Biwako Lake

In early morning, I sneaked out the house and headed to Biwako Lake - the biggest lake in Japan.  It is just 5 minutes away from my house.  :)

View my old posts  :(Shiga and photos)

It was still bit dark (it maybe because of the cloudy weather) and the air was pretty cold.   There was no one around… except for these fishermen.

Biwako-Lake is a very famous fishing spot

After a morning walk, I went back home and headed to a cafe for breakfast with my dad and brother (as our usual routine for weekend mornings). I had a “morning set with brioche” which is a set of toasted brioche, one boiled egg, small salad and free-refill drink

Today is my shopping day + hair salon day!  You may think that I go to a hair salon too often, but there is a reason!  My hair is really messy now and it needs to get straight-permed.  It’s much cheaper doing it in Japan compared with Perth.  I’m in Japan now, so might as well…

First Day in Japan

It was actually a good flight.  I flew wth Malaysia Airline and had to transit at Kuala Lumpur (as there is no direct flight from Perth to Osaka).  There were’nt many passangers on the plane from Perth to Kuala Lumpur, so I could chose my seat anywhere :)   It was comfortable, i watched 2 movies in a row :)  On the other hand, the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Osaka was full, so I had to sleep in the chosen seat with strangers next to me.  Wellm overall it was a good flight.

I started to feel like I was already in Japan while on the plane from Kuala Lumpur, as there were so many Japanese people around me, and some of them were wearing maks and their own “airplane slippers”.  I think wearing face masks in public is Japanese thing :p

My family picked me up from Kansai airport, and once I stepped out from the building I could feel cold air hitting my body,  WOW it’s really cold!  But, when we had a quick freeway pitstop in Shiga, I could feel the air was even colder.  I couldn’t stand without a jacket,  Shiiiiit… I thought it was little warmer (>0<)  I only brought T-shirt.  I will have to go shopping for some cloth tomorrow!

It was a really good day… except that I had to be in front of computer for hours trying to connect internet.  I don’t know much about computer, expecially Windows :(  Anyway it is connected now somehow and I am writing this in my room.

Here is a photo of Kakino-ha Sushi (nigiri sushi wrapped in passimon leaves) that we picked up on the freeway pitstop.  Kakino-ha Sushi is a speciality food of Nara prefecture.

This is mackerel.

Tonight I will take a nice hot bath, and sleep in an electric blanket

My Friends are Everywhere..

As I’m from Osaka College of Foreign Language, my friends from the school are all interested in other countries and traveling the world.  I was taking Studying Abroad Course (major in Animal Science) and most of my classmates flew to America to go to universities after graduation.  I, on the other hand, chose to come to Australia instead of America.  Major reason for this was that I thought Australia was surrounded by big nature and wild animals.  (which is true)

I was browsing the college website the other day and I noticed there’re photos of my classmates on the site.  It recalled the memory of my last home-coming trip - I had a small gathering with my classmates in Osaka and could catch up with them.  After that, they seem to be doing fine and some of them are again going overseas for further career

One friend, who is also from Shiga prefecture, went to America to study animal behavior at an university.  Since then she got a job at one of her work-experience place and now she is working as a dog trainer in America  It had been her dream to be a dog trainer and she seems to be so happy.

Another friend, Haru, she studied preschool education in New York and moved to Hawaii after graduating an university to work as a kindergarden assistant teacher.  Then she went back to Japan, worked in a International kindergarden for awhile, and now she is flying back to America, Portland to work as an assistant teacher for one year.  She is so determined

Another one, who also chose to come to Perth, Western Australia with me after graduating the Osaka college, worked in Japan for few years after graduating from school in Perth.  Few days ago she flew to Ireland!

I’m not planning to go overseas and work at this point.  I will probably stay in Perth and just lead my life here  But in future, maybe when I’m much older, I would like to go to other countries and do some voluntary work.  It is one of my dream!

Banana & Walnut Cake

As last week has been super busy for me, I am so happy to have this long weekend  Less than 2 weeks to go, I’ve been meeting my friends to say “bye” before my trip to Japan.  … yes it’s just a 2 weeks trip and this may sound like I’m over reacting ( :p ), but that’s what we usually do

I’m not a phone person and I don’t really like talking on the phone, even to my family.  I don’t know what to talk about!  My family is all the same, when I occasionally call them, they are like “so… how are you?” “I see… we are fine here” and no more conversation.  So I (we) prefer just e-mailing.  While in Japan if I wanted to say something I just emailed people.  We can email from mobile to mobile in Japan and it is super cheap to use (we kind of have sms but never used it before - expensive and sucks..) and you could send photos, voice message, image character etc etc on the e-mail since long time ago.  So, if I find something funny, even a tiny thing, I took a photo and sent to my mum “hey I found this” ” how about oyako-donburi tonight?”  My mum is like my best friend.  .. she looks young too.  So, flying back to Japan and seeing their face & hearing their voice is something I need to do.  I try going back at least once a year.

Anyway, the orders for Bagelia last week has been different…  Someone asked me if I could make cheese cake with fruits, and another asked me if I could wrap banana cake individually.  I normally wrap a whole banana cake in a plastic film, but she said that her kid wanted to bring the cake to the school and give to the classmate.

I, of course, said “yes” and I individually wrapped the cake with ribbon and small tags (so that classmates know what it is).  They turned out to be cute.   She ordered 48 pieces of banana cakes, plus other cakes and bagels.  I hope the classmates liked it…

I am going back to Japan

Just for 2 weeks, I will be in Japan next month.  This trip was planned just recently and I am sorry for such short notice to Bagelier customers.

One of the purpose on this trip is staying with my family on my dad’s special birthday - he is turing 60, and we are planning a small family trip to onsen (hot spring) to celebrate his kanreki.   In Japan, turning 60 is a major big deal.   It’s when your life has come full circle, when the clock resets and you start a new cycle of life. Interestingly it’s usually only a major celebration for males—I guess women don’t want to celebrate turning 60, not so much.

And actually my mum’s birthday is also on March, so we are celebrating both of them on the onsen trip  By the way she is turing 51!  Yap, 9 years age gap.

It’s just a short holiday, but I’m so excited about this trip.  I think I won’t be able to go back to Japan for a long time after this trip, so I will try to enjoy Japan as much as I can.  :)

I hope I can see sakura and ume over there.

To Bagelier customers:

I will be away from March 10, 2010 to March 30, 2010.  I am sorry for the inconvenience.  Please place orders by 8th of March