Japanese Lessons with Will Smith

It’s been a week of first's for me…

• 1st Japanese lesson with Kept Ninja;
• 1st ‘Fridge to Fridge’ experience; and
• 1st time I’ve seen a 3month old baby on a dad’s back, whilst cycling… without a helmet!

Firstly, our Japanese lesson – we’re studying for two hours on a Monday night each week with Tanabe-sensei from ARC Academy. She’s lovely - an NBA fan with a daughter studying in Tasmania. We hit the ground running – we learnt about 12 different country names – learn to say 'my name is'… 'I come from'… 'I work as a' … and a few greetings, which were refreshers (or the only things we already knew!) The method is very effective and besides scurrying through my notes in a panic a few times, we both managed to listen, learn, repeat. There was also role-play involved, to reiterate the dialogue… I was a South Korean girl named Kim and looked like a Mengha character (picture a face mask on a paddle stick) and Kept Ninja was… Will Smith! She offered to let us swap but oh well. Turns out Kept Ninja is a “shufu” (housemaker)… sounds much better than a “Komputer Konsarutanto”, and I’m a “Gas enjinia”! We have homework to do for next week and some flash cards to make so we can test each other!

The 1^st ‘Fridge to Fridge’… this all came about after the earthquake we realised we should learn where each other live, so in an emergency we can go to a safe house near where we are at the time… also a nice excuse to have a few drinks! Pitstop 1 was Fort Bardill – Ninja made some meat balls, vege and meat quiches, dumplings, garlic olives and fresh French bread with balsamic and olive oil… I supervised and cleaned!! Pitstop 2 was Clearwater Castle followed by Blackburn Abode – unfortunately for Blackburn Abode, by stop 3 everyone was well and truly sizzled which led to some sing and dancing with an alfoil hairbrush… needless to say, we had a quiet Sunday.

Team Japan - what a good looking bunch :)

Thirdly, I really should have run after this disgraceful father to firstly, take a better photo, but secondly tell him to either put a helmet on his baby, or get off the bike!!! The poor thing was so little! I’ve also seen 2-3 year olds sitting in the front seats of cars without car-seats!

Baby on a backpack... on a bike

I’ll leave you with these quirky pics, taken on the train ride home… I’m not sure who Kirin are targeting with their current beer ads? … ladies from the 60’s… that wear Beatles haircuts or Beehives? And I have NO IDEA what “Big” is… strangely I don’t think it’s a girl rock band… first one to find out on Google, wins!

Epic marketing failure... or not?

Mystery of the week - what is "Big"?

And for the boys out there... here's Nissan's latest - the "Infiniti", which I walk passed on the way to work... maybe I should trade-in my bike? :)

Nissan Infiniti

xoxo
Karate Kate

What Gives You Jetlag and Makes You Sneeze?

… a 5-day business trip to London and Milan!

Now, as most viewers know, I’m fairly incompetent at keeping a secret… particularly if it involves me. Mama Bear asked me to pretend, or “betend” as she calls it, that she was coming to visit me in Japan, when in fact her mission destination was Cape Town for her sister’s… ummm… special b’day (note: age remains undisclosed to protect the innocent)… to complicate matters, I’d been plotting a trip to the satellite offices (London, and Milan; Paris was deemed small potatoes) to do an audit and the stars aligned… not only was the trip when the covert sting was to take place, it also fell over my birthday!

I very reluctantly left Kept Ninja in the wee hours of Monday morning to fly to London – our first nights apart after 6 months of marriage! I travelled back in time and arrived in London in lunchtime and hit Oxford and Regent Street. I had little trouble navigating the underground… although the standards weren’t quite up to the Japanese subway. I had some success in my shopping endeavours – I found Ninja a few shirts from ‘High and Mighty’, bought a couple of GAP tees, and some much needed gossip and interior design mags!

I caught up with Bec and Skip for dinner at Jamie Oliver’s ‘Jamie’s Italian’ in Shepperd’s Bush – I had a fish stew and raspberry chocolate brownie for dessert – rather delicious, and great to see old friends.

Fish Stew

Dessert at Jamie's Italian

Piazza del Duomo

After a day in the London office, I flew to Milan… sounds glamorous doesn’t it? If only my hotel was closer to Milan centre rather than the airport… and a 20min walk from a metro line! Upon hitting the pavement, after work, I followed an obliging lady towards the station. 50 sneezes later, several tears and multiple giggles from my guide, we reached the station… ah dear, hello hay fever! I hot-footed to the first pharmacist I saw in Duomo and got what I thought were hayfever tablets… from memory they shouldn’t have pseudoephedrine in them!

Happy b'day me :)

I started with sightseeing – Piazza del Duomo, Piazza Scala, but gravitated towards Galleria Vittorio Emaluele and worked my way through Corso Vittorio Emaluele – the jackpot! Several purchases later, I emerged tired and weary and craving tortellini! I dined at ‘A Santa Lucia’ … so had Naomi Campbell, Bridget Monahan, and Salma Hayek, according to the pictures on the walls!

The next night I was led astray by a local colleague, and headed to Corso Buenos Aires… turned out to be more walking between quality stores than I’d like, so I headed back to my original turf and in complete tourist fashion, I had dinner on the pavement, overlooking the Royal Palace, with a glass of Moet and gelato for dessert… the seafood risotto wasn’t so flash, but that’s to be expected on the main street.

Back to reality now, and very happy to be! I came home to presents and a delicious white chocolate mud cake… make that 3 cakes… there were 4… one was eaten by the baker for QA purposes… diet will recommence after said cakes are consumed!

Chef Ninja's creation

xoxo

Karate Kate

83% of Statistics are Made Up!

Another week goes by in this foreign land, I started to think about how different it is here... a few facts to munch on...


- The population is just over 128 Million;
- 298,000 tonnes of spinach is produced each year;
- the minimum wage is 791 Yen per hour (~AUD$9)... similar to Oz;

- there are 850 Starbucks in Japan... we don't care how many Tully's there are - probably less;

- Apparently Hokkaido is the most attractive place in Japan, followed by Kyoto, Okinawa, Tokyo, Nara, and Kanagawa... Kanagawa was robbed;

Minato Mirai, Kanagawa... view from our apartment

- Tokyo has had 24 recorded instances of people either killed or receiving serious skull fractures while bowing to each other with the traditional Japanese greeting... mind your manners people;

- There are 1.39 children per family... surprisingly it's 1.7 in Australia... what happened to 2.4 from the TV ad a few years back?;

- Japan is made up of 6000 islands, 200 volcanos (36 of which are active) and the land mass is 70% mountains;

- There are ~1,500 earthquakes per year... so don't stress people!

- In a Sumo training "stable" the junior rikishi Sumo wrestlers must wash and bathe their senior sumo wrestlers and make sure their hard to reach places are clean...ewww;

- Fortune cookies are not a Chinese invention, but a Japanese one going back to 19th-century Kyōto and linked to the tradition of omikuji.

I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow from the place downstairs ... when booking the appointment the lady said "cut, not colour", whilst enacting the "no deal" gesture... what could go wrong? ... maybe I should get a fortune cookie first?

xoxo

Karate Kate

Is it a Small World After All?

This week's quirks of Japan... things you see at the train station:

-       4 year olds taking themselves off to school – they come up to mid-leg!

-       A girl dressed as 'Strawberry Shortcake' – top to bottom – that’s dedication, and bravery.

-       A dog dressed in a red coat, sunnies, Mickey ears and a red flashing bowtie – cruelty to animals!

-   Women in white - women here aren’t afraid to wear white – could be because they are all size 8’s, but it’s very popular – as are stripes and polka dots. I’d previously mentioned the ‘shorts over black tights’ trend – well, I gave in and joined the fad on Friday night for my hot date with Ninja. Knee-high socks are not going to be attempted though!

Following the fashion trends

-       The 'John Eales scrum approach' to getting into the trains, anytime after 7:30am.

-       Several belongings not making into the train on the first door closure, including bags, and arms!

-       I was unfortunate enough to witness Japan’s worst ‘moose knuckle’ on the walk home the other night – the guy needs to either: a) not wear light grey pants, b) get some looser pants, or c) wear his pants at his natural waist rather than under his armpits… the visual scarring has stayed with me!

-       Had two people fall asleep on me last week – fortunately both were women… one seated, one whilst standing!!!

-       No one sweats but me, it’s 90% humidity people!

It was clear skies and mid-twenties for the weekend, so we made the most of it!

Friday was a 7 course meal at Grandciar Hayamaan, a mere 10m from our apartment building! It was convenient enough to get me in heels! Our waiter spoke English, which was fortunate as there were no English menu’s! We figured out the important stuff – they had beer by the glass, they had champers by the glass, and the set menu only involved fish or other meat, no seafood (for Ninja’s benefit) – it was French cuisine, with some Japanese influence… first course was seasoned tuna, then asparagus creme with prosciutto, then chicken soup with dry noodles, then fish with a delectable deep fried pesto ball, then the tastiest, most tender beef pieces wrapped in eggplant, followed by some lemon sorbet and a cheesecake slice for dessert – we were in heaven! The French red wine was also quite delicious – much thinner than Aussie red’s, but went down a treat! Alcohol allocation for the weekend – GONE!

Asparagus creme and prosciutto underneath

Cheesecake slice

Saturday we hit the pavements and cycled from Minato Mirai to Motomachi – it’s about 4km away… the front port area through Yokohama is beautiful. It reminded me that I’ve only ever lived by the water… Durban, Perth, Karratha and Yokohama. I stopped to take a few pictures, which meant I lost the lead position and Ninja took to the front… I don’t travel well as a follower, particularly on bikes, but we survived and I only got beeped at once! 

Yokohama Markets

Yokohama - Landmark Tower

French bakery at Motomachi

Yokohama waterfront markets

In the afternoon, I had my usual Karate class – Sensei is still campaigning tough love. She made us do the Kata individually and told us we’d be repeating this next week … subtle way to say “PRACTICE”! My MBA studies will start again in July and we’re looking for flexibility to travel on weekends, so my karate career could be short lived!

We had a quiet Saturday night in and watched Rome Season 2 – it’s horrific and I can not wait until it’s over – then we can go back to watching the West Wing and I can sleep peacefully at night! Tristan’s connected his computer wirelessly to the big flat screen in the lounge so we can now flop on our super comfy couch and watch movies etc, and whoever is closest to the kitchen has to get up to get Cranberry and Soda’s!

Sunday – we came, we saw, we conquered! Ninja can blog the details of Tokyo Disneyland. My few cents are:

-       never go on a weekend or public holiday;

-       wear comfy shoes;

-       take a change of shirt (particularly handy after Splash Mountain); and

-       if you’re not wearing a cartoon character on your shirt or on your head, then you don’t belong :P

Tokyo Disneyland - Easter Parade

Strawberry Yoghurt and a Churro -  staple diet in Disneyland

Bye for now

Xoxo

Karate Kate