Your Dream House?

Have you ever dreamed of your future house?  I was little surprised by the fact that many people in Perth buy their own houses.  In Japan we (especially people at my age) don’t usually buy a house.  We rent an apartment room and it’s normal.    

When I was little I liked changing the interior of my room, and started to buy my own furniture at age 16.  Although I didn’t dream of a house, I dreamed of a room or some spaces for my own and wanted it to be perfect.

Now, my sister-in-law is building a house with her husband and it’s nearly finished.  I think they are going to move in there next month.  They’ve bought lots of furniture for the house, and they look so happy!  Plus they just bought a new car and also a puppy, which is going to arrive their house on Christmas day.  They have already prepared a doggy bed, water bowl and also nail foils.  I can’t also wait to play with the puppy

Seeing them been so excited makes me also want to have a house here.  I wish I had more money! (>0<)  I want to decorate my own space and pick furniture I like, but I can’t do that with this house I’m living.  I’m not sure if I can buy a house next year, but if I could, it’s like one of my dream coming true.  … I think I will start planning how I want my house to look like.  I like planning, and also it’s fun to dream about things.

Chicken & Tomato Curry

Is it only Japanese culture to eat hot food in summer?  In hot days we cook steaming udon noodle soup, hot and spicy curry, and grill yakitoki (skewered chicken dish) etc.  We, of course, eat cold food too such as cold soba noodle, so-men noodle, and cold pasta dishes, but you get to see tv ad of curry a lot during summer in Japan, and it’s one of the thing that tells you “hey, summer is just around the corner”.

Therefore I like eating curry in summer.  I add lots of summer vegetables and make it as “summer curry”.  In winter, I would add some winter vegetables such as lotus roots, sweet potatoes and pumpkin. 

Try this refreshing tomato curry at home!  It’s not that heavy thanks to this red summer fruit.

<Chicken & Tomato Curry>

• 400g chicken mince
• 1 medium onion
• 400g tomato tin – chopped
• 100g Japanese curry roux
• 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 bunch spinach
• 1 bay leaf

1. Wash spinach well, and drain. Chop roughly. Slice onion thinly.
2. Season chicken mince with curry powder. Heat olive oil in a sauce pan and stir-fry mince.
3. Add sliced onion. Cook over medium heat until onion is transparent.
4. Pour chopped tomato into the pan. Fill up 1/2 the tin with water, and add to the pan. Add bay leaf. Turn up the heat to high to bring to boil.
5. Once it starts to boil, turn down the heat to low and add curry roux. Stir through until the roux melts.
6. Simmer for 5~10 minutes. Stir in spinach and turn off the heat.
7. Serve with steamed rice.

St James Hair Studio

I was very excited to try this hair salon in Northbridge.  One reason is that I was dying to get hair cut, and another is that I wanted to meet this stylist “Kazu”.  I made a booking with Kazu and had a chance to chat with him on Sunday.

Kazu has been working at this St James Hair Studio for 10 years now. He was also a hair stylist in Japan, worked in Tokyo for 9 years, then moved to Perth.  Along with his job at this salon, he goes back to Japan annually to update his skill and knowledge by attending on seminars and catching up with his friends who are also hair stylists.

At the salon, I showed Kazu a sample photo of a hair style and told him how I want my hair to look like, then moved to another chair to get shampoo.  He put a steamed towel on my neck and massaged my head, it was so good.  He told me my muscle is tense – I didn’t know that there’s muscle on the head!  And, he could tell right after touching my head that my body is tired.  He is a pro!

He gave me lots of tips as well.  I asked him how I should dry my hair, naturally or by drier?  How to use hair iron and curler?  He gave me an advice on all the questions I asked, by demonstrating!  He showed me how to dry my hair: wear heat-proof conditioner on the hair first then blow dry completely with strong hair drier.  Then straighten up my fringe with iron, and curl the bottom of my hair with curler.  Wow my hair looks so different…

If you are seeking some tips or answers regards to hair, he is the one  He has many patrons here, including Japanese, Malaysian, Singapore, Australian etc.  I recommend you to book him at least 1 week in advance…  oh and he is going on holiday from 04/Jan till 24/Jan next year.

St James Hair Studio

Shop 2/218 James St, Northbridge WA 6003

Tel: 08 9228 3339

Grilled Beef with Japanese BBQ Sauce (Yakiniku)

At the Asian supermarket I saw some thinly sliced beef tongue too! I love beef tongue… it might sound gross, but it really tastes great if you lightly grill (yakiniku) with seasoning (salt&pepper) and eat with lemon juice. I will buy it next time

• 200g thinly sliced beef
• steamed rice

• 1 clove garlic – minced
• 2.5 tbs soy sauce
• 1.5 tbs sugar
• 1 tbs sake (cooking wine)
• 1 tbs sesame oil

My Hospital Experiences

After busy schedule and traveling around between 3 countries, my body finally gave up… I’ve been sick since I came back from Jakarta :p Not only me, my husband too. Coughing, running nose, fever, etc. I had to go to GP and then hospital few times, and took blood test. It seems that many people around me are also sick. My friends and co-workers.

You realize how important the health is when you get sick. I always think “meh, it’s fine” even though I have symptom of sickness, and don’t really do much about it. I don’t like taking medicine, so I try to recover by eating lots of fruits and nutritious food, and take a good sleep. Sometimes it’s ok, but sometimes the things go worse and I end up going to hospital..

When I was just about to graduate cookery course in TAFE, 2005, I was so looking forward to going back to my home and stay in Japan for awhile. The course was pretty hard and I had to work night time along with the classes, plus teachers were really strict there. When I finished my last exam I was so happy thinking “I’m finally free!”. I had booked my tickets to Osaka already and was counting the day to come. … Just few days before the flight, I started to feel strange – my body felt tired all the time, headache… I thought I just had caught cold or something. At that time my oversea travel insurance had been expired already ( I didn’t renew because I was going back to Japan in few weeks and I didn’t use insurance for the whole 2 years before then) so I was going to see doctor in Japan.

Just 5 days from the flight, my face started to have something – puffy things. Plus fever, huge headache and body ache. I couldn’t even walk, and because the puffy things on my face (only on the right side of my face) was kind of covering up my right eye, I couldn’t see things properly either. I should had gone to see doctor earlier! Now things had gone worse. My husband (boyfriend that time) took me to Medical Centre and doctor immediately sent me to Royal Perth Hospital. In the end I was having “shingles” and had to stay in hospital for 4 nights.

I had to change my flight date, but the worst thing was that my visa had expired while I was in the hospital! I couldn’t get out from the hospital so my boyfriend (my husband) had to go to immigration centre for me to extend my visa. Of course it was hard and he came back to hospital few times to get some documents from the nurses. Hospital staff kindly helped us calling immigration centre to explain what happened to me as well. But still, immigration didn’t give us any good news. In the end, right after I got out the hospital I had to go to immigration centre by myself to show this terrible face with a trace of shingles. We had a chat with an officer in a private room, and he gave me a temporary visa straight away after seeing my face.

Oh, another bad news was a bill from the hospital. Because I didn’t have any insurance (no travel insurance, no Medicare – because I was just a student-) I had to pay full amount. It was a BIG number… Been covered by insurance is really important!

This time I have Medicare and also private insurance, so things went smooth. I’m feeling getting better, but I really should have gone to see doctor when I first felt something wrong with my body. Sooner is better. By the way I had to go 3 times to get blood test, and on the third time nurse couldn’t find my vein (because it was too tiny and flat) she stung me 6 times on my both arms. She still couldn’t get any flow so she moved the needle around inside of my vein… it was painful Well, the pain is nothing compared with getting a huge bill, and also getting sick.