It has been a while since my last update, and my calendar is wishing me Midsummer greetings already! I guess the rainy season will be over soon in Tokyo. I have been doing plenty of bits and bobs that keeps me busy, as usual. I did the first trip to Seoul last week, it was great and made me very genki. I just want to get rid of the mess in my flat...

Hello everyone, while I haven't been updating LDK, I went to Germany and I also went to Taiwan and then it's already the end of 2008. I've just managed to clean our flat with C's help, prepared for the coming year. It's already after midnight but I made miso soup with the prawn heads, just like we get at sushi restaurants (we had huge prawns for dinner earlier). C would hate to look at this soup, but the slightly grilled prawn head makes really good soup stock. This is the last dish I cooked this year, because I'm not going to cook anything today! I hope you have a happy holiday!

Yesterday the end of the rainy season in Tokyo was officially announced, the summer has started. Actually, Tokyo has been really hot since last week, so we already went to the ocean twice this month. Actually, we went surfing! Our friend S told us she took a surfing lesson. C always wanted to learn how to surf, so we joined her lesson last Sunday. It was so much fun! I could take off after a few attempts, and the teacher was very friendly and encouraging. Last Sunday, Kugenuma beach was really packed, so we had a day off on Friday and went again. There were less people, but the waves were quite a bit higher. It was tough, especially because we didn't have a teacher's help. It's a bit silly to have a wetsuit tan, but I'm a surfer now!

We had a late golden week and we went to Thailand for the first time. Before the trip I was really excited. I borrowed a basic phrase book, came with an audio CD from the library. I learnt some phrases in Thai and I actually enjoyed to use them in Thailand! Kop khun ka (thank you) to this phrase book and nice Thai people. Yesterday we went to a Thai restaurant in Nakameguro, had Thai food with Chang Beer and talked about how great this trip was (again and again). I want to visit Thailand again, hopefully some time this year!

It's been nearly a month since I started yoga, I can finally use the yoga mat which I bought a year ago. I am an easily excited person (but quick to cool down sometimes) so I take four lessons a week now. A little problem I have now is I feel extremely relaxing while I do Shava Asana (the posture of a dead body), I fell asleep a few times... I also started to eat a grain and vegetable based diet on the weekdays only. I wouldn't call it macrobiotic diet, it's just very very simple Japanese food, probably my grandparents were eating something like this. My recent favourite is Kuromame (black beans) Genmai (unpolished whole grain rice). BTW this is not an April fool's story, my friends!

The other day I went to Hokkaido with C. The day after we arrived, I got a high fever and lost my voice. I was sick in bed for five days, so I had to give up going to the Asahiyama Zoo (although we managed to see the Sapporo Snow Festival on the last day). On our way back to our home from Haneda airport, my bad luck continued: I forgot a shopping bag full of Hokkaido sweets and seafood on the train. What a mess!

Tokyo has been really cold for about two weeks. I couldn't stand sleeping in a cold futon anymore, so I bought a 'futon kansouki' (futon dryer). I place an air mat on the futon and put the duvet on top of it, then I switch on the machine and the warm air dries the futon and duvet and warms them up. It feels so good and helps us to sleep well. I told mom that I bought a futon kansouki and she said that I could have taken the one at home which she bought more than twenty years ago. But I'm glad that I couldn't take hers. The one I bought from an online shop was a good offer: ¥5,410 including tax and shipping. Even though I'm not very happy about the design, it is quite light and smaller than the one from 20 years ago! It also has more features: apart from drying the futon, we can use it to dry boots too. In the springtime I suffer from hay fever, so I can't put the futon outside to air it (which I'm meant to do regularly). But they added a summer mode so I can air the futon with this dryer. I should have bought it earlier.

I can't believe it's already December. All cleaning need to be done by the end of the year, this is a Japanese tradition. Before a big cleaning, I need a big tidying up. I really feel like I'm constantly battling with a mountain of clutter, it's never ending. Those mountains seem grow very fast in our flat. Maybe I'm just moving around clutter from one room to another. This time I'm serious, I asked C's help and we decided to get rid of 140 CDs. I'm quite good at selling items on an Internet auction, but I asked e-BOOKOFF to buy our CDs. It's quick and easy.

The weather in Tokyo is perfect today. It is so nice to have sunshine and a clear sky! We wanted to watch David Lynch's Inland Empire showing at Yebisu Garden Cinema (in Japanese), so I tried to reserve good seats online, but I couldn't. I forgot about their entry system. When we visit their ticket counter on the day of the show, they stamp the number on our tickets. Fifteen minutes before the show, we enter the theater in the order of the stamped number. It seems like Saturday is really busy, so I was wondering how early we should be there to get OK seats. But C volunteered to go to the cinema by bike in the morning, and our numbers are 1 and 2! Nice one! This wouldn't have happened if it was raining, like yesterday.

Last month, the official GR digital blog was celebrating their second anniversary and there was a campaign to win a free GR photo album. I applied for it, but I completely forgot about it, and I've received the album yesterday. There were only two hundreds photo albums, so I'm happy about the fact that I got it, but I don't know if I use it. I hardly print photos any more these days...

I read Nintendo offers free Wii Remote jackets so I requested two jackets for our Wii remotes, and a few days ago I received the packet from Nintedo! I have to say that the removable silicone sleeves don't look so nice, not suiting to the Wii design. The transparent silicone will probably get dusty and dirty very quickly. But I know the jackets will definitely protect us/our belongings better, and I like Nintendo's attitude.

There is a nice cool early autumn breeze in the evening, I can finally sleep without air conditioning. I'm kind of used to the Japanese summer and I never liked it, but this year was amazingly hot and humid. Both our computers died this month and I blame the heat! I welcomed a MacBook Black as a new member of the family last week. I hope I can use this Mac for a long time. The PowerBook G4 which has just broken had a lifetime of three years and nine months and my previous PowerBook G3 was four years and three months old. When I calculated the monthly cost, it was more than I had imagined...

After the big typhoon No.4 hit Japan, I was cleaning the windows to the balcony, and I found there was a long-legged wasp’s nest in the bacony. Maybe wasps were also relieved that the typhoon has gone, they were quite busy, working hard. These seems kind of friendly, but I read the nest will be bigger in Summer, then I have to ask professional wasp busters. So I have to get rid of it soon although I was stung by a wasp when I was a kid, and I'm bit scared of them.

The other day the postman knocked on the door in the early morning. He had a nice little packet for me from Ogasawara police station. It was the fleece jacket C forgot on a bench by the beach in the very last moments of our Ogasawara island holiday. After we came back to Tokyo I phoned Ogasawara police station and talked to the person from the lost and found. He was very nice and told me that I shouldn't be so disappointed because it will be probably found, and that he would send it cash-on-delivery to me. A few days later I received a phone call from him, he had found it! It's nice to think that the jacket also went on a twenty five and a half hour journey on the boat that leaves only once a week, just like what we did. Thank you Ogasawara police station for your kind help, thank you Ogasawara Tourism Association for finding the jacket. We love Ogawasara!

Finally comments work again!

The rainy season will start soon in Tokyo, so I have to do KOROMOGAE 'a seasonal change of clothing' for our wardrobe. When the weather is sunny and dry, it's a chance to wash and air winter clothes and bedding. I feel like I go through and try to clear my wardrobe very often, but it's always overloaded. I finally decided to buy futon asshuku bukuro 'the vacuum storage bags' (in Japanese) even though I always thought this is a silly idea; fill a plastic bag with a duvet and suck the air inside a bag with a hoover to make a duvet loses its volume. But I realised my huge king size duvet needs to be vacuumed.

I went to the Setagaya police station in Sangenjaya to renew my driving licence. I always get a 'gold driving licence card' because I am a good driver with a clean driving record. Well that's what they think, actually I just haven't driven for years and years! The new card has an IC chip inside, so it seems slightly thicker than the old one.

PASMO was finally launched yesterday. I liked the Suica I've been using because of the nice penguin character, but I decided to use PASMO from now on, not Suica. Actually the commemorative PASMO cards were also available yesterday. I wanted this sweet PASMO card with the penguin character, but 110,000 cards were super quickly sold out everywhere. I forgot that there are many many train lovers, probably including a lot of station employees. Sigh!

I finally got wii today! There were 400 wiis available at Bic Camera store in Shinjuku West. I tried a little bit, and I realised that I need to move the TV. I'm going to arrange our living room furniture right now!

I had my annual physical examination. This time they suggested that I take the Ningen Dock (human dry dock), which has more tests compared to my usual examination. I'm getting OLD! So I had to drink barium for the first time to check my stomach. It was awful. The technician told me to drink the barium more quickly, but it didn't go down my throat and the foaming agent (for inflating the stomach) started to fizz in my mouth! After I managed to finish the cup of barium, I had to lie on a platform and was told to rotate my body twice to distribute the barium evenly. I didn't expect this, so I almost had to laugh and burp! If I burped, I would have had to drink another cup of barium. I was tilted left and right, up and down on the moving platform and it made me smile because I felt like an astronaut. When I went to rinse my mouth, I was surprised to see my face, it looked like kind of like this...

I still haven't used my GR Digital much, but I'm already considering buying some accessories (as usual). I was looking for a nice camera pouch online, but in the end I ordered a leather neckstrap for GR series, made by Artisan&Artist and Map Camera. Today I received the neck strap, it's not bad but not that great. I realised that maybe I don't like wearing a neck strap, but I might use it as a hand strap...

I went home to Sapporo in Hokkaido to spend Christmas and New Year's with my family. Because of the warm winter, it didn't snow much while I was there, but there was some old snow on the ground. I brought my ear warmers, but they were not necessary. So the weather was almost the same as in Tokyo, but I relied on this gadget. Do you know what it is?

Sunrise 07:06

I went to buy some rice at the rice shop near the station, and there was a prize draw to win a shopping voucher (there are many prize draw promotions in the end of the year in Japan). I was told to pick three tickets and I opened them one by one. The tickets said ¥100, ¥500 and ¥100. I spent ¥1000 for rice and I won ¥700! The owner was as surprised as I was, and she told me that I probably spent all my luck! I got a kilo of agricultural chemical free genmai brown rice with the vouchers, and I paid only ¥50 extra. I'm going to cook this rice with black soybeans.

Today I went to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store Shibuya to get some advice on my PowerBook (I strongly recommend to make a reservation online before you go to the Genius Bar). A genius told me that I have too many photos in my iPhoto library. That's what I had suspected, actually I haven't even made a backup for years... I didn't spend any money at the store, but I saw lots of stuff I want to get. And I think I saw Japanese actress Emiri Henmi with her MacBook at the Genius Bar.

I'm back home! It was quite a hectic trip, I stayed one night at Frankfurt, one night at Köln, four nights at Bellaterra (Barcelona) and four nights at London. Yesterday, I slept almost 11 hours on the plane, I slept like a log for an hour on Narita Express (almost the whole journey), and I had eight hours sleep after I had a can of beer at home. So I woke up at 9am this morning, and I have no jet lag at all. Great! But I can't believe how much I slept.

I'm off for two weeks holiday! Last night I was too busy to prepare lots of things, and I didn't go to bed in the end. I still have some time before my flight, but I'm scared to sleep now. All TV channels show only about Princess Kiko gave birth, so I went for swimming and enjoyed sauna too. I'm sure I will have a good sleep on the plane. I just need to try not to sleep on the train, or at the airport!

Yesterday there was an Intensity 3 earthquake, but I didn't realised that because I was cycling! Today is disaster prevention day in Japan (the great Kanto earthquake struck 83 years ago), so there was a disaster prevention exhibition held at Shinjuku station last week. I didn't really care much about the exhibition, but I stop walking because of the firefighter's voice. He kept shouting 'does anyone wants to try this?' 'you don't need to wait for it!' I wondered what he was talking about, and I looked back at him. There was a special car which we can experience the worst earthquake 'Intensity 7'. And I decided to go in the car!

It has been sooo hot in Tokyo. I don't like to be in an air conditioned room all the time because it makes me tired. So I try to use air-con at home as little as possible. Last weekend, C and I escaped from our hot flat and met up with our neighbours in a small playground park near our place. We bought drinks from a convenience store and we enjoyed a few cans of beers! I don't like that there are not many open cafes or pubs in Tokyo, I guess it's because the Japanese summer is too hot to stay outside, especially in the daytime. Now we know that drinking in a park is very nice!

On a really hot day in Tokyo, I went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office in Shinjuku to apply for a new passport with my married name. Japanese passport names are usually written in Hepburn romanization (Hebon siki), for example Smith will be written as Sumisu, and I didn't want it (I guess nobody with foreign name wants it). So I applied for Non-Hebon style writting.

The real Japanese summer has finally arrived in Tokyo after a long rainy season. It is incredibly hot, but I like eating Okinawan 'Goya Champuru' in this weather. It has been a month already since we went to a five day trip to Okinawa. I finally uploaded some photos to flickr!

These are pineapples from Ishigaki Island in Okinawa. I bought them ten days ago and I probably wouldn't have received them if I hadn't called the shop two days ago. We were meant to eat these pineapples last weekend with our friends, so we bought six of them. I don't know what to do now... I guess I'll freeze them and eat them as ice candy or use them for frozen margaritas.

Yesterday my sister, her husband and I went to IKEA Funabashi, which opened on April 24th. When I saw the IKEA pencils and tape measures in the store, it made me nostalgic for my college days in London. I used to go to IKEA in Croydon with my friends. IKEA Japan is pronounced /i'ke.a/, so I have to change from /aɪ'ki:ə/, which is how I used to pronounce it in London.

I asked C to get me lots of little things for my birthday and the swim cap and goggles from the SPEEDO and Comme des Garçons swimwear collection were among the presents I received. I don't think I mentioned before that I go swimming at least four days a week.

The F1 season started. For me, it means spring has come finally. I'm impressed if you can tell who is my favorite driver from looking at the cookies!

I thought that I had enough daily gargling and washing hands, but I got flu and I spent two days in bed. I know that only Japanese beleive that gargling prevents cold and flu. My throat still hurts badly so I had hot water mixed with lemon and ginger infused honey. I normally don't drink sweet drinks, but I enjoyed this drink with lots of honey.

I've just found out that it was impossible to comment on LDK. It's fixed now, so leave some comments please!

I went to meet up with my friends at JunkAdelic in Nakameguro, and we had tasty Tex-Mex food and Frozen Mango Margaritas which were nice as always! I also had a cup of hot wine, which was a one for the road. I have to say that our conversation topics were quite similar to the old ladies in the sauna of my sports club. We talked about Horiemon, cosmetics, travelling... but we can also talk about DS Lite (in Japanese) and the new mobile phone by Naoto Fukasawa (in Japanese) so not too behind, hopefully.

It keeps snowing! It hasn't snowed this much in Tokyo for eight years, and I slipped twice on the snowy pavement with my Converse All Stars. The word 'slipped' in Japanese could also mean 'failed an examination', so it is a taboo word for the 551,382 students who took university and college entrance exams today.

I like casual fashion, I owned something like 30 pairs of trainers, over 10 pairs of Levi's and at least 100 t-shirts since I was teenager, and my favourite hollywood fashion icon was (still is?) Elliott from E.T.. But when I needed to be dressed up a little bit, I visited HELMUT LANG and I bought his beautiful bag, shoes, shirt, jacket and coats etc. Yesterday I received a card from the HELMUT LANG shop, and I was surprised read that the label will end with this season! A few days ago, I accidentaly found the shop card from 1993 (left on the photo) and it brought back nice old memories. I need HELMUT LANG!

This is the forth winter since we've come to Japan. We were always wondering if we should buy an oil filled radiator around this time of the year, and we finally bought one. Maybe it was because C caught a cold, the nice radiator from De'Longhi (which was a little bit over the budget) became a discontinued model and all other models are very ugly round shape, I found radiator from MUJI was quite reasonable price and it was also 10%OFF from the original price during 23 Nov - 4 Dec (need to be an internet member) and finally mum visits our place very soon. Come to think of it, when she stayed with us two years ago, I bought a hot carpet because she suggested me! All people who I know from the cold cities in Japan hate winter in Tokyo. They live in a perfectly warm house with central heating radiators. But not many people have them in Tokyo.

On Sunday afternoon, we went to Roppongi Hills to meet up our friends, who haven't seen for a while. We had coffee at the cafe, but I didn't realised that it was Rojak (in Japanese) by IDÉE. I felt the atmosphere was bit different from the one in Aoyama. One of our friend ordered hot herb tea, and it came with a wine glass. It looked cool, but it was too hot to drink from!

On Sunday afternoon it was beautiful weather, so we packed some food and drink and cycled to Komazawa Olympic Park. But when we arrived there, the sun was gone and it was very cold! We saw many colourful girls outside of the indoor playing field, it was the 5th All Japan Cheerdance Competition. We went to inside to have a look, but it cost ¥2,300 to get in and they didn't allow anyone to take photos inside. Boo!

Yesterday, I got woken up by a phone call from dad. I didn't know that he was in Tokyo! He asked me if I had time for lunch and I invited him to come to our flat. We went to a Chinese restaurant near our place. He still had a bit of time before his flight, so I took him to a temple called Daienji (in Japanese) in Meguro. We wanted to see the buddha statue, which is an "important cultural asset", but it wasn't shown to the public. We can see it only during New Year's time and on a few other occasions every year. The temple is quite small compared to Yutenji temple near our place! It was too cold to walk around, even though the Japanese maple leaves are still green, maybe dad brought the cold from Hokkaido. I was in my bare feet in the flat until last week, but I need socks and sheepskin slippers. I also need a hot carpet very soon.

We visited our friends at the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel. The view from the bar on the 40th floor was very nice because of the dry weather and clear sky. I could see the Shibuya station area very cleary.

On Sunday afternoon, there was a crazy thunderstorm just as I was about to leave our flat. I had an appointment, so I couldn't wait for long. So I gave up and went to vote in the lower house elections at the local elementary school. I was soaking wet. My umbrella didn't really help! I hurried to Harajuku and met up with C and C's friend. It seemed like the rain had gone, but as soon as we arrived at the main building of Meiji Shrine it started raining buckets, so we stayed there for quite a while. It was kind of nice and beautiful.

Today is the second anniversary of LDK so we went to Claska's rooftop "METROMINT LOUNGE" for drinks, it was very nice and chilled out, and a great view. It's a shame that this place is only open for one month. This last year of LDK seems to have gone by much quicker than the first year. I'm so surprised and happy that lots of people visit LDK every day! Thanks!

Today, Shiretoko Peninsula in eastern Hokkaido was declared a World Heritage Site. Shiretoko is famous for its wildlife, including Japanese brown bears (Higuma), Hokkaido fox (Kita-Kitsune) and Ezo deer (Ezo-Shika). And also endangered species like Steller's Sea Eagles (Owashi), Blakiston's Fish Owls (Shima-Fukuro), Black Woodpeckers (Kuma-Gera) etc. It sounds amazing that we can see all these animals in the wild. I read that the floating ice brings many different kinds of plankton to the area, so there is a very unusual and rare food chain, apparently. I feel like I want to do nature watching in Shiretoko this summer. I'm probably not the only one with this idea after watching the beatiful scenery on the TV news.

The image of Shiretoko was taken from here. Thanks!

It's been a while since musical batons were passing around. It seemed like everybody received one and I was relieved that I hadn't received one. But McCOCK from Silly Shally BLOG chose me finally! I used to listen to rock music a lot when I was younger, but these days C is my DJ and I listen to what he chooses. Anyway, here you go! (the photo: today's dinner 'Thai Green Curry' cooked by C)

When I was tidying my room this morning, I found a waterproof disposable Ultra Sports camera (we call this 'Snap Kids' in Japan). We took some underwater photos in Okinawa in 2003, but we forgot about developing it! I've only been using my digital camera these days, so I had to think about where to develope the film. I found a really cheap developer near the station in the end.

I was bitten by a mosquito the other day. Already! It became very itchy, and I put a cross (I also call it "belly button") in the mosquito bite with my fingernail. My American friend, who saw me doing it, said 'I know it'. I thought that he learnt it in Japan, but he said that people do it in the US too! They do it for the same reason: to take away the itch, because it hurts instead! My friends from England and Germany didn't get what we were talking about. I know it's very silly but I was quite surprised!

Our friend N from London took me to Nakano Broadway in Nakano. I haven't been to Nakano for ages but it seemed like nothing has changed. Many places on the Chuou line have a unique atmosphere which I can't really explain with words, but it's very interesting.

On Sunday, I went to a flea market at Togo Shrine. It had a nice and peaceful atmosphere after walking in Harajuku, which was super crowded because of Golden Week. There were mainly Japanese antiques, such as old kimono and furniture, and also some film posters from the Showa era. I was surprised to see that almost all customers were non-Japanese people. It seemed like the sellers were used to have foreigners as customers, so they used a bit of English to tell the prices. After 2pm they started to clear their shops, so it's better to visit earlier.

Yesterday afternoon, our friend N from London arrived in Tokyo. In the evening, we went to the opening party for Open Nature, then we went to an izakaya for more drinks, then clubbing. What a start for N! Today is the national holiday called 'greenery day', the start of Golden week holiday in Japan. We woke up late but without hangovers, so we took a bus to Komazawa Park. It was hot (28°C) and very summery. At the park, we watched a university team football match while drinking Japanese plum wine 'ume-shu', and after that we just watched people jogging and cycyling while we were drinking Diesel. Then, as we walked home, we found a Colombian ＆ South American Restaurant. It looked really good.

Our good old friend will visit us soon, and he asked me if I want anything from London. I was searching for some nice new food products, and I found the interesting news. I thought that it was a news on April Fool's day, but it was a new from 8 March. It is a real story!

This afternoon, I took the underground passage in Shinjuku and I saw huge agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) from 24 appeared in a Calorie Mate advertisement. Actually I was a little bit worried about Jack, because he devoted all his energy for his missions on the longest day of his life, but he hardly eat anything! I remember that he once ate bit of bread or something at CTU. But nothing else! Calorie Mate can keep you filled with energy very quickly, so Jack, please eat it on series four!

After yesterday's nice weather, sakura (cherry blossoms) are almost in full bloom in Tokyo (cherry blossoms blooming forecast). The blossoms arrived in Tokyo 13 days later than in 2004, but it was only three days later than in average years. The cherry blossoms by the bicycle graveyard near our place (impounded bicycle storage centre for illegally parked bicycles) are blooming beautifully. It would be nice if this was a little playground.

C brought posters for learning for kids from New Delhi, the hand drawing pictures are very nice. It is very interesting that the Indian red signal light says 'relax'. It sounds like everyone drives aggressively in New Delhi, so it is such a good advice!

The Monchichi (in Japanese) was created in 1974. It had the 30th anniversary last year, and it seems popular again after a long time. The monchichis in these days have colourful hairs, or dress in animal mascot costumes just like some teenagers we used to see in Shibuya last year. It reflects the style of young people today! When I was a kid, my sister and I both had monchichis, and mine was a bear version. My bear had the same face as my sister's normal monchichi, except it didn't have freckles. I had no doubt that it was not the official monchichi family (how could my parents give a fake one, only to me!), but none of my friends don't believe me! But I finally found evidence by accident the other day. The bear monchichi was sold in a shop. It does exist! But I have to say that my bear monchichi had curly hair and much cuter than the one in a shop!

Finally my hayfever season started. I felt better today because of the rain, but my eyes and nose have problems from three days ago. C told me that he can't believe there are many Japanese people who don't place their hand in front of their mouth when they sneeze. Yes, I really hate them too! In Japan, many people wear masks when they have a cold or flu, so that they don't spread germs. We have such a "considerate culture" but many people don't care about spreading germs when they sneeze. I don't understand!

We walked past the recycling corner that I wrote about the other day, and we saw a bowling pin standing there this time. I had to laugh when I saw it and C immediately grabbed the pin. He didn't even stop walking, it was like a marathon runner at the water stop! I didn't want to keep any more junk at our flat, but C seems to like it a lot, so I couldn't say NO! to him.

Yesterday, I saw an abandoned cat on the street near my flat. Well, it was a toy cat. I thought it had been completely wet from last night's snow, but it's gone. There is an empty corner on the street and recently someone started to leave old clothes there, on hangers. Usually only one or two pieces at once, and after they are gone, other clothes appear. I enjoy seeing how unfashionable they are. The sign said "I can give you a health equipment: Powerhealth". A phone number was written underneath. I found out that it is an electronic equipment which gives us 4500V - 13000V electricity. It improves the circulation of the blood, and it's really expensive, something like ¥500.000! Shall we get it?

We got an email from our friends in London. It said that they went to Sweden and thought about us. How nice. I saw the attached photo and it made me laugh so much. It's great! Absolutely fantastic!! No wonder they thought of us. We love you M.

LDK is moving to a new host. The move will be completed in the next three days. Please be patient in case anything looks wrong in the meantime. Comments will be switched off until the move is completed. See you there!

Update: If you see this, you have reached the new host.

Yesterday, I wrote that I re-used a Tetra Pak for making chocolate pate, and I checked the site of Tetra Pak Japan. I was very surprised to see their character called 'Tetra Pak kun'. He looks very similar to the milk carton in Blur's Coffee & TV video. Tetra Pak Japan even made a TV commercial with him. He is walking around just like the milk carton in Blur's video!

Phew! I've just watched a football game Japan vs. North Korea. It was an exhausting game to watch. I usually don't care about football, but the world cup is different! By the way, I really hate a commentary on Japanese sports TV (except NHK, like BBC). Why they always shout at the top of their voice? It's very annoying, and it seems like they are doing it on purpose. I don't want to hear them shouting, I want to shout!

118 years ago today, 8 february 1887, the logo of Japanese post office "〒" was announced. I think it is a very simple good design. We can display it with Unicode, and also typing "ゆうびん (means post in Japanese)" can be converting to "〒" in Japanese system. I also love "〠" the icon of postcode (his name is Number-kun). I drew 〠 next to my postcode when I used to write letters by hands. I miss him. He was very cute! In 1998, the new charactors called poston and others appeared. They don't look good at all.

Today is setsubun. That must be why there were four beans in the lift at our building, it made me laugh. Spring starts tomorrow, according to the Japanese lunar calendar, but outside is still very wintery. When the sun is shining, our flat is warm enough without heating. I've been hearing that, because of the hot summer last year, we will have lots of pollen from Japanese cedar and cypress trees this spring . Depressing!!

I've been thinking to learn brush calligraphy since I came back to Japan. I used to have a calligraphy lesson once a week when I was a kid, but now I can't go to lesson regularly and I can't make the effort to keep learning (it takes years to learn many things). The TV ads for U-can (a correspondence study programs in Japan) has been on air all the time since New Year's, and I decided to take it. For me it's very good to learn important points very quickly, I'm not trying to be a teacher. Today I received writing instruments, text books and a video tape. My aim is to write New Year's cards with my brush. My dear friends, if you don't receive cards from me next year, don't ask me why!

I've been trying not to use computer because my eyes go bloodshot from too much net auction and netsurfing. I also haven't updated my blog recently and I was going to update yesterday but I couldn't. I caught a cold again and I'm staying in futon! I think that walking to the DVD shop in snowy rain on Sunday night caused me this cold. I hate seeing a doctor but my joints hurt and my temperature didn't go down, so I decided to see a doctor. I had a flu test (the doctor put a thin and super long stick deep inside my nose!) and the result was negative. I'm relieved, but I'm bit worried about my temperature. It reached 39.6°C last night. I sweat like hell, it was almost like a sauna!

Our Russian friend told C that how to cure his cold. Drink ice cold vodka with salt and pepper, go to bed and sweat a lot. Well, it didn't sound good to me but C bravely tried that. I don't know if it worked for him... There is a famous home remedy for a sore throat in Japan. Grill leak, put in a cloth and put it around a neck. I've never tried it and I don't know if it really works.

I was ill in futon while everyone was having a long weekend (this Monday was a bank holiday in Japan). I missed the winter sale I wanted to go! Today I still didn't feel well, so I lay down all day. I can watch TV and read books, but it's difficult to surf internet when I lie down. Today was Kagami Biraki day. I was so surprised to look at our kagami mochi (rice cake decoration). It was covered with colourful mold!

Yesterday was a very clear day, I could see Mount Fuji from our balcony between buildings. It looked very tiny but very clear. I know C wants to climb Mt. Fuji (3,776m), and I always tell him that Mt. Fuji is beautiful, but not for climbing because of the dirty environment (created by tourists). Anyway I'm not confident enough! But maybe I should try this year. We say 'one who never climbs Mt. Fuji is a fool, and one who climbs it twice is twice the fool'. I have to be fit for July when Mt. Fuji opens for climbing.

Update: I didn't have any special training, but I climbed Mt. Fuji on 28-29 Aug 2005!

When I woke up this morning I was surprised to see snowing! I don't think snow covers the whole city, but it doesn't seem to stop. This morning was the first 'too cold to get out from Futon!' morning to me and C headed off to his last work day of the year. Cheers mate!

Merry Christmas! I was often asked about Japanese Christmas. People say 'You don't celebrate Christmas, do you?' and I don't know what to say.

I was too busy to update LDK last week and since the weekend I haven’t been able to update LDK because of Yahoo! BB. Their modem was broken again. How annoying! I've just received a new modem, and connect to online. There are 661 emails in my inbox. Nooo!

Today was very warm. The highest temperature in Tokyo was 24.8 °C! Crazy! This is warmer than summer in London! The strong wind in the early morning was crazy, too. I was worried that the windows might blow off from the frames. Later, we cycled to Komazawa Olympic Park. There were lots of people with dogs, with kids, with partners, with mates, enjoying their Sunday afternoon. C got a kite from stranger and he played with it.

While we were watching Season Three of 24 on DVD, C spilt his glass of red wine over a white wooly blanket! The first thing I would do is getting a cleaning cloth, I think this is what almost all Japanese people would do, but people in England or Germany (probably other countries in Europe too?) grab salt. On several occasions I have heard people say 'you should have put some salt on it'. I've never actually seen anyone do it so I didn't really believe it, to be honest. But it worked! Great!

Yesterday, I went to Kappabashi; the kitchen equipment street with our friends from London. I usually walk from Tawaramachi station, but we used Iriya station this time. We saw a strange kappa golden statue! I wanted to check a bamboo steamer, a yattoko nabe, a donabe (Japanese earthenware pot), paper bags/boxes for sweets, but I just bought a gratin baking dish and bamboo chopsticks. We walked on the Nakamise shopping street, and we had a dinner at a sushi restaurant in Nakameguro.

When I received some change today, I felt that there was something wrong. I realised that it was a new bank note, available from November 1st. The design of bank notes hasn't been changed for 20 years. This new ¥5,000 note features the novelist Ichiyo Higuchi. She died when she was only 24, so her face doesn't have much wrinkles or distinctive character. Apparently, they even tried to feature her for the ¥5,000 note 20 years ago, but her face was very difficult to portrait and they chose educator Inazo Nitobe instead. Anyway, here she is! It seems like they improved their skills. The security features of the new bank notes look amazing.

I noticed that I don't get any comments these days (and that I don't write any entries). I found out that it's impossible to comment on LDK. Because C was working on ... preventing comment spam on LDK. I guess the security was too tight. Thanks to my friend who emailed me about this problem. It's fixed now, leave some comments please!

We came back from our first trip to Shikoku Island (couldn't go to Ehime prefecture even though lots of people recommended it!). It was a 3 nights 4 days trip, and we were at Tokushima Airport - Naruto - Takamatsu - Naoshima - Kotohira - Kouchi - Ashizuri Cape - Tokushima Airport. Very tough schedule! But it was great. The nature was seriously so beautiful, and the food was also superb. I loved Sanuki Udon and Katsuo (Bonito). I didn't even notice that most of the things I bought are Katsuo products. I will write about them later.

After shopping at Tokyu Hands for my bicycle bell and a guide book for next week's Shikoku trip, we were having a pint of Yebsu in a pub. Then a bunch of people turned up on a main street of Shibuya. They were carrying a portable shrine on their shoulders. We realised that a year ago we were sitting in the same place, watching the same shrine from Konno Hachimangu Shrine.

Last night, after swimming at a sports gym, I went to ¥99 shop which I don't usually go. And I was so surprised to see my friend A in the shop. She told me that she was having a break in the middle of walking. I couldn't believe that she walked an hour from her flat! I told her that I just went to swimming, and she said 'yeah, I can see the goggles markings around your eyes'. Doh! I completely forgot about how I look! I bought 'do not cause marking' goggles, but I get the marking every time! A and her friend were wearing casual outfits but they looked cool. She is always fashionable anyway.

I was invited to an interior shop's birthday party. The invitation seemed quite casual, but I realised that I was so underdressed. After I had some sliced ham and champagne at a black lacquered dining table, I left the party. Walking around Omotesando, I saw that shigoto cafe travail, which I wrote about the other day, was still opened.

I was walking down the street in Omotesando this afternoon, and I saw a new cafe (opened yesterday), owned by a recruitment magazine called Travaille. It is a small cafe but they offer a job counselling service, a photo shooting service (for Curriculum Vitae) and some lectures. Even if you are not looking for a job, you can just have a drink there (I didn't go inside because I had a coffee just before). Travail's new TV ads also appeared on TV since yesterday. I was an extra, but I can't find myself. There were a few Velotaxies next to the cafe. They had Travail logos on them.

My friend's friends from Sweden are visiting Tokyo. C and I and our friend A had drinks with them in Shibuya last night. We thought it would be nice to drink at Nonbei Yokocho (drunkards' alley), and we went to the same bar we visited last time. We didn't stay that long, but it was very expensive!

I and C were invited to dinner at C's friend flat. The appetizer was Aubergine and Mozzarella stacks with Tomato sauce, and the main dish was Spicy Rice Noodle Soup with Seafood and lots of Mushrooms. I was very impressed with the finely chopped lemon zest in the Aubergine dish. It was very good. Thanks! After dinner, I watched the British TV comedy show Bo' Selecta! for the first time. The comedian uses rubber masks to do celebrity look-a-likes, but it seems like they are not meant to look like the real celebrities. It looks crap, but it works. Crazy. There were some jokes which I wouldn't enjoy watching while having dinner, but I love British comedy shows in general. They are bloody silly and funny.

Last night, I was watching Olympic Men's Marathon on TV, after watching F1. I was so shocked to see the man pushed the race leader to the side of the road. It's so annoying! This intruder was also on the track during F1 British Grand Prix 2003. It doesn't seem like he just wants to be the centre of attention...

It was very nice and cool yesterday. The highest temperature was only 22 °C which was 12 °C colder than the day before. I can't believe that the temperature had topped 30 °C in Tokyo for 40 days in a row. The weather forecast said that it will be very hot again from today. But I definitely can feel the sign of autumn since yesterday, even though there is an old saying 'Atsusa samusa mo higan made' (neither heat nor cold lasts beyond the spring and autumnal equinox).

The other day, there was a shooting for TV ads in a public bath for a magazine. And I was there as an extra (with clothes on). The bath is called Myoujin-yu and was built in 1957. It looks amazing: very high ceiling and a painting of Mt Fuji on the wall (very classic). Appearently, this bath has often appeared on TV and in magazines.

I saw a strange product at a 100yen shop. The plastic cover changes an AA battery to a C battery (there was also a version for AA to D). I probably wouldn't buy them but it is an interesting idea. These days I've been super busy and I don't have time to update LDK (although I have time to go to 100yen shop!). I hope I can come back on Wednesday and update everyday. Thanks for all the comments, sorry for not replying!

I can't believe that I did it twice today. When I was drawing illustrations on paper, I put down my pen to have a break, and I did 'Apple+S' ('Control+S' for Windows) in my head! This is not an occupational disease, probably my brain is damaged from the combination of the summer heat and too much air conditioning.

Yesterday, the internet provider sent me a new cable for my modem. They said there was something wrong with an old cable. Anyway, I was surprised to see the box of the cable. It said MADE IN CHINA in big print on the front of the box. It almost looks like it is a brand name.

I'm not religious, but when I went to Nikko last week, I received (bought) a goshuin 'red ink seal' at Yakushido shrine, where we can hear the roar of a dragon. I always thought these beautiful calligraphies at temples and shrines are fascinating. I didn't know that we can buy different designs of shuin-chou 'seal books' in different temples and shrines. There was a message inside the book saying 'the seals are not commemorative tourism stamps'. I thought that everyone is aware of it! But actually, is it talking to me maybe?!

We came back from Nikko, I've checked email and the internet. I was so surprised about the news that Aoyama Book Center (ABC) shut up all seven branch stores today. Actually I'm very shocked. They had a great selection of art books and international magazines (and the Roppongi branch was opened till 5:30am on weekdays!).

After a bit of swimming, I went to the upper house election at the local elementary school. I'm glad that I don't need to hear that annoying noise pollution of the election campaigning car anymore. Apparently, during the campaign, regulation is quite tight because of the 'Public Officers Election Act' law. They are not allowed to call the candidate's name repeatedly. But once they have registered their car (or ship!), they can repeat the name. That's why they are madly shouting the names repeatedlyf. They are very annoying! And I also hate the traders who drive around the neighbourhood to collect waste materials. They are so noisy in the weekend. But I don't mind the roasted sweet potato seller vans, even though they play their song in the streets!

The driver of Toden Arakawa line (old tram in Tokyo) has been suspended from his duties for six months for speeding. He drove on a tight curve with 20km/h speed instead of 5km/h. It sounds quite crazy. Come to think of speeding, did anyone go to see the London F1 Grand Prix: Regent Street demo on 6th July? When I first heard of this story, I couldn't believe it. It's a shame that we are not living in London anymore! But I hope it happens!!

It's so hot! Today's temperature has reached to 34.8°C in Tokyo. Tomorrow will be even hotter! What happened to the rain?! I bought rain boots for this rainy season but I haven't got a chance to wear them yet. But it is good that it didn't rain today, otherwise the Milky Way (River in the Heaven) was flooded and Orihime and Hikoboshi couldn't see each other.

22:45pm Watch the Wimbledon gentlemen's singles finals on TV.
23:50pm Stop watching and videotape tennis, watch F1 on TV.
01:35am After F1, watch the videotaped tennis.
03:30am Watch the Euro 2004 final? or sleep?

As you might know already, the meaning of my blog's name LDK is 'Living-Dining-Kitchen'. This is probably a Japanese-English word. When I was in Germany last month, I was very surprised to see the car's number plates. Almost all plates said LDK! The district where C's parents live called LDK which is stands for Lahn-Dill-Kreis, means 'Lahn River, Dill River District'. What a coincidence!

These days we don't have rain at all in Tokyo, even we meant to be in the rainy season now. I've washed 6 jumpers this week so far, because of the nice weather. I even washed a duvet. Before the rain comes back I want to wash 6 more sweaters. I also bought lots of repellents. Yes, I'm doing KOROMOGAE 'a seasonal change of clothing' for our wardrobe. I should have done this on 1st of June. This is very old Japanese customs, and we need to switch garments because the temperature changes a lot between the four seasons in Japan. We never wear a wooly clothes in the summer time, like I did when I was in London. But London's summer seems very hot recently. A global warming?

It was the second time I played pachinko. The last time when I went to pachinko about 5 years ago, I won lots of balls (beginner's luck!) and I got many sweets etc. But this time my ¥500 didn't last more than 3mins! I needed your magic Minky MoMo! Apparently, this pachinko shop appears in the film Lost In Translation.

Yesterday, our ex-flatmates from London arrived in Tokyo. I asked them to bring lots of stuff, but they brought even more (not all of them are on a photo!). Thanks!! I will try to be a good host for 2 weeks!

I take trains when I go out, but I don't like trains in Tokyo. The Underground in London can be very messy/dirty (my mum refused to sit down because her clothes might get dirty!), but there is something very nice about it which we don't have in Tokyo. It's the armrest on each seat. Nobody can disturb my space!

Yesterday, C came back from a business trip. It's been 4 weeks since we last saw each other at home. We went for dinner and beer at our neighborhood izakaya. He told me lots of funny stories from his trip.

In London, I saw strong messages on cigarette packs which weren't there 2 years ago. I don't know If these warning actually stop lots of smokers to smoke, but maybe it helps for people who may start to smoke. Anyway it costs £4.90 (¥988), too expensive. I wouldn't smoke! Even the little size (we don't have this size in Japan) costs about £2.50 (¥500), it's crazy. I wonder the price of cigarette in Japan will be £4.90 one day. It is only £1.48 at the moment.

The image of the Queen is everywhere on British coins and notes. Yes, she is a very popular and respected person. But on some bank notes, numbers are written on her face. I guess people use these notes for calculations, but those numbers would be easy to remember. I wonder if the Queen is disappointed with her people's mental arithmetic.

Anyway, I'm leaving and I hope to use some British Pounds on my trip. I might be able to write from the other side of the world, but I can't promise. See you in three weeks' time!

The other day, in the cab on the way home after drinking a lot with C, I listened to a really old Japanese pop song from a radio. The vocal is double speeded (the voice sounds like Itchy & Scratchy opening song) and starts with 'Ora wa shinjimatta da- (I'm dead), Ora wa shinjimatta da- (I'm dead)'. When I was a kid, I didn't understand the whole lyrics, but laughing with friends singing 'I'm dead, I'm dead'.

I noticed that a package of Mild Seven (Japanese Cigarettes) has been replacing by a new design. I've never thought that the old package is a good design, but it is so much better than the new one. I liked the super fine pinstripe background. JT (Japan Tobacco) changed the design because the old design is unpopular by young people. I think the cigarettes package should be an old man style. The design of Hi-lite 'pronounced as high-light' (1960〜) by Makoto Wada, Peace (1957〜) and Lucky Strike by Raymond Loewy look always great. There is a Raymond Loewy exhibition showing at Tobacco & Salt Museum in Shibuya.

Yesterday, when we were eating grapes, I told C that eating seeds is not good for your stomach. But today I swallowed the filling of a cavity in my tooth when I was eating a pancake! It was a big one (the filling). Nooooo! The other day, the filling came off when I tried a banana flavoured candy which I didn't even want to eat. I stuck the filling back in the tooth and thought it would be fine but... of course not! I should have gone to a dentist. Now I feel a funny feeling in my stomach.

Today is a memorial day of bread in Japan. On 12 April 1842, Tarozaemon Egawa baked the first bread to introduced to Japanese. In 1983, the bread promotion council in Japan set the day as a memorial day. I've never heard of it! When I was at ¥99 sop the other day, I was given a slice of bread for tasting. It was even in a plastic bag. I've never seen anything like that before!

I and my husband have our hair cut by our friend who is a hairdresser. We usually go there separately but we went there together today. My hair is shorter than usual, and I think I (or only the hairstyle) might look young. Thanks M!

It is April. From today, the Eidan subway (Teito Rapid Transit Authority) transformed into a private company called Tokyo Metro. I use subway quite often, I'm going to miss their unique moss green uniform. Yesterday, I asked a station staff if I can take a photo of him. He said he also prefers the green one. He did a very long pose (confirming safety by pointing in both directions before a train comes on a platform) for me. Thanks!

2004 is an Olympic year. I would love to watch any kind of sports at Olympic, it is an exciting event for me. But! I was so surprised to hear about Ian Thorpe will not swim 400m freestyle in Athens! He is a world record holder though... I think my mum is so disappointed!

While I was away, it seems like that a police officer visited our flat, and he left a letter. It says 'Make your home more secure. A flat was burgled in this building recently.' on a big smiley cute peepo (Tokyo Metropolitan Police' mascot). We got a security camera in a lift just 2 weeks ago. I wonder if we had a burglar first or a security camera. Or probably the neighbourhood isn't safe any longer. There was also a form in the envelope. If we write our work/relatives addresses/phone numbers, they can contact us/them smoothly in case of emergency, something like a fire I guess. Oh well, it isn't a very happy topic. It made me down!

I've been using Google for a long time but I didn't know the Google's built-in calculator function until today. Is this obvious? I found this by accident when I searched the Japanese mobile phone company 'au'. I also learnt that 1 Astronomical Unit (the average distance from the Earth to the Sun) = 149 598 000 000 meters, and the origin of au' name (my guess was wrong).

Last month, personal information on 4,517,039 persons had been leaked from the big company. I was one of 4,517,039! Annoying. The day before yesterday, I received a letter saying that 'they feel as if their heart would break' and ¥500 (£2.53) cheque was inside. It said 'If you don't cash a cheque by 16th May, we would like to donate those money to the fund for the future of the information society etc'. I have no idea what 'the fund for the future of the information society etc' is!

The missing wallet was found in the taxi! The taxi company Asca Kohtsu Daini phoned me yesterday afternoon. I asked them to send it by courier, and I've just got it! Cash, a drivers license, a credit card, a suica, my business card, a library card, a membership card for a sports club, everything was inside. Mr driver, thank you sooo much! It's been about 13 years since I started to use this wallet (I was surprised myself to find it out now), and it is the 4th time that I lost this wallet! I believe the 'fatal relationship' between this wallet and me.

I went to Dean & Deluca at atré shinagawa (in J only) which has just opened in the beginning of March. The shop is much bigger than the one in Shibuya and Marunouchi, there were many unusual fruits and vegetables near the entrance, they sell fish and meat too. I was very excited to see lots of different kinds of salt from around the world. They sell salt by weight, but it was too expensive for me. I shouldn't forget about their target customer's annual income is ¥50,000,000 (£257,707)!

After yesterday's official announcement, the sakura (cherry) in full bloom already!? Not quite yet. This is a plastic sakura tree in Shinagawa station. I can't believe that people thought about making/using fake ugly plastic trees for display. But I kind of like these bad sense which I can see very often in Japan.

Today, the Japan meteorological agency announced officially that the sakura (cherry) trees started blooming in Tokyo. It is 10 days earlier than average and it is the second earliest date since data were first collected in 1953. The sakura trees near our flat became very pink today. It always rains a lot, just after their bloom, I hope the weather will be nice this weekend.

Last month, I mentioned about my hayfever, but it was nothing. I'm suffering propery from a real hayfever since this Tuesday. Sneezing, runny nose, nasal congestion, itchy eyes, muzzy head and I feel like washing earholes with a water gun. Yesterday, I bought pocket size lotioned tissue called 'it will be trouble if my nose gets red'. You've got a point! But other lotion tissue 'Ten-nen Hoshitu' is much softer.

This afternoon, I saw a guy selling THE BIG ISSUE JAPAN in front of Shinjuku station south exit. I heard that THE BIG ISSUE launched in Japan last year but I've never seen anyone selling the magazines in Tokyo until today. When I first moved to London, I was wondering about those people who were shouting 'Biiiig big big big issue!' or 'BIGissue!' on streets in London. The Japanese guy who I bought it from was rather moderate. The new issue just came out yesterday. A4, 30pages, full colours, ¥200 (£1).

Yesterday' late afternoon, we went to Roppongi Hills to see KUSAMATRIX. It was WOW! I always love the art works which have a simple idea and a strong impact. She is so cool. And also another Wow! for my husband's discovery at Tokyo City View. He noticed that the sky colour of Tokyo is same as the ticket colour! I'm not sure but I think the lighting in the lifts might change like this colour gradation. On the other side of the room, there was Mt. Fuji at Sunset. It was huge.

It's been 3 months since the last time I attended the pottery class. My hand-built cereal bowl transformed into a chic Shirohagi (straw-ash) glazed bowl. It shrunk a lot. I think I should learn how to use the potters wheel. I don't want to create more rubbish. No more distorted bowls. Yesterday, I only practiced using the potters wheel. My small sake cups look like poison fungus in the forest, but I couldn't even play with clay on the potters wheel last time, so I believed that I made a big progress. Next time it's for real!

We are back! Since Friday, we couldn't see our site. We thought it was a server problem but we realised that it was something else! The domain name registration had expired. Phew!! We are not closing the site, so please visit us same as before!

Yesterday, I went to see our friend who is in hospital in Ochanomizu. He seemed so much better than the last time, I and my girl friends were relieved and decided to fill our stomach a little bit in a restaurant. There were not many choices in Ochanomizu and we chose an ordinary italian-ish restaurant. When we were inside, I was a little bit surprised to see the interior which was tacky bar style, reminded me of 80's soap dramas and all waiters were wearing in black. Even though, there were lots of customers. Ochanomizu is an amazing place!

I've noticed since last week, but I tried not to think about it. But now I can't lie to myself anymore: my eyes are itchy!! It's been very warm and windy these days and pollen is having a party in the air. For the next few months, I won't be able to hang our futon outside in the sun to keep it fresh. I never take medicine unless I feel really sick, that's why I have an entire collection of hayfever medicine. The reason I have 2 boxes each of the British medicine is the two-for-one or the three-for-two deals. We don't have these deals in Japan. It's simply 30% off or 50% off. I shouldn't be delighted with the offers in England, because I might have to throw the second pack away in the end. But I used to 'Buy One Häagen-Dazs and Get One Free' at Tesco supermarket.

My husband came back from snowboarding. He brought omiyage (souvenir) for me, it was just a container of his lunch box!! I expected something completely different, something edible! But I found the name of Mashiko-yaki pottery on the back. Hmmm, actually it looks quite nice (!). A glaze colour is very nice and the feeling of the touch is kind of warm. The big letters of YOKOGAWA STATION on the side makes this proper souvenir product.

I read an annoying news. A 42 years old thief who stole money from many houses all over Japan for 20 years, built himself a new house in Ibaragi prefecture 6 years ago. He saved ¥50,000,000 (£245,339) and bought a land for ¥ 20,000,000 and ¥ 30,000,000 for the house which is a 3 floors plus a basement. He has arrested last month for stealing a car. I wonder what happens to the house. Is it still his house?

Yesterday, I visited a photographer's studio/flat. The Rainbow Bridge was just in front of the balcony. I could see the Fuji TV building too. It was the kind of flat which you might see in a TV drama!

I don't know why I've been keeping this rubbish. This is a badge of Hato Bus (bus tours of Tokyo). I remember that me and my friend took my husband (boyfriend at that time) to a bus tour when he was visiting Japan for the first time. We chose the Cityrama Tokyo afternoon route. We had an English speaking guide but I think we were too busy to chat and didn't listen to her much. And also I wanted to stay in Asakusa longer. A happy memory. But feeling nostalgic about little rubbish is not very good for tidying rooms...

When I was trying to clear my room, I found my old mobile phones and my husband's. Nokia, my first mobile still looks good to me, I love the wide and flat body. The second one was MOTOROLA which I used in London. Its interface was very bad. I learnt that how important the interface design is! I shouldn't choose only from a brad name and the looks. And I'm using Sony Ericsson nearly 2 years now. Cool colour isn't it? The interface has a tiny problem but still very good. 4 stars. Unfortunately, Nokia' mobile phone isn't very popular for Japanese who cares about the size a lot. But I kind of like their phones. Also you can get the actual size of mobile chocolate at the moment!

While my husband is snowboarding, I went to Yurakucho where a big sale was held by one of my favourite fashion company. I've just learnt how to throw things away but I ended up buying lots of clothes! Also I don't know why I chose only brown-ish clothes today, looks like I bought them for grandparents! I went to The Conran Shop in Marunouchi building. I became melancholic a little bit. Good old London! After that I bought little snack at DEAN & DELUCA. I'm not a shop-a-holic, but I went home before I spend too much money!

We had too many old dry cell batteries at home. Some electric shops collect old batteries but I always forget to take with me. I searched the Internet and found out that there is a collection box next to the library. I could throw them away finally!

I went to buy bullet train tickets for this weekend. My husband and his mates are going to snowboarding. I thought the ticket shop would open by 10am but it was from 11am. I had a chance to have a relaxed time with coffee in a cafe. I think the pattern on tickets are always nicely designed. A bullet train ticket has kind of sharp and cool design, and our local train ticket is soft and old style.

Yesterday I went to see WE ARE FAMILY by Patricia Piccinini at Hara museum with my friend. A girl playing with stem cells, young cloned boys playing with GBA... it was amazing and also scary. We went to Franklin Avenue in Gotanda where we always wanted to go. We both had a cheeseburger. Yum.

When I arrived at Shibuya station this afternoon, many people with camera were hanging out. Today was the day that Toyoko line changed the train destination from Sakuragi-cho to Moto-machi/Chuka-gai. (Japanese only) People were taking photographs of a new destination sign on a train. I took the photo in the evening, so not many people were there.

The Mayor of Kita-kyusyu city invited staffs' suggestions for the 'happy topic', and he chose about 20 ideas out of 600 yesterday. One of the ideas is make an actual size of Gundam robot, and let it walk in a town (the news is in Japanese only). It is meant to appeal that the city is a robotics advanced city. I simulated that 18m high' Gundam is in front of Kokura station in Kita-kyusyu city. ... too dangerous? It is unlikely to be realized but I hope it happens!

These days I use our landline phone to talk to our parents only. And almost all calls in a day time are from telemarketing. They try to sell different things, facial care products, a new flat and a gravestone etc. They believe they can get my attention by mentioning that they do a campaign at the moment. Sometimes they slam the receiver down when I tell them that I'm not interested at all, before they start the talk. Annoying! Today's call was about cleaning the kitchen. The regular price is ¥12,000 but ¥2,000 for today. Suspiciously cheap! Of course I refused the offer.

Last night, we went to a home party at friend' flat. I decided to buy cheesecake from JOHANN which is too famous among the cake lovers, because the host doesn't drink! I was worried about it might be sold out soon, so we left our flat in the early afternoon, went for a walk to Nakameguro. Meguro Ginza shopping street is a normal local shopping street but there were so many people in front of TOKION shop the day before. It was crazy! We decided to have breakfast (it turned out our lunch and dinner) at Organic Cafe. I chose Organic Cafe Sand wich come with nice heavy dark bread. It was very nice but also bit jealous of C' chicken and bacon in Triple Decker Sand!

I am troubled about pigeons since we moved to this flat. They love to sit on electric cables in front of our balcony, and jumped to our balcony, leave lots of droppings and feathers. The most annoying thing is they have a party at 7am on our neighbour' balcony. Our neighbour feeds pigeons! They coo a lot, flap their wings loudly and dash themselves against our balcony' wall. What are they doing?! I can't wake up on my own even with an alarm clock in the morning but they wake me up very easily in the early morning. I HATE them!

Yesterday was Coming of Age Day, a bank holiday. I think people who turned to 18 years old can drink alcohol and given the right to vote In England. They become an 'adult' 2 years earlier than us! The ceremonies (with lots of "interesting" speeches) hosted by municipalities are kind of big school reunions I imagine. Recently some people tend to try to show off how cool they are (usually start to fight or drink), and promoters are bit nervous about it. You don't need to open a big bottle (1.8L) of Sake at the ceremony, you will have lots of opportunities to get pissed with your mates from now on! Well, I envy the power of the youth.

Yesterday, I went to the clinic for an annual checkup on the other side of our local station. It was very posh clinic (I wish I had a digicam)! In the waiting room, there were proper sofas for living room! In the toilet, I noticed many hand towels were folded nicely in a basket! When I changed to a checkup costume, they also gave me a clean bathrobe! Is this normal?! The checkup itself was also very professional. But when I left the clinic, the nurse said to me the usual phrase without thinking, "Take good care of yourself!". Thanks, but you didn't mean it, did you?!

Today is Christmas Eve. It's a day for family eating nice food and cake, or going to a fancy restaurant for loving couple in Japan. But we are too busy to do that before our trip to Hokkaido tomorrow. I just bought new years cards from a post office. I will write them very quickly (sincerely), and post them today! (I will design a card next year!) No cards, just email to close friends... Anyway, I won't be able to update LDK for a week. This is the last weblog this year. Merry Christmas & a happy new year for all of you!

It is a time for house cleaning. In Japan, we say 'the dirt this year, within the year'. Yes, I know but... I understand that people clean thier house in spring time in England, it's too cold to clean windows! Oh well, I will start from kitchen today. And I'm going to use Astonish. About 10 years ago, my mum bought this after seeing a guy promoting this cleanser in a department store. I remember that I thought it was an expensive cleanser (seems much cheaper these days). Actually I bought this at £1 shop in England! Lucky! My kitchen will be perfect with this. And this 'German-born (always says on a package)' melamine sponge is super good too. Make a sponge wet and rub a tea-stained cup, and your cup will be bling bling!

I went to Sangen-chaya to go to a shop called fog. I haven't been to San-cha for ages. Chazawa street is very local atmosphere and I like it. After 10mins of walking towards Shimokitazawa, it changes to a quiet residential area. I found a nice fireplug. I bought a red linen table cloth for christmas and a blight orange cross stripes kitchen cloth. I got a red glass as a christmas present from fog.

It is snowing in Hokkaido finally. I started to look for a place to stay on internet. All hotels I want to stay are fully booked, we decided to stay at a pension. We use this term 'pension (pen-shon)' as Japanese, but what does it mean exactly? According to Japanese dictionaly small hotel like 'Minshuku' (B&B). It has a warm family atmosphere and a function of hotel. Is this French word? By the way, Japanese say 'gelände' for a ski slope without knowing it's German!

I couldn't believe my eyes in a shop. This is the cracker made by Maeda confectionery company. I didn't know it is still exist, and I've never seen this before. This cracker is very well known because of their TV ads in 60's. And the famous phrase is 'AtariMaeda no Cracker'. Atarimae! (Of course!) and Maeda (company name) were combined. Yes, it isn't funny at all, but everyone (not me + my family) used this phrase instead of 'Of course' to make their friends smile. Anyway, my generation is the last one to know about this.

It is December already. We visit my parents in Sappporo this winnter holiday. We are planning to snowboard in Niseko but there is no snow... It is very strange that almost all ski slopes in Hokkaido don't have any snow yet. Niseko' slopes were planned to open on 22 November but it hasn't open yet. I don't mind going to a hot spring resort instead... (the photo is today' Niseko taken by Livecam!)

Yesterday, my sister took me to a pottery class. I think I did pottery once during the art foundation course but I was completely a beginner. I tried not to make rubbish at least.

According to TV last night, in order to have a strong body which doesn't catch a cold easily, it is important to have lots of saliva in our mouth. I went to a convenience store to buy dried ume (japanese plum) . It was sweet and salty, but strange taste. I think it contains an artificial preservatives. Taking lots of salt isn't good either. Apparently, it is effective enough just looking at the photograph of a pickled ume and get lots of saliva, without eating something sour. But pickled ume doesn't make C' mouth watery. Not enough 'ume' experience yet.

I saw a vending machine for Snickers on a train platform for the first time. I remembered that there were vending machines for different kind of chocolates on tube platforms in London. I think Japanese people (especially men) don't eat chocolate bars so much. I was surprised to see how often people (including me) eat those bars in London. I wonder who is going yo use this machine. Anyway Japanese people won't eat on a train platform, like people do in London. The annoying functions are very London: Exact money only and Once you put money, there is no return money function.

The exhibition Treasures from the World's Cultures: The British Museum after 250 Years is held in the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum from last month. I found out that Kaiyodo (well known figure maker after Choco Egg which changed the name to ChocoQ) has made figures of the inheritance of ancient Egypt from British Museum. I bought one (the box is huge!) and List of the kings of Egypt from the Temple of Ramesses 2 was inside. This is the most un-popular one, I guess. It is ¥340 comes with 2 little Paddington honey cookies which matches black tea well (that is what says on a box). It sells in a museum shop in British Museum. I'm not sure if people buy it in Lodon.

Finally I made up my mind to use OSX, went to Akihabara area to buy PowerBook G4. I got a new Mac! I was very excited when I opened the box which was very neat. The aluminum alloy body, a backlit keyboard (keyboard is illuminated in the dark), they are NICE.

Finally the day has come. I had to say good-bye to my lovely PowerBook G3 333. The screen color turned to blue-ish a month ago, and the screen has been distorted and strange pattern appeared since last week. I had to hit the mac to fix it, just like an old TV. But... it hasn't worked since yesterday. It doesn't show the original desktop image anymore. It had a 4years and 3months life. Is this very old in computer age? (It is quite short actually!)

Reading a book in bed cause arm ache. Lots of inventions are available but this Gorone "Lie-Dozing" Scope looks very handy. An improved version is good for people with glasses already. Does anybody want to use it? I want a television which tilts to the side. I can lie on my side and watch TV!

Are you good at calling your office to notice of absence because of illness? Maybe my voice doesn't sound I'm sick enough, even I have a fever? If I have a cough on the phone, they think I'm acting? Oh, dear! I don't need to worry about this anymore. These days people probably just emails instead of making phone call. But still trying hard to write a sick-mail? Then you can try this mail generator-I'm off because of sick (Japanese Only).

Today is Culture Day (and bank holiday). The conferment of medals recipients in the autumn were announced. 4068 persons were awarded. Quite a number! From this time, the criticism to ranking people numerically abolished the grade in numbers, such as "the first order of merit", and the women were also contained in the candidate of Orders of the Rising Sun which was awarded to the men only. Well, I probably won't get it anyway. 38 people from other countries including Mstislav Rostropovich, a conductor and a cellist, were awarded too. The image shows Mr. Tanaka (who became very famous by receiving the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2002)' medal of culture awards from last year.

Ian Thorpe launched a brand of underwear called "IT" (...!). It is a bit scary to think about he just turned to 21 years old. Young businessman! He arrived in Japan yesterday for a sales promotion (I guess). I wonder how many girls in Japan buy IT underwear for their boyfriends after seeing Ian with underwear? I am interested in swimming with him more than his underwear (not much difference between swimming trunks and underwear anyway)! I liked SONY' advertising but don't do this to him!

I don't watch TV anymore but I switched on TV for pitagoraswitch (pytagoras switch). This program is made for 4-6 year old child, helping the young to develop their way of thinking. Very nice. The editorial supervisor is Masahiko Sato (a creative art director; made many advertising, such as polinky, baza-ru de goza-ru (Bazaar de Gozaar)). The short video "nan no ato? (What mark is this?)" is done by Honma Takashi in a program. Pitagoraswitch clicks in my 6 + 26 years old head too!

It was already after midnight but Carsten took us to Nonbei Yokocho (drunkard' alley) the alley running alongside the train tracks in Shibuya. There are lots of tiny nomiya (bars) and so much like Blade Runner. It was the first time to go there for all of us except Carsten, so we were excited and bit careful to chose a bar. Our friend found an empty bar, tried to go inside. But the owner "oka-a san (mother)" told him that she takes a bus home @ 1:00am so she wants to close the bar soon. He asked if we can have just one drink and told her that we go home in half hour with the last train. We managed to go inside finally. Wow!

The 37th Tokyo Motor Show starts from tomorrow. There were nice posters from past years (by well-known designers) but this year' design is awful! Who desgined this?! This bag is from the 32nd show in 1997. I got this from an internet auction. Paid ¥600. I like the circles and font. I enjoy F1 but ... I have No interests about cars.

Just after our friends from London left Japan, we had a quite strong earthquake (Shindo 3) this afternoon. Scary.

1 salmon sushi cost ¥850. Expensive! We saw lots of plastic foods sample in "kappa-bashi" in Asakusa bashi yesterday.

On the bank holiday (Respect for the Aged Day) with a beautiful weather, we went to the Komazawa olympic park by walk. This large park (4.12 ha) with lots of stadiums was the second main venue of Tokyo Olympic games held in 1964. There were many good old "modern" architectures. Kids were playing to get on the top of the miniature of this building.

I like information gathering and management, and I make a sketch of the inside of closets to grasp exactly what is where. But he is worse than me. On his site, showing pictures of everything in his house. Well, i don't know whether you want to see everything, but I'm sure it's so fun for him. I feel that the similar OTAKU blood is flowing to me and him. His blood is much thicker compared with mine though.

On the platform of our local station, there was a photo shooting this afternoon. Asato Izumi who is very famouse columnist (and otaku) was doing the pause reading a newspaper in front of the kiosk. He was also asked to squat down on the floor! I wanted to took a photograph secretly and took the bit of distant, but it flashed! No! A night view setting had been carried out from last night' Mars. You can read Asato Izumi' food article (japanese only). Actually, I prefer Sadao Shoji if I read some food colum.

I heard the news about Mars closer to Earth than at any time in nearly 60,000 years. But I haven't checked it yet and I saw it tonight finally. Because Mars has a rendezvous with the moon tonight. I could see it with my naked eyes! @ 6:20pm, Mars was shining in the lower left of the moon. Mars and the moon will approach further more around 8:40pm for 6 minutes. They are getting closer @ 6:50pm.

While I was ignoring Ms. apple, I was playing golf with princess peach! I haven't played any games these days but Mario Golf Family Tour is fun to play. I like it! Mario' game is always very nice graphic and I like all characters. Even golf courses are lovely! But characters' voice and animations are a little bit too much for me...

It was only 3 days since I talked about my mac. After I restarted my powerbook (as usuall), a ? mark came up instead of a happymac! Nooo! At this situation, always same sentences go by my head "when did I get backup?","sad to lose e-mail addresses" etc. I thought about initializing HD, but it was unnecessary. sigh! Ms. apple got into a better temper but I decided to ignored her for a while. I didn't check my email, internet and no weblog. Well, I should get backup ...

Living in Japan, a name stamp is very necessary item. Since I got married and changed the surname, my name seems too long for a stamp (usually 1cm diameter of a circle). Is it possible? I asked the digital stamp' website to make a gif image of our name stamp (no charge!). Wow, all characters fit in there! I might ask them to make a real one!

It has been lighting more than 10 mins. Crazy. I really hate thunder usually but I was concentrating of taking photographs and forgot about scare of it! It seems like the Yamanote line is not working (news @ 18:58)...

My lovely PowerBook G4 freezes very often everyday. Carsten offers me a new mac but I don't need it yet. I'm not ready to say good bye to the mac icon which I smile together and cry together for a long time. I know OS X is good but I cannot bear the new desk top icons. Yuck! Can I customize startup picture and all other icons?

There has been a big construction work over a long period (was it 3 months?) by side of our building (even on Saturday!). Builders, business people and some specialists with a strange uniform were inspecting the holes yesterday. According to the schedule, construction will be finished by today.

Genichiro Inokuma' oil painting was sold for a super high price on an internet auction. I didn't want it but I was watching it. 1950, Inokuma designed the wrapping paper for MITSUKOSHI the oldest department store in Japan (established in 1673) and they are still using it. Nice one, MITSUKOSHI! I heard that Takashi Yanase who is very well known as an Anpan-man' author also took part of this wrapping paper design, and I asked MITSUKOSHI if it is true and...

Carsten brought the present for me. It was the addition of the almond chocolate by Glico (Maybe the 2 chocolates is the addition not the CD). I thought about buying it but if I buy one sheet... it is likely to continue buying it until I collecte them all. I gave up. Anyway I was listening the nostalgic song (from 1981), looking at a words card and! The glue part of the plastic envelope is completely attached to a record jacket. Oh, not agaaaaain! I can't believe some envelopes of printer papers or letter papers have a sticky part on a flap but on a trunk of an envelope. What are they thinking?!

A cool news from the forest in Nagano made me think of getting a black belt (of what?) again. Yesterday afternoon, 63 years-old man who visited a forest to harvest mushrooms noticed the bear with a length of about 170cm crouched down in position of 5m. The bear rose and rushed toward him. After a grapple, the man threw off bear with judo's Tomoe-nage! Ippon!

I've noticed some familier images on a TV this afternoon and it took a few seconds to realise what that was. It was 24! It will be on a rental shop in Japan from this October. I've already got DVD but nice to introduce to my japanese friends. Everyone must see it!

Having relevance to yesterday' MEGURO story, here is a sea urchin by Toshyuki MEGURO. It's a ORIGAMI! Wanna see more?

It has been more than 2 weeks since I went to the gym last time. There is old Meguro City Office on the way to the gym and I found out that the demolition work has started finally. Noooo! I've been thinking about taking a commemorative photo on a nice sunny day since this January. But it's too late now...

I still have lots of old currency coins from Germany, France, the Netherlands etc... Maybe I can sell on a auction? My german husband wants to keep some German marks. If the Japanese yen coins and notes were no longer legal tender in Japan and new "Asia" bills and coins had been introduced... I deffinetely keep all Japanese coins + notes (without any changing)! The first color coins appeared in Japan last year. The original sales price was ¥6,000 and it leaped up to ¥20,000 at the moment.

When I was a kid, there were one/two going-to-school days while the long summer holiday. At my elementary and junior high schools in Fukuoka, 6 Aug when the atomic bomb was dropped to Hiroshima was the one of going-to-school days. We could listen to people who actually experienced in the atomic bomb of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and made me filled with the sad fearful feeling. I wonder if kids have the opportunity to talk about the world war II these days?

Millet' Gleaners is very very popular in Japan. I found this today!