Congratulations, Mate!

A dear friend of mine, K, has been living in Australia for nearly 4 years, and just got married a few months ago to an Aussie dude. The newly weds have been visiting Japan since last week, and a bunch of friends and I met up with them last Saturday for dinner.

K's family had moved around a lot due to her dad's profession. She was born in Osaka, moved to Malaysia and spent a good half of her childhood there, came back to Japan and moved a couple more times until the family decided to settle in our town.

K was probably the closest friend I had in Japan before I left for Canada. I have my childhood best friend, whom I grew up, and shared what we knew about boys and miss-know-it-alls and teacher's-pets with. K and I grew our fondness towards nerds and geeks, and shared what we knew about men and bitches and sex. (By the way, both of them got married this year; a fact that kinda puts my perspectives on things...)

Anyway, my K is married to an Aussie nerd, a karate master (K was his student) and an employee at the Dream World (http://www.dreamworld.com.au) and I can never be happier for her.

Oh, by the way, the couple gave us all a bag of SMITH'S potato chips (crinkle cuts? K, you know me too well, girl!) ...


and a lip balm.


This balm is simply a divinity, and I mean it beside the fact that I absolutely love the sheep that's apparently never been shaved in its entire life. I have been told how dry Australia is, but by God, judging from how well this thing works, I now have a good idea of its lack of humidity. My lips will survive this winter no problem. Thank you, K!

And as for the chips, I could almost cry at the site of it (and crinkle cut? K, you know me too well, girl)! Can you believe they don't make chips in salt and vinegar, my absolute favorite of all flavors on earth, in Japan? I mean, the country is a vinegar capital! They put vinegar in AND on every freaking thing, even the things they shouldn't put vinegar in AND on! Everything! Rice. Veggies. They even came up with vinegar flavored apple juice and jell-o. But not on potato chips? What's wrong with these people, seriously?

But that's beside the point. I now have a good reason why I should visit the southern hemisphere (and a free hotel in The Gold Coast too!). Congrats, K!

Until next time,

Sak

The Days of Recovery of Sak

I've always thought that a sick day off makes a perfectly valid excuse why you should spoil yourself rotten. Two sick days off? Spoil yourself to death, I'd say! (except I actually did almost die so not literally to death, in this case). By my definition, "spoil myself" involves "a DVD marathon of my favorite flicks of all time" and "eating whatever I want all I want."

During the two days of recovery from the food poisoning I had last week, that's exactly what I did.


Like I mentioned in the previous entry, the second day was when I started wolfing down everything I could lay my hands on. And you know what I've come to realize? When all the nutrition is drained off your biology, what your body craves the most is not chicken soup or cobb salad... nothing healthy and hearty, at least. Instead, you are in serious need of sodium, saturated fat, and carbohydrate.

So, junk it up and junk away, I did.

First with a new flavor from Haagen-Dazs...


...then my ultimate junk favorite, Shin Ramen.


20,000 empty calories and completely guilt-free!

Until next time,

Sak

The Day of Resurrection of Sak

I nearly died exactly a week ago.

At around midnight of October 28th, I woke up panting in pain, followed by a never-ending story of vomiting my guts out, bloody and watery diarrhea (may I remind you that I love you, my kind readers?), splitting headache and maddening stomachache, that lasted for what seemed like an eternity. Medically speaking, I was suffering from a food-poisoning caused by Norwalk virus from some shellfish I ate for dinner that night. Personally speaking, I was fucked up.


In the kind of pain I was and in my fading consciousness, I cursed the doctor for not giving me something just so they would let me go gracefully. Or at least give me a bloody painkiller, god freaking damn you ... I'm gonna kick you in the nuts when I come to my senses Dr. fuckface...

...everything went white and silent...

...or so it seemed.

I came to it, and before I got the chance to kick the doctor in the nuts I was removed from the hospital and in my own bed, but I know where he works and he'd better watch a roundhouse foot in a stiletto a la sak any time now, grrrrrrrrrr!

Anyway, I rose in resurrection, and now had to lay flat in my...well, flat for two days.


Day 1:

My body was slowing taking fluid without back-flowing. Finally! I had never been happier to be able to pee normally 15 hours later...I felt quite weak and I couldn't feel my stomach. Wait... I NEVER can feel my stomach if I was healthy, can't I? I also felt a bit sedated from whatever pills they gave me that I took to rest, but I was strangely aware of my own thoughts and I was thinking I was hungry... so I made the effort to stand up and drag my food-poisoned ass (pun intended) to the fridge only to find I had nothing substantial in it. But hey, after a night of pukarama, you don't really have a good judgement on what is considered "substantial" as food, really. Anything that has calories would have sufficed. So there I was, back on couch, with a raspberry yogurt. Well, actually, the alternatives were either raspberry preservative or garlic cubes, so what am I to do, really? "Go grocery shopping" is added in my mental to-do list under "kick doc in the nuts."


Day 2:

Another day off work due to a low-fever. I had some food sent, though, and I was now eating like　an Alaskan bear getting ready to hibernate. That's a good thing, because I lost about 5 kg in the last 40 hours.


And that's how the story of my resurrection goes.

Until next time,

Sak

p.s. All the photos of lovely sashimi in this entry bear no actual relation to the pain bestowed upon me a week ago. And might I add, I have not stopped loving row fish, and for that, I am forever grateful.

Bakin' Time! V

Now that bro's mini birthday muffins are gone (http://diaryofajapanadian.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-bro-just-turned-33-on-friday.html), it's dad's 61st birthday tomorrow (28th). I had a day off today, and I decided to bake him a gâteau pre-d'anniversaire.

Sis requested I bake my Gateau Chocolat that I once made on St. Valentine's Day for family. Hmmmm, I'm thinking, it's good but it isn't exactly birthday-cake-y in my opinion. I want festive, not chic. Besides, dad's been under a bit of depression and I wanted something visually more entertaining.

Two hours of pondering and going through my book of collected recipes (yes, I have a recipe book) as well as surfing the net for visual inspiration (and actually ending up on weddingcake.com) later, I decided to try and create something completely new.

Half-granting sis' request, it's a chocolate cake, and I am using my best-ever recipe. I am frosting it with my again best-ever whipped-with-cream-cheese cream and topping it with coconut shreds. And, "borrowing" some of mom's lovely geraniums (hi, mom!), I decorated the face with petals with various colors.


What do you think?

It has a rather tropical feel than is birthday-like, but oh well. Whatever lifts my dad's spirt up.

Until next time,

Sak

October Sky

I never saw the film October Sky, but I heard it has a pretty touching story.

There is no story about this, but I was pretty darn touched by the October sky that I happened to see from my parents' frontyard.


For 3 breath-taking minutes. I stood there almost in owe.

Until next time,

Sak

Bakin' Time! IV

My bro just turned 33 on Friday. Sent him a text message after work wishing him the best possible year of his life so far, and promising that I would be baking something on Sunday (today) for him. I press "send" and I'm thinking, "What a sweet sister am I!? Mhahahaha I'm the better one!" ...not to mean sis and I hold a which-one-of-us-is-the-better-sister competition every year on our beloved brother's birthday (...well we do but she doesn't know! Mhahahahaha!) Then a couple of hours later he replied and said, "Thanks, both of you! The folks called first thing in the morning and sang 'Happy Birthday' on the phone."

-_-

A lesson learned: never can two sisters together beat the doting parents.

Anyways, I do mean what I wrote him in my message, and hope my only brother who is becoming a father in a few months has the best year.

And sorry I left my camera at my flat when I came to my folks' this weekend and had to make do with my cell phone. Here are my promise for bro baked true, chocolate and blueberry mini muffins (I did not plan the blueberry ones but mom wanted me to get rid of the leftover berries from the last time I baked that were taking up much of her freezer space.)


Until next time,

Sak

The Catcher in the Rice

Well, the title of this post has nothing to do with anything, really.

No, there is no one in the crops waiting to catch the running children right on the edge. I just thought, when I saw the golden field with the sun shining down on it, J.D. Salinger had something in his mind not too far from the image above when he wrote his masterpiece. Except it's not a rye field you are looking at here. The crops happen to be rice, in my parents' neighborhood, ready to be harvested.

Just something I stumbled upon on my lovely day off one autumn day.

Until next time,

Sak

Roses Are Red. Violets Are Blue.

Roses are red

Violets are blue
Tilting your head
The stalk stands askew
As the petals spread
Lovely is your hue
A lonesome night, I lay in bed
On my side, there's you

My father's family name meaning "wisteria" and my Japanese name "cherry blossoms," I quite naturally feel very tender towards flowers (notice my half-stealing the first passage of a work by Dickens here?). I lived in a house where mom always displayed all sorts of seasonal flowers, arranged decadently or simply, in a vase or a pot. Her garden is constantly in colors, altering its diversity as the seasons change, which is surprisingly often, might I add. I am quite utterly amazed at the earth for its versatility, really. I can't help but wonder if it's mom that pulls it off the way it's done. Is she truly skilled with the art of gardening and really knows what she is doing, or does it just happen that way? Growing up, I took the little luxury of living among flowers for granted, and now expect it.

I am the type of a person that "buys" flowers. Quite frequently, too. But nothing beats "receiving" them. I like it as much as receiving a hand-written letter or a card. I don't understand it when my gal pals say -and quite a few of them have told me this too - that they don't have an appreciation when a man shows up at her door with a bouquet: a notion that I cannot conceive of for the life of me.

There are three kinds of gifts that can not, CANNOT, possibly fail to make me happy. One, hand-written letters. Two, flowers. Flowers make me happy. Happy is me with flowers. Flowers and happiness. So when a gifted American Beauty blooms beside me while I lay fast asleep, I am having a good night.

Oh, another kind of gift that cannot possibly fail to make me happy... well, I will write about it some other time.

Until next time,

Sak

p.s. The rose was not a gift from a man, S. So save your inquiries.

In Rehab

Hello, everyone. I am Sak and I am a shopaholic. I am off impulsive compulsive shopping for two years and 10 months, during which I have been trying my very best not to accumulate when it comes to "things" - with exception of books. In my California years, I allowed myself too much freedom and gave my tendency to over-indulge too much control over my life. I went a little too far and ended up having to give so much up in the end when I had to move to another country. That's when it hit me: I am sick and I need help.

It's good for me. Now I think (gasp!) when I see and want. I started out by reducing the amount I "see" so that I do not "want" to begin with. That wasn't the hardest part of my rehab, though. It was when I had to fight my urge that seemed to be in me naturally to make a decision not based on the price but on whether I really need it or not. And I made it a rule that "it makes me feel good to have it" is not a good enough reason for my "needing it" any more like it used to mean. Which is really hard for an impulsive compulsive shopaholic.

Just so you get a better idea of how bad my addiction was, I once went to an electronic store to buy a toaster and came home with a 50-something inch high def television. Another time I went to a Bloomingdale's to buy a Christmas present for mom and ended up swiping my plastic for a pair of Manolo boots on sale (which, in my defense, I will wear for the rest of my life as long as I can walk, damn it).

As far as I'm confessing, I also have a very bad habit of buying both colors when I can't chose between black or gray, navy or olive, brown or dark brown, red or crimson or scarlet or Hawaiian sunset or Bloody Mary.... you get the idea. When in doubt, I don't chose (a concept only applied in shopping...I think and hope).

Anyway, after two years and 10 months, I am actually doing well with my rehab. It helps that everything is a tad too expensive in Japan. I have my occasional cheat moments but mostly, I consider myself "in control" now.

Anyway, what made me really happy last Sunday took place when I "saw" and "wanted" and "made a decision" to buy it. A complete fail of my rehab it was, yet, how could I deny my heart this?


A bookmark found at a book store that has become my favorite place. The cutest find that was under 2 bucks. Need it? No. Want it? Badly. I gave my heart a "go" sign.

The book that my new-found love is to be used in first is On Writing by Stephen King. I am reading this for the second time, after I got it back from a student who wanted to read this and didn't return it back to me for two years. A very good book with my favorite kind of writing style by Mr. King. Highly recommend it to all that writes in English.


Until next time,

Sak

A "Devil" Moment

The cutest little devil I have laid my eyes on...



...at a Halloween event (that I stumbled upon when I was at the place for something else) over the weekend. Totally made my day.

I had to take the pics in a stalker-ish way, 'cause I don't know this kid at all. It was great how he hardly ever moved an inch despite everything else that was moving around him and came in a blur.


Happy early Halloween!

Until next time,

Sak