Cherry Blossoms.

I did a bit of exploring around my area today. It's definitely very surburan. I have about 3 hospitals in the area, alot of specialty shops catering for old fogeys (including a nursing home), a couple of kindergartens and schools. I just realised there is a Pizza Hut store just behind my block. And the dude delivering to my building rode his scooter. I mean, it will take him less than 3 mins to walk. I also found that I have a really cool variety store one block away called Donki Kingdom (they play their jingle in store back to back. It's catchy but VERY annoying!) and they sell everything under the sun. Plus they are opened until 2am in the morning. Poor sales people. I was at my wits end when Myer was opened till 12am during the sales. They have to do this every day. Anyway I saw this really cute mushroom stool - its looks like a round plushie but its hard so you can sit (more like squat) on it. I was really tempted but it was pink and I really have no where to put it. I'm trying to avoid buying things that needs to sit on the ground coz the humid season is coming up (yeah right! I'm freezing my butt off at the moment...so glad I brought my big coat with me). On the way back I saw this sausage dog being walked but he was carrying his own lunch in a plastic bag in his mouth! Come to think of it there are alot of dog owners around here, but I never hear the dogs bark. Must be very well trained. The stash I bought from Donki Kingdom (I keep typing DonkeyKong for some apparent reason!). Yeap! That's a pilates rubber band! I decided it will be too expensive to do pilates in Japan (it's still a new thing and they are charging a premium) so I'm going to do it at home. The Pretz (my fav snack) are wonderful here - crispy and crunchy. I'm intrigued with the hamburger and the panda thingys (btw panda is the 'in' animal in Japan. Even the City Office where I got alienised used a panda plush to focalise the services desk. There's also a real estate called Panda House) It's great brain workout for me, always trying to decipher the katakana. All signages here are a challenge! :)

OH yeah! Part of the reason why I went for a walk was that I had a sneaking suspicion that the Toda City Office was perhaps 5 mins away...and on the day I went to register myself I took Nova's directions and jumped on the train to the next stop where I had trek for another 12-15 mins ( I already had to walk 15 mins to my train station...and forked out for a ticket!) Guess what? it was 5mins away...by walking! It was closer to the City Office than it was to walk to my train station!!! ARGHHHHH! I am starting to get the hang of the addresses here and the way they are divided into wards and districts, so hopefully I won't have to go through something like this again. My apartment is actually equidistant from both stations. Handy.

Yes, tis the season of cherry blossoms and we have quite a number of them in the area. I always imagined them to be pink pink but in reality they are the most delicate shade of pink bordering on white. I can understand why they inspired so many poems and musings for thousands of years - the blossoms are truly exquisite. When they get blown off or just fall to the ground they don't turn brown..so the area around the trees looks like it has been carpeted.

This is moi with a view from the apartment's balcony - Look! Cherry blossoms!

Close up of the tree. It looks better when they are grouped together. I just thought of something. Back home if the trees were close to or touching the power lines they would most likely be amputated.

I'm also getting used to people wering face masks...in the beginning they were seriously spamming me mentally, screaming "I'm diseased! STAY AWAY!" I mean, after SARS, you can't blame me. Anyway, I now know it's because alot of people suffers from allergies and hayfever and by hiding under a mask nobody can see their snot run freely- and if they are truly sick -with an added on bonus that they will continue infecting themselves as opposed to spreading the germs like all good patient zeroes should do. The look is very becoming. Very mysterious. Kind of like a public masquerade ball. Phantoms of the White Collar Worker. I reckon it also hides their bad teeth. It's amazing, the amount of dentists in Japan. It rivals the ratio of hairdressers on Forest Rd in Hurstville with other businesses. (Last time I counted there were 23 hairdressers on Forest Rd. Just in Hurstville)Familiar? Everyone would hav seen Lost in Translation, right? There are quite a number of Hollywood celebrities spruiking local products - I saw Cameron Diaz advertising Softbank, a local mobile network company.

Ok! Due to popular demand, I decided to include food in most posts. This is what I just had for dinner. The eel was bought from the market, and the vegies came in a frozen pack. So the only thing I actually did was wash the rice and pop it in the cooker, and drizzle the vegies with a new-founded fav dressing (one of those jap salad dressing...and its in the stash pic above). Not bad.

Oh another amusing little fact is that the bread comes in either 8 or 10 slices (kinda 1/2 a loaf) with NO front and back ends. Talk about having a picky eating habit!
This was a snack I had a few days ago. No crust, just soft soft bread with noodles and mayo filling inside. It was absolutely delicious but I can imagine it to be quite fattening. (Not that I care.) Hey remember I said I'll come home thinner? Well I think I'd have to take it back. I'm not a particular junk person but the HUGE variety here is SO tempting! I think I've fallen in! Does anyone know if I can send these back to Australia? Just no egg right?