home wish list

today in shinjuku, Chelsea and i came across francfranc, a funky store that sells a little bit of everything (furniture, lighting, dishes, picture frames, candles, and all kinds of other household items).

i bought:

-an oven mit
-one of those dish brushes that holds and dispenses dish soap from the handle
-an oval glass cooking dish (think baked chicken/potatoes and maybe even lasagna!)

with all this recent "home making," i was inspired to make yet another wish list:

-bedroom curtains
-a toaster (pop-up type) (bought 2/2)
-throw pillows(bought 3/13)
-a throw blanket...for napping on the sofa ;)(hand-me-down 3/15)
-another zabuton(bought 3/13)
-some japanese dishware (rice bowls, etc.)
-an extra fitted sheet(bought 4/6)
-a tall free-standing lamp
-this wall hanging from ikea (though i don't really have a place for it)

2/3 edit:
-sewing machine(bought 5/16)
-something to give me more counter space in my kitchen
-vacuum pack storage bag (2)(bought 4/6)
-picture frame (2 or 3)

a little home in tokyo

it's true. i'm turning all domesticated.

monday
i bought a home budgeting DS game (家計簿).
it's fun and actually keeps me from spending money!

tuesday
i went to a used english bookstore.
4 books for less than 1700yen.

wednesday
i made little heart-shaped banana muffins.
a test drive for making valentine's day goodies.

thursday
i bought a sofa. i am SO excited!!!
i saw it 4 months ago, loved it and finally bought it.

friday
i stayed in, cooked dinner, and rearranged.
and i was in bed just after 11pm.

i had an offer to go out for drinks last night, but all day i had been looking forward to getting home and rearranging my apartment to make room for my new sofa. (it's getting delivered next sunday.) plus i was a little irritable; i just wanted some "me" time.

so i made myself dinner: bow tie pasta with alfredo sauce, broccoli and little chicken meatballs. the chicken meatballs were an effort at getting some meat/protein in my meal. i just rolled ground chicken into little balls and cooked them by putting some water (not quite enough to cover them) in a pan, on low heat, with a litle bit of pepper and the lid on. they were actually good. a little dry, but some extra alfredo sauce solved that problem.

the money budgeting, the baking, the sofa, the dinner...all progress on my 50 for 2008. go me.



but mostly this:

it's becoming my own little home here. and i'm loving it.

birthday wish list

it seems a bit early to be thinking about my birthday (it's still 6 weeks away), but i'm thinking about it anyway. and starting to make my birthday wish list.

- a watch.
a couple by paul smith caught my eye a long time ago and i saw them again the other day. practical, but still pretty, with a bit of spunk. i can't chose a color without seeing it and trying it on, but these two are nice.


- a wallet.
saw these funky wallets at the comme des garcon store in harajuku a little while ago. they're way louder than my current black wallet, but i've remembered them, in a good way. plain or embossed...?

then, i came across this website today and thought some of their stuff was so fun!


-egg rug. sunnyside up. how could you not smile??


-calculator pouch. nerdy. in a cool way. would be a perfect ipod case.


-"but daddy! i want a golden egg" piggy bank. (think: violet from willy wonka)


-a brownie edge pan?? i LOVE brownie edges.


though i'm guessing that my presents will mostly be in monetary form, like last year. so i might just have to go shopping for my own birthday presents.

...sigh.

but, that comes with living half way around the world from your family, i guess.

the bookstore

i had lunch with an old friend today. i met him through a friend when i studied abroad during college. he graduated in march and moved to australia last april. then he moved to bali in october to work at the hilton hotel as the japanese guest manager.

it was good to see him. he's a quality guy. we had gyoza and fried rice followed by cold stone ice cream. which, sounds crazy, since it was only a few degrees above freezing today.

after that, he had plans so we said goodbye and i made my way to kinokuniya, a major bookstore in japan. i was browsing there the other night, killing time, so this time i went back with a bit more purpose. well, only a little bit more. mostly i had a free afternoon.

i came across some ronald dahl books, in japanese. i almost bought "the BFG", a favorite i read in 5th grade in elementary school, but decided not to. at least this time around. i decided to see if i could find a japanese copy of "letters to a young poet" by rilke, which i love.

it was then that i discovered the crazy way of japanese bookstores.

i looked it up on the book finder computer, and made my way to the section it said it was in. but the map only told me the section. once i got to that section, i realized there were about 8 rows of shelves, wall to wall books!! every so often, there was a book tied to a string, hanging from the shelf. i figured it was a catalogue of the books in that section, so i looked up "rilke" in each one. no luck.

back to the machine.
okay, yes, i'm in the right section.

back to the catalogues.
no luck. (it's getting hot in the bookstore...)

back to the machine.
ah! the publisher! okay...

back to the catalogue of THAT publisher.
score! RI-1-1

to the shelves!
RI-1-1, RI-1-1...wait, there is no RI.
oooh, katakana RI.
all the katakana being after all the hiragana.
of course!

hey, here it is!! i found it!! woohoo!

so the book is tough to understand in english, rilke being a poet and all, so i imagine the japanese will prove to be a huge challenge, but i'm quite excited about it. and i can always pull out my well-worn english copy and follow along. though, i'm going to try not to.

i also picked up two japanese study books. this one and this one.

while browsing for japanese study books, i picked up a couple "all about japanese particles" or "guide to japanese verbs" type books that are less like text books and more like bullet-point lists of japanese phrases, organized to be easy and fun to read. i was pleasantly surprised that i knew a lot of the stuff in them. it stuck me that i can't get much from the "fun" books anymore. i need to learn vocabulary, grammar and kanji. the boring stuff. so, that's what i got. the first book is aimed at level 2 of the japanese proficiency test, which i just took in december. and the second one is levels 1 and 2. so, since i know i didn't ace level 2 (don't even know that i passed yet!), i'm sure both books will have a lot of good study material in them.

now i just need to get motivated to actually sit down and study on a regular basis!

interracial dating

most interracial couples i see in tokyo are a japanese female with a foreign male. i constantly wonder if people take note when Carr and i go out.

but yesterday, while clicking around from blog to blog, i discovered a lot of blogs of foreign females who are seriously dating/engaged to/married to japanese guys. i spent a good hour or two reading their blogs and...well, sort of fantasizing what my life could/might look like.

who knows where it will go, but i do know that, for now, he makes me smile. :)

flossing

i was killing time in the nurse's office the other day and ended up chatting with the younger nurse (she's 23) about my 50 for 2008.

turns out she's never flossed in her life!!

and, from what i gather, most japanese people don't floss either!!
no wonder so many japanese people have bad teeth!

not only are they missing an important part of dental hygiene but they don't get to experience that amazing freshly brushed, flossed and mouthwashed feeling!!



speaking of which, i'm out of floss.

50 for 2008

in no particular order:

1-stop biting my nails
2-wear "adult shoes" to work more
3-cook dinner more
4-eat a better breakfast
5-bake more (cookies, brownies, muffins, etc.)
6-get a couch/sofa
7-clean on a regular basis (often!)
8-be more organized at work
9-travel to hokkaido
10-travel to kyushu
11-take a trip by myself
12-go to a new country (somewhere in asia?)
13-keep in touch with friends back home more
14-write my mom and dad more (letters, emails, etc.)
15-exercise (i am thinking hoop dancing!)
16-buy a longer tv cable
17-climb mt fuji again
18-explore my neighborhood
19-find at least 5 new restaurants i can take friends to
20-dress up more
21-set up my bills to be automatically deducted from my bank account
22-keep better track of my finances
23-make more "foreign" friends (this year will see a significant australian friend leave japan...)
24-learn the names of all the teachers at school that i already talk to all the time
25-go to bed earlier on "school nights"
26-take lots of pictures
27-learn to cook some japanese foods
28-learn to like sushi
29-take my lunch to work more
30-clean out my closet and get rid of clothes i don't wear
31-write more
32-read more
33-study japanese more
34-read the newspaper every once in a while (actually READ it)
35-do something with my empty (and lonely!) balcony
36-keep a plant alive
37-keep a 3-line daily journal
38-clean out my itunes
39-discover new music to add to old favorites
40-move old digital photos to my external harddrive
41-read a whole book in japanese
42-create a reason to use all 6 wine glasses at once (invite friends over!)
43-throw things away that should be thrown away
44-clean all my jewelry and keep it nice
45-be generous toward others (time, money, energy, etc.)
46-invest a reasonable percent of my salary
47-be outside more
48-paint my toenails more
49-get a massage (or two!)
50-floss regularly


in progress
finished