Waking up each day...

Right now, I am cranky and irrational.
I haven't slept properly all night; kept awake by a blardy mosquito.
I can't believe we tried to sleep with it buzzing around all night! Totally annoyed with the fact that I didn't/couldn't just get up and turn the lights on and kill it. Yes, I want to KILL IT! I'd wanted to get rid of it before I got into bed but I refrained shortly after a couple of tries as I didn't want to disgruntle Paul who was already in bed.
Well, next time I will definitely rid the room of mosquitoes before getting in to bed. It's just stupid not to. Plain stupid.

I asked Paul to accompany me this morning to the Chuo hospital and saw a 耳鼻咽喉科 (ear, nose, throat) doctor and got some proer medicine for my problems.
Now that's taken care of, hopefully I can breathe better and sleep better.

The shami is pretty much part of my morning routine now, so is the kanji revision.
Next thing to add to it is the exercise part, and maybe a bit more Japanese study.

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I've been getting up relatively early (before 9am) the past few days and have been practicing on the shamisen each day.
I also go through a bunch of kanji on this iPhone application each day.
This morning was quite nice and cool
so we went out for a jog along the river.
I feel good.

Hopefully I'll be able to continue this routine.

I really want to achieve these three things before my birthday next year:
- shed a few kilos of flab and have better toned arms, stomach, butt etc.
- be able to play a whole song on the shamisen without hitting the wrong notes or messing up the timing
- pass the JLPT

And if it's not too much to ask, I'd also like to:
- get a new, better paying, more satisfying job.. and start saving
- move somewhere with outside space (balcony or tiny yard space... just need something more than just having the back door open to a parking lot!)

I don't think it's impossible to reach these goals, I just need to work really work and stay focused I guess.

For the shamisen and Japanese I have started a new blog to motivate myself. It's titled 三味線と日本語と私 - Shamisen and Japanese and Me. I post entries primarily in Japanese, but I have been typing translations for all the posts I've made so far.

I think I may have hit the bottom of my rut and slowly climbing out of it.

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With the string of days of I had for most of the week, I was able to cook up a lot of stuff I'd been wanting to make for a while.

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Been somewhat consistently studying kanji, thanks to the program we bought on iTunes.

Anderson's coming to visit around early November so I am rather excited about that. It means I can't put off cleaning up this place for much longer. I can't wait till we have a tidy-ish place!

Another thing I'm excited about is my shamisen. I just got a call from the takkyubin guys saying they'll deliver it around 13:30. Yay!!

I'm hoping to get into a regular routine of an hour of exercise and/or an hour of shamisen practicing in the morning, plus an hour or two of studying each day.

Going out for a jog 3 mornings a week and shammying 3 or 4 mornings a week would be ideal.
Most of the studying I do will probably be done on my long train rides to and from work.

I'm going to concentrate on cleaning up the downstairs areas and changing and all the bed sheets and stuff. Doing a lot of washing today. Make hay while the sun is shining ne.

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Paul's out all day today in Kiyosato (highlands in Yamanashi) to play tennis and have lunch and dinner with Kazumi, Shawn, Ayaka and Maiko.
I was meant to go too as it's kinda for Kazumi's birthday.. but one: I'm not feeling too good, and two: I really need to get this place tidied up because with the all this stuff just sitting around gathering dust it'll just make my asthma an skin worse.

I went to the hospital nearby before work yesterday morning and was totally unimpressed with the doctor there.
He clearly was not familiar with asthmatic patients and didn't really give me an examination or diagnosis either; he just asked me what was wrong and what medicine I needed.
I guess its not his fault if its not his field of specialization. At least he pointed me to another hospital that has respiratory specialists. I am breathing a bit better now after being on the misty stuff for about 10mins and also have been using serevent.

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I do think that I am kinda healthier than before but and I have been experiencing more discomfort in the airways recently, and now my nose is causing me trouble too.

What bothers me most right now is that smoky smell that nobody else seem to notice.. I'm not going crazy and not only can I smell the smoke it's almost like a burning sensation in my nose and lungs.

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Didn't get as much of the stuff I'd intended to do today as I'd hoped but got quite a bit out of the day anyway.

I couldn't sleep very well last night so I was rather tires this morning and slept in till around 10.

We went out for an early sushi lunch and picked up a few cool t-shirts from Uniqlo afterwards before heading down to the newly opened Round One for some karaoke fun.

After saturing our appetite for singing we headed back to Apita and got some super cute sockies then came home with groceries and I started on the chicken.

The chicken was a little overcooked but nonetheless very very tasty. I am so full now.

Glad we went out for that run along the river before dinner, that should help balance the high meat consumption a little bit at least (hopefully.)

I sent out my application and papers for the economic stimulation package today so hopefully I get the 12000yen deposited into my bank account soon.

I'm gonna use that to get myself a nice little present... I'm gonna get a shamisen!
Since I'm only just starting out and still in a financially tight situation, I'm gonna just get a cheapie little one to practice with until I can actually play something and have a little bit more to spend before I get a tsugaru shamisen (bigger, cooler sounds and more expensive with a starting price of around 40000yen.)
I'm so excited!

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So far this is what I've done with my 5-day weekend:

• fold up the dried laundry and hopefully be able to put it all away somehow
• aggressively throw out clothes and stuff I don't really use any more
• make some of that sour cream rye bread
• if it defrosts in time, roast that chicken (it's quite normal in Australia but here in Japan it's next to impossible to get a whole chicken so I was rather happy when I came  across it at the department store supermarket last week.)
• rewrite some of the content in my resume
• relax with Paul (he has a day off tomorrow too, yay!)

I have decided that when I am not so tight with cash, I will actually buy a shamisen and start learning by myself.
Maybe one day Paul and I can play a piece or two together with him on drums and me on the shamisen. That would just be awesome.

I better get off the computer and hang up the laundry and head out to the shops because it's too late. I really want to get rid of the piles of PET bottles and milk cartons we have.

Yes, I still use this website, I'm just overly lazy.. and have been preoccupied with stuff.

The trip in Yakushima was awesome even though it was too cloudy too see the whole solar eclipse thing happening. It really is a beautiful place. The four-day hike was both wonderful and terrible; the scenery was awe-inspiring and everything, but the climb up and over the highest peak on the island really tested my limits.

Since the trip to Yakushima, I haven't been to hula or belly dance lessons. It was either no time or no energy...

The weeks preceeding and following the trip have been rather hectic to say the least.

I have decided that my work schedule totally sucks! All three of my schools are now six-days-a-week schools. What that means is I get a long weekend once a month and the rest of the time I only get Sunday off.

 

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I'm really enjoying the hula lessons (not to be confused with hula-hoop-related workouts) and went to my first ever belly dance lesson today. It was a lot of fun.
There were only 3 students including me and a friend invited along, so it was much easier to follow than say my hula class. It's a little pricey but I think I'll try and go twice  a month. I guess since there are probably gonna be just me and maybe one or two other people in the lesson, it's rather cheap.

I didn't think it was much of a work out but my butt and thighs are hurting. The fact that I cycled an hour out to do hula for 75 mins and then cycled an hour back yesterday might also contribute to that.
Both hula and belly dancing seem to work my arms and shoulders a fair bit too; hopefully after sticking to weekly hula and almost-fortnightly bellly dancing I'll be somewhat more toned.

On the cooking front, I recently made some pretty awesome bread; notably the light rye and sour cream bread, and the spinach and cottage cheese twist. I made naan and tandoori chicken last night for dinner, it was a bit spicey for me, but the yogurt made it good. Next I'm thinking of making choux cremes... mmm... =9

It's been quite a long time since I last updated.

Still have trouble sleeping occasionally, but generally have been sleeping better.
It's been rather warm on and off; some days I think: "Summer's here ne." Other days I wonder: "What happened? It's so cold again!"
It was really cold for the latter part of last week, but started getting really hot yesterday. Maybe this is when Summer is really here, I don't know, I think I actually prefer the cooler weather.

I went to a hula lesson surrounded by mostly old people, but quite enjoyed it so I signed up. Thinking about making my own pa'u dress.
Also booked myself in for a belly dance lesson, Ayaka, Marvin's girlfriend, said she'd come along too so it should be a bit of fun.

In the time that I've been in Yamanashi, I've met 2 Ayaka's and was told of one more. The first one is really nice and loves to drink; we suspect she might be an actual alcoholic. The second one is Marvin's girlfriend, I really like her; she's really nice and genuine and reminds me of Hui Shien.

Been making bread with the breadmaker but for one reason or another, the bread just doesn't rise... every time the bread just stayed flat and very dense, regardless of how much yeast I put in; I think it's time to get a new packet of yeast.

Make some very chocolatey muffin/cakes; they were meant to be gooey centred but I had them in the oven for just a tad too long and so they weren't gooey any more. The cherries in the middle were a nice addtiion though.

Tried to make corned beef (the lazy way) yesterday with a 500g block of beef. I didn't cure it in brine first just boiled it straight away in brine; it turned out overdone and dry. Since I got two blocks, I tried to just heat up the brine and then just put the second block in and left it in the pot in the thermos thing to cook slowly overnight. That didn't seem to work either. Remembering how the salted pork chunks used to turn out when I was in Australia, I think soaking the block of meat in cold brine first for a night or two should help do some magic to the texture of the meat.

After arriving here  and resting for a day, I started promptly at my new school; the furthest one away from home... 1 hour to go there by bus, but 2 hours by train to come back (as buses stop running quite early.)
The week of work new Fuji-Q Highlands went relatively wel; only it's just really really far and really really cold down there.

Last Wednesday was the first day of our Golden Week holiday. We went and had a day of archery with  a bunch of merry people. It was  a lot of fun.

Then we had a couple of days of vegging at home.

Yesterday we went on a 4.5 hour hike with Ayaka (one of the Japanese teachers in the area) in the mountains; beautiful beautiful waterfalls and all; a lovely day indeed.

Got up early this morning and took all the cardboard and bottles and cartons out to the recycling place... yep, unfortunately we  can't just put our the recyclables just out the front in the general garbage collection area like we used to back in Kagoshima.. but I guess it's better than next to no recycling at all like where we lived in Osaka.

Finally I am with Paul again in Yamanashi. While I definitely miss Kagoshima, it is great to be under the same roof together again.

I had a taste of living alone for the first time in my life and have found certain aspects of it not so after all. It's hard to be so far apart though, so I don't think I'd ever want to go through something like that again.

The apartment is really messy at the moment because of luggage and boxes and generally lots of stuff everywhere.. need to do some more aggressive turfing I think.

Not sure why I can't sleep.
Maybe it's because of the milky tea I drank just before work (around 4ish)..
Maybe it's the herbal tea I drank when I got home.. or both..
It could be the bed and/or heavy dooner draping over my side of the bed..
Could also be because of the increased background noise; there seems to be a lot more cars going by ( even at this hour..)
Needless to say, there's a lot going through my mind as well; new neighbourhood, new schools, new people, finances, skin trouble... etc.

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I mixed 4 parts olive oil to 2 parts aloe vera soy bean oil and little bit of rosehip oil in a little plastic bottle (maybe about 20mL) and used it to cleanse my face following the oil cleansing method.
It felt a bit weird because it's so... well... oily... but after putting the warm cloth on my face and wiping off the oil, my face felt quite nice and soft.

My skin's a little on the dry side so I rubbed some rosehip oil on as a moisturiser. In about 5mL of rosehip oil I add 2 or 3 drops of chamomile oil to it; just hope it's not too much.

I'll try and keep track of how this new routine is working for me.
I might go and get some grapeseed oil to mix with the olive oil later.

The vinegar hair rinse I made yesterday was amazing!
I just heated up some vinegar with mint and chamomile then let it cool, I know I'm meant to let it steep for a couple of days before I start using it, but I couldn't wait. Anyway, I shampooed my hair as usual but didn't use any conditioner or treatment except the vinegar hair rinse (2 tbsp of the vinegar mixed in a biggish bowl of water.) I was amazed at how soft and smooth my hair felt afterwards.

Gonna make a cleansing oil tonight. The rosehip oil and aloe vera oil I ordered online along with some other stuff arrived today, yay!
I think I'll mix a little of the aloe vera oil and rosehip oil with olive oil with a few drops of chamomile oil to make an oil cleanser for my face.

I went out to the drugstore and bought some lye earlier today, had to write down my name and address on a form to get it.
I'm going to make pure olive oil soap with it. It seems I only need about 45g for the amount of the soap I'm making... I got a bottle of 450g so I guess I'll be making a lot more soap in the future.

I might go and get a bottle of grapeseed oil and make some soap with that. Toying with the idea of putting soy milk in the soap too but still quite a while away before I actually start tinkering with extra ingredients.

Recently I haven't been able to finish the some of the shows I started watching (online streaming) because they require an updated version of Flash.
I can't even play Scrabble on Facebook now because that also seemed to have upgraded to the newer version of Flash.
I switched to watching shows on other sites, I even paid for a 30day subscription to MegaVideo too, so I don't have to wait an hour every 1.5 episodes... however, it seems they're all heading towards the same verdict.
Hope I don't get shut out of youtube as well..

Good thing I ordered some books from China, they'll keep me occupied.

Maybe it's not so bad afterall; at least I'll be less inclined to stay on the computer the whole day and will probably go to sleep earlier.

I love 'em!




comb made of green sandalwood and buffolo horn




gua sha "comb" made of buffalo horn

someone is snoring...
someone else is watching TV...
and some other people are chatting (or maybe it's the TV too...

*sigh*

I just want some peace and quiet to sleep.. why is it such a difficult request?
so glad I am not coming back to this hole after this week!

As I keep having problems accessing my phone bill details online, I finally decided to check by phone...
My heart almost skipped a beat when an automated response came up with an amount in excess of 200,000yen!

I decided  to call  again and bear with the 30min wait to speak to one of the SoftBank operators... much to my relief, that was just the usage amount before the 5,985yen cap. Phew!

The bill for February is 16330yen. Another reason for moving to Yamanashi asap.

Now I have to wait to the guy to figure out why I can't access my bill online.

******

Well it seems they'll have to send out a new access ID and password for me in the mail. They'll also send out a new adaptor for me too; apparently I was meant to get it ages ago, but the delivery address was for our old place in Osaka so I never got it.

I may sound a little odd or cooky to most... but anyway...


- finally finished reading "人体使用手册" (Manual to the Human Body)... a book that puts some Chinese medical principles in layman's terms and explains how adequate and timely sleep plus stimulating different pressure points and meridians along the leg and arm can help improve one's metabolism and immune system (something like that...)
It also states that obesity is more than just a problem of excessive consumption, it's more to do with the body not functioning properly to remove waste from the body and this build up of waste is what makes people fat.
- started massaging the meridians along my thighs and arm and using a massage mallet to beat certain pressure points on my legs (I've started this quite a while ago but just haven't been very diligent about it... planning to do this every night before I go to bed because it seems to help improve the quality of my sleep

- I haven't been sleeping very well recently, sometimes I just stay up too late, sometimes I just can't fall asleep and sometimes I just wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep... etc etc... and I wake up most days with a cold head, then I start sneezing or start getting a runny nose

- having stumbled upon a chinese herbal shop in Shikoku I now enjoy the luxury of teas (non-caffeine) made with long-an , lily roots and wolfberries ... it's meant for relaxation and improving blood production in the body


Why do I believe in this stuff so much?

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- I also read "The China Study"... a book about terrifying health consequences of an animal-based diet and the benefits of a plant-based diet... so now I'm a LOT less inclined to eat meat

- I've been eating almost like a vegetarian, avoiding meat where possible. I like vegetables and tofu anyway so it's not that difficult. My groceries have been looking a lot more colorful recently with pumpkin, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, spinach, all sorts of beans etc... I've also been putting packets of multi-grains in my rice, quite nice.

- also been reading about homemade body creams and shampoos etc.. might give it a go when I come back from my week in Kanoya


Well, I'm gonna get of my lazy behind and do some long overdue chores and then head out to the onsen before it gets dark.

<b>EDIT</b> didn't end up going to the onsen, had Aya over for the evening instead; we make gummies and candied orange (that's still drying at the moment.)