます!

明けましておめでとうございます

akemashite omedeto gozaimasu!

Happy New Year!

2007 (or Heisei 19) is the year of the Boar. This happens to be my sign; in the European zodiac, I am Cancer. I can't win either way--either a pig or crab or an abnormal growth of cells which tend to proliferate in an uncontrolled way . Hardly glamorous.

Here in Japan, the days of January 1st to 3rd are called shougatsu. January 1st is called gantan and is a national holiday. Shogatsu is the most important holiday in Japan. Everything shuts down from the 29th of December to the 3rd of January. People stay at home with their families, and eat and eat and eat! They may watch holiday TV programs or play cards or go or chess.

Tradtionally, a fancy bento (box meal) is served. This is called Osechi and is very pretty and very symbolic. It used to be the mommies and grandmommies spent the days running up to Shogatsu making Osechi (so they wouldn't have to cook during the three days) but now it is more popular to order Osechi ready-made. This means that the supermarkets are BUSY. Usually, I see Japanese shopping with one basket. When I went to the suupa a few days ago, not only was it a mad house at 9am on a Saturday morning, Japanese ladies were pulling TWO carts with two baskets each full of stuff. Some husbands had even been roped into helping.

It is traditional for Japanese people to visit to a shrine or a temple during New Year's Days. People pray for safety, health and good fortune, buy charms or blessings and drop off old charms or talismans to be burned by the priests. The first visit to a temple or shrine in a year is called hatsumoude. It is not a very religious event but rather a custom. Many well-known temples and shrines are extremely crowded. Not a good idea to go sightseeing at this time!

End-of-year gifts are exchanged (usually food items) as a way to say "Thanks for your kindness in the old year, please treat me well in the new." Everyone looks to the new year for a fresh start.

Many people put up a shimenawa and/or kadomatsu. We do, too! See (gimme a minute to link to my flickr pages)

This year, I managed to stay up until midnight. I was listening for the temple bell, as Buddhist temples toll their Okane (bell) 108 times at midnight, one ring for each of the 108 evils man must overcome. I thought I heard bells, but I also heard drums, whistles, cheering, drunking singing/hollering, canned music, dogs howling and maybe a firecracker or two. It was a beautiful, clear, cold and starry night, with Orion shining through the branches of the trees in my little yard. A nice image with which to begin The Year of the Boar.

Slow Day at the Office

Which is good, the last thing I want is excitement--like a server crashing or something.
From December 18 to the 22nd, I was in Osaka and Kyoto, visiting with Chris' parents.

You can see our Osaka&Kyoto pictures on flickr.

There's also Christmas Pictures here.

Christmas Traditions: 25 (Christmas Day)

Open Stockings
Breakfast
Open Gifts
Phone calls throughout the day
Lazing around for the rest of the days.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Traditons: 24 (Christmas Eve)

On Christmas Eve, we always stayed home. There was tons of food (nibbles) and drinks (alcoholic and non-), music and just hanging around. My family never went out visiting, but plenty of people came to see us. Growing up in a small town, I never thought it was odd that people came and went, "dropping by" or "stopping in". Moving to Maryland made me realize how much I miss that socialibility, but I soon realized how nice it was not to have to be properly dressed by 7:30am on a Saturday, because you never knew who was downstairs having coffee.

We normally put the gifts under the tree on this day now that we are grown. Since we live overseas, we've changed that slightly. Gifts that arrive in the mail are unboxed (but not unwrapped) and placed under the tree right away. When we were small, they were put under the tree after we went to bed.

We'll probaby watch A Christmas Story (again)...Ooooh, Earthquake! I hope that doesn't become a traditon!

A quiet Christmas Eve at home, with it snowing outside and cozy inside.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas Traditions: 23

At least one decoration gets broken every year, including last year:The end of an ornament which made me really upset was when the last (a fushica one!) ornament of a vintage mercury-glass set broke. It had been my maternal grandmother's very first set of Christmas ornaments, and it pre-dated WWII. I liked its look and its history and now I like its memory, so it's not really lost forever.

I've come to accept that a Christmas ornament always gets broken, damaged, or just falls apart from old age. Really it's suprising how well everything has lasted as many ornaments have survived three generations, being stored for over a year in a tractor trailer, a twice-flooded basement, various pets, a mouse infestation, drunken rages, the tree fallling over, moving to Maryland, the US Postal System, and various other calamities (like my brother taking a bite of the styrofoam gingerbread man--we hung it up anyway, that gingerbread man with a half-moon shape chomped out of his side). Lost ornaments are replaced with new ones, which have their own stories and become part of our traditions.

Christmas Traditions: 22

Pillsbury Orange Rolls for Breakfast Christmas Day!

Chris, as far as he can remember, always had the orange rolls for Christmas Day breakfast. When we got married, and were merging our traditions and making new ones, he asked if we could continue this one.

We were really relieved when we learned we could purchase the tubes of dough here at the comissary.

Christmas Traditions: 21

The call from Santa Claus.

When my cousins Matt and Em were very young, my father would pretend to be Santa (I mis-typed there, and got Satan--my father didn't have to pretend with that, sometimes the man WAS the devil).

He could get away with it because we didn't see Matt or Emily very often and his voice wasn't necessarily familar. This lasted until the kids were old enough to recognize his voice. It was a very sweet thing to do and my family, really not given over to sentimentality, held this little tradition in high enough regard to never mock it.

Once, I mentioned to my dad that he was beginning to look like Father Christmas, but before I could finish, my father grumpily retorted "Yeah, if Santa was a bald old fuck." and I never brought up the resemblance again.

Christmas Traditions: 20

Pets get a gift.

Santa "Claws" always left a small gift under the tree for our pets. One year, said gift was a humongous rawhide bone that gave our Great Dane something euphemestically known as "Gastrointestinal Distress" and she left a really big (and runny) gift in the middle of the living room for the whole family.

Christmas Traditions: 19

Nuts.

My grandmother always had a dish of assorted nuts out, complete with picks and a cracker. I ALWAYS pinched my fingers in the cracker, playing with it and my brother and I had sword fights with the picks. While I remember this,I really don't ever remember anyone ever eating them, but they looked pretty. Walnuts, Brazil nuts, pecans, hazelnuts, all different shapes and sizes. My grandmother put the same dish of nuts out every year. Not just the dish, the same nuts. I shit you not. I learned this one Christmas while helping her put away the holiday decorations. I watched her carefully pack up the wooden dish with ALL the nuts still in it and stow it away.

I figured those nuts had to be about 15 years old by that point.