| Porn! |
[Jul. 8th, 2006|08:13 pm] |
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| |  lethargic | ] |
Strip Karaoke....
Need I say more really? :P |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 29th, 2005|01:44 am] |
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| |  sleepy | ] |
What am I doing up so late? I need to write in this more often, I just can't seem to muster the energy. Having too much fun I guess :) |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 28th, 2004|07:39 pm] |
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I have posted some new pics of Japan on www.signerose.org/
Feel free to check them out if you like. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 25th, 2004|11:54 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  shocked | ] |
I almost forgot! Yesterday I went to have coffee with a co-worker from Miyoshi High school. She is a fellow part time English teacher but she's Japanese. Anway, she brought her 5 year old daughter with her who amazed and astounded me the entire time with her huge English vocabulary and incredibly accurate English pronunciation.
We didn't even prompt her. In the begining she was a little shy, but then she would ask questions in English as if it was no big deal. For 3 hours straight she never uttered one word in Japanese and she was talking to herself and us the entire time. I was beginning to wonder if she even spoke Japanese. Her English conversational skills far surpass any of the high schoolers I teach and they are pretty good. Her English is very polite too.
Looks like I might be hanging out with them once a week (for a small fee) in the future so she can get more practice speaking. She seems to like me pretty well, so I think it will be a good experience. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 25th, 2004|11:52 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  giddy | ] |
Woohoo! I got my new fabric and lining silk to make another Kimono. I'm hoping to have it finished by mid Ocotber for the town Matsuri (festival). We shall see.
Feeling kinda weird today. Woke up with a sore throat but it feels better now. It may be a reaction to all the brush burning that goes on this time of year. Whenever people weed their gardens, they burn the weeds after and it seems to blow right into my house. Gross.
I've been meeting people like crazy these past few days. I finally met some Hiroshima-ken people (only took me a year :P). I also met a retired man who teaches Japanese to foreigners out of the kindness of his heart. I started my first lesson yesterday and it lasted almost two hours. I had a great time and it's far closer than the alternative was shaping up to be. A shout out to melf42 who also was having a Japanese lesson in the same room. Nice to meet you! Come play with us anytime :)
Tomorrw is my first day back at Miyoshi High school since summer break. It will be nice to see everyone again. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 9th, 2004|04:04 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
New photos are up on my web page. Please check them out if your're so inclined. www.signerose.org/ |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 25th, 2004|04:50 am] |
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| | sleepy | ] |
Hello All!
I've never been too consistent in any journal I've kept and online ones seem to be no exception. Oh well, better once in a great while then not at all.
At any rate, just wanted to let those who are interested know that I finally got around to updating my web page today. I still have yet to take some photos of projects I've been working on including a kimono I made, but that will have to wait for another day. Hopefully it will only be a couple of weeks. There's new garden pics up under the "house and garden" page and a bunch of stuff under "new photos". Enjoy :)
Go here to check them out: www.signerose.org/ |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 3rd, 2004|01:46 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
Got my first ever skiing lesson last weekend!
I was a little terrified, but it turned out ok. I think I might even be getting the hang of it, although I definitely have sore legs and arms as a result.
Next Sunday I`m going again and this time I`m going on a mini ski lift and try actually going down a real hill :) Yay me! |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 23rd, 2004|01:46 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  cold | ] |
Long time no write, eh?
Well, It`s decided to finally snow here and it`s EVERYWHERE! I keep trying to dig the car out and the next day it`s buried again. I`m running out of room to put the snow that I`ve shoveled. I`m building a nice labrynthine structure to get to the house and car though. Wish my camera was working (among other things) but oh well. Perhaps I`ll capture it next year. At any rate, trust me, it very cool and unlike anything I`ve experienced.
I spend a great deal of time watching it from the safety of my hot carpet in the living room. It really is astonishing that a country that deals with so much cold and snow still has yet to figure out the value of insulating ones` house. As a result we burn through a lot of kerosene for our heaters. Money well spent in my opinion. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 16th, 2003|12:39 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | happy | ] |
On another note, my baking business has been going off quite well this month. In the last two weeks I`ve made 12 tiramisus. It`s been crazy busy, but it will definitely help finance our trip to see everyone when we go home in July.
Can`t Wait! |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 16th, 2003|12:34 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  crushed | ] |
No computer makes Signe a very sad girl.
In case you hadn`t noticed, our website is no more. Had to cancel it since we opted not to fix our computer and visit family instead. There won`t be any more pictures up for quite a while I think. At least we managed to get a few up to tide you over for those few months in the beginning that can be the hardest.
I think I`ll go back to my trusty old fashioned camera for a while. I miss using it anyway. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 6th, 2003|12:20 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | pleased | ] |
The chocolate bonanza dinner went over very well. I wish I still had my recipes from my cooking days aboard the Westward as the mole recipe I had from that was exceptional, but this was a close second. The Tiramisu was decadent. I'm going to try and tweak it a bit more for presentation purposes and consider selling them in town, but the taste is spot on.
My garden is looking fabulous. I just planted a Rose, a plum tree (Trev's request) and some native flowering bush I can't pronounce. My neighbor saw me working out there and brought me a big root ball from her garden that needed to be separated and replanted. She said it would have pink blossoms in the spring. Looking forward to that. I also have a bunch of mystery bulbs that I found when digging up the garden and I need to plant them soon and see if anything comes of them in Spring. The pond is great, but needs a plant or two for the fish I want to get in spring. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 6th, 2003|11:14 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  worried | ] |
Something bit my finger when I was gardening last night. I looked down, after noticing it felt funny for a while but was too sidetracked to check it out, and blood was running down my finger! When I went in to wash it off I found a small puncture wound and now part of my hand is swollen and itchy. I was told there are some critters here that bite and kill you pretty quickly, so I'm guessing it's not that....*I hope*. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 28th, 2003|11:10 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  exhausted | ] |
Watched Chocolat again recently. Now it seems I'm on a baking frenzy. Friday we're having friends over for Chicken in mole sauce (with rice tortillas cause they don't believe in mexican food in Japan so that was the closest thing I could find) and tirimisu. Also, I had my mom send me some x-mas cookie recipes from home for an x-mas event we're having for the town in December. Naturally I had to do a "practice run" to make sure the recpies still worked ;) I made viennese crescents, linzer schnitten and Chocolate balls (not quite so ball-like but still taste pretty good). At any rate, it seems to be a virtual cornicopia of baked goods around here. I better give them away fast, before we eat them all and outgrow our house.
Trev and I have gotten back into the habit of studying Japanese a little every night (which is good because I lack discipline in this area). Katakana is quite the road block for me. Once I'm past it then perhaps I'll feel like I'm getting somewhere.
The townspeople are worried that I have nothing to do and keep trying to "help me out" by thrusting volunteer positions upon me. It's very sweet, but never have I felt I had so much time to do only the things I want to do. It's a luxury I'm sure I won't always have and want to soak it up as much as possible.
I have been volunteering as well, which has it's benefits. I go with Trev to teach at the elementary schools sometimes and the baking job that didn't work out wants me to come "play with them anytime" on a volunteer basis, so I may go back to that. It will be a good place to hang out in winter. We also have an adult English conversation class on Wednesday nights and an adventure club that puts on "American Holiday activities" for cultural exchange and whatnot. I have a feeling these next couple months are going to be insanely busy.
No plans to go anywhere in particular for x-mas as money needs to be saved, so perhaps we will take some day trips during that time and take in an onsen or two. I'll keep you posted :) |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 28th, 2003|01:51 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  nervous | ] |
So it's a little late, but I just discovered why you cross your kimono/yukata right over left instead of left over right. Apparently the latter is reserved only for dressing up the dead for their funeral! Oh well, hopefully I'm not condemned for all eternity :P
It seems everything bad in Japan is related to death somehow. You can't lay your mattress with your head facing North because that's the direction the dead are laid, you can't stick your chopsticks in your rice because you only do that ceremonially at a funeral, etc, etc...
This culture is really focused in on the dead. creepy... |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 7th, 2003|10:44 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | refreshed | ] |
This past weekend we hung out at a BBQ party for Shimane JETs on Mt Sanbe (about an hours drive from us). It was good to see everyone again and catch up on the news. Most everyone seems pretty happy with their situations, which is always good to hear.
I made a nashi (japanese pear) Kuchen for the BBQ which went over very well. As soon as I brought it out, it was gone in like 5 minutes.
Actually, since I didn't get the baking job, the head chef lady has said I can use her ovens anytime I want, so I went on a baking rampage recently and made two Kuchens and three batches of biscotti to give out to the neighbors who've been so helpful and to those who have been too shy to come meet us yet. I'll probably deliver them today. I'm really happy that they let me use those ovens. Otherwise this big of a baking job would have taken eons.
So the day after the BBQ, our friends Nina and Mike took us on a road trip to the Iwami silver mines and to find some mysterious restaurant in the countryside with a view. The mines were cool. I picked up a rock for Dad. The town next to the mines is great though. It's just so old and covered with drapey vines, moss and such. After a long time of getting lost, they finally found the restaurant, but it turns out it is only open for lunch (so we are making plans to go back sometime cause it looks REALLY cool). We did find another place to eat, and then decided to find a coffee shop to fuel up for the drive home. We found this great little place that was so new you could still smell the wood. This next part is purely for my dad, so feel free to skip it if you don't care. In front of the coffee shop was a huge cob oven that took the guy 4 months to build. They use it to bake pizzas and bread for the most part. I took a picture of it, so I'll post it on the website as soon as I can.
Anyway, the ride home was incredible. Lots of curvy, tiny, mountainous roads that get creepier the longer we drove them in the pitch black. Creepy but cool.
All in all, it was a very full weekend. Now I have some idea of some places I definitely need to take mom and dad when they come to visit. It's gonna be sooooo cool!
Next weekend we are off to Korea. We got our re-entry permits so nothing should be standing in our way now. Thursday night we will be driving to Fukuoka to spend the night with friends and then we are taking the hydrofoil across and a train from the port to Seoul where we have our hotel reservations. I'll definitely write more on that next week.
Cheers! |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 7th, 2003|10:33 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  relaxed | ] |
So let's see...
Recently, I went to a lovely onsen (public bath) with a fellow JET friend in Yokota, which is roughly an hour and a half drive from our place. The bath was great. It was perched on a hilltop and all the pools were made to look somewhat like natural hotsprings with large rocks lining the edge and so forth. Of course your hanging out with a bunch of naked women, but you get over your hang-ups about that rather quickly once you're there. Sorry guys, you have another section all to yourselves so NO peeking! :P
Anyway, it was really nice and relaxing...and only $5! Doesn't get much better than that. I have a feeling Trev and I will be going to these rather frequently in winter time as we will be searching for ways to get warm any way we can.
After that, Marion and I had a little bite to eat and chatted. It was great to hang out and talk like a girl :) Thanks, marion! We must do that again sometime. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 25th, 2003|03:42 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  bouncy | ] |
So things are going really well for the most part. I guess it's kind of a good news/bad news day, but the bad news isn't horribly terrible. It just turns out that my potential baking job is no more. I think it was one of those Japanese being polite by letting the Gaijin work for them, but never had any intentions of hiring kind of things. I got that feeling from the start of the job cause they seemed to find it difficult to find things for me to do. They obviously had enough people to do the job without me there. It's just too bad that they led me to believe I had a snowball's chance.
As far as that goes though it seems that we are doing really well financially, so I'm not as worried about it as I might otherwise be. In fact, we got invited to spend 4 days in Korea in a couple weeks with a couple friends and we are seriously considering going. That never would have been feasible in California.
Also on the bright side is the progress I've been making on my garden. I went to the hardware store in town today and was asking around about getting cement mix so I can line my pond to make it a little stronger. This guy comes out of nowhere and starts talking to my friends (who happen to own the store). Turns out he works for a cement mixing company. So apparently he tells them that the company will donate any leftover cement they have at the end of the day tomorrow so I can line it for FREE! I love this town! I guess they are coming over around 4pm and we have to line it in less than an hour so they can have the truck back before they close at 5pm, but still I'm way excited. I also started lining the pathway with sand so it looks nicer. I could only fit 21 bags in the car so it looks like I'll have to make at least two more trips, but it is really worth it. It's looking really nice.
I have some really recent photos of it, but I don't have them on the website yet. Still, I did post a bunch of new pictures to the website so feel free to check them out at www.signerose.org/ I'll get the rest up tonight with any luck. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 16th, 2003|04:42 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | happy | ] |
Looks like I might actually have a job locally baking desserts in a shop in town! I'm way jazzed at the prospect of a small job that doesn't involve teaching English and the hours are pretty normal too. I'll be practicing all this week without pay to see if they like what I do and if I like the job, then I may actually get paid for it :)
We actually had some spending cash today too, so Trev and I bought some DVDs. I got memento, royal tenebaums and catch me if you can (all of which I've seen, but at the prices for DVDs over here I'm not willing to buy random stuff).
Spent all day at a school for 1st-4th graders with Trev today too. Fun but totally exhausting. The kids were very sweet. The school only has 26 students total so before they leave for the day each one stops by the student lounge to say goodbye. It's really cute.
My garden is looking way cool....
more later:) |
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