Happy New Year and other Odds & Ends
Happy New Year to all my readers. All 2 or 3 of you! Today Yukiko & I are headed off to her parents' house in Higashi-Osaka to ring in the new year. I will participate in the modern Japanese new year's tradition of sitting home and watching martial arts fighting programs on TV. All the switching back and forth between K-1 and Pride may give me a slight case of carpal tunnel syndrome but hey, it's the holidays.
In Japan people don't sent Christmas cards. This makes sense because they don't celebrate Christmas. New Year's is the big one here and everyone sends out nengajo, or New Year's cards. They send them to their family, friends, work colleagues, clients, customers, basically anyone who's address they know. Every year billions (yes billions) these are sent. Each family sends out about 50 or more cards. Businesses send out even more. Here is our card for 2006:
Yesterday a big box of goodies arrived from my parents. Apparently there is contest going on within my family to see who can stuff the most and best presents into a box. My mother certainly raised the bar a little.
Here we are posing with the scarf & hat sets, stuffed beagle toy and various baby clothes we got from my parents. Thanks mum & dad!!
Yesterday we were visited by our friends Yoshikawa & Emi, and their 2 kids Kazu and Hiro. Kazu is just entering the terrible 2's and it shows. He was like a cyclone, whipping every which way and leaving a trail of carnage in his wake. He also threw up on himself. Parenting looks tough.
On Wednesday, Yukiko finished her last day of work... ever... or until she decides she'd like to go back. Her work colleagues threw a sobetsukai, or farewell party for her. When she got back home she was heavily laden with gifts and flowers. I'm sure everyone at her office will miss her - but she's ecstatic to be done.
Yukiko with all her loot.
Here's a good shot of Yukiko and our newest mode of transport, the La Festa! It's a veritable party on wheels.
Some odds & ends. Here are some pictures I've taken in the last few months but couldn't find a proper time to post them. So in the spirit of the Japanese o-souji, or big new year's cleaning, here they are:
This is an inflatable Titanic bouncing room for kids at an amusement park in Utazu on Shikoku. I thought this was kind of creepy and worth a photo.
198 yen for 5 small radishes. That's more $2 Cdn. This is why I tried to grow my own. Alas, that plan, and my radishes, failed miserably. But as some great Chinese sage that I imagined might say, "not bad radishes. Bad farmer."
One of my favourite Japanese comedians is Gorie, a man disguised as a woman who just loves to perform cheerleading routines to the song 'Hey Mickey'. I know it sounds wierd but he's very funny. He recently got a gig advertising clothes for my favourite clothing chain in Japan, UniQlo.
My friend recently got me into podcasting. If you don't know what podcasts are - they are downloadable audio shows, usually in MP3 format, that can be automatically downloaded daily or weekly to be listened to on your i-Pod player. I don't have an i-Pod so I've been using Juice software to subscribe to and download podcasts. I recommend it.
Like everything on the internet, amongst the pure crap podcasts out there, there are a few pearls. Some of the shows I really like are:
The Word Nerds: weekly show that examines the etymology of words and phrases.
The Everest Podcast: the story of a guy on a tight budget trying to climb to Everest's 3rd base camp.
SETI: Are we alone? - search for ET's and other fascinating scientific stuff.
Ebert & Roeper's Movie Reviews
A great place to peruse and search for podcast is the yahoo podcast page.
Well that's all for now. See you next year folks.
In Japan people don't sent Christmas cards. This makes sense because they don't celebrate Christmas. New Year's is the big one here and everyone sends out nengajo, or New Year's cards. They send them to their family, friends, work colleagues, clients, customers, basically anyone who's address they know. Every year billions (yes billions) these are sent. Each family sends out about 50 or more cards. Businesses send out even more. Here is our card for 2006:
Yesterday a big box of goodies arrived from my parents. Apparently there is contest going on within my family to see who can stuff the most and best presents into a box. My mother certainly raised the bar a little.
Here we are posing with the scarf & hat sets, stuffed beagle toy and various baby clothes we got from my parents. Thanks mum & dad!!Yesterday we were visited by our friends Yoshikawa & Emi, and their 2 kids Kazu and Hiro. Kazu is just entering the terrible 2's and it shows. He was like a cyclone, whipping every which way and leaving a trail of carnage in his wake. He also threw up on himself. Parenting looks tough.
On Wednesday, Yukiko finished her last day of work... ever... or until she decides she'd like to go back. Her work colleagues threw a sobetsukai, or farewell party for her. When she got back home she was heavily laden with gifts and flowers. I'm sure everyone at her office will miss her - but she's ecstatic to be done.
Yukiko with all her loot.
Here's a good shot of Yukiko and our newest mode of transport, the La Festa! It's a veritable party on wheels.Some odds & ends. Here are some pictures I've taken in the last few months but couldn't find a proper time to post them. So in the spirit of the Japanese o-souji, or big new year's cleaning, here they are:
This is an inflatable Titanic bouncing room for kids at an amusement park in Utazu on Shikoku. I thought this was kind of creepy and worth a photo.
198 yen for 5 small radishes. That's more $2 Cdn. This is why I tried to grow my own. Alas, that plan, and my radishes, failed miserably. But as some great Chinese sage that I imagined might say, "not bad radishes. Bad farmer."
One of my favourite Japanese comedians is Gorie, a man disguised as a woman who just loves to perform cheerleading routines to the song 'Hey Mickey'. I know it sounds wierd but he's very funny. He recently got a gig advertising clothes for my favourite clothing chain in Japan, UniQlo.
My friend recently got me into podcasting. If you don't know what podcasts are - they are downloadable audio shows, usually in MP3 format, that can be automatically downloaded daily or weekly to be listened to on your i-Pod player. I don't have an i-Pod so I've been using Juice software to subscribe to and download podcasts. I recommend it.
Like everything on the internet, amongst the pure crap podcasts out there, there are a few pearls. Some of the shows I really like are:
The Word Nerds: weekly show that examines the etymology of words and phrases.
The Everest Podcast: the story of a guy on a tight budget trying to climb to Everest's 3rd base camp.
SETI: Are we alone? - search for ET's and other fascinating scientific stuff.
Ebert & Roeper's Movie Reviews
A great place to peruse and search for podcast is the yahoo podcast page.
Well that's all for now. See you next year folks.
posted by Jason at 2:07 PM
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