Counting Down 2018

Now watching Red and White Song Battle 紅白歌合戦 like typical Japanese while counting for 12 to strikes. Today S is working so just Hideji, I and Asahi oh ya I forgot to include our fighting fish Atsuko! In 2 more months, we are welcoming Asahi.... so nervous and scared.......Pretty sure in the coming 2018, I will have a sleepless life haha!

Cheers to 2018 and farewell 2017!

Counting down w Hideji! 

From otoosan, so tasty!! need to watch my weight though!

Hideji on Medication

Recently Hideji is having allergy reaction, not sure what was the cause for his allergy (maybe its due to grass or food). He has been constantly licking his under his legs and its red with all that licking (supposed to be white). Thought it will gradually recover on its own once we stopped feeding him random snacks but after 2 weeks it did not recovered at all. The vet also did heart scan as we were bothered by Hideji occasionally asthma like gasping which occurred randomly. The relief part was that Hideji has a perfect sample of a healthy dog's heart and vessels. We left after he was given medication. 

Typically Hideji peed only twice a day when we brought him out for walk but with the medication that was making him thirsty, he drank 3x the amount he normally did. The second morning after he took the medicine, I was awaken (around 5.30 am) by Hideji's muffed whining and knocking against his door. Instinctively I knew something was wrong as Hideji would never wake up at this timing and in panic mode. S woke up minutes later and took him out (I was right, he needed to pee). He is not trained to do his business in the house and we tried to train him (unsuccessful til date), hope S eventually can train him someday! 

After that episode, we took him out to pee before sleeping so he would not wake us up but I was wrong. Around 9am (waiting for S to be back home to take him out), he was running up and down (very rare and he was probably searching the best place to pee) and started to pee at bottom of our staircase lol!! I heard the peeing sound and rushed to him but I was too late. I spent next half hour clearing up his mess :<..... sob sob... Until his medication finishes, we have to bring him out twice more... What to do.... Hideji is family!

Ear muff too big, ears too small hehe

New Friend

2017 End of Year Potluck Party (MIJEC)

Was supposed to be our last class with potluck party for end of the year. We miscalculated the time taken (assumed it would take the same amount of time as usual) but ended up being late for over 45 minutes. Class started at 6.30pm but we only arrived around 7.20pm. Strange thing was it was not snowing/raining that day, weather was pretty clear, no accidents and road was not coated in ice but every car was driving really cautiously. To the extent that we were thinking of eating our own food in  the car and called it a night lol!

This year seemed like most brought desserts and drinks rather than food. I was hoping my Thai classmates made Thai curry or something but she ended making coconut desserts. I brought cake from Shiroi Mori (No car, no S to do cooking lol). Did not stay til end of party as my friend needed to rush back home to take over her husband in parenting duties. This year my class performed "Make believe", each group has to perform a certain action and only one is real (the rest were acting) and the audience were to guess who is the real one. In my case, all 4 of us were given a bottle of water to drink but only one bottle did not contain any water. 

Hopefully I am able to go continue attending my class when the class resume in Feb next year!

Class 1 with their Kanji names

Met 2 youthful high school students interested in speaking English.

My class 4 group photo

Photo Bomb!

French Sweet Class @ Misawa International Center

Joined to taste the assortment of French sweets, was taken aback how sweet typical French sweets were! It was interesting to listen how French typically eat those snacks and certain sweets were meant as gifts etc. Our beautiful French instructor is not just any typical French, her grandparents own the sweets company (Cruzilles) and more than half of the sweets she brought were produced by their company. It seemed that the company specialised in producing high end confectionery.How cool was that? Imagine your own grandparents owning sweets factory lol! 

Half way trying the sweets, I was pretty worried that I will have trouble with my blood sugar level (my checkup was next day) so I started taking small bites instead. It will be better if not all the snacks were sweet, it became too overwhelming towards the end. Nevertheless, it was an eye opener! 

Petit Prince Biscuits, the biscuit had the prince on it. Very common among French children to be given this biscuit at home after school.

Callissons (Almond coated)

Pate de Fruits (Assorted fruits flavor) 

Crepes Wahoo (French instructor favourite) 

Orangettes (tangy orange flavor)

Forgot the name but this was the best. Handmade and only limited amount sold. Soft and fresh with nuts to balance the sweetness.

小田原青果店フルーツ＆パーラーおだわら (Odawara Fruits Parlour) @ Hachinohe

Exhausted after my check up and we (okaasan and I) went to fruit parfait to recharge! This was our second time and they made new changes to the store! The first time we went , the dine in area was tiny and only able to accommodate 4 set of guest (small table and chairs). The parfait was delicious but dine in atmosphere surely did not make us want to visit it again soon.  This time it seemed like they allocated half store space into a spacious dine in area and they also made their kitchen available for viewing through the glass.  

Beside the parfaits, they also offered cookies etc (meant to buy as gift or takeaway), fruit cakes (either dine in or take away) and high graded fruits. After all their main business should be the fruit store.Their cakes pricing are higher than usual cake shop but you can be sure the fruits they used are also high quality. After the renovation, I will want to go again soon!

Updated on 8th Feb: They changed their last order timing, do refer to their website for further details

According to their website, seemed like they are operating throughout the year.

http://www.banrin.co.jp/shop/fruitparlor-odawara/

https://www.facebook.com/fp.odawara/

Fruit Mix Pancake set @ 990 yen

Sandwich set @ 860 yen (one is prawn with avocado and the other is meat)

Picture taken from Odawara website.

Rants Being Pregnant in Japan

Being Pregnant in Japan made me realised there are many differences between my home country (Singapore) and here. Let me rant about the woes I have encountered so far.

• Severe Weight control (Peer pressure from looks of skinny preg Japanese women & clinic)

 As we all know, Japanese ladies are incredibly slim.... why do they still look as skinny (if you looked from behind, even from the front if they hide the bump) even when they are pregnant?! From the beginning of my pregnancy, the nurse sat with me and calculated my bmi and told me how much I can gain towards end of term. I was borderline towards obese hence I was only allowed to gain maximum 6-7 kg. I was gaining slowly until I entered around 6 months (weather getting colder so I started snacking unhealthy stuff). It also did not helped that I had bento and sweet red bean dango (rice mochi) that fateful day just before my checkup ;p. My blood sugar level was 5 times the normal level and by then I had gained 5kg in total in my pregnancy term. 

Reprimanded by the smiling nurse and other nurses and the last punch was given by my gyane. Out of nowhere, he handed two 2kg dumbbells to me and asked if it was heavy. I replied yes and he said that's the amount of weight on my body now...!! 

Such a heavy heart when I finished my check up that day that I had no appetite and ate only salad lol! Usually after check up, I would treat myself to KFC lol!

• Lack of XL size onwards
  
  Since the preg Japanese ladies are still so slim, the maternity wear sold in normal stores were range from S, M and L.... sometimes XL but very rare you can see it. My size before even pregnancy was L to XL (I have big hip), so I ended up buying maternity undies online. Even then it was restricted to certain brands and limited choices. All the cute maternity wear/undies its only up to L size....!!  So tough to survive as a plus size woman in Japan :<
  
• House bound (restricted by S while I see my preg friends (non Japanese) travelling all around the world!
  
  Want to go Tokyo cannot.... Are we going back Aomori to spend Japanese New Year with my parents in law (like we did annually)... No.... Reason: Dangerous to drive back to Aomori in icy and snowy condition. Hello!! Pregnant lady is not suffering from sickness! Why go travelling cannot?!! S did explained that most cities in Japan would reject pregnant women in the event there's any emergency as we are supposed to ask for help from our regular clinic/hospital. Im pretty sceptical about that, or at least Tokyo would have private hospital that would take in anyone with money isn't it? (Not that we are rich but just saying...)
  
• Lack of gynaecologist in rural areas (specifically referring to Misawa lol)
  
  Actually the nearest hospital near my house is Misawa Hospital only 5 minutes drive away. However, its not foreigner friendly at all. We need to make appointment so that they would arrange hospital English translator (probably scared of lawsuits) even though S is able to translate. In other words, in the event of emergency the hospital will reject admitting me because their translator is not around. Furthermore, the gyane in Misawa hospital refused to allow any male (even husband) to enter the room. No exceptions even though I would not understand Japanese and needed S. The hospital is the only place in Misawa for pregnant ladies to go to. Thats why we need to travel to Hachinohe (45 minutes drive) as that's the only clinic that welcome me sob sob..... Thankful for that as their services are good and everyone are so helpful and friendly.  

ファーマーズマルシェ Hitotsubu (Cafe + Farmer Market) @ Oirase

There's a farmer market that sell local produce and light meal near Shiroi Mori (Cake House), I knew it sells healthy smoothie, soft cream and burger but I did not know they also offered lunch set! Very affordable @ only 780 yen per set and there are tables at level 2 (Level 1 only has counter bar). There are 3-4 lunch set selection, will be back to try others next time! Good alternative choice if one is tired of Shiroi Mori (their lunch menu do not change apart from their dessert). They also offered handmade courses for those interested in craft work. 

http://hitotsubu.grupo.jp/

Daily lunch set (will varies), volume just right for the ladies with all sorts of vegetables.

Went the other day and take out this garlic rice pork set. 

Pre-Baby Shower

My friends planned pre-baby shower for me! I was so touched by their kind gesture to host a party for me...! In Singapore, we do not have such a culture, usually its one month old baby shower. I was gifted with many presents and even presented by 2-tier diaper cake! Haha never seen that in my life! Very grateful they went all out to prepare and plan all the stuff and food! Thank you very much guys! Sweetest thing anyone has done for me since I stayed in Japan for past 4 years!

Love all the food! Especially popeyes haha

my friend made cupcakes! so good! 

Each of us designed our own baby clothes

Group Picture!

She made the spectacular quilt !

creative baby diaper cake!

busy eating haha!

Thanks for baby rocker!

Baby toys

Dinner @ Phada Thai (Misawa)

Second visit to Phada Thai restaurant, first time was years ago for lunch and I found the meal not to my liking (more sweet than spicy , more catered to Japanese taste). Since my friend suggested to have dinner here, decided to go along with the plan. It was much better this time, well at least they were spicy enough haha! I wanted to order Thai tea and mango dessert but was stopped by my friend. I am under strict order to control my weight and hence to cut down on the sweet stuff :(.... Anyway by the end of the meal I was too full :P....

 

http://shop.misawajapan.com/phada/default.asp

Stir fry ginger beef

Pork ribs

Green curry

Phad Thai

Xmas season coming and Hideji looked right at home!

American Chili made by my friend! 

Malaysian Cooking Class @ Misawa International Center

 Attended the Malaysian cooking class a week ago... was in a dilemma whether to go anot as I had to wake up super early (had to walked Hideji in cold, freezing weather before my Japanese teacher picked me up.) Class started at 10 am but I had to be out by 8am! Ended up going to support my friend :P

On the way to pick others, my Japanese teacher was telling us she invited local reporters if they were interested in reporting and they said yes! Oh man..... I had no makeup on and with my big glasses... I just have to steer clear of the photographer then...

Among 3 of Malaysian guys, 1 is my friend whom attended Japanese class with me last year and he went back after ending his term in agricultural research. He came back again in October on tourist visa and be leaving soon in middle of December. We were impressed by their cooking skills and ladies were commenting how fast they were, what a good husband they will be haha.... Too bad all of us are married.... In fact by the time the class started, they had finished all the preparation work for the ingredients and we only had to watch.

Yummy Yummy! Requesting for another cooking class!

All of them were skillful with knife. everything was chopped, sliced within minutes!

Add caption

Malaysian style coconut curry

Pengat Pisang (Sweet banana dessert)

not enough for me! not spicy as well as catered to Japanese taste bud,

Newspaper report

another newspaper article. I was in both pictures... Did not know reporter was coming otherwise I would have wear my contacts and makeup lol...