Yukidaruma

Here is a chilling photo of yukidaruma – snow man – from Hokkaido, Japan.  This tiny yukidaruma was showing its face from a snow house (kamakura) in front of a Spanish restaurant – my friend said.  As you can see, snow man in Japan has two body parts, not three.  In Australia, America, and some other countries, snow man has three body parts and I always thought it was strange.  Two-ball body looks much cuter than three–ball, don’t you think?

QLD is having another trouble again by Yasi cyclone this time.  Right after the terrible flood, I hope things will go better for QLD residents soon.  Japan seems to be having a big snow at the moment, and my friend who lives in Fukui (above Shiga) said that snow had piled up 2M!  Yeah, February is the coldest month in Japan, and I remember lots of snow storm around this time of the year.

Last night dinner at Hans Palace in East Perth (website) took 4 hours… and some of the food was still in my stomach when I woke up this morning!  We (my in-laws : 13 people) all had Chinese New Year banquet, which included New Year salad, Shark Fin and Crab Meat Soup, Singapore Style Chili Lobster with buns, Braised Pork, Roasted Chicken, Sweet & Sour Fish, Stir-fried Fish, Fried Rice, Deep-fried Crab Rolls, Sea Cucumber with Oyster Sauce, Mango Pudding and Fruits Platter.

I was so hungry … well. we all were, and when the entree was brought to the table everyone was just enjoying the food without talking.  After the Chili Lobster, the Dragon Dance began….  Everyone left their tables and enjoyed watching/feeding the dragons.  I was still hungry, but the wait staff didn’t bring up the main meal until the dance finished.  I understand that no one would eat the main meal while the dance was on, and the food would go cold if they served during the dance.  But, it was almost 8:30 PM when the dance finished.  It’d been 2.5 hours since we arrived the restaurant!  I think they should have served the main before the dance began.  It looked like all other tables were the same –  they didn’t get main meal until the dance finished.  By the time the dance finished, we started to feel full (even though we didn’t eat much food) and couldn’t finish all the main meal and desserts.  Some people were complaining about it and saying that restaurant is doing it on purpose, but we all took the leftover back home so I guess it’s ok…

By the way, today was my last day at work, and I’m going on 1 year parental leave from Monday.  It didn’t feel like it was my last day – but I enjoyed the platters of sushi and karaage that they bought from Sundays Everyday (in Myaree).  The food was delicious – I enjoyed the karaage very much.  I didn’t know my body was wanting meat so much!

From next week I don’t need to wake up to go to work anymore, but I have so many things on my to-do list.  I’m still asking my mum to fly here (she is afraid of flying) sometime around August this year.  I hope my sister cousin can escort my mum …