lioness in japan

Heya, Lioness in Japan has moved to www.luiyuming.com. Yup, I finally got my own domain name. This idea has been incubating for awhile, and with the kangaroo’s help, I was able to update everything in just two days.

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For the benefit of those who are still new to the Lioness site, I am a dog lover. One of my ambitions is to own a couple of pugs one day but that would be much later in life as our apartment in Tokyo has a no-dog policy.

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I am not feeling so well again. Ever since Nepal’s massive attacks of food poisoning in December 2007, my digestive system has not been 100 per cent. Coming from Southeast Asia, I was proud to have a cast-iron stomach that can tolerate food that has been lying around or boiling away all day in an open cauldron. But these past few months, my constitution seems a little weak.

Last week’s stomach bug was awful and I felt nauseas and headachy all day for four days. I began to feel like that after lunch today and left for home at about 530pm. Perhaps it is the change in weather (which is temperamental) or the lack of air in the office (the aircon was not turned on because a certain colleague thought it was too cold) — whatever it was, I refused to chuck up in the office loo which has walls as thin as paper.

The other reason why I am bummed out is I missed yet another hash run (my expat jogging group). I’m not trying hard enough to balance work, fitness, the kangaroo, and building a social life in Tokyo.

I hope May will be a better month.

Last week was a little messed up because I had a four-day bout of stomach flu. But when I got better, my iBook got sick. She crunched away to a quick death on Friday. Fuming inwardly and cursing her, I went shopping for a few errands meant to be done on the weekend. So this is why I’ve been missing for so many days.

The kangaroo was very sweet — he put on his doctor hat and performed some surgery on the iBook to retrieve our precious travel photos from the hard disk.

Check out the insides of the iBook. The kangaroo’s boss is a Mac user so he asked him for some advice. But all he got was, “It’s before the Intel ones came out?! Get her a new one!”

And so he did. It’s an early birthday pressie. The other reason for the rush is we can’t afford the downtime until he gets one from the US (it’s so cheap there) or Singapore (the resale price just rocks!), so we just got me a Japanese one. I’m still getting used to the keyboard which is slightly different than the universal English one. We also got the Time Capsule which is an awesome back up drive and Ethernet hub. The speed is just incredible, especially with Japan’s phenomenal broadband system. Thanks, baby!

I was missing online yesterday from about 4pm because my adaptor cable gave way. The wire was probably frayed due to wear-and-tear. By then, my battery was at 40 per cent. So I jumped online and checked to see if there was the same cable available in Tokyo. Zanen (It’s a pity), nai ne….(none). Only heartbroken for a moment because I could get a new Macbook. I’ve been eyeing this one for a while…

I’ve had my iBook for four years now and she’s a little slow and cranky. I’ve dropped crumbs and spilled red wine but she still soldiered on. Instead of blowing JPY170,000 (SGD2,300), I thought I’d make a trip down to the Apple Centre in Ginza to see if they had a replacement for my cable. As an aside to Apple fanatics, this is a must-visit if you are ever in Tokyo. There are four glorious floors of Apple products in a sleek, futuristic setting.

With a mix of elation and disappointment, they had a 65W portable adaptor to replace my 45W one. A gentle reminder of long forgotten physics rules: it’s okay if the wattage is higher, not lower.

The kangaroo said he would get a new MacBook for me on his next trip to the U.S. He’s leaving this Sunday! The U.S. dollar is so low that the new MacBook would save us SGD400.

Yesterday night we hung out at Adrian and Kazu’s for dinner and some Nintendo Wii.

After delicious seabass and sinful macaroons, we worked it out on their Wii.

It was the kangaroo’s first time, so he was super excited.

Ready…

Get set…

Go!

We skied on snowy slopes…

Played football…And many other sports games. I was having too much fun to take many pictures. One of my favourites is the cow-racing game where you hop onto knitted moos and run for your life, knocking people down and jumping over fences. Phew, we worked up a sweat…

This is the kangaroo’s profile. He went for a Ray-ban look but we all agreed he was more Kim Jong Il than Tom Cruise.

Just a snapshot of our weekend — we’re pretty normal folks.

I was tired of the regular Blogger template offered so I thought I would do some customization.

I tried to look for a picture that incorporated both Japan and a lion image — look what I found?!

The banner’s a little louder than I normally would have on a website but let’s see how this one goes.

I try to be careful but this side of me gets to me at the worst of times.

I don’t know where it went. Maybe it’s in the office or maybe in mos burger or along the streets Shinguku but it’s not at home.

I couldn’t pay for dinner. I feel awful.

I realised that this summary doesn’t fit me anymore:

A freelance journalist from the Lion City, aka Singapore, who lives in a shoebox with a 6 ft 3 kangaroo, shares her adventures in Tokyo, her new home.

If you take a look to the right, I’ve written a new one. Inspiration hasn’t hit me yet but that will do for now.

I’m no longer freelance, though I could do adhoc assignments if any came my way, and I’m not quite a journo anymore. I’ve become a web freak. We’re also not in a shoebox anymore. As the kangaroo put it last Thursday night between bites of his alfredo chicken from a plate on his lap, “We’ll be living like humans again.” I chortled with joy whilst digging into mine from the floor.

I planned to make our home red, white and black with a splash of green. It’s not quite working out the way I thought — not in a bad way at all — because we’ve got many colours going on in our new home at the moment as we both contribute to our new pad. We’ve got a yellow iron, red swivel chairs, white desks, brown shelves, green, yellow and brown towels, a nude striped duvet… I give up on keeping to a particular scheme. Maybe that’s us for now. Just colourful folks.

I had quite a big weekend — two late nights of heavy drinking followed by two horrible hangovers.

Even though yesterday was spent watching environmental movie Earth and Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd, I still felt weary and sluggish. I highly recommend both, especially Earth — it’s got drama, tragedy, humour, action, a fabulous soundtrack and a strong message about global warming. It’s narrated by Patrick Stewart who lends his gravelly storyteller voice to the film. Al Gore’s Inconvienient Truth was moving and shocking with its statistics and future projections but Earth spins a political message using breathtaking images and a compelling narrative.

As we headed home in the breezy cool evening, the kangaroo suggested we get up early for a morning run which I actually prefer but it’s always hard to do on my own. It was nice to have a buddy who goes, “Oi wake up, it’s time to run!”

But I feel terrible now, like I have the beginnings of the flu — feverish, aching limbs and overall exhaustion. I think the chilly winter air this morning could’ve been too much. I sound like a bloody auntie or oba-san (old lady in Japanese). Whine…