Time

I just cruised here to post, and saw that I haven't posted in two weeks. Where does the time go? Why is it that when I should have so much more free time, I seem to have less?

This weekend, at least, went by in a blur. I played in a dart playoff tournament, and then enjoyed the post-game party. I spent Sunday morning recovering, then spent some time with my mother on Mother's Day. Then dinner with a friend. Then time to crash early so I could wake up early to go paint doors and baseboards...

Now home again, and posting here in order to kick-start my creative juices again!

I will be quite busy all this week with painting, and then maybe get out of the city for the weekend...

And so it goes.

Renewed Vow to Blog!

I hereby solemnly swear that I will blog at least three times a week, even if I have nothing to say!

What I've Been Doing

• Working out pretty hard at the gym four days a week


• Taking Dexter for longer and longer walks to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather


• Going out for dinner with my mother


• Having a beer with the folks at the Legion


• Watching the Superbowl game at a local bar


• Trying to maintain my Japanese by speaking with Masa, a young guy who is here to study French

What I haven't been doing:

• Sticking to my diet


• Finding work

Main Topics of Discussion in Montreal...

 And

Colours Update

I guess it was about time that I update the colour scheme - it's only been winter for a few months now:)

Cold, Snow, and Learning to Paint

In case I wasn't quite certain that I was, indeed, back in Montreal, the 25cm of snow dumped on us, and the -10 degree weather, has reminded me.

I want to post pics - although cold, although disrupting traffic and general get-out ness, the newly fallen snow is quite beautiful.

My very short term goal is to definitely post a photo tomorrow! (Another reminder that I am back in the north, is that it is pitch black already, and not even 5p.m.

In other news, although I am still among the unemployed, I have an interview at an agency next week, and, more fun than that, every day this week I was working on a temporary (but paying!) job as a painter's assistant. Sounds lame, but I had never even held a paintbrush before, so I am learning a lot this week, and was even praised for my work. I'm sure I won't be allowed to paint the first coat of straight lines or anything, but exciting just the same.

I took this in one of the newly painted rooms with my new iPod Touch (4th Gen), which I had to buy last week to replace my old one, which had become faulty, and then which I completely destroyed when trying to self-repair!

Oops!

Huge huge lapse in blogging!!

I really hadn't realized how much time I let go by between posts.

Dexter has been keeping me busy of course - and he is healthier now, too.

More updates to come. Just wanted to say that I'm still alive.

Craive Hair Salon in Shinsaibashi

Well, hair doesn't grow on trees...well, at least, colour treated hair doesn't. And as it has been just over a month since my last visit to the hair salon, my hair was screaming at me that it was time to go again. Which meant finding a new hair dresser, since I'm not in my old town anymore.

I did a search in the Yahoo Japan search engine, and found several possibilities. Of course, Osaka is brimming with hair salons, but since I am now in a big city with good access, I decided to select my new stylist based on their experience with 'gaijin' hair. My hair is really very different from Japanese hair; it's harder to cut and style, and a hell of a lot harder to colour. In fact, I long ago gave up on actually getting the colour I really want, and settled for a blondish-orange colour.

Anyway, my internet search turned up several options, of which I chose Craive because:

1. They have experience with foreign hair


2. They are located fairly clost to me - just twenty or thirty minutes on foot

Not an issue for me was language. When I called Craive to make an appointment, the receptionist was really nice, happily booked me for the next day at 2 p.m., and enquired whether I required an English speaking stylist. I said no - I really don't need my hair stylist or anyone else to speak English, since I've been muddling through in japanese just fine.

I went for the appointment, and Mariko was the stylist assigned to me. She did a great job, understood the problems with my hair, said she couldn't guarantee that the colour wouldn't fade, but we'd give it a try!

I am very happy with my hair, and the price, though a little on the high side, was in the range of acceptable.

Old Hitachi Iron and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

My stint in Tenryu was fun, but coming home was good. We had an enjoyable night in last night, then when this morning (Saturday), dawned cloudy and chilly, we spent a couple of hours getting my Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon to run on dual monitors (more on that later). We then went for a bike ride (very enjoyable), and finally went out about town to do some errands.

One of our errands took us to a recycle shop, where Brian picked up another monitor, and where I scored a fabulous old Hitachi clothes iron.

Why, you may ask, am I delighted by finding an old clothes iron?　Am I so dull that I love nothing more than ironing clothes in anticipation of my next business trip? No - of course not! But I have been homesick for some good, old-fashioned grilled cheese sandwiches, which, for me, means cooked under a clothes iron.

Newish clothes irons (anything made in the last decade or so)just don't get hot enough, and they have an insane auto-off safety switch that keeps them from getting and staying hot enough to make a decent grilled cheese sandwich. What were the manufacturers thinking, to deprive me of my grilled cheese sandwich??

So, when I found the old-style (I'm not sure how old) iron, that looks like it has never been used, for sale at the recycle shop for a mere 650 yen (about 6 dollars), I snapped it up. And this afternoon we dined like...well, like people who loved grilled cheese sandwiches!



The recipe?　Two slices of bread, a slice of sliced-cheese; put the cheese between the bread, and place a very hot iron on top!! No margarine, no fuss, no mess:-)

PS - this also works great if you want to "toast" hot dog or hamburger buns!

Hibernation

I feel guilty complaining about winter here because the weather is never cold (it never gets below zero for sure), and it just about never snows. The air is clear and dry, and sunny days far outnumber cloudy, rainy ones.

However - shorter days and chillier mornings do not lend themselves well to morning (or evening) activity. No bikes rides so far this year except on the weekend, and I've been blowing off my running companions for the past four weeks. Pretty soon they're going to stop inviting me. I'm also finding myself driving to the local supermarket recently rather than walking; and I seem to prefer basking in the warmth of our kerosene heater and watching streaming TV shows online to any other form of activity.

Hibernation, it seems, has hit. Nothing to do now but sit back with a good book, a bottle of wine and fluffy slippers...

The Mortal of Small Things

I'm basing my title on that great novel The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy), which I read about ten years ago and which was one of the best-written novels in ages....

Anyway, that's not actually what this post is about. It is, in fact, about how small everything here in Japan is. And really how small it has to be given the sparsity of space in this long and narrow country.

When we met Vaughn in Tokyo, he laughingly mentioned how he was again surprised by how small the hotel rooms were; now, keep in mind that he was staying at the Prince Hotel where the rooms are bigger and brighter than the business hotels where the average Joe (i.e. me and Brian) stays and even where the average Joe lives.

Then, of course, there is my own keyboard - which I love, but which is, actually, quite small just to make room on my "desk" for other things. I have a Happy Hacking Keyboard Lite - it's really great, makes for easy typing...but yes, it is small, and numbers have to share their keys with the function keys.

The roads here are quite narrow, parking spaces are tight (and expensive) - however, we've become much better drivers for the experience, and I'm sure that I can now park even a behemoth of a vehicle in a space the size of a matchbox.

Clothing sizes are smaller...it encourages me to lose a bit of weight so I don't look like a little sausage stuffed into the pants here:-) As for Brian, he doesn't have it so easy and has taken to buying custom clothes from Mysuitshop.com.

Well...I suppose this has been a rambling post. If anything, I really do hope that you read The God of Small Things....

Mindful Cooking, Mindful Eating

I've blogged in the past about the joy of cooking. No, not the book - rather, the simple, relaxing, calming feeling that cooking can bring. Don't mistake me - I'm not much of a cook. I still remember that when I first came to Japan, it was the first time that I wasn't eating frozen dinners or something my mother had cooked. I decided to do something with chicken and my first foray into the supermarket resulted in me staring at lots of packaged raw meat, and having to stop some poor Japanese woman working at the supermarket and ask her which was chicken! She kindly pointed out the chicken, then went further, showing me which part of the chicken each package contained.

I've come a long way since then as I am now semi-literate and can read the packages. No, seriously, I get a very real, simple satisfaction from cooking and spent many of our remaining holidays cooking stews, soups and curries. It takes focus. You have to peel the vegetables, slice the carrots, chop the onion, crush the garlic and grind the ginger...sounds rather violent, but allows the mind to be consumed with a simple process. The key is mindfulness - pay close attention to the food, to the process, and savour the time it takes to prepare the dish. Don't wish you were doing something else...

The follow up to mindful cooking, which is good for the soul, is mindful eating. This is something I will have to be more careful about putting into practice since I've got an extra three kilos to lose! Mindful eating - pay attention to your food, and only to the food. Enjoy it, savour it, appreciate it. Do not eat while watching TV, standing at the kitchen counter, or net surfing. I'm guilty of the latter, and eat much more than I should without even noticing, and certainly not appreciating.

Food is a wonderful thing, so perhaps one of my New Year's goals is to eat mindfully.

Remembering to See

A long time ago I saw a movie where some prisoners planned an escape from a Siberian prison camp. They escaped by loading planks of wood onto a box-car they had to stock and building a false wall. How did they get the wood onto the box-car without the guards seeing? As one of the characters said, "Let them see. Let them get used to seeing." So the prisoners made carrying the wood part of their daily routine, and sure enough, the guards simply stopped seeing the wooden planks for what they were.

This little snippet holds true for so much of life, too. We get so used to doing the same things, seeing the same things, that really we just don't see anymore. Every now and then I remind myself to be aware; I ask myself what sounds I am hearing at a given moment, what textures I can feel against my skin, what am I feeling on the ground beneath my feet. And then I look around, and make a mental note of things - vending machines with Pokari Sweat (a sports drink), and Depresso iced coffee (best thing in a can!).

Sometimes we need a little reminder; tonight we welcomed a new comer to Japan and again, I find myself seeing things again, and enjoying the newness.

Woo Hoo - Friday!

Friday evenings have got to be my favourite - a few hours to wind down after the week, and looking forward to the weekend.

Tonight it's raining hard, and being home it's nice to hear the rain's rhythmic pounding on the pavement is one of the most relaxing sounds I know.

I'm also enjoying some sweet tunes from Pandora.com thanks to Tor and Brian's ingenious ability to properly configure it!

Naturally I'm not feeling very Zen today because I'm totally multitasking, which is very anti-Zen. But at least I'm getting things done - rocking out to Pandora, listening to the rain, cooking curry, blogging, updating Facebook and sipping red wine - all at the same time!

And as I utter these words proudly, I realize that my Fridays are slightly tamer than they were a decade ago, which then brings me to various existential questions, which I really don't have time to ponder just now:-)

On a more exciting note - Brian and I are going to a Halloween party tomorrow; I'm totally looking forward to getting dressed up and will post photos of both of us in costume ASAP.

Convenience Stores...

The town I'm staying in is not big, but it has a few conveniences - one of which is a convenience store. Conbini's (as they're called here) carry just about anything you might need - from katsu-don bentos to boxers and panties (I'm not kidding). Lucky for me, they also carry portable cell phone chargers.

After four days away and lots of playing with my cell phone, my battery began to fade. So I went to the Sunkus conbini and picked up a USB powered charger (figured it was better than the battery powered one, since I actually did have my computer with me). My phone is now charged up and ready for another day of use. As a bonus, the USB charger has a "double" fitting - one fits my (and Brian's) Softbank phone, and the other would fit Brian's AU work phone, so I think the charger will remain useful.

(I took this photo with my cell phone):

Our Recent Evenings

So, from the infrequency of our blogging you can probably tell that we're back at work and well in the midst of things.

This week has been rather dull but nice just the same.

Our friend, Larry, loaned us the first season of the TV show Monk on DVD. I'd heard of it before but never had the chance to watch it, and I have to say that I am hooked. Tony Shaloub does a great job playing Monk, a former detective with obsessive-compulsive disorder and who also just happens to be a genius. It's such a quirky show, and rather clever so I've been enjoying my evenings with some red wine in front of the boob-tube with Mr. Monk.

In past news, we've been meaning to mention that Brian and I are now reduced to one bicycle each; Brian sold his GT Dhi on the Yahoo Japan Auction about two weeks ago (you can view the expired auction here). The selling of our final downhill bike truly marks the end of an era now – no more weekends at Fujimi Panorama, no more getting geared up to tackle the challenges of the B-Course...But we're definitely plenty happy with our 29ers, and neither of us much like having gears anymore, so we were not too sorry to see the bike go.

Tame Tuesday

The heat and humidity that we usually expect for summer has finally arrived. Yesterday (Tuesday), we didn't have any big plans for the day and our legs and other muscles were still achy from the Fuji climb, so we turned on the fans, opened some windows and doors, and did some house cleaning! Not exciting, but a good way to recover from our hike.

In the afternoon, we went with a couple of friends up to our favourite beer hall for an early dinner followed by a beer in the garden. It was pleasant, as usual, but I think I really shouldn't eat that much in one day, let alone one meal!


After getting home, the summer sky was remarkably free of its usual haze, and we were able to clearly see the rest stations dotting the trails up Mt. Fuji.



Very cool to see our various stops right from our doorstep!

Today we're heading out to Shizunami Beach, which is not too far from here, but far enough that we've made reservations at a little minshuku there. We're both looking forward to lying on the beach, reading books and relaxing.

Pajero and the Mini

After biking hard yesterday, this morning we decided it would be a good day of rest and car washing (and waxing!). After we'd both thoroughly beautified our vehicles, we went into the mountains to a secluded spot for some quiet time reading and sitting in the sun (or, if you're me, in the shade). We also spent some time taking pictures and drinking strange new sodas - the Lawson was selling a Wasabi Lemon drink, so of course, we had to try it.

Here's my Wasabi Ramune, which tasted a lot like gingery cream soda:


And here are our cars - my Pajero Mini, and Brian's Pajero:


Well - we've gotta run; it seems we have suddenly decided to mount an assault on Mt. Fuji tonight. Hopefully we'll be treated to a nice sunrise and get some good photos.

Our Very Days

I've been to busy to be prolific, and too tired to be pithy. There for, let me simply be prosaic.

We've been working late most evenings, meeting the challenges of having one of our managers out of the office. Getting home, with the heat and our fatigue, we've taken to buying pre-prepared food at the supermarket. Tonight's dinner was a simple salad that I put together in about 5 minutes, topped with tender, juicy pre-cooked and marinated chicken that I bought at a local supermarket for only slightly more than I would have paid for the raw deal. Other dinners have been pre-prepared unagi (eel) and maki-zushi (sushi rolls).

When I first arrived in Japan (a whopping 9 years ago!), I lamented the lack of instant food (since I wasn't much of a cook). I then, of course, began to cook and even took real zen-like pleasure in it. More experience in Japan, of course, taught me that though there wasn't much "instant" food like TV dinners, there were plenty of "home-made" bento (lunch boxes) and side-dishes such as my pre-cooked and seasoned chicken.

And so , recently we've taking advantage of the convenience: eating fairly light, saving time and not heating up the kitchen!

Rabbit Typhoon

Typhoon Usagi (Rabbit) is bringing us a bit of rain today - but I think we'll miss the worst of the storm as it is supposed to slam the western side of Japan, but not so much the east. Here's an image of the newest typhoon:



Lucky us since we're thinking about spending some time in Tokyo this weekend...