Well, today is Harmony day. And that means that I have a festival to attend!
I went down to the community centre yesterday and it looks like my timing is right on the mark because I was asked to join in the festivities.
I spent last night cooking for 5 hours for my Japanese food stall. I made Sushi (3 flavours), Okonomiyaki, and Tsukune enough for 150 people! I have my matsuri happi coat and hachimaki to don for authenticity too.
Phew… I started making origami cranes, fish, boxes, and flowers this morning for decoration and I’m also taking some origami paper along so some of the kids can learn how to do it too.
It’s going to be on the oval next to the centre. There are going to be some other international food stalls as well as belly dancing and drumming workshops, treasure hunts, games, bubble blowing and and a ride from the big red fire engine (a really old one) that will do laps around the area, I’m told it’s alot of fun so I hope I get my ride!
Hopefully I will have a chance to take some photo’s so I can post them up later.
Happy Harmony Day everyone :)
Sorry for the lack of posts. I’ve just been so busy with healings and readings! I’ve seen more pregnant mums in the last few days I think than in my life! :) Read more
Yesterday we had great plans. Read more
During the 3 weeks I spent in Japan, I recorded in my diary some things that amused and annoyed me or I just noticed were different from Australia.
Yes, I am back home now, and happy to be here. I will blog about my time in Japan over the next few days. But for now, happy reading.
- Lessons in blandness – a salaryman monotone. Far removed from Australia where business men try to individualize their suits by wearing a Superman tie or a bright coloured hankerchief in their pocket, I noticed that most salarymen in Japan were wearing the same coloured suits, the same coloured shirts, and the same ties. They all tended to look the same. I wondered if there were salaryman stores that stock the same of every piece of clothing in the same boring colours.
- Japanese people can’t seem to go anywhere without their mobile phone glued to their ears. If they are not talking on it they are checking it every 5 minutes, using the mirror attached to check their makeup (used to be a no-no in public, seems that redoing your makeup in public, on public transport is now acceptable?). I saw a guy on the train sitting opposite me check his phone for messages no less than 11 times in one minute. Madness. Being contactable 24/7 carries the utmost importance it seems.
- Japanese women could talk under water, or in my experience, they basically never shut up. On the shinkansen from Tokyo to Aomori, a trip of 4 hours or so, two Japanese women behind us talked non-stop, did my head in. I experienced similar on Japanese trains in Nagoya, Tokyo, and Hokkaido. When the conversation between them stops, they then turn to mobile phones and call their friends for more chat time. I know that everyone says women love to talk, but Japanese women seem to love to talk for no reason but for the talking itself. Communication is great, but I just felt that with Japanese women it is an obsession. It is very annoying to be privy to someone’s loud mobile phone conversation on public transport, on a long, tiring journey.
- Smoking rooms at the train stations, that are located next to a waiting room and a kiosk should be moved. The smoking room doors open into the waiting room and kiosk area, which, because of the door opening and closing, are filled with smoke anyway. It doesn’t make any sense to either put the non-smoking waiting room next to the smoking room, or have the door to the smoking room open up into the non-smoking waiting room. Some things about Japan are crazy, this is one of them!
- When is a juice not a juice? When it comes from Japan. On my quest for a real juice I came across up to 30% juice, juice that was made from various oils including coconut and vegetable oils, juice which had more sugar than juice, and water diluted with juice, but no real juice, as in 100% juice from a fruit, until Aomori when I found a can of 100% Aomori apple juice on the shinkansen. Divine, pure heavenly real apple juice, sadly on my last day in Japan. I did bring the can home though as a reminder to myself that I should appreciate the real juice I can find in Aus. I know Kagome makes those juice blends but I am not so much into them as I really wanted plain one fruit juice, one ingredient, fresh juice.
- I hated the fact that in Japan when you go to a restaurant you don’t get your meals brought out all at the same time. It is so maddening! No one eats at the same time, and I hated to eat in front of others who hadn’t got their food yet. In Australia when you order, they make sure they cook it so that everyone gets their meals at the same time or within a few minutes of each other, but in Japan, they cook it by what you order and how long it takes, which I really hate. The service in Japan is great, so why can’t they make the meal service great too?
- I really got sick of the sensor taps in Japanese public toilets that squirt water before I was ready. It seems that if you put your hand up above the tap, it will start squirting water. I didn’t realise this and was squirted a few times when I wasn’t trying to be. It makes sense that when you have your hands under the tap, you want the sensor to work, not when you have your hands over the top.
- I also found a lack of hand soap in public toilets in Japan. They seem to only supply the water and the air blower, and no soap to speak of. In Australia every sink has a hand soap dispenser which is handy, and I found it weird that Japan does not have them, given their almost obsession with cleanliness.
- The hunt for a non-squat toilet in public Japanese toilets. 8 out of 10 toilets were the squat type. The other 2 out of 10 had mostly squat toilets and about 2 normal toilets. I experienced this in Honshu and Hokkaido, so I don’t think it was different for either places.
- Everywhere I walked I saw people carrying Halloween bags from Disneyland. It seemed to be something of an obsession with people of all ages. I’m not really a Disney fan myself. I enjoy the movies but that is as far as it goes. Disney paraphernalia seems to be everywhere in Japan.
- The price of Japanese fruit an vegetables are astounding. One peach, although giant, was around 238 yen. In Australia the price is by weight, not per piece, so I found it hard to pay 198 yen per banana, when in Australia I could get about 5 for that price!
- Japanese food like snacks, chocolate, candy, pet bottle drinks, alcohol, and cookies etc, all seem to be very cheap compared to Australia. One 500ml pet bottle in Australia is about $3.20, compared to Japan where you can pick up a bottle for around 88 yen. I found the cheap prices pretty good, IF you are going to live on junk food. I also found that Japanese supermarkets make pre-prepared meals in the form of bento’s, which Australian supermarkets do not. However, these bento have very little vegetable content, and are mostly fatty meat, fish, or fried food. They are also costly unless bought at the end of the day. I found that fresh fruit and vegetables was very expensive compared to Australia. One small stalk of broccoli was 498 yen in Japan, compared to $3.98 per kilo in Australia.
- The meat in Japan only comes in very small packages, there is no bulk buying it seems. Also, the packets of mince I found, only came in palm size portions, more for putting in gyoza or okazu than for making a curry or lasagne.
- Most Japanese supermarkets are now charging up to 5 yen per plastic bag in a bid to reduce wastage and to urge people to recycle. I found the lack of eco-bags on sale at supermarkets mind boggling. In Australia, we don’t pay for plastic bags yet, but last year they introduced the supermarket’s brand eco-bags for sale, on the end of each register for 99c each. There are quite a few varieties, as in calico, brown paper, nylon, cotton, or plastic. Each are 99c and are reuseable. They also have character versions and special seasonal versions available. It encourages customer loyalty, though you can use those bags at other supermarkets too. It also means they are cheap enough to keep in the back of your car for when you go shopping.
I opened the door this morning to find a parcel from J-list. Inside were some chips I ordered for Yasu and some Bub bath tablets.
Yasu’s birthday is on the 22nd August and I leave on the 18th August, so I won’t be here for his birthday. So I just bought a few things online that I could give him to munch on while I’m gone. I’m waiting for another parcel, hope it arrives before I leave, that has some snacks and choccy for him too.
The Bub bath tablets I’ve never tried before but they looked cool. I think they must do the same job as bath salts. If I like them I will buy some in Japan and ship them home.
