“Let’s enjoy brushing”
You can find kawaii-ness, even in a dental clinic in Japan. Why had I taken so long to get health check-ups in Japan? Well, the medical world is not a familiar one to me in the Land of the Rising Sun. I’ve got this paralyzing fear that if I cannot navigate my local post office with smooth savvy, then how could I possibly understand medical-related terms?
Thank goodness I’m in pretty good health, so I have never ever stepped into a hospital or medical clinic. But I thought my teeth could use a bit of attention because….I haven’t seen a dentist in, like, four years. I know I’m so gross but my pearlie whites seem okay. Really.
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***Very long post full of cutesy photos. Navigate away from this page if you’re allergic to such things.***
Guess what I got up to a few weekends ago? A friend from Singapore was visiting and she wanted to go to Puroland because she’s a huge Cinnamoroll fan. I didn’t know what to expect and thought it would be in the vein of Disneyland and I like Disneyland, by the way.
It was and it wasn’t and I left feeling nauseous like I had rainbows, fluffy clouds, and lots of pink and red shooting out of my pores. Maybe I was just dehydrated but I did have fun looking at how surprisingly abundant the commercial machine that is Hello Kitty is in reality…
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Sometimes I feel like I’m having a good time more than I should. I think it’s spring fever and with a couple of guests in my apartment for the past three weeks, I feel like time has zoomed past and my body still thinks it’s recovering from my holiday in Asia late last year.
I’ve been going out a lot so there’s plenty to post but let’s say farewell to the sakuras which scattered their pretty petals all over Tokyo last weekend. This hanami season stretched over three weekends (usually it lasts for two) because of the unexpected cold that blew into town in the middle. The sakuras held on tight to their branches and that’s why you could see folks picnicking last Sat and Sunday in parks.
On the weekend before last, I headed out to Yotsuya and Shinjuku-gyoen, instead of Yoyogi-koen. It was terribly overcast but the flowers were still mesmerizing…
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Despite living in Japan for almost four years, I still get those days when I stumble onto something new and it’s just a thrill. Finding novelty in life is so important to keep you feeling fresh and vital.
And sometimes, it’s the small things that make me giggle…
After our enormous dinner, we settled down to play Game of Life in Japanese, jinseigemu. I understand that it’s an American board game that was invented in 1860 and it has been played all over the world. But I’ve never heard of it till this Chiba holiday.
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It’s seven degrees out, brrrr…. But the sakuras have started to bloom.
On our way back from Hakone (yes, we took yet another trip there, but this time with Mrs Kangaroo in tow), we took the train to Yoyogi-koen station so Mrs Kangaroo could at least stroll through an avenue full of sakuras. She adores flowers so she enjoyed the walk despite the chill.
We were amazed that hanami party-goers sat resolutely under the cherry blossom trees with their drinks and snacks in this weather.
Yoyogi Park wasn’t chock-a-block like during the peak of the season, but there were still enough people picnicking to create a happy, lively vibe.
We wanted to show Mrs Kangaroo the Rockabilly dancers but I think even they thought it was too cold to have a session today.
It’s been nice having the kangaroo’s mum around. I think mothers tend to lend a softer, nurturing touch to things (she just squeezed some Crabtree & Evelyn Summer hand cream on me; “The air is so dry,” she mused to me a moment ago) and she’s been clucking around the kangaroo and me.
We squeezed in two road trips within 10 days so I have lots to share but am exhausted from lack of sleep and too much activity. But you know, it’s a happy type of busyness that I’m enjoying. If you asked me what I was doing this time three years ago, I was actually alone strolling past sakura trees wondering if I would ever get my feet grounded in this sprawling, crazy, complex beast of a metropolis.
You can read my past hanami posts here and here.
If you have ever visited Japan, one of the first things you’d notice are the abundance of vending machines. In fact there is one vending machine to 23 people — wow.
It always amuses me that even in the boonies, there are vending machines. I went camping once and there were two vending machines next to the site (which came in handy when we ran out of Coke for the whiskey). Contrary to popular belief that there are vending machines for everything in Japan, I don’t think your lay person would encounter all of them, much less on a daily basis.
In reality, as an expat living in Tokyo, I only really come across vending machines that sell drinks and cigarettes. When I travel outside Tokyo, I tend to see a wider variety of vending machines, like those that sell ice-cream, “gourmet” coffee (proper lattes and cappuccinos), cup ramen, beer/chu-hi, and hot snacks.
I’ve only ever tried taiyaki (fish shaped doughy dessert stuffed with azuki, or red bean, paste) and takoyaki (round doughy balls stuffed with octopus) and for vending machine nosh, they were actually pretty good. I thought they would be overcooked but they weren’t.
For more “sensationalist” vending machines, you can click here and here.
Not meaning to be a wet blanket but some folks seem to think Japan is teeming with out-of-this-world weirdness. It can be true but tends to be confined to a very small minority and everyone else just goes about their own way. So please don’t ask your Japanese friend if there are vending machines that sell underwear (dirty or otherwise) all over Tokyo because it’s kind of gross on so many levels.
This seems like a strange blog post but I asked this question myself when I had to buy one recently and was truly stumped.
In my neighbourhood, Akasaka, there are two options: confectionary chain Ginza Cozy Corner and Haagen Daz. The former has pretty good cakes but they only have three designs and unfortunately I have bought the chocolate one for different people’s birthdays, maybe even twice for the kangaroo, but he didn’t notice so that’s okay. I wanted to make a little more effort in not presenting the same birthday cake twice so hence why this serious hunt for a decent (different) one.
Though Haagen Daz is always a winner (who doesn’t like ice-cream cakes?), it costs almost 5,000JPY for a small 500g one that will maybe feed five people tops. Also, if you are in a screaming hurry, this is not a good choice because you need a minimum of two hours before 6pm for them to prepare your cake.
And to make one at the last minute was just out of the question. Some expat folks do that here which is pretty impressive in my book.
So what’s an expat girl to do?
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Apologies for not posting this week. I’ve been very busy with work and I accidently deleted many LIJ posts so have been re-posting them during any spare moment I could snatch. I’m still not done yet — I’m a bit of a procrastinating queen this week…
So I was giving my feral apartment a good clean last Saturday afternoon and I turned on the TV for some company. I let the Japanese dialogue wash over my ears as usual but after washing the dishes, I glanced at the TV and saw this…
OMG, fake edible insects for bento-making. ヘ。。。なにそれい? (What’s that?)
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Tokyo can be a cold place, even when it’s not winter, because it’s an uber city where everyone minds their own business.
But once in a while, I get some warmth from the most unexpected people.
A few weeks ago, I was down with an awful migraine for almost 10 days. The day before an early morning lesson, I caved in and took some Eve. Although it helped with the pain, the caffeine in the medicine kept me up all night, and so, I arrived at the lesson looking very much like a ghost. Well that was because I was so exhausted I wore no makeup and tied up my unwashed hair — it certainly shocked my student enough to ask, “Are you okay? You look very sick!”
She then kindly suggested that we go to the kusuriya (pharmacy) after our lesson so she could help me buy a “herbal headache medicine” that works wonders for her. She insisted on paying it for me but I managed to squeeze some cash through to the cashier.
I was very touched by her gesture as she waved goodbye with, “Please take care!” and it made me feel better. Big awww…
But, I was quite traumatized by my sleepless night and read the instructions which showed up caffeine in the ingredients list. I would probably try this when I have another headache, but in the morning, just in case.
In the meantime, can anyone tell me what is this medicine made of? I know it is a brown granular powder and have heard that it is great for preventing flu, too. I blogged about another flu-related medicine here before and wonder if it’s the same…
My sensei gave me this piece of macadamia chocolate for beating the kangaroo at the JLPT 2 test.
BUT, we both failed. Hardly a triumph in my books.
I must give her credit for being such a cheerleader, though. I expressed feeling discouraged over being unable to remember much of the grammar I have been studying. Everyone knows the answer to this common problem: you hardly get to use these complicated grammar structures, so they just don’t stick around in your head.
But she said that repetition is the key to being successful in learning Japanese and we have one more year (technically 10 and a half months) to give it another go.
Out of curiosity, I asked her how many times her students take the JLPT 2 test before they passed and she said, “Three to four times.” Hmm, good to know. She also added that it’s the same for JLPT 1. You know, that would take a good six years at least to get to the highest level. Wow, what a reality check.
