|
This weekend was pretty good! On Friday night, I made curry for dinner and later we watched Cast Away. I love that movie, but I feel like the last part goes on a little too long.
On Saturday I went and taught my last class at the HT AEON school. I got a gig doing six 2-hour private lessons at that school, teaching a very nice lady whose husband is getting transferred to California in a few months. I really enjoyed teaching her and also meeting all of the very friendly staff and teachers at that school! But yesterday was the sixth and final lesson. :(
RooG met up with me outside of AEON and we went to the supermarket to get stuff for dinners for the week. RooG took all the stuff home by himself (<3) and I went to yoga class. Yesterday was "Yoga to tighten your stomach" class. Tough stuff. D:
I came home, took a shower, and we walked to Kappa Zushi (conveyor belt sushi place where almost everything is 105 yen a plate). The place was packed so we had to wait a long time to be seated, and once we were, we ate so much that our bill came out to be a little over 3000 yen. ^^;;
Here's TekiNacho chilling on the kitchen faucet, as you do.
Today I went to Power Yoga class in the morning. Good stuff as always. Came home, and took a shower, and together with RooG we cleaned our shithole apartment to prepare for our guests!!
Yes! My new buddies Caley and Charlie, who work at the HT AEON school, came by for a takoyaki party! Also present was Caley's fiancee Yuka. We had a really good time and it was so nice to have company. ^^ The takoyaki was yummy and Caley and Yuka brought little baby taiyaki which were really good too. I also made my
Oreo cheesecake (and this time I put the correct amount of sugar in!!) and it was a big hit. ^^;; Yay for friends!!!!!
Teki took a liking to the new friends too! (This is apparently what I look like after a can of chu-hai... yikes!)
Now RooG's making dinner (karaage). Sunday nights always kinda depress me because I inevitably end up thinking of the long week of work that awaits me starting on Monday morning, but right now, things are pretty good. :)Current Music: Madonna ft Justin Timberlake-- 4 Minutes |
|
I'm really bummed at how thin my LJ Friends List has become lately. What I mean is, even though I haven't defriended anyone in forever, there are a LOT less posts. A lot of my favorite LJers seem to have disappeared completely. Where have they all gone? Or did they give up blogging altogether?
(I realize I don't have the most stellar track record myself... but hey, I try! :3)
The latest PostCrossing news is.... I seem to have completely lost interest. D: As soon as I cracked the top 50, I stopped caring. D: I still register cards as they come in, but I haven't actually SENT a card in three weeks or so. Maybe I'll pick it up again when I have more time, during summer vacation or something.
Picdump time! A few weeks ago, my dear friends Kripas and Junko presented me with my birthday presents. ^__^ They know what a teaholic I am, so they got me (among many other nice things..) this beautiful box of tea! Junko is a flight attendant who often travels to Paris, so it's entirely possible that she brought this back from France for me. ;___; She's so nice...
I opened up the box and found...
...this!! They're beautiful and smell heavenly.
And they taste so good, too, hot or iced. Thank you so much. ;_____;
RooG's mom Keiko came to visit us the other day. We took her to the local Indian buffet for lunch (it was her first time having Indian food!) and then hung out at home and played with TekiNacho and watched Kung Fu Panda.
And she brought us these cakes!!! Om nom nom
This morning RooG and I left the house together-- he went to karate and I went to hot aerobics at the yoga place. I came home today and found one of RooG's pet roaches chilling on the floor in the Pet Room. I picked him up and went to put him back in his cage, only to find that....
... he had left the cage wide open!! D: He's lucky that bugs don't freak me out. He claims that all the roaches are accounted for, but I guess we'll never know. D:
Also, RooG and I are addicted to the game Scramble With Friends, but it sucks that there's a limit on how many games you can have going at a time, even in the paid version (which we have). We wanna play MORE!
Time to watch CSI: NY. So glad it didn't get canceled~Current Music: Tori Amos-- Job's Coffin |
|
Er, guess I should update this thing. I shall now record a list of all the TV shows I watch every week for posterity.
Game of Thrones
Celebrity Apprentice
Mad Men
America's Next Top Model
America's Got Talent
This is my first season of America's Got Talent, and of course I'm only watching it cos Howard Stern is a judge. But I'm surprised at how much I like it! The only thing I don't like is the fact that the damn show is on FOUR hours a week (two 2-hour episodes a week). That's a lot of Talent.
My new buddy Jon informed me that some kind soul on the internets posts Japanese subtitles for Game of Thrones! My hero! All this time I've been doing my best to translate what's going on while we watch, but thanks to this dude and his efforts, we now watch the show raw when it comes out Monday, and then watch it again on Thursday with his subs. RooG gets a lot more out of it that way. Yay. :D
I hate anime, Rose of Versailles excluded, of course. But there are three shows that RooG watches religiously and has done so for years. About two months ago I discovered that wonderful fansubbers are releasing all three shows with English subs, so I thought, let's just watch em that way, together. It makes good language study for both of us, and that way RooG can watch at his convenience (and now he doesn't have to get up early on Sundays to watch anymore). The three shows are...
One Piece
Hunter x Hunter
Toriko
One Piece is just awful. I can't for the life of me understand how it's so popular. Even RooG hates it, but he's watched EVERY episode since it started (it is now on episode #547!!!) so he says he's not gonna quit now. That's devotion. :P The other two are surprisingly watchable. Toriko is all about food, my favorite thing.
In other news, RooG is bummed cos his new lizard Spiky died. He just got Spiky about a month ago and I know he did his best to take care of him, but...
He wrote a blog entry about Spiky that actually made me cry a little bit. It's all in Japanese, but here it is, if you care.
And about ten minutes ago, RooG's brother called him to say that Fozzie, his huge turtle that's been his family's pet for 14+ years, died. Guess he suddenly got sick. RIP Fozzie.
My Tiny Tower now has 80 floors!! D: Can't.... stop... playing...Current Music: Baba Baba Booey opera |
|
Time to post some old, moldy pics. My 30th (!!) birthday party was a few weeks ago. Thanks very much to Kalon, Minori, Jeremy, Jing, and David for coming out and helping me celebrate. :-D
The izakaya I chose ended up being kinda lame... a little pricey, but not really worth the money imo. The food was good and looked nice but portions were really small, and the nomihoudai didn't even have beer. :C Won't be going there again. (It was a place called Akane in Yokohama, if you care.)
My little birthday dessert platter was purdy though. :)
Here's us with some tikis at Disneyland.
And RooG in front of Big Thunder Mountain.
Obligatory list of attractions/ shows we did/ watched:
Haunted Mansion
Mickey's PhilharMagic (twice)
Pirates of the Caribbean
Splash Mountain (twice)
Pooh's Hunny Hunt
It's A Small World
Space Mountain (twice)
Captain EO
Big Thunder Mountain
One Man's Dream II: The Magic Lives On (show)
Disney Magic In The Sky (fireworks display)
Can you find us?
Omiyage! (souvenirs) The one on the left is for RooG's parents + brother, the one in the middle is for my students, and the one on the right is for SIL and her family.
All in all, an awesome day. :-) LOVE Disney, can't wait to go back, etc etc.
Today I went to Yoga Advanced class. Phew! That class is tough.
In the evening RooG and I had dinner at Kua 'Aina (YAY) and then I went to Lupicia and bought three teas (Yokohama no Machi, Piccolo, and Roasted Bean Tea). After that we caught the late show of the Japanese movie Thermae Romae.
Usually I hate Japanese movies, but I enjoyed this one! The fact that it dealt with Ancient Rome was a huge plus, and the fact that the very handsome lead actor (Abe Hiroshi) gets naked a lot in it was another huge plus. I felt like it was a little too long, but on the whole, I enjoyed it. Check it out!Current Mood:  tired Current Music: Lady Gaga-- You and I |
|
Ahoy every humans!!
This is Poo-G the insect baiter!!
My slug from South Africa some where... I don't know.
But they stay Japan(Okinawa etc) too much. That's why I'll carefully keeping.
This slug keeper is just keeping(maybe). Because them stomach in many parasites.
That's why they can't be used for some animals food.
OK. have a nice year!!
Horie Poo-G
~~~~~~~~
Ha ha. I told RooG that there were a bunch of comments on my blog today from people asking about the slugs! So I had him write a post in English to try and clear things up. ^^;;;
So, yeah. He wants to keep the slugs as pets and sell the extras on the internet. Right now he has just the pair but he's hoping they'll make babbies soon. Apparently slugs don't have a gender? So that makes baby-making easy. Just put two of em together and they multiply, it seems.
Here's the two slugs eating some sweet potato!
He'll sell them to... other people who like strange pets. D: Unfortunately we can't use them as food for the other pets because apparently slugs have parasites in their stomach that make them kinda dangerous to handle. D-:
RooG and Chez Slug
Aaaaaaanyway. The big news for today is that one of our favorite ramen shops, Shinano, FINALLY carved out a non-smoking time! Smoking is gross and there's nothing worse than trying to enjoy your food in a haze of other people's cancer.
But eight years ago, when I first came to Yokohama, you often didn't have any other choice. I remember one time when I was dating P, we went to a restaurant and asked for a seat in the non-smoking section. Which ended up being a complete joke because only a small potted tree separated the two sections and the people next to us were puffing away. -_-
In April of last year a law was passed in Kanagawa prefecture cracking down on smoking in public establishments. As a result, a lot of our favorite restaurants went completely smoke-free!! YAY!!!! But Shinano did not. As yummy as their ramen is, why pay to breathe in smoke when there are two other ramen shops in the area that are non-smoking? Thus, with a heavy heart, we stopped going there.
BUT the other day we passed by and saw a sign saying that from now on, from 11-3:30 they're going non-smoking! So we went back and had our first salt chicken ramen in over a year.
And it was yummy. The owners were like "Hay we haven't seen you guys in a while!" and I said "We were waiting for you to go non-smoking :3" and they were like "Oh sorry about that! Yeah, from now on lunchtime is non-smoking, so don't worry!" The place was packed. We were able to REALLY enjoy the taste of our ramen, Everyone wins.
Here, have a picture of Teki and his brother Yasegaeru. I think Teki's afraid of him, though.
And this moment from my game of Tiny Tower made me laugh. Bonus points to anyone who catches the reference.
 Current Mood:  good Current Music: Tiny Tower music looping in head 4ever |
|
:-)
|
Apr. 13th, 2012 @ 07:19 pm
|
|---|
|
|
Apr. 10th, 2012 @ 08:33 pm
|
|---|
|
I feel dumb posting this, but I wanted a picture of myself for LJ/ Facebook that was somewhat interesting yet somewhat flattering. :3
If I may be permitted to toot my own horn just a little bit, I love how my lips are naturally that color!! Will they stay that way forever or will they fade with age, I wonder.
Today was my first day back at School A, which is a Catholic girls junior & senior high school. This year I'll be teaching 10th and 11th grades. I am SO EXCITED because my new partner, John, is really cool and smart and funny, etc. I think this year will be much better. :-D
Walking to school. It's SPRING!!! LOVE spring in Japan.
The main gate of the school.
Obligatory closeup of ~SAKURA~
Today I had two classes with the 11th graders. I've never taught these kids before, but so far, so good. :D Thursday is my first day at School B.
Here's my newest obsession, Tiny Tower.
That's my tower. It now has 20 big pimpin' floors. Thank you (?) to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) grahamwest who recommended the game to me. I'm addicted!!! D:
I deleted Kingdoms of Camelot after getting "farmed", as the kids call it. All my hard-earned Gold, gone. Eff that. I realize that I enjoyed the city-building aspect, but I have no interest in "farming" other players and have even less interested in being "farmed". Hmph. Just leave me alone and let me play with my little town.
This is how I spent my Easter.
At the Zen-Kanto karate tournament. RooG entered but sadly lost in the first round. He did his best, though. I hate going to these crappy lower-level tournaments, but Zen-Kanto isn't as bad because there are actual SEATS you can sit in and chill and watch the action.
It was SO crowded and claustrophobic on the ground floor (and those goddamn "leisure sheets" weren't helping), but I braved the crowds and cheered for RooG during his fight. RooG is amazing and wasn't even nervous, at all. Meanwhile, I was terrified on his behalf. D: UGH I hate karate tournaments. How did I put myself through so many of them???Current Mood: good Current Music: James Blunt-- You're Beautiful |
|
RooG is a superhero. He came home in the middle of a huge typhoon last night, with a cake box! Yay, birthday cake! We ate dinner (I made one of my favorite meals) and then we took the cake box out of the fridge. He told me to close my eyes while he opened the box. And when I opened my eyes, I saw....
THIS!!
Yes! It's Guts from Berserk. On my birthday cake! :-D RooG went to a local bakery that does custom cakes with a volume of the manga to use as reference. And they whipped this up for us!
It's a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling. And it is delicious. Thanks PooG <3
So, yes, I'm 30! It's kinda weird cos my birthday is long over (it's now 12 PM on the 4th) and yet birthday messages are still trickling in on Facebook from my friends in America. :) Thanks guys.
A few folks asked me where I keep my received cards from PostCrossing, and how I organize them. Well, here you go:
Yeah. I just throw them in a box. :/ No organization whatsoever. One of these days I should really get around organizing/ displaying them in some way...
And sadly, no, I don't keep EVERY card I receive. Repeated viewings of Hoarders have encouraged me to try and reduce clutter whenever possible. So I only keep the cards that feature both a picture on the front AND a message on the back that I really like.
It's so sad to get a beautiful card, and then you turn it over and all it says is "Happy PostCrossing" (or worse, nothing at all!) on the back. Cards like that go directly into the garbage. >:( All other cards go to my SIL, who also does PC but loves to collect stamps from all over the world. I think she cuts the stamps off and keeps em all in a big bag.
Well, time to go to yoga! Today is Power Yoga, one of my faves. It's a beautiful day. Spring is finally here!!!Current Mood:  content Current Music: James Blunt-- No Tears |
|
... was super lame. It was SO crowded and ゴチャゴチャ and just a mess, in general. We left within ten minutes of entering. Horrible.
It wasn't all bad, though. Upon entering we received a little baggie with three darjeeling-flavored cookies and two pieces of candied fruit. We love food, so that was a plus. We each received a little tea tin and a pouch for put the tea tin in. Not sure how I'm gonna use this, tbh. It'll probably end up getting thrown away, sadly.
We also got a 10% coupon we could use at a regular Lupicia store... so we ended up going there instead. I got Grapefruit Green and also Cookie and Framboise Chocolat black teas. I'm drinking Cookie now. It's yummy. :)
Also went to Crocs and we got a pair each. We don't wear any shoes other than Crocs. They are the best. :)
In other news, today I checked my PostCrossing profile and saw this!
Wow! I've finally cracked the top 50! :-D I am immensely proud of myself. I realize it's a dumb achievement, but it makes me happy. :)
(And yes, I know that picture is really old [taken maybe 3 years ago?] and that purikura are stupid, but I kinda like the Japanese-ness of the purikura together with the American flag-ish background. The "We are very CUTE!!" stamp is a nice touch too.)Current Music: Rammstein-- Rammlied |
|
Yesterday was nice because a big package arrived from my folks! My THIRTIETH birthday is this Tuesday. Yikes! Where did the time go??
So I got on Skype so we could all open the package together, and my mom said not to be sad about turning 30. I should just look at it like, I've had thirty great years! I should be happy and thankful that I've had this time. Which is very true. My parents are twice my age and they still look pretty damn good, imo. So hopefully their good genes will be passed on to me too. :D
Anyway, I got three shirts, three pairs of yoga pants, and two bags. Plus a really nice birthday card. A very nice present, if I may say so myself. Thanks Mom & Dad!!
We had planned to go to the Lupicia Gran Marche event in Minato Mirai yesterday afternoon. Lupicia (my favorite tea maker) holds events all over Japan a few times a year, and this was the first time they'd be doing one in Yokohama. But the weather was NOT cooperating-- yesterday it was SUPER windy and pouring rain. Typhoon weather, basically.
But I was determined to see the Gran Marche for myself!! We figured umbrellas would be useless, so we donned our ponchos (mine is from DisneySea) and bravely made for the train station....... only to find out that the trains weren't running. -___________-
So we ended up going to the supermarket instead.
RooG got ingredients for okonomiyaki for dinner (his okonomiyaki is THE BOMB!!) and we trudged home, getting soaked in the process. Luckily we were able to reserve a spot for today's Gran Marche, so we'll be heading over there in a little while. First we gotta clean this place up, though.
Teki LOVES spending time with RooG. Here RooG is attempting to make some kind of DIY project but Teki keeps getting in the way, ha ha.
TV Notes:
-- I wasn't exactly thrilled by the season opener of Mad Men. I dunno, I guess I'm not exactly sure that I like the direction the show is going in. And I missed Betty. I love to hate her.
-- OMG Game of Thrones starts TOMORROW!!!!111 Tomorrow night, if the Uploading Gods smile upon me, we will be watching the season 2 premiere YAY!
-- Breaking Bad! I was whining about season 3, but now I'm on season 4 (just finished ep 7) and WOW!! It's gotten good again, in a major way. :O
Orange Creme Brulee Frapuccino. Pretty good, but I can't wait for the Sakura Frapuccinos!! aaagghhh!
RooG LOVES Temple Run. He's playing it right now. I got a perfect score on every single level of Airport Mania 2. Because I'm awesome.Current Mood: good Current Music: Rammstein-- Engel |
|
After months of us saying it and trying to teach it to him, Teki JUST said "Me radio died!" :O "Me radio died!" is RooG's favorite line ever from SpongeBob Squarepants. I love Teki Boy so so so so so so SO much!
I took on a 3-day class during this spring break to make some extra moneys. Today was the last day. I had a class of eleven sixth-grade girls that I taught from 9-12. The class was pretty fun and the students were sweet and it was definitely worth doing, but the whole thing was kinda draining cos the location was at a girls' school in the middle of nowhere in Chiba, 90 minutes from my house by train each way. :P
But still, I'm glad I did it. I think the kids really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it, and they all made some new friends too. So that's good. :)
RooG has a cold and I think I have one now too. Boo.
I started watching Breaking Bad last week and already I'm on season 3 episode 11. I loved seasons 1 and 2 but 3 is kinda dragging. It didn't help that the last episode I watched, "Fly" (s3 ep10) was AWFUL and boring as hell. |
|
Today was a national holiday in Japan, but damned if I know what it was. National holidays are pretty lame in Japan. I mean, most holidays in the US have functions, right? On Memorial Day you thank those who served, and have a barbecue. On Labor Day you watch fireworks, and have a barbecue. On Thanksgiving Day you have a huge feast. On Japanese holidays you do fuckall, pretty much.
RooG tells me that today was Shunbun no Hi, the first day of spring. And to celebrate you do..... nothing.
Well, as long as I get the day off, it's ok I guess. We had lunch at Sathi (kickass Indian buffet) and did karaoke for an hour. Later I went to Power Yoga class and Sayaka was there and we chatted a bit. Now we're sitting at home.
One of the things I love about living here are all the awesome drinks!! I'm a huge tea nerd (drinking Lupicia Orange Kidd right now, yumm) and there's no shortage of fun and interesting teas to try. This is the selection at the Mini Stop conbini. I got the reddish-looking bottle, Taiyou no Mate, the only bottled mate tea I've ever seen. It was good! Very mate-y.
Also, here's a photo I've had laying around for a while that I didn't get a chance to upload. The dude in the middle of the front row is Ryuuki, a guy from my dojo who successfully tested for his black belt last month. Awesome! He totally deserves it.
But of course, he had to pass the dreaded 10nin kumite first, where you have to do ten 1-min rounds against black belts, and actually win. RooG was one of his opponents (he's next to Ryuuki on the right) and he said he did an awesome job. Also, that's my teacher Yasumoto-sensei in the far left, back row. Anyway, I figure he'll never read this, but 龍貴先輩おめでとうございます！
In mobile gaming news... I downloaded ForestVille but erased it after two days. It was うぜぇ。Now I'm playing Fantasy Town and I like it a lot better.Current Mood:  sleepy Current Music: Lady Gaga-- Bloody Mary |
|
Just sittin around. Nacho is consumed with the iPad (as is RooG) and Teki is consumed with... RooG's mouth. Teki loves to kiss us for some reason.
Close-up on Nacho cos she's pretty. <3
Also, I kinda want this.Current Mood: good Current Music: RooG playing Bop It and Teki singing along |
|
I forgot to mention this, but it looks like I made a Japanese friend! Two, in fact! And they live right here in Higashi-Totsuka!
I probably mentioned before that at Lava (my hot yoga place), hardly anyone talks to each other, or even makes eye contact. Inside the yoga room there's no talking allowed (an AWESOME rule in my opinion), but even in the locker room everyone kinda dresses and undresses in silence. Sometimes I think it's kinda weird, and other times I like it.
Anyway. About a month ago RooG had dinner at the local Gyu-Kaku (yakiniku joint). Sitting at the table across from us was a girl who looked EXACTLY like a girl that I often see at Lava. She was there with a dude. It was bugging me the whole night. Is that really her? Should I go over and say hello? But surely she would recognize me, right? (There's only 1 other white chick at Lava besides me.) So why doesn't she say hello or even acknowledge that she knows me? Maybe because it's somebody else?
I could tell she was kinda checking me out too, but after they ate dinner they left without a word. Hmph. Must have been someone else then, I thought.
The next day I show up for Power Yoga Advanced and she's there again!! I smile and make eye contact. She quickly looks away and passes by without a word.
But all during the class it was bugging me because I KNEW IT WAS HER!
After yoga I tend to feel more open and happy, so after yoga I marched right up to her... and she was smiling! And I was like "Was that you at Gyu-Kaku last night?" and she was like "YES!" We got to talking and she said she didn't want to "bother me" by saying hello. What a Japanese way of thinking, I thought. ^^;;
We exchanged contact info and we ended up going on a double date at a local izakaya the next weekend. She (her name is Sayaka) and her husband Tomo and me and RooG. It turns out we have a lot in common-- we're close in age, she and her husband have been married for 2 years, and our wedding anniversary is her birthday. :D
Getting to the point of this post.... Last night we invited them over to our place for a takoyaki party! We were in charge of the food, and they brought beer and chu-hai.
RooG makes a kick-ass guacamole. Seriously, it's delicious. He made the guacamole... but this time, he put in too much tomato, so it was a kind of weird-tasting salsa instead. :( It was ok, but it definitely wasn't GREAT.
I make a kick-ass Oreo cheesecake. I got the recipe from the Philadelphia cream cheese box. Basically you just mix up cream cheese, yogurt, sugar, and later gelatin, in a bowl and pour it over a crust you make out of butter and mashed-up Oreos. It's so easy. I've made it before and it's been a huge hit every time. My brother-in-law DEVOURED it.
The problem with making a cake for someone, though, is that you can't really taste the finished product. You can't really serve a cake with a piece missing, right? I cut up the cake and served it up.
I took my first bite and was immediately like D-: It just.... didn't taste good. Maybe I didn't mix it well enough? I really don't know what happened. But it wasn't very good. ;___; Sayaka and Tomo politely said that it was yummy, but I think they were lying. I'm mortified. :(
Oh well. Bad cake and "salsa" aside, we had a nice time. The takoyaki was YUMMY and we ended up blabbing for like 5 hours. It's good to have friends in the neighborhood again. :)
EDIT 11:57 AM OH NO I just rechecked the recipe again. I was supposed to put in 70g of sugar, but for some unknown reason I only put in 10g. I am an idiot. I took a look at the package of sugar packets we had and the bag said that one packet is 5g, which I somehow misread as 50g. Waaahhhhhhhhhhhhh. Well, I'll be more careful next time, at least. ;___;Current Mood:  embarrassed Current Music: Yamazaki Masayoshi-- Superstition |
|
|
Mar. 11th, 2012 @ 11:43 pm
|
|---|
|
Thanks for the nice comments, everyone. :) I'll keep writing in this thing until I die, probably. I've kept a journal of some kind pretty much my entire life, and I see no reason to stop now. :)
We're watching The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. GOD is this movie bad. But Stuart Townsend looks really hot in it so I put it on as BGM every now and again. We got it for 250 yen at Book Off.
ANOTHER Game of Thrones trailer came out today!! :-D I hope they continue to provide us with trailers on a nigh weekly basis like they have been. :-D I'll take anything I can get at this point.
~~~TV I'm Currently Watching~~~
The Celebrity Apprentice. I love this, but I tend to skip over the boardroom scenes because I hate watching them bicker. :C
Hoarders. I'm not really feeling the Hoarders magic this season. Maybe I'm Hoard-ed out. But I watch every week anyway. Hmph.
Intervention. LOVE this. It's so awesome when they go to rehab and they really get better! It feels so cathartic and wonderful at the end. Of course, this can backfire in the rare occasion that they do NOT go to treatment, or they go to treatment and then quit after a week or something. That sucks. :C
Tabatha Takes Over. LOVE this, but it's so hard to find!! Nobody uploads it. Waahhh.
America's Next Top Model: British Invasion. ANTM is so stupid.... but I love it. ;__; I love the whole Brits vs. Yanks angle of it too.
Mad Men. I watched the whole series by myself, loved it, then convinced RooG to give it a try. We rented the first DVD at Tsutaya, and RooG fell in love too! Of course he did. We're almost done with season 4... almost caught up!
And here's some pictures I've been hanging on to...
About two weeks ago it SNOWED! Very exciting. But you forget what a pain in the ass snow is until you're actually in it. In Yokohama it only snows maybe once or twice a year, and that's good enough for me. :x
Last weekend we went to Horie House, my in-laws' place. Uggggggggggggghhhhh. His parents are AWESOME and AWESOMELY NICE, do not get me wrong...... but spending the day at their place is very low on my list of Ways In Which I Wish To Spend My Sunday. We just sit around and watch TV. RooG reads his brother's manga collection, and I tool around on my cell phone. And that's it. -_-
But his mom always makes awesome food for us! This time she made karaage and chirashizushi. YUMMM
RooG drew this today in the game Draw Something in iPad... but the other person couldn't guess it. :C
 Current Mood:  relaxed Current Music: Depeche Mode-- A Question of Time |
|
|
Mar. 10th, 2012 @ 12:02 am
|
|---|
|
Hey! I guess it's about time I updated this thing. If you want the honest truth, the last time I posted in here I spent a long time putting the entry together, thinking it would be a really interesting one that people would leave lots of comments on... but it only got one comment. :/ After nearly 10 years on LJ you'd think I'd be used to that, but I guess not. So that kinda killed my motivation to write for a while.
I just have to remind myself that the main reason I write in this thing is for ME, and not for anyone else. Which is true. I love having this handy-dandy, searchable chronicle of my life. But comments are greatly appreciated too. :3
LOVE my iPhone/ iPad and all its fun games. I'm hooked on Kingdoms of Camelot: Fight for the North. SO addicting. At ![[info]](http://l-files.livejournal.net/userhead/438?v=1318849709) kitzune's recommendation I got Draw Something on iPad and we love it! And on top of that I play Scramble With Friends, Monopoly Hotels, and Qrank every day. How did I live without my iPhone?!
School is over and I'm now on spring break for about a month. D:
RooG and I have been married for two years now! Wow. :)
CAN'T WAIT for Season 2 of Game of Thrones. I want it right now.Current Mood:  blah Current Music: Florence + the Machine-- What the Water Gave Me |
|
Yesterday I went to the Yokohama Lava for "Lymph self-massage + yoga" class. I go every Friday. It's nice and chill and I guess it's good for me.
Afterwards I went to Bay Quarter (shopping center). I had lunch at Kua 'Aina!! Turkey sandwich with onion rings.
About 10 minutes later, it looked like this.
I popped into the Crocs store. They had an iPhone case that changes color in sunlight that I wanted, but I just bought a new iPhone case last weekend, so I don't think I need another one. :/
Went to Kaldi (import food store), where I got extra virgin olive oil, a can of chickpeas, and a package of potato gnocchi. For the past month or so I've been drinking a tablespoon of EVOO every night before bed. Sounds crazy but it's supposed to be good for regularity. I feel like my skin has become softer as a result too.
Then I went to Lupicia, my favorite tea shop. Got 500-gram bags of Sakura Vert (cherry blossom flavored green tea), Earl Grey Chocolat (exactly what it sounds like), and Orange Kidd (orange and kinda yogurt-y flavored rooibos tea). I'm drinking the Sakura Vert right now!
Came home and prepared my 9th grade lesson for Monday. Then watched the season finale of Teen Mom 2 while writing two PostCrossing cards, to Italy and Malaysia.
Made this for dinner for the first time! It's tomato and ginger stew with spinach and chickpeas. I served it over rice with olive oil and melted cheese on top. RooG in particular loved it, and it was really easy to make too! Plus it was filling and satisfying even without meat, always a plus. Give it a try!
RooG came home and we ate dinner. Then he went to karate class, and I took a nap. Heh.
I read that the new iPad game Pizza vs. Skeletons was awesome, so I downloaded the trial, and... it was indeed awesome, so we bought the full version! It's 40% off right now, so get while the gettin's good.
We watched Eastern Promises, one of our favorites. If you haven't seen this movie, YOU SHOULD! Then we went to bed.
In the morning I ate breakfast (fried egg + toast with yogurt, same as always) and then went to the local Lava for Yoga Advanced class. I kinda hate Yoga Advanced in general but I REALLY REALLY hated the teacher and will never again go to her class if I can help it. -__- This is the second class I've had with her and she's just NOT what I like in a yoga teacher. Bleah!!!
When I came home RooG was playing with Yasegaeru and Atamajakushi.
They're so cute but kinda terrifying to hold because when they pee, they pee a TREMENDOUS amount and it literally SHOOTS out and sprays everywhere. Luckily we didn't get peed on this time.
And that's all. I think I'll go eat yesterday's leftovers now.
Atamajakushi thanks you for your time.
 Current Mood: happy Current Music: "Weird Al" Yankovic-- Such A Groovy Guy |
|
Whee
|
Feb. 12th, 2012 @ 10:51 pm
|
|---|
|
Nothing much to report. Still on a huge Berserk kick. We saw the movie again last night and it was awesome, again. I liked it even better the second time. And I'm slowly working my way through the manga again. The later volumes, I'm ashamed to admit, I haven't gotten around to reading. So I plan on starting at the beginning and reading the whoooole thing from the top. Yeah. :D
Still addicted to PostCrossing. My current sending limit is 19 cards and I always have that many out at a time. I guess I'm gonna have to cut myself off at 20, though, for financial reasons. D: At 80 yen postage per card, it does add up. D:
RooG and I are hopelessly addicted to Scramble With Friends, but the crazy part is, I think ROOG likes it more than I do! He plays it all the time. (He's playing right now, in fact..) And he's actually pretty good!!
Time to watch Game of Thrones with RooG. :-DCurrent Music: X-Men: The Last Stand |
| » Boring post asking for computer advice |
|---|
My laptop makes these weird robot sounds when I play videos/ listen to music. The problem persists even when using headphones, so it's not the speakers. Resetting fixes it, but it always comes back. I've tried defragging, checking for malware, and reinstalling the audio driver. Help? :x
Feb. 8th, 2012 @ 12:58 pm
|
| » OMG BERSERK |
|---|
Loooongtime readers of this blog may remember that my one true anime/ manga love is Berserk. RooG read the manga back in the day and he's a fan too. So of course we were amped when we heard they were making not one, but THREE movies based on the original story arc!!! aaaggghhh!!
We went to see Berserk: Haou no Tamago yesterday and DUDES IT WAS SO AWESOME. Seriously like 1483949283 times better than the anime. If you like Berserk even a little bit, or if you like awesome violent animes with cool characters and music and an awesome, deep story, then.... this is the movie for you!
Here's the first 10 minutes, if you care. The gory parts are mosiac-ed out in the video, but don't worry, they're not present in the actual movie. :-D
So. That was the highlight of yesterday. We also had lunch at Bubby's, where I had Mile High Lemon Meringue Pie and it was AWESOME! We also bought a nice lamp for the living room at Nitori.
Lava (my hot yoga place) brought in a new class called "Yoga to eliminate shoulder tension". Yesterday was the very first class so of course I was there. But all the class succeeded in doing was to GIVE me shoulder tension! I dunno, maybe I need to do it a few more times to get used to it. But the class didn't do much for me and I hated how the teacher felt the need to SCREAM EVERYTHING SHE SAID! I prefer a more chill approach to yoga, myself.
Feb. 5th, 2012 @ 02:15 pm
|
| » Adventures in Postcarding |
|---|
Cards for our Postcard Project are still trickling in, slowly. I really liked this doodle on one of furyoftrees' cards.
And this card that december_clouds sent was apparently somehow misrouted to Jamaica! It just arrived today.
Through PostCrossing I got to send a card to Ghana for the first time! I sent him this card, a New Year's card, and asked him how people in Ghana celebrate the new year. He wrote back,
dear Lauren,
thank you for you nice happy new year card and stamp. I am living in ghana since 1998. In the villages and the volta region of ghana people go to bed at 21:00 as usual, in the south and major town people do sometimes party a bit, but mostly spend time in church to inaugurate the new year.
all the best
Merjim
People in Ghana usually go to bed at 9?!?! Wow.
Life has been good. I go to yoga every day, of course. RooG and I are watching Game of Thrones together-- there's no Japanese version so I do my best to translate as we watch. He loves it. We're also working through season 3 of Mad Men, with Japanese subtitles. I'm SO happy that RooG has taken an interest in my favorite shows and that we can watch and enjoy them together. :)
We went to Kappa Zushi for dinner tonight (conveyor belt sushi, yumm). RooG and I are both obsessed with Scramble With Friends. And was anyone else obsessed with the book/ tape In a Dark, Dark Room and other Scary Stories when they were little??!! This story was by far my favorite. Some blessed soul has uploaded the stories with the pictures to YouTube.
Feb. 1st, 2012 @ 10:29 pm
|
| » Oops |
|---|
The awesome dishwasher we ordered from Amazon arrived yesterday, but we have to return it. Because what we ordered was not, in fact, a dishWASHER, but a dishDRYER.
:P
I scanned the reviews and I did notice that the product was called a "Kitchen Dryer", but for some reason I assumed it meant that it washes and dries the dishes. I place more blame on RooG, whose Japanese reading comprehension is much better than mine, but I'm guilty here too. We must be going senile. How did we not realize??
RooG looked up dishWASHERS and said they run about 5man and that the reviews weren't even that great. Oh. It looks like I'll be washing dishes by hand for the next 4589284 years then.
My bro Adam got me hooked on Scramble With Friends on iPhone. It's so fun!!!! :O
I haven't bitten my nails since Sunday night!! I've bitten my nails constantly since I was in the 5th grade. I really want to stop.... but it feels good and I miss it already. D-:
This is probably of interest to no one but us, but I took a Teki video. Teki has a bunch of toys, and two of his favorites are Spiky Ball and Burajiru (Brazil), so named because it's this weird random figure of a man with a Brazilian flag on his chest that RooG picked up somewhere.
Teki loves Spiky Ball and spends a large portion of each day attempting to have sex with it. But if you throw Burajiru into the mix he goes NUTS and attacks it. I guess he sees it as a rival? Who the hell knows. Enjoy!!
Jan. 25th, 2012 @ 09:40 pm
|
| » 新極真会東京東支部交流大会 |
|---|
Today was the 3rd Shinkyokushinkai Tokyo Higashi Shibu Kouryuu Taikai, aka a big karate tournament held in a gymnasium in Shin-Kiba, Tokyo.
Honestly I friggin hate going to these lower-level karate tournaments because they bring out the absolute worst parts of Japanese culture. It's like all of the (few) things that I hate about Japan, conveniently assembled in one ridiculously crowded area! Yeah!
We got there at 9:30 but RooG's fight wasn't until 2. He did his best but lost in the second round of the first fight. He just ran out of steam, basically. If he works on his stamina some more he'll be back to his usual fighting self, I'm sure. Oh well.
So mostly my day sucked, but it wasn't all bad, of course. We cheered on the only other person from our dojo, Ryuuki, in his two first fights. Shihan was super nice and friendly to us. And the amazing and incredible Tsukamoto Norichika-senshu, current World Karate Champion, SMILED AND OSU-D ME. Like, HE said hello to me FIRST. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is amazing and I have so much respect for him and I love him forever.
We came home and took a much-needed nap and now RooG's making okonomiyaki for dinner. <3 <3 My throat hurts from yelling at the top of my lungs cheering for him. Hopefully it'll be ok in the morning, as I have 6 classes at School A to teach. -_-
Jan. 22nd, 2012 @ 09:08 pm
|
| » Owl Post |
|---|
I got a great card from our little Postcard Project today, possibly the best one!! slytherinblack sent this awesome Harry Potter card FROM The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park and it had this badass postmark! (And also a postmark from.... Iraq??!!??!!) What sorcery is this?! I await your response, slytherinblack. :) And thank you to her and everyone else who is participating. :)
As of today, I've only received about 1/3rd of the total response cards. Hopefully more will arrive soon. I want to get as many as possible and give them all out on the same day so no one feels left out.
RooG's fighting in a karate tournament tomorrow. Ugh. Out of all the things I want to do on a Sunday, waking up at the crack of dawn to travel over an hour each way on crowded trains to a crowded gymnasium for a karate tournament that takes all goddamn day is very low on the list. -_____- VERY, very low.
BUT he's RooG and I love him so I gots ta go and cheer for his butt. I'll probably leave after he loses, though. I just realized that's a pretty negative thing to say.... but he hasn't really been training very hard so frankly I don't have very high hopes. I don't think he does either. As long as he doesn't get killed or badly injured, it's all good. :/
MAN am I glad I quit karate.
Here's a happy picture of beautiful Teki to lighten the mood. He loves the mirror and perch we got for him in Arizona.
We are going to buy a DISHWASHER!! Yes, for the past 7 1/2 years, since coming to Japan, I have been washing any and all dishes by hand. I didn't mind so much, until I saw on TV that apparently using the dishwasher uses a lot less resources than washing dishes by hand. That changed everything. I always thought I was helping the environment by doing them by hand, but apparently I was wrong. YAY!
And here's me camwhoring it up before my Tuesday night adults' English class. I go to a company and teach two 90-minute lessons that are meant to have 8 students in each class, but every week only one or two or three people show up to each class. ^^;; One dude in particular always shows up 15 minutes before the end of class, which is SUPER frustrating because of course he doesn't know what the hell is going on and I don't want to spend valuable class time explaining everything all over again. Ugh. Just come on time or don't come at all, please.
Jan. 21st, 2012 @ 06:21 pm
|
| » Guest post by RooG |
|---|
Ahoy any people. This is POO-G the "kitchen player".
Me and Lauren went to Arizona last year(Damn it!).
I like Arizona's sky. food. cacti. food and food(Damn it!).
BTW. I pooped too many times there. What ever..
OK. Thank you for reading my shit sentences I glad(Damn it!)
Have a nice day. happy new year. and GOD BLESS YOU.
From POO-G
Jan. 18th, 2012 @ 08:26 pm
|
| » Lauren & RooG Eat Arizona, Part 2, plus a Moral Dilemma |
|---|
11.) Combo plates @ Panda Express. We ate here for lunch while shopping at Fashion Square Mall. My bro recommended the orange chicken and it really was good! I was shocked at the size of the medium drinks though-- huge!
12.) Sicilian white pizza @ our hotel room, courtesy of NYPD Pizza. I wanted a New York-style white pie and so I asked my dad (a native Staten Islander) where the best NY-style pizza was in Scottsdale. He said it was NYPD Pizza, so we ordered from them. The pizza was good, but not even close to the awesomeness of Nunzio's on Staten Island.
Incidentally, later in the trip, we went to my friend Noah's house and we all ordered pizza from Streets of New York, which my dad had said wasn't as good. But RooG and I loved it and thought it was definitely closer to the Nunzio's ideal than NYPD Pizza was. Just saying that everyone's tastes when it comes to food is different; it's good to try out a bunch of things for yourself!
13.) Steak burrito w/ chips & guac @ Chipotle. RooG declared Chipotle to be "Arizona's best food" and so we ended up eating there three times on the trip. YUMM!!!! I LOVE Chipotle.
14.) BBQ beef (???), beans, applesauce, baked potato, spice cake, and biscuit @ Rockin' R Ranch. Ugh. This was by far the nastiest meal of the whole trip. I mean, just look at it. What the eff. The "beef" didn't taste or feel like any beef I've ever eaten before. D: Me and Adam couldn't finish our beef n beans (I seriously could only get through 3 bites) so RooG ate them, and was rewarded with a stomachache and diarrhea the next morning. The applesauce, biscuit, and spice cake were all delish, though.
15.) Fish taco plate @ Baja Fresh. RooG loved the all-you-can-eat tortilla chips and salsa bar. He seriously ate 3 bags of chips and salsa all by himself.
16.) Frozen yogurt @ Orange Leaf. My bro introduced us to this place. RooG and I both got red velvet flavored frozen yogurt. MMMM.
17.) BLTACC & No Way Jose Burger @ random diner in Sedona. My dad introduced us to this place. I had my doubts cos it looked kinda sketchy, but the food was GOOD. I got the BLTACC (bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado, double cheese) sandwich with sweet potato fries. RooG got the No Way Jose burger, apparently named because there's "no way, Jose" that you'd be able to finish the whole thing. RooG polished the entire plate off in about 10 minutes. He is an amazing man.
18.) Turkey Swiss Ciabatta sandwich @ Seattle Seahawks-themed restaurant in Seattle-Tacoma airport. Deelish. You just can't get a decent sandwich in Japan, with toasted crunchy bread and melted cheese, etc. So we decided to have one more before we got on the plane to Tokyo.
19.) "Beef yakiniku" @ airplane. It didn't taste like any yakiniku I've ever had, but it tasted good! The salad dressing was nasty, though.
20.) Turkey sandwich @ airplane. Because we arrived in Tokyo at 5 PM we were spared the barf omelette breakfast and instead got this tasty sandwich as lunch (dinner?). Yummy!
Bonus: a Double Double and three cheeseburgers & In N Out. This was our second trip. RooG ate those three cheeseburgers all by himself but said he'd have been better off just sticking with two. Heh.
This picture kinda leaves a bad taste in my mouth. In N Out is super popular and the place was completely packed when we got there. There were NO open tables, inside or out, and lots of people standing around waiting for a table to open up. When this one opened up, I pounced and we sat down and were enjoying our lunch.
I realize that it's a table set aside for the handicapped, but I remember reading in a Dear Prudence column that it was ok to use the handicapped restrooms if there were none other available. I guess I was still in Japan Mode too, where it's ok to use the Priority Seats (as they're called) on the train as long as you get up for someone who actually needs it or says that they do. (A lot of assholes just ignore this rule and sleep/ pretend to sleep on the Priority Seats while people who need them stand in front of them.) So RooG and I sat down under the assumption that if someone needed the table or even just asked for it, we'd stand up.
But then this lady came up and asked us if we were actually handicapped! She was nice about it but she was just like "if you're not handicapped you shouldn't be sitting in those seats" and I was just like "but there's nowhere else to sit and we'll give these seats up if you like. Do you want to sit here?" and then she kinda apologized for bothering us and walked away. Did I do something wrong?
Incidentally, as soon as we got up our table was pounced upon by two very-able-bodied high school boys.
Jan. 6th, 2012 @ 03:00 am
|
| » Our Arizona Trip In Food, Part 1 |
|---|
We just got back from nearly two weeks in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona. It was fun! We ate a LOT. I haven't checked my weight yet (I'm a little scared to), but my pants still fit so all is well I guess. D: I went to yoga for the first time in two weeks this morning and it hurt so good! Yeah!
1.) Plane dinner. I forget what this was, actually. It was good though.
2.) Barf omelette. Absolutely disgusting. United always serves the same awful breakfast and has done so for years.
3.) Tequila Lime Chicken @ Applebee's. We had this for our first meal in the US. I used to work at Applebee's and I had this for lunch all the time. It's still good, and RooG liked it too.
4.) Continental breakfast @ La Quinta Inn & Suites. It was pretty tasty. RooG was sick of all the food after a while (the lineup never changes), but I enjoyed it to the last. Mmm, bagels.
5.) Double Double combo meals @ In N Out. I'm not all that crazy about In N Out's fries.... but I love me a Double Double. RooG said this is Arizona's second best food. We ate it twice!
6.) Pizza and Greek salad @ Picazzo's. The pizza was awesome but the salad was full of hatey things like olives and those onions that were SUPER spicy.
7.) Nachos & chicken fingers @ Logan's Roadhouse. My folks took us out to dinner here and these were the appetizers. YUMMM.
8.) Gyro w/ fries and hummus @ Greek Gyros. Amazing. It was RooG's first gyro, and he devoured it. He didn't like the hummus though. Fine, more for me!
9.) Random shiz @ Taco Bell. It was pretty good, but my quesadilla was kinda cold. :/
10.) Kids' meal @ Culver's. My folks introduced us to this place. It was YUMMY!!!!!! And it's an awesome deal too. Not pictured is the included ICE CREAM SUNDAE you get for dessert, all for less than 5 bucks! what!
I came home and had 14 nice PostCrossing cards for me, and a few New Year's cards too. :)
Jan. 5th, 2012 @ 12:52 pm
|
| » Post for the first time in a long time |
|---|
Guess I'll just do a status update. RooG and I are leaving for Arizona on Wednesday! HOLY SHIZ!! Just one more day of work (Monday) and then we are so outta here!!! I am a little nervous, but mostly excited.
--Howard Stern's gonna be a judge on America's Got Talent! Which kinda sucks for me cos now I'm actually gonna have to watch that awful show on a regular basis. But I'm excited that the rest of America can finally know him and love him, just like all his proud superfans do. Baba Booey Baba Booey! Howard Stern's penis! F Jackie!
--SIL Aki and her family will be coming by tomorrow to take TekiNacho. They'll be taking care of them for us while we're in AZ. As a gesture of gratitude I made a yummy Oreo cheesecake for them.
--Still love my iPhone so much. ;__; Favorite apps are The New York Times and Time Magazine, a Japanese-study app called jFlash, Airport Mania 2, Sleep Cycle and Relax Melodies Premium (which I use together every night), Period Tracker and Unchi Checker (to keep track of my poop output..), and Hanging/ Words With Friends, which I suck at but enjoy playing anyway. Any awesome apps that I'm missing? Please let me know!
Also, does anyone know how to print photos from your iPhone in Japan? :P
Dec. 17th, 2011 @ 09:00 pm
|
|
|
