I'm in Sydney

Today I came back to Sydney.
Yesterday my sister gave me a lift to Narita Airport.
When I said good-bye to her I felt so sad...

But when I arrived in Sydney, I was so happy.
I found that I love Sydney so much.

I will be busy for 2 weeks because I'm moving out from Sydney soon.

A morning sky

I woke up at 5.30 a.m. It was such a beautiful morning.

I took some photos then went to bed again.

It was 10 a.m. when I woke up again... I should have stayed up.

I often wake up earlier than expected but I go to sleep again.

Then it becomes hard to get up again.

Recently I can't get up easily in the morning because I go to bed at night later than when I was in Sydney.

I'm not good at wake up early in the morning.

But I want to become a early riser.

So I must go to bed early and have a good sleep from tonight.

******

15/10

Marumaru

I had lunch with my frinend Minako in Setagaya today.

After lunch we went for a walk in Baji Kouen which is a park of a horse racing organisation.

There were some lovely horses. They have innocent eyes.

It was such a beautiful day for walking.

After that I visited her flat to have a coffee.

I met Marumaru, her cat. He is a lovelly scottish fold.

He wasn't friendly when I first met him more than 6 years ago.

My friend told me that he wasn't friendly to almost anybody except her and her husband.

But I was so glad because he came near to me and say hello.

Minako was surprised about it. Probably he must have been very hungry.

They named him Marumaru because he has round eyes.

"Maru" means round in japanese.

I stayed her flat for a long time and we talked a lot.

It was such a good time today.

*****

14/10

Jingisukan

My sister and her husband took me to "Akamaru Zingis"to eat some jingiskan tonight.

"Jingisukan" is a lamb (or mutton) barbecue which is popular in Japan recently.

The name of Jingisukan comes from Genghis Khan but it's unrelated to him actually.

It's said that Jingisukan was born in Hokkaido, in the north of Japan and was influenced by Chinese food kaoyanro(烤羊肉).

Jingiskan became popular especially in women because lamb is on a low-calorie diet.

My sister and her husband wouldn't take me to the restaurant because they had been thinking that lamb is not new for me because I live in Australia.
But Jingiskan is Japanese food therefore I've never eaten it since I moved to Sydney.

We had a bottle of Climbing wine, an Australian wine. It was very nice.

I enjoyed everything. It was such a lovely dinner.

****

14/10

Ningyocho

I visited to Ningyo-cho today. There are a lot of old shops and restaurant.

I bought some "Taiyaki", a Japanese waffle which shapes fish with red bean paste filling.

There are always a lot of people in a queue for the Taiyaki.

You can buy "Ningyoyaki" there as well.

I had some fried pork cutlet for lunch at Kiraku , an yoshoku reataurant.

"Yoshoku" is Western style food which is popular in Japan such as a pork cutlet, omerice (an omelette filled with fried rice), a pork saute, etc. Most of the dishes are served with rice.

Kiraku is one of my favourite restaurant in Ningyocho.

This is Kotobukido, a Japanese-style confectionery established in 1884.

There were a lot of shops which had been changed to new building but Kotobukido's building looked very old and they mantain a tradition.

****

14/10

Erica

This is Erica, my sister and her husband's cat.

She is an lovely 9-year-old Percian cat.

She is so funny because she loves walking like a dog.
Both my sister and her husband works so she has to stay at home all day.
They take Erica for walk every night.

My sister always keeps Erica on a lead but her husband often let Erica walk by herself.

Sometimes he has to wait for Erica on the street for a long time because Erica doesn't come back so soon.

He has waited for Erica more than 2 hours several times.

That is why Eirca likes to go for a walk with my brother in row more than my sister.

****

11/10

Tokyo Sunset

I saw a lovely sunset early this evening.

This is Shinjuku in Tokyo.

I took this photo on the roof of an apartment in Yotsuya.
It was a nice place to take a photo because there aren't so high buildings around the apartment in spite of in the center of Tokyo.

I had been missing Sydney since I came to Tokyo because I felt that Sydney is already my place. And I had been thinking Sydney is much nicer than Tokyo and the best place in my life.

However I think that Tokyo is not bad because you can often see beautiful views like this.

*****

9/10

Suku☆Haji Doz Live

I went to the Suku☆Haji Doz Live in Nishi-Azabu tonight.

It was a syamisen concert by Tetsuroku Matsunaga and Tetsukoma Matsunaga.

They have their live every third Tuesday.

They started their monthly live this year so I had never seen it before.

I visited the Doz Hall which was in Nishiazabu with my sister.

They performed seven pieces of Nagauta and one play.

Every time, they put on a play which was whitten by themselves.

They are based on European fairy tale stories.

It was such a nice story and their performance was fantastic.

I admire my friend for making efforts to increase her ability.

I thought that I must do more my endeavors like her.

*****

6/10

Monjayaki

My husband arrived in Tokyo this morning and we had lunch at Tsukishima.
It is a popular place to eat Monjayaki.

Monjayaki is one of traditional food in Kanto region (in the east of Japan).

We asked woman to fry a Monjayaki. You can also fry by yourselves.

It was very hot in of the restaurant because everybody were fring their Monjayaki.

But we were used to it soon and enjoyed some beer, Monjayaki and Okonomiyaki.

Rojiura Monja Monkichi 3-8-10 Tsukishima, Chuo-ku Tokyo

Yuko and Misaki

I visited my friend Yuko's house.

There was her daughter Misaki. She is 3 years old now.

I visited Yuko to hospital to see Misaki when Misaki was 1 day old.

Misaki was very little when my husband and I met her and her family at the airport in March 2006.

Misaki was a very lovely and friendly girl.

I showed her some photos of Sunce and TeQuiLa , she loves them so much.

I stayed there 2 nights.

At the first night, Yuko and I drunk some beer. She cooked some Japanese food for me.

Misaki joined us and it was such a funny time.

At the second night, her husband Moto joined us and we had a small party.

When we were preparing the party, Yuko and Moto's friends and their children came and joined us.

They were so interesting, it was such a funny night.

I met Yuko at the college when we were 18 years old.

It has been more than 20 years since then.

We used to go snowboarding very often when both we were single.

We haven't been to the mountain together in winter for more than 10 years.

Both we are married and Yuko has got 2 little children now.

But I think we can go sn0wboarding with the children soon later.

*****

27/9

TeQuiLa

I met my friend Rie and TeQuiLa, her dog. It was my first time to see TeQuiLa.

When I met TeQuiLa at Daikanyama Station, she looked very tired because it was such a hot day. We had lunch at a lovely cafe in Daikanyama.

TeQuiLa is a female Norfolk Terrier. She is being 2 years old soon.

She was such a good girl. She had been sitting under the table while we had lunch.

After lunch we enjoyed shopping.

I bought some Tenugui for my friends in Sydney at Kamawanu, a tenugui shop.

Tenugui is a Japanese traditional towel.

We had a coffee at a cafe then walked to Shibuya.

I met my friend's mother who had been coming to see her daughter from San Diego, USA.

Her mother looked very young and they looked like friends.

TeQuiLa was so cute as well. It was such a lovely day.

She remind me Sunce in Sydney.

I miss him so much...

****

25/9