Some random karaoke at Dunk

I'm really into the word random this week. Random. Random random random! I like the way it rolls off my tongue. So, Rich and a few friends went to Dunk for a little karaoke. There was drunkeness and singing. Well......I'm not really sure if you can call it singing! But there were microphones and people saying words into them :) Hehe. Here are some pics!


Yikes! Don't fall off your chair!


You!! ....should be singing some karaoke!


And Peace out.

New link!

My friend Ryan has joined the Blogger world. He lived in Japan (although the opposite side to me) for a year before heading back to Canada. Here is his blog.

I always knew I had a good vocabulary

Your Vocabulary Score: A+

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

25 Peeps

So while lurking on others sites I came across this. Check it out.

Click here to go to 25 Peeps and see who else you know is registered there!

They said it might take a day or so for me to be registered, so if it doesn't work today, try again tomorrow :)

More random weirdness

So, my husband is an otaku (in English that means geek). He loves computers and anything related to them. So a visit to Osaka's Denden (electric) town is not unusual. However, what we saw there was....



I think they're advertising for a manga store nearby. It was really f@#cking cold that day. I used to play saxophone and know how cold your fingers get. I don't know how they were doing it with no gloves! You see me and my boss (our backs) pass in front of the camera as my hubby records.

The video is a little fast so here is a picture


And the maid girl is actually not part of their little group - that IS normal in Denden. Maid Cafes. I'll get into that one some other time!

Random Walk

Sometimes when you have nothing to do, just walking around is a good way to pass the time. Sometimes you see funny things. Actually, in Japan, you always see funny things. Some random pictures from our walk.


Oops.


Errr, yes Hello Gucky. Who is Gucky?

For those of you who are thinking - wow that girl takes a lot of pictures of bar signs (see previous posts) - are there really that many bars in Osaka? The answer is "Yes!". Aside from there being a convenience store, cigarette machine, beverage vending machine and cafe/ramen shop every half a block, there are also bars. Many many bars. Basically Japanese people are chain-smoking, potato chip buying, alcoholic eating machines. At least in Osaka. Seriously. I swear that most of these people should be joining Lyndsay Lohan in AA.


*ring ring* *ring ring*
receptionist - Thank you for calling the Doggyman International Pet Academy, teaching poodles how to poop outside for 20 years.

Well, that's the end of another random walk. Maybe I'll make it a monthly thing or something ;)

200th post!!!!!

Wow! I can't believe.....I have so much time that I have posted 200 times! *cough cough* Errr, to celebrate I shall post about absolutely nothing. Done.

Lidias new place

Something else we did last month was go to Lidias new place downtown for a few eats and a good chat. Here are a few pics from the evening.


Her new place is near Tsutenkaku. Its kind of a scrubby neighborhood for Japanese. Not really dangerous as we are in Japan and the worst thing that can happen to you is having your bike stolen. Japanese people don't like the area though so its very cheap!!


Outside the elevator. Despite the 'area' her building is actually very nice. Pretty new and cool design. I like the colours!


A rather shitty picture of Lids and her new place. Sorry Lids but its the only one I took! Ah well. We all know its a cool place.

A belated birthday post!

Happy Bday Matt! I know it was last month. I even went. I took lots of pictures. We all got drunk. Here are some pictures!


There he is. The birthday boy. My thats a large beer.


Antoinette and Dali.


Errrrr......Rich and Hiroko sure are scary or something.....


Hehe. Thats my boss.


Me and Claire looking sexy!


Steve and his holy grail of nama.


I'm totally not drunk.
Yeah, me either.
Err...totally
*snort giggle* uuuh yeah!


A couple more girls having some fun at the party. Hi Claire and Melinda!


Looking good Kiki!


Havard and Russ. Russ obviously just got off work in his snazzy white dress shirt.


Someone must have said something funny cause these 3 are laughing at something.


Yes hello Rob! I see you too!


Aaaand one last photo of the Birthday boy. He sure is enjoying that beer.

Canadian bloggers

So when I joined up with the Canadian blogroll list, of course I had to check them all out. Of course some I read more than others, some I post on and some I only lurk. Here they are!

Troll Baby - come live in Troll baby's world. See what her and her family get up to.

It's all about me - meet Teena and her family in Toronto.

Tricia's musings - Tricia, a wife, a nurse and a woman having a really great time!

As the Garden Grows - this site is also by Tricia. As the title says, its a gardening blog. Lots of nice pics of flowers etc.

Odd Planet - "You'll find humorous news stories here about dumb criminals, and odd people." Yup, that sounds about right.

The Gnostic World of Candy Minx - you will find everything on this site! Books and music, politics, events and the musing of Candy Minx.

My life in Pictures - a great photography blog. Cool pics by an amateur photographer.

Caylynn's Contemplations - she's a military wife and a runner! She just got an extremely rare breed of cat (a sphinx) and belongs to alot of blog communities and events.

Mackeydoodles Blog - a family friendly blog with pics of her family, little poems and videos and other stuff.

Breath of life Photography - another photo blog - mostly flowers and nature shots.

Waterfalls Paranormal Life - a blog about ...well... the paranormal. A little bit of regular life thrown in for good measure.

Winged Emotion - "35, wife, mother, friend sarcastic yet sweet" In her own words. Check out her day to day.

A round peg in a square hole - life in Winnipeg. This girl is a great writer. A more serious blog.

Jessicadoyle.ca - a seriously good blog. Great art and great writing from a girl struggling to know herself.

Deuce's Stay Wild - one of my favourites. Kind of a music blog, but also short stories and other stuff.

Canadutch - a Canadian girl living in Holland and her struggles and joys of living there.

Seanthebond News - this site hasn't been updated for awhile for its a technology blog. All geeks welcome :)

Motivated Motion - a modern renaissance woman living in the countryside. A blog about everything!

One Old Green Bus - This blog is about the attempts to acquire a dusty, old, double-decker bus. Really.

Sue Darroch and Matthew Didier's Paranormal Blog - A Place to discuss, rant, and rave... about the paranormal. Its the bus guy!

Nuttin' but Pimp - Products, services, how-to's, raves, rants, paying the rent, and helping you to pay yours too.

Well that finishes up all my links on my page. Of course I have other sites that I frequent on a regular basis. I will probably get around to linking them on my page eventually.......er......when I have time. Until then, enjoy the ones that are already there :)

Cyberspace friends....

So I have introduced everyone to my friends that we have met in person, now I want to introduce you to those we know only through cyberspace. There are the people whose blogs I love and comment on all the time and they give the love back on ours.

Quasar - this guy is brilliant. I love his site. Its all about astronomy/astrophysics and philosophy and poetry and great pics. I almost met him when we were in England, but we just didn't have time. One day!

Aliens Mosdef Better - meet Ana-chan. She lives in Singapore. She talks about her friends and daily life there. She is a fantastic girl that I would love to meet someday. She is originally from Germany I think, but speaks Japanese and other languages as well. I think she's fluent in 4 languages.

iBlog - an otaku after my own heart. Loves his cat and has lots of info on all the new gizmos and gadgets coming out.

Sanity Interrupted - crazy Lainey! Me loves her sense of humour. She is on a blogging break right now, and we miss her hilarious Fan letter Fridays, but I'm hoping she'll pop back sometime to say hi.

Pointless Drivel - meet Mr and Mrs Fab. A little zany, a little crazy, a lot of fun. He will make you laugh and sometimes say, 'Huh? I don't get it.' He loves lemurs.

Peas on Toast - errrr, I mostly lurk here, but I have commented a few times. Peas is a fantastic girl living it up in South Africa. Her stories make me laugh so hard I nearly pee myself. I don't know as I could handle as much drama in my life as she does. Go Peas!

Dutch Bitch - well, she's Dutch. And always has interesting stuff going on in her life. I mostly just lurk here too. She makes me laugh. Mostly I just don't have anything cool to say. I just enjoy reading her posts.

An Oxymoron is not an idiot with zits - the certifiable princess will always make your day. She writes very poignant posts about the more serious things in life, and then makes you laugh like crazy the next day. Worth a visit!

Captain Picards Journal - hehe. Anyone who loves startrek will love this site. The author, Jean Luke Picard of course, writes great stories about the crew of the enterprise. I kinda just lurk here too. Love the stories, not much else to say really.

Next on the list, the Canadian blogrollers....

How Jedi are you?

Mwa ha ha hah! If only I could rule the world...


how jedi are you? :: by lawrie malen

Friends and their blogs

So, I have a whack of links to other peoples sites on the side bar. Some of these people we have actually met in person - either they are my friends from Canada and Japan, or people that we have met in our travels.

Claires Blog - my husband used to work at a environmental testing lab in Vancouver. He used to work with Claire. She's a funny girl :) She's going to Bolivia in about a month. She also has some nice pics posted on there.

Delly the Elephant - we met Delly here in Japan :) She works at the Big N like everyone else here. A really great girl from Northern England. All about her adventures here in Osaka.

The Wolf's Den - a friend we met here in Osaka, but now lives in Seattle. He is moving on and forward with his life there. Our very own Ookami! Check out Bretto's life in the coffee city. We miss you Bretto!

Excelsis's Flikr Site - we met her here and she is still plugging away in Osaka. Beautiful pictures taken all over Japan of her and her friends.

Sune Sune - we met Sune on our adventure in Tokyo last year. He's a french guy that me met at a hostel and still talk to quite a bit. Unfortunately, we couldn't hook up during our Europe trip! But we still chat on msn. He loves music and is in general an interesting guy. Warning, his site is in French.

Osaka jock -thats right. Our very own Osaka jock. Check out what this bad boy has been up to via pictures.

AND last but not least.......da da da daaaaaaaa

Osaka Otaku - yep, my husband has a blog. And maybe one day he will actually blog on it. :) maybe you guys should hit his site and harass him a bit.

So check out all of our friends blogs and enjoy!
Next time, the people we've never met - except in cyberspace, and then the people who don't even know I exist (....because I just enjoy lurking there.....)

St. Andrew's Day.

November 30th is know as St. Andrew's Day in Scotland. While it's not as famous as St. Patrick's Day, it's still a pretty big deal. Even in Japan, I've been getting emails from friends telling me about the ceilidh's, parties, concerts and plays they'll be going to.
What you don't know is that the 30th has many traditions and superstitions attached to it. For example: if an unmarried woman sleeps naked tonight, she'll see her future husband in her dreams. I'd take that one with a pinch of salt!

St. Andrew also watches over singers, fisherman, fishmongers, spinsters and childless women.
To all the Jocks in Japan and around the world, "Slainte mhor agad!"

Bicycle hijinks

So, my bike was stolen. I've had it for a year and a half - pretty good by osaka standards actually where a bike is stolen every 2 minutes or something. Anyway, I was sad. I pimped it out with a hello kitty bell and an umbrella holder thingy. And my bike was one of those ones that folds in half if you want to carry it on the train or something. *sigh* I guess I'll have to buy a new one eventually.

So I was getting over that. Rich and I have been riding the other bike we have (otherwise known as the family car). It is a piece of crap bike that we paid $30 for when we first arrived in Japan. I love it. Its green and rusty and carries us both (reasonably) comfortably. We also added an umbrella holder on it and put pegs on it so the 'passenger' can put their feet up, or stand on them.



Then, we lost the key. We have been walking our asses everywhere for the last week.

Then, I discovered that you can go to a bike shop and have them take the old lock off and put a new one on for about $15. And you can buy a lock that has 3 keys.



Back on the family car!

Walking in a winter wonderland....

So I phoned/emailed a few people this weekend from home and discovered that it has snowing like crazy! Of course, snow in my hometown was not such a surprise as it snows every year there. Some years more than others but certainly every year. The surprise came when I talked to a few of our friends from the lower mainland. Now, its not like it NEVER snows in Vancouver, but its a once every few years kind of thing and its usually just a dusting on the ground that melts as it lands. This year it decided to just dump a load of it on the city. I'm sure that chaos ensued. Vancouver drivers wouldn't know how to drive on the white stuff if you paid them a million dollars. The whole city practically shuts down at times like these. So, our friends Tim and Tara - picture below - sent me some great shots of the shivery cold white stuff. Quote from Tara 'It's &@(#$ cold'.


Our very own Vancouver weather reporters - Tim and Tara


A typical Vancouver street.


This flower was sure surprised. Geez, it was like FINE yesterday!


Wow, look at all that snow!


I think this might be T and T's new place? Let me know if it is!

Autumn in Japan

When I was first told about japanese autumns, I thought it was just a huge wind-up. They really weren't kidding, the colours here are amazing! With this in mind I decided a little adventure to Arashiyama, Kyoto was in order.

Enjoy the red.

My avatar!

I hit a friends website and found this avatar maker. Cute eh? My hair colour may change of course :) Check it out on the side bar!

The Ultimate Showdown!!

I got my pictures!!!

So remember I had some photos taken in October? The photographer gave me a copy of all the pics :) I am posting some here - warning - some are a little racy (not too racy as you can't see any important bits) but I think they look fab!! The collage isn't quite perfect - it makes all the pictures square so sometimes it cuts out some of the important bits, but you get the picture - haha. He will be using one of the pictures in an exhibition here in Osaka in December which is so cool! I can't wait to see it framed and on display!

Canada - into the unknown....

So I keep thinking about how weird its going to be going back 'home' for a holiday. I have tried to assimilate into the Japanese world and feel quite comfortable here now. Sometimes I feel as though I am living in a bit of a bubble - a gaijin girl surrounded by asian people, a language that I only sort of understand, strange customs, a culture that I am beginning to understand but know that I must reach much farther into the barrel to TRULY understand. At the same time, the bubble sort of protects me here. A simple 'wakaranai' (I don't understand) can fix most situations (even if you didn't know you were in one). I bow when talking on the phone, mumble the correct phrases when bumping into someone and enjoy the level of politeness here - even if it is on a surface scale only. Its amazing how smooth life can go if one even pretends to be OK with something. As a foreigner I am given alot of leeway to interpret the rules as well as obviously I cannot possibly understand the complexity of many situations. I like my apartment (cold though it may be), and my job here is good. I am a little afraid that when I go back to Canada, it will not be the fantastic dream that I remember and spouted off about to my students. 'Canada is a wonderful place! Beautiful and the people are so nice...etc' . I hear the stories from my shell-shocked friends that have visited their families and returned disheartened at how rude and noisy everyone was. I am sure that I will go through a reverse culture shock no matter how much fun I am having with my friends and family. Well, off I will go, into the known and the unknown, to explore a world that I thought I knew, but may discover that I really didn't.

Finally!!!

Finally, I think I am over my cold. My nose no longer starts dripping immediately everytime I bend over and my head no longer has rocks rolling around in it. Whew! Ok. Thats it. Back to your regular scheduled programming.

Who says cats and dogs cant be friends?

OK, I know this is waaay too cute and kind of sappy but I miss my kitties and this was just too nice not to post. This old dog is so sweet to his new cat friend.

Up, up and away!

LOL. I love this. It reminds me of a silly anime. The sound effects are great too :D

Speaking of Christmas turkey

Okay...so they are but meager chickens, but they were tasty! Ahhh, that was a fun party you crazy Tangs pulled together!! I see Richard!!


Aaaaaand, the wishbone, Japan style!



And last, but not the least bit uniform...the Christmas cake, which was carried in Brett's bike basket. Can you tell?

Falalala laaaaaaa, lalaalaa laaaaaaa

So, it finally happened. It was insidious. It snuck up from behind me and smacked me in the head today. Christmas arrived. I started hearing the carols on the radio(yes, even in Japan they play them), I've been seeing the Christmas trees and lights popping up in all the usual places AAAAAND I saw the crazy dancing Santa down in DenDen town.



So, that settles it. The holiday season is here. I find myself humming Christmas carols and thinking about butter tarts. For those of you who do not know, my grama makes the best butter tarts I've ever had and she makes them only at Christmas. I eagerly await a package from Canada containing bits and bobs of my gramas baking and little tinned things that seem to only be around at this time of year. Mmmmmmmmmmm, the holidays. I'm already thinking about what I'm going to cook on Christmas Day and how many people will be coming over. I had 30 last year. There was barely enough room for everyone to sit down - actually it was kind of funny. ;) Anyway, I can't stop thinking about it - I'm pondering whether I should buy a few decorations (or a hundred). Someone stop me now before I'm out of control :D

No Wii for me....

Me so sad. Me not have Wii. Seriously, I got up early this morning at 8 AM when they would be putting it up on Amazon. Ever see the movie "Gone in 60 Seconds?" Yeah, it was like that, but with nerds. So I just have to be patient for the next shipment.

In the meantime, I'm wondering, what's the dealio over in Japanland? Are there any dissatisfied Otakus?

Hello world. It's me again.

It's been a while. A lot has happened since then, and I'll tell more about that soon,

It seems that I'm going to be a long-timer in Osaka. I've bought furniture and made some great new friends that I'll post pictures of soon. It's a shame that I won't be home to celebrate Christmas with my family. They said it's OK, but it's going to be tough this year without them.

On a sadder note, some of my friends are going home in February; see you later in the USA in summer 2007.

I guess that 2007 will be a major year of change in my life.

Sniffle sniffle

So, I have a cold. Yuck. Snot flying everywhere, and a headache that isn't really bad enough to complain about but annoyingly always there. Thats all. I'm gonna go feel sorry for myself somewhere.

Thank God its Payday!!

Whew, we made it to payday. I paid the rent today, took out 40,000 yen for Rebecca and we still have lots to pay the bills and buy groceries. I think Rich is going to send some money home to pay off the Visa bill and we should still be doing OK this month. We won't be able to do anything spectacular this month, but going out to dinner occassionally will be OK. :) I will still be cooking at home mostly I think. Its tons cheaper and Richard eats vegetables when I cook - hehe.

Other news, I am working my ass off. 5 contracts this week. Yikes! Hardly anytime to do anything else at work. My job is kind of like that though. Flood or drought if you know what I mean. I'm going to have to out off any new clients until I get all this crap off my desk.

Fun things this week - we went to Subculture for the first time yesterday. Cheap cheap cheap is all I have to say. 1000 yen for us chickypoos to eat and drink all we can. Sorry boys its 2000 for you but still cheap as. I can see it will be a popular 'just before payday' place.

New news. None. Zip. Nada. Nothing new. Work, sleep, sometimes see people at lunch etc. Hmmm, I think I might go sulk a little since my life is so boring right now.

Kicking it at home

So, things have quieted down significantly since Jason went home. Apparently he DID get his upgrade to first class and enjoyed his flight home. Well enjoyed is probably a little strong, but it certainly wasn't bad at all :) We have just been hanging out in our house basically. Due to many reasons.

1) Sometimes you just get partied out. Not that either of us really drink alot - we don't. Maybe 2 drinks each, but you get a little blech about taking the train all the time and then having to wait for the first one to get home

2) Well, not much going on recently. No sayounaras, not many birthdays, really only the occasional thing.

AND

3) Money. Money, money money moooooneeeey. Mooooooneeeey. After Europe (which cost as much as 2 vacations), and Jason visiting (more time off and then trip to Tokyo which cost money) and picking up our tix to visit our families in January - uhmm we have a bit of a lack of it right now you might say ;) Hehe. Not like we're starving or anything. We always have money for food and rent, but no fun money.

How convenient that Richard downloaded the TV program for me to watch LOL!!!!! Fate you think.......? Anyway, I'm enjoying the downtime and working my little tushy off at work to make up for the lack. I only get paid by the contract so my salary is kind of unpredictable. On the plus side of being busy, my cheque next month should be reasonably fat. Thank goodness!!! So, when I finish this blog, I will probably turn on the old bube tube and clean up the house until its time to make some din din. Not that anyone cares but I found steaks today in Life supermarket for 1000 yen for 3 steaks. (Japanese ones which means its about the size of one regular North American steak!!) And normally one pathetically small Japanese steak is the same price as the pack of 3 I found today so.... Yah!!! Steak it is tonight. Mmmmmmmm, burned cow. So, gotta go. TV to watch and cow to cook. Catch you on the flip side.

Aaaaaaaaaah TeeeeeeVeeeeeee!

So, my life has been thrown into a blender with the recent discovery of internet TV. Its one one of those kind of weird things that when you can watch TV anytime, anyday, IN ENGLISH, you don't necessarily do it that much because, well, because you CAN do it anytime you like. When you live in Japan, (and are unwilling to pay the exhorbitant price they are asking for English Cable) you fall into a pop culture void. One day, you're texting your sister and she mentions some band called 'Arctic monkeys' and you're like, "Who the hell are they?" and you realize that you have fallen into a big black hole where you have no idea what the fuck is going on in the English speaking world. Then, one day, your brilliant otaku husband downloads a program which allows you to watch certain channels like Fox, NBC, CBS and some crazy HongKong/Singapore channel called AXN and you become absorbed with any old crap that they throw your way. Amazing Race Asia? Sure sounds good. Its in English right? Great! Fear Factor? Hmmm, well usually I hate that shit, but its in English right? OK! And then they throw in some stuff that you actually like (Alias, Simpsons, CSI - so much CSI I may never get off of my couch again) and you find you can't tear yourself away even on commercials - and those of you who know me know that I hate commercials. I was a commercial flipper when I watched TV in Canada. I would pick a show that I would watch during the commercials of the main show that I was watching so that I wouldn't have to watch that 'targeted to the lower percentile shit' that they call advertising. Yikes. I can feel my brain cells melting as I type. Anyway, hoorah for the internet and TV. Uhmmm, I gotta get back to my show now, I'm missing some good Las Vegas..........

ROFL - First time I've seen a quiz like this

Has anyone else got one of these "My husband died, and I have a bazillion dollars I need your help transferring illegally out of my 3rd world country" spams? hahahaha

Now there's a quiz.


Which Nigerian spammer are You?

Mwa hahaha

Take the Villain quiz.

Kaiyukan Aquarium

We also hit the aquarium the other day. Osaka has a world famous one that spirals down. They have some unique fish and mammals like the giant whale shark and a sunfish :) Here are some pics.


Outside the aquarium. They always decorate around this time of year for the holidays. There is also a huge ass ferris wheel called Tempozan that gives you a great view of the whole city.


I love the aquarium. So many cute fishes and animals.

Kyoto with Jason

Before Jason left, we went to the old capitol of Japan - Kyoto. It's famous here and around the world for two things. Temples and Geisha. Although we didn't get a chance to go to Gion corner, we did see some fab (like the mister) temples.

Ryoanji
An old Zen temple built by an unknown builder in the 14th to 16th century. It's highlight was the rock garden in which 15 stones were placed. Some say that you can only see 14 stones at any one angle from the viewing platform, and that to see the 15th stone you must attain a zen state.

Kinkakuji
Another Zen temple, but this one is famous for it's Golden pavillion. It was a great place to take pictures and if you're foreign looking school kids will ask you questions in English. Jason was politely mobbed by a group of kids while I pretended to be the Japanese friend. Hehehe.

Heian
While we have visited this one in the past, Heian is a nice place to visit with people from out of town. It has a fantastic garden that surrounds the temple, and a huge Torii in front of the entrance.

Halloween - the Japanese version

I love Halloween. Probably more than I should. Its my favourite holiday and you don't even get paid for it. Usually I would start making my costume in July and go all out. Crazy sewing and making of accessories etc. Previous years have included: Lara Croft, the silver outfit from the second movie, Cleopatra (where I made a linen and sparkly silver outfit and a beaded headdress and got braids done), Edea from Final Fantasy 8 - horned helmet, and fan outfit and everything, and Catwoman from Batman returns with the lovely sewed PVC outfit. This year and the year before I had to be a little more AND less creative at the same time. No sewing machine, no craft stuff that I have at home so costume had to be doable with safety pins and dollar store sewing kits. So me and Kirsten went as............

Sexy eskimos. I know its not politically correct. But thats what we were, and hey we're from Canada. We don't know about that stuff anyway :D Our mens were loggers/truck drivers.

Bye bye to Jason

So our friend Jason headed back to Canada today. It was a fun 2 weeks, and an action packed time. I have some more pictures to post from the stuff that we did since we got back from Tokyo, but it'll have to wait until I have some more time. We really enjoyed having him here and showing him around Japan, and introducing him to our friends etc. We're gonna miss ya!! He is still on his plane right now as I type so I hope he's having a good one! Hopefully he got his upgrade to first class so he doesn't have to squeeze his ass into one of those really tiny economy seats :) Hehe. Anyways, it was a fun time and I hope to see him again soon......