Salamin

Natsu da! Matsuri da! I missed Aya's natsu matsuri (= summer festival) at the daycare this year. I was in China then. This happens to be one of their major activities, so I'm so sorry to have missed it. Inspite of my initial misgivings, I did have fun last year when I attended it for the first time. And it even rained then, so most of the activities were confined indoors.

 

Fortunately, Aya's Tatay and Lola were there to participate in the event, and gladly took pictures and videos so I could at least see what I'd missed.

Oh sheez, this video is soo wickedly funny. I just had to put it in my blog so I could easily access it and watch it again. lol

For me, listening to the voiceover is even funnier (I guess that only works if you do understand Japanese). There are some practices that I am already familiar with (like you shouldn't pour your own drink; somebody should do that for you), but I think most of it is just satire. But then again, for someone who does not know Japanese culture, would it be just as funny? I wonder.

Year 1996.
I buy my books from a catalog. I place my orders through the mail. Then wait for a month for my orders to arrive. Afterwards I send a postal money order through the post office to pay for the books.

Year 2007.
I click and pay. The books get delivered the day after.

Ahh, the wonders of today's shopping. It's one of the reasons why I love the internet. It has made shopping more convenient than one can imagine. I've ordered everything from books to furniture to clothes via online shopping.

Who knows how everything would change ten years hence?

I grudgingly woke up this morning, stiff and sore. My arms ached. My head throbbed. I've got a stiff neck, probably from lying on the same position all night long. I was simply too exhausted the night before, after spending the whole day with my family and my sister's family at The Magic Kingdom of Tokyo Disneyland.

　

 

I have already lost count of how many times I have visited the place (I've also been to Disneyland in Anaheim and Disneyworld, haha. Sucker.). Every time a relative from the Philippines visits us, we make it a point to bring them to this magical world where both adults and children can enjoy themselves in the make-believe world of Disney. As they say, there is no other place where adults can feel like children again. How else to describe it? You've gotta see it to know exactly what I mean. :)

I woke up pretty early this morning - around 6:30 am - rarin' to get out of bed and ready to go to work. It's Friday, last day at work, and I just want to get this day done and over with as soon as possible. Can't wait to get to the weekend!

After a few minutes, Aya got out of bed and looked for me. I thought it was unusual for her to wake up so early in the morning - usually, I have to create a grand ruckus in our bedroom just to wake her up. But today was different. She spoke hoarsely. Then when my hand touched her skin - yikes! She felt so hot. I knew instantly that she has fever. I measured her body temperature, and the thermometer gave a reading of 38.0 C.

Sigh. So much for my Friday. I sent emails to our group telling them that I won't be coming in for work. Hey, work will always be there. Right now, my daughter needs me more than my work does. But I guess, I could also view it this way: I got my weekend earlier than I thought.

Coffeeholics Anonymous is now in session. Hi, I'm Kathy, and I'm a coffee drinker.

I can skip breakfast entirely, but never my coffee. I also drink one cup of coffee right after lunch, just to perk me up in my lowest energy state in the afternoon. I try to limit my coffee intake to two cups a day. But sometimes, when my coffeeholic sister would brew coffee at night, I would find myself drinking a third cup. But that's just about it for me. On usual days, anyway.

Baggy and I are also frequent Starbucks customers. I've got a "coffee bean point card," on which I get points for every purchase of coffee beans I make. After I collect a certain number of points, I get one pack free! It must be the familiarity with the taste or ambiance, that even when we go abroad we find ourselves exploring the neighborhood for a good ol' Starbucks store. You could imagine how happy I was when I was in Seattle (for those who didn't know, the very first Starbucks was opened at Seattle in Pike's Place Market). There seemed to be a Starbucks store in every corner, including one located right smack at our conference site.

Have you ever seen the movie "Lost in Translation"? Although the movie seems to exaggerate certain things about living in Japan, it does offer glimpses of how difficult life could be for someone who doesn't know the language, not to mention the culture.

There was a time, in Akihabara, when I rode the elevator and was asked, "Dochira made desu ka?" - Where are you getting off? It would have been easier for me to respond had the person asked, "Nan-kai desu ka?" - What floor? "Kai" is the suffix used when counting floors. But in my haste, I answered, "Roku-sai desu." "Sai" is the suffix used when counting age. Effectively, I told the person that "(I am) six years old." Gaah. I should have said "Rokkai" instead, which would mean, "sixth floor." When I realized my mistake I was so embarrassed that I wanted to get off the next floor and just take the stairs, hahaha.

Tell me what your toilet habits are, and I will tell you who you are.

I was in the ladies' room, minding my own business, when I heard someone flushing in the next cubicle. Whooosh, whooosh, whooosh! It's the sound of flushing, and the flushing lever had been pulled down three times in succession. Three times! How many times does one need to flush human filth down the toilet? Inspite of myself, I couldn't help but count how many times the person had already flushed, thinking of all the volumes of water going down the drain.

On with our adventure in Kamogawa Seaworld. The aquarium is located right at the coast, and you can see the Pacific Ocean stretched before you in all its beauty. This was one of the reasons why we came here! We took in everything...filled our lungs with salty air and enjoyed the tranquility of the scene before us. We lingered there for a while before going inside.

After more than ten years of living here in Japan, we have practically visited most areas of interest: Nikko, Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo, Sapporo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, etc. -- you name it, we've been there (ok, maybe except for Okinawa, hehe). Lately, especially during business trips, we don't even bother to check out the localities anymore. We're already way past the "tourist" mode. Been there, done that. Yes, even naked public bathing. But that's another post.

Last December, we found ourselves with a six-day holiday, with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Tsukuba is great, but we decided that we've had enough shopping at Q't (this is pronounced as "cute," and this is a small shopping mall here in Tsukuba). Now's the time to relax. But where to go?