Cherry Blossom Adventures

Spent the day at home today with Shun and Abbey (and dad for some parts- and even mum came around for a walk and a coffee!), lazing about and crossing off some stuff on my weekly resolutions list! So yay for me! So lets review- my list was as follows!

- hoop at least 10 minutes everyday - I hooped outside today for about 30 minutes while Abbey watched, most of the time sitting right at my feet as I hooped! In the end Shumpei had to call her over because I was so scared I would step on her….but she likes to sit in my shadow in the shade!

- track the food I eat in my little weight watchers book and do at least 4 walks! - I did this and I counted points plus I went for a half hour walk (But we were out for an hour because half of the hour was spent playing with Abbey in the park, running around, then Shumpei minded her while I went for a fast walk with mum and dad!)

- blog another 2 times- Well this is once and the next post will probably be all about our new little addition Abbey!

- Contact wedding celebrants (at least 2) and set up meetings for sometime in the next couple of weeks!- I am going to email two people I have found now and try and set up some meetings!

-Study Japanese for 3 hours! - I did this today!!! Kanji! I don`t think I remember any of it but I did at least do it! It has reminded me though how far I have to go because honestly my retention for kanji sucks and new words sucks (I am a lot better with grammar!)!!

- Plus one bonus that I was going to add today! I have decided it will be to start a new knitting project!

So I a putting it out there- I want a cool, easy pattern for a baby hat (or boots!)…preferrably with the name of wool I can get in Australia. I don`t even know where to buy wool in Brisbane though- Maybe Lincraft? Suzy if you are reading please pretty please send me the pattern for that umbilical cord hat we talked about! I am thinking that might be the one!!! But if anyone else has any ideas let me know (I will also search on ravelry!)

Hope everyone else had lovely lovely weekends- I know it is a long weekend in Japan too (for those lucky enough to be there) so I hope everyone is having fun!

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• Shumpei arrives in the morning and I am so excited. I still can`t quite believe that he will be here in Australia until next June. The next time we return to Japan we will be married?! I have just finished doing a quick clean up of the house and now I just have to wait until morning!!!
• I lose .9 at Weight Watchers last night- This means I have lost about 5 and a half kilos since coming back to Australia!! I am actually quite proud of myself! Only another 10 or so to go!!!!
• Wedding planning is crazy- I don`t know how people do it! I am now on a hunt for a celebrant, entertainment and transport (I didn`t realize we would need transport?!) and those three things weren`t even on my list of things to do for the wedding on 101 things in 1001 days- because I guess I didn`t really realize we would need them! There is just so much to do and I am excited, I am, but seriously there is only so many wedding dresses I can look at online before I want to gag! I am thinking I might go dress hunting in Septemer (8 months before the wedding?!). In other news I think I have found the person I want to bake our wedding cake- a cherry blossom one of course! Although I don`t need to order and organize that until after Christmas!
• I have been sick for the last couple of days (It may have aided in the weight loss because I certainly wasn`t good on the weekend!)-just a cold but I missed work on  Wednesday and Thursday because I could barely get out of bed!!
• I have had a craving for soup recently- I don`t even really like soup usually but I want to learn to make it and enjoy it- Anyone have any good, healthy soup recipies!
• I am loving the hula hoop (although not much in the last 2 days)- I can now keep it up for awhile so am now onto trying to learn cool hula hoop tricks so I can get more into the hula hoop dance craze!!!! If you are interested in hooping yourself - then check out my friend Deanne`s new website about her hooping adventures in Tokyo or if you want some cool hoops and are in Australia (or overseas) check out bunny`s site and go to her shop to buy some super awesome hoops!
• I have been reading up a storm recently (as well as watching big brother- I know it is sad but I just can not help it- It is so addictive- I am watching it now!)
• I am just so happy that Shun is joining me in Brisbane tomorrow- did I mention that already? I love him and have missed him so much over the last two months! I can`t beleive I will be seeing him in just 12 hours!
• Have a lovely weekend everyone!

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Update: Only a couple of people participated! And they all got the answers right-now I will fill in the ones that nobody got in green!

I am sure this has been done before somewhere but ages ago I did a movie quote meme and it was a lot of fun so I introduce Lulu`s music lyric meme! Rules are below.

• List 10 lots of lyrics from 10 different songs (original singer is the answer that will count!)
•  No googling/searching
•  2 guesses max until others have had a turn to play
•  If you want to do this yourself, go ahead- I won`t be tagging anyone but anybody can  do it!

1. You must have known that I was lonely,
   Because you came to my rescue,
   And I know that this must be heaven,
   How could so much love be inside of you?-Stevie Wonder “You are the Sunshine of My Life”-There will definitely be Stevie Wonder at our wedding!
   
2. No matter how hard I try
   She has a reason just to pass me by
   She makes me cold in the summertime
   Doesn’t she now- “Katie Q” by Thirsty Merc-Another great Aussie band
   
3. We’ve compromised our pride
   And sacrificed out health
   We have to demand more
   Not of each other
   But more from ourselves- “Deep Water” by Jewel
   
4. Tomorrow’s getting harder make no mistake
   Luck ain’t even lucky
   Got to make your own breaks- Bon Jovi with “It`s my Life”- I put that in for you Mandy!
5. It’s coming round again
   The slowly creeping hand
   Of time and its demands- Paul got this with one of my fav songs of all time “These days” by Powderfinger
   
6. I want you to know, that I’m happy for you
   I wish nothing but the best for you both- Jen got it with Alanis Morrisette “You ought to know”
   
7. He’ll show you where the danger lies
   But he can’t help it if you capsize
   He’ll light your way but that is all- Jen again, The Waifs, “Lighthouse”
8. But now there’s nowhere to hide,
   since you pushed my love aside I’m not in my head- Sara got it with “Hopelessly Devoted To You” from Grease
9. Now Watergate does not bother me
   Does your conscience bother you?
   Tell the truth-Lynard Skynard with “Sweet Home Alabama”
10. But will you draw the line?
    Turn a blind eye to all the faces that you know- ” Katie” by Missy Higgins!

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When I came back to Australia, after a long flight, all I wanted to do was have a shower. So after getting to dad`s place I hopped into the shower, rinsed my hair and reached for the shampoo. But there wasn`t any…and there wasn`t any under the sink either? So after hopping out I asked dad where he kept it and he pointed to his head and said “Lu, as If I need shampoo” and then I realized he was right, he has no hair and therefore no need for shampoo.

Dad came home later that day with some shampoo and said ” I asked the lady in the shop and she said this is a good one” and my response was ” Great, is there conditioner too?” and he looked blank and said ” I thought it was all in the same bottle”

Yes, as you can see it has been awhile since my dad has used either shampoo or conditioner. Us living together was going to take a little getting used to. I just bought the same conditioner that matched the shampoo.

But now it is almost finished and I am thinking about what I should get next. What shampoo do you use and why? The one that dad bought was Wella Balsam, which is reasonable but it has been a long time since I have used shampoo from Australia and I need some hints on the best way to go!!!

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Taken in Okinawa in 2006.

I wish I was here. It is starting to get a little cool in Brisbane now, especially in the mornings. Two winters in one year hardly seems fair (Although 2 summers next year will probably be worse).

Today was not a good day. I had a car crash, technically my first one. I ran up the back of someone, and it was my fault and I have a sore head. But their was almost no damage to the other car, and fairly easy to fix damage on mine. In fact just some minor panel beating work…I was just a bit more in shook than anything else. Hope everyone else had a day that was better than mine…..In other news I got a haircut, and it looks cool (I think!)

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• I arrived safely in Australia last Wednesday morning! 
• I know I have been slack and haven’t blogged in awhile but hopefully wireless internet will be set up in the next couple of days at my dad’s place and then I will be able to use my own computer to do everything. I am sure my google reader is overflowing!!! I havn’t read any blogs in almost a week, but I still love you all I promise! Will be around soon!
• My dad went into hospital this morning so I have the house to myself for about 2 or 3 weeks. I am not very good at living alone so I might come and go between my dad’s place and my mum’s place!
• So much has happened since I got here. Here is a couple of things. Bought a second hand car, a corolla, to run around in for the year. I went to see a friend who work for Julia Ross temping and she found me a job starting tomorrow which will go for two months as a student advisor doing admin work at the PA and Greenslopes hospitals. Basically got to make sure the medical students complete their prac and get their timetables and stuff….good money, regular hours and easy to get to, so I am happy. Might have an interview with the Japanese consulate in a couple of weeks also for a billingual admin person which would also be great!
• Went out for Japanese food last night with my dad and it was so yummy! We went to a place at portside called Sono I think it was! Staff and food were great!!!!
• I am missing Shun a lot but we have spoken everyday since I got here and he is doing ok in Tokyo and I am doing ok here so we are ok! I get so excited when I talk to him though cos I have so much to say about what is going on….He will be here in about 7 weeks!!!!!
• This deserves its own post but on our last weekend in Tokyo, I was supposed to have a goodbye party that I thought I had organized. Turns our our friends had organized a surprise engagement party, with about 50 people including Shun’s parents, brother and his wife, and we had no idea!!! Cat and James took us to Roppongi for cocktails and then I thought we were going to meet Koki to have some photos so we jumped in a taxi and we got there and they blindfolded us and took us upstairs above a restraunt into like a courtyard where all these people were waiting for us! It was amazing, and reminded me yet again, just how fantastic our friends are. Leader, Cat, James, Mai, Junni, Erika and Panni did a great job organizing everything….they even got in contact with Shumpei’s mum to get photos of shun when he was little and James contacted my brother to get photos of me growing up and they made a slideshow *(and yes I cried!). There was speeches made by others, and me and Shun, in which Shun proposed again, properly in front of everyone. It was simply one of the best nigths of my life and I have been smiling ever since. I will put photos up once I get internet set up properly on my computer.
• That is all for now…hopefully by next weekend at the latest I will be back up online properly and I will be around to check out what everyone has been doing!!!

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• Moving is DONE! We moved to Chiba yesterday…packing and cleaning are done for now! My muscles ache from moving boxes and trying to fit everything that couldn`t go in the moving van into Shumpei`s grandmothers tiny little car. Last night I fell asleep before 8:30 and did not use the internet all day….I have made up for that today of course
• Am going out soon to meet Shumpei and his work friend and his girlfriend for dinner. Jyumpei, his workfriend and I do not always see eye to eye. He makes fun of Shumpei and I don`t like it even though he says it is all fun and games. He does not do this while his girlfriend is around (I like his girlfriend) so tonight we should not have any problems (They are the same age so this isn`t a sempai/kohai thing….which means senior/junior… but more the fact that Jyumpei thinks he is better than Shumpei….He often asks me why I am with Shumpei and I always tell him it is because he is 100 times nicer than him)
• The reason I am leaving  the house at 4pm (for dinner!) is because Shumpei`s family dog doesn`t like me. In general it doesn`t like people other than Shumpei`s parents and it barks at me if I go downstairs. Shumpei`s mum will go to work just after 4pm (for a couple hours a day she works at a hoikuen, kind of like a daycare centre) and I would need to leave before she comes back so I will leave with her otherwise the dog would go pyscho and not let me out of the house…..I had the same problem when I lived here a couple of years ago!!! So I will go to a coffee shop and drink tea (Because the coffee and alcohol ban started early….from Saturday) or juice and read my book or write in my dairy (Possibly about the psycho dog!)
• I am off to Kobe on Friday, not long now!
• It is just over two weeks until I leave for Australia….the fact that I am leaving Japan again has not yet hit me. I am sure it will once I am back in Australia (and without shun for 2 months)….I usually get pretty bad reverse culture shock!
• Thank you to everyone who commented on the last post….I replied to you all in the comments just before but I wanted to say thank you here! I really appreciate all of your encouragement, advice and everything!

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I really really hate packing….I am over it already. It really sucks. That is all I have to say on the subject!

But last week I was looking at wedding dresses online and I found a couple I liked one of them is this one…(I wouldn`t mind her body also…then if I was to wear the dress it would actually work on me!)

Blogging might return to normal at the end of the week….If I finish packing and have something more interesting to write about instead of how much I hate packing!

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Julia from Pink Moonz tagged me for the random facts meme….

Here are the rules:
1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment on their blog and tell them they’ve been tagged, and to come back and read your blog for the whole story.

I have actually done this meme before….which you can find here and also I have 100 facts about myself here but in the spirit of passing on a meme I will be happy to do it again.

1. My blood type is A+ and I only found this out recently. In Japan everybody knows their bloodtype and I had been asked so many times (Questions when you meet somebody new are usually where are you from? How old are you? When will you get married? and What is your blood type?) and a lot of people had said they thought I would be A (Yes Japanese people believe that bloodtype is like starsigns and that each bloodtype reveals a little bit about who your are!)….So there you have it I am A!
2. I have ridden in an ambulance three times…..and had one called for me one other time. All three times were because of something that had happened to me.
3. I have had three dogs, 2 birds and two fish in my lifetime! The dogs were Kelly, Abby and Sophie (Yes all female and yes they all had human sounding names), the bird were budge and bluie (Budge`s real name was seasle (sp?) be the budge) and the fish were Jo and Tilly! I have Jo to the preschool where I used to work cos I can`t take him home with me!
4. I once one a competition when I was about five for coloring in a pair of shoes in a magazine….I won canvas shoes with puffpaint designs on them (My memory is a little hazy on this? This could have been a dream…my mum would know)
5. My favourite flowers are gerberas and cherry blossoms. I can`t really have real cherry blossoms in my wedding (Even though that is the theme!) but am contemplating having gerberas!
6. When I was little I was scared of the dark (and I also thought a Native American Indian lady lived in my closet) and I slept with the light on until sometime in highschool! I still must always have the wardrobe closes when I sleep at night and prefer to have a little light coming in from somewhere!!!
7. I am not ticklish.
8. One of the most embarrasing things that ever happened to me was when I was about nine and in year four and we were having a fashion parade and I was parading togs (swimmers!) and one of the straps come down revealing one of my breasts and I didn`t notice…..Everyone in the whole class saw!

Now onto the tagging….eight people huh?! Ok here goes!

I tag Mandy, Sara, Nay, Illahee (It can be in letter form Illahee!), Guera, Paul , Amy (When you get back from Italy!) and Jo! Have fun with it guys!

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Today on the train when I got on in Shinjuku I watched three friends (2 girls, 1 boy) from Keio Elementary school ( Hard to get into private school!) hop on and sit down although as one of the girls went to sit down her seat was taken by someone else so she was standing. Almost immediately the young boy stood up and offered his seat to his female friend.

These kids were about seven. I couldn`t believe that a boy of that age would know to offer his seat to a girl!

In the kindergarten we taught the boys in our class (after quite a few pushing and running in the hallway incidents!) that if they were big strong boys that they should let girls go first! It took them a little while to get the hang of it and sometimes they still needed to be reminded but they eventually got it! Some of the mothers even mentioned that they had started to be more cooperative at home and let their sisters do things first!

Whoever that little boys parents or teachers are they are doing a great job of raising such a charming, polite little boy!

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