Waking up each day...

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.)

( Warning: Really Long Post with no pictures )

Yay!

My "Shuttle Chef" arrived this morning.
I'm gonna make broccoli soup with it I think.
Glad I got the one with the carrying handle, as the normal one doesn't have any lid-locking mechanism on it.
Feels nice and sturdy, and the pot inside is a good weight, I love it!

( photos )

I just ordered a 4.5L thermal cooker. I'm so excited!!

I've wanted to make an insulation box kinda thing way back when we were in Osaka, but Paul said it wouldn't be viable because it would require too much space plus we didn't have the tools or materials to build it.

Recently I stumbled upon this Thermos Shuttle Chef thing and thought: "Ah, this would be perfect!" so I've been researching about it on the internet and comparing prices etc.
Plus I've been making a lot of soups recently, which made me think about it even more.
Finally I found one on Amazon at a decent discounted price, and it's not the ugly yellow one! Yay!

It's been much warmer recently (at least during the day..)
and I'm a little disgusted with how slobby I've gotten.
Feeling more pudgy then usual, I decided last night that I'll get up bright and early today and go for a little jog.
After procrastinating and trying to find some aerobics dance video on YouTube to do instead of going outside, I finally got my act together and took off.
Still a long way from where I got up to when we were in Osaka, but not too shabby for my first run after months of inactivity.

Feeling pretty good right now.
Thinking about heading out to the onsen after lunch (^-^)

Got back to Kokubu last night, the walk home was a mental battle.
I felt terrible since I woke up in the morning, had a tummy ache and felt shivery and weak all day, so carrying a huge turtle shell of a backpack with another large bag of teaching materials and walking home in the freezing cold by myself on an almost empty (and a little unsettled) stomach was just pushing it a little. Seriously, I just about cried when I got home.

Pretty much just veged all day today.
After making myself a reallly lame dinnner, pasta in salsa curry, I unpacked and did some laundry.

Have to get packing again soon though as I'll be heading out really early in the morning to go to the staff meeting and then straight to the airport to fly to Tokyo and then train to Yamanashi; it's gonna be a long day tomorrow.

On a brighter and happier note, Marci's taxi came and got her to the airport on time so she made it to Tokyo without incident.
She left me a whole bunch of goodies; both sweet and savoury munchies ^-^
I also inherited her 2 large suitcases. They will come in handy for moving stuff to Yamanashi.
I now also have a huge stash of craft supplies and a printer and 2 almost full bottles of smirnoff and martini stuff (not that I drink anyway..) there was even an almost full ream of blank DVDs... so much stuff... hehehe
Yatta!

It's Australia Day tomorrow and it so happens to coincide with Chinese New Year so double the celebratory goodness. Seeing that I won't get to Yamanashi till around 11pm tomorrow night, it's gonna be a late one. The main thing we can spend time together for few days at least.

Aya came down to Kanoya today so she picked me up from the hotel after work and we went for dinner this izakaya near her mother's dance studio.
It's so much better with her than with Ayumi an Saori because neither of us smoke or drink so we just have a good time chatting and having a laugh (all sober and smoke-free).

After dinner we went to karaoke, we got the the self-serve soft drinks course and there was all you can eat soft serve!! Frank ended up coming along with us and he kept going back and forth getting ice cream after ice cream.
It was quite a bit of fun, and we didn't even have to pay (as Frank was feeling generous..) yatta! \(^-^)/

Just one more class tomorrow and I can go home! Yay!
And on Monday I get to go to Yamanashi and see Paul!!! Wish I could go right after work tomorrow.. but there's a stupid staff meeting on Monday, otherwise I would have booked my flight to go up there on Sunday.
It's only gonna be four days this time but any time together is better than no time ne?! I'm really glad I was able to get the time off to go stay with Paul, so glad.

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I am really tired.... but the heavy snorer next door is making such a huge racket it's driving me nuts!
This is just another reason (on top of many others) Kanoya sucks, big time.

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It's been a week since my last post.

So... here's the update:

I haven't been slack with taking photos and uploading them but just haven't posted it here yet.

Actually started using Facebook more now and have uploaded some recent photos there; I just cannot boycott it any more since 98% of the people I know back home, as well as in Japan, is on it.

Still prefer to write proper entries on this though, even if not that many people read this journal anyway...

Marci, a friend from work, recently finished her contract so she had to move out of the company apartment but wants to stay in Japan and travel for a little bit before she leaves the country, so she's now moved into my apartment in Kokubu crashing in my living room. It's actually quite a lot of fun having her around. Especially since I am here by myself with Paul all the way out in Yamanashi, it's nice to have company.

Here are a few photos of us having a ball:
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I'll be away on my business trip next week and she'll leave just before I get back.
I really do hope she remembers to turn the kotatsu off and especially the stove and rice cooker if she uses them.. and I hope she doesn't forget to lock the doors/windows properly... gyaaaaa... I guess I just worry too much.
Hope she makes it out to the airport OK from here too. I'll have to remember to arrange a taxi for her.

Anyway, we invited Tim over for the afternoon tomorrow; he has replied yet though so we're not sure if he'll make it. Either way, it's Mexican day tomorrow and we might also bake some gooey centered chocolate puddings.......... ahhh chocolate....

Couldn't sleep again...
It was too cold in the little room upstairs (the one without air-con/heating...) so ended moving my bedding downstairs again around 3-something... still awake now, but really really tired.
I guess that cup of tea before bed didn't help.

Aya's gonna come pick me up in a few hours; we gonna get stuff and make lunch at her place (probably lasagna.)
Hope I hold up alright.
Might be heading to an onsen with Ayumi and Saori in the afternoon. I'll have to wait till Ayumi gets in touch with Saori and work out some sort of plan though.