lumines comments

Oh, I've lost interest to visit the Netherlands now .. :P

Imagine receiving calls or text messages at 3.00 AM. LOL

Does anyone know the breed of that dog? He's very cute!

I would never think to pop in in a friend's house without calling by phone first! I think it's impolite, unless the person it's a good and old friend and has agree that you can pop in anytime. Otherwise you could just be disturbing with your unannounced visit. It has nothing to do with culture differences, but with common sense.

*bothered

I'm not bother by them, but they are certainly not my musical taste. But I think they lack originality, there are a lot of groups like them, so it's really nothing fresh in the ambient anymore. And I don't understand why do they need to have, what, more than 10 singers on a band? (I don't know how many they are actually, a friend told me they were 48 members indeed and I just LOL'd, say whaat!!!?). I don't know who copy who, if the Japanese or the Koreans, there comes a time when it's nothing but boring. I always though that boys/girls pop bands trend that was so widespread in the 90's/ early 2000s in other countries arrived late in Japan. Also, I don't understand why a lot of people (specially men) here in Japan fantasize with very young girls, or with women who act like 'little' girls, that's annoying and not "kawaii"..

Cool! But I don't like to rely on attendants anyway when I do my shopping. I just look up to a couple of things I like, try them on, and if I'm convinced, go to the cashier, pay, and I'm ready to go. Though that process usually takes me a good hour, more or less LOL! Specially when there's so many options. UNIQLO has good quality clothes, I specially like those T-shirts with pretty designs..

wow stay safe people! This may be a long night indeed.. :(

I was half sleeping, but felt a slight tremor here in Tochigi. I couldn't have imagine it was a 6.8! Wow..

I live in Tochigi. That day I was at home with my fiance, and that morning I was in such a terrible mood, with a bad headache, but I thought it was because I couldn't sleep well. So at 11 A.M. I slept a little (still couldn't get sleep) and after rolling in bed I finally woke up at 14.20 more or less. I had the feeling I had to do something, so me and my fiance started to clean up the house. Usually the first thing I do when I wake up is to grab a cup of coffee, but for some reason I just woke up and started organizing the bedroom, I felt the ambient was 'too heavy', and I just thought that if I did that I would feel better. It was a strange feeling that even today makes me wonder.

Another thing I have to say is, that earlier on that week, I was thinking about making my emergency kit (which I hadn't ready at the time, and I was reading some stuff on the Internet about geology, EQ preparation, etc.). What made my mind was the 7.0 EQ that Wednesday before. So I decided I was going to have it ready for that Saturday 12th.

Well, just minutes later after we were cleaning the house, we felt a shaking, but it wasn't too strong at the beggining, then it grew stronger. I ran to the kitchen where my fiance was, and I said: "It's an EQ!!" But at that time we could hardly stand on our feets, everything was starting to shake like never before. So I told him to go inside the wardrobe (!!) to hide ourselves, as I had read that is a good place to hide during an EQ if you don't have time to scape. He didn't refute that, so there we went.. Wow, our apartment was shaking like a wooden toy!! And at the corners, the walls began to crack, I didn't see that at the moment, only after, (my fiance saw it but didn't say anything, he told me he didn't because I was terrified enough!). We heard our stuffs in the kitchen falling and cracking, and at that time, I said to myself: "OK, this is it. If the roof is gonna fall, do it NOW, otherwise, stop it already!). Those were horrifying minutes indeed. I thought I was going to die.

After the big shaking passed, we ran out the house, but the ground was still shaking. After some minutes, I ran inside the house to close the gas and electricity conections, and my fiance grabbed his cellphone. And we spend a lot of time outside the house, in a parking lot next to our appartment and it started to snow a little(which was very bizarre, because in some parts, the sky was clean, and in another parts it was cloudy!). I tried to call some friends (my family isn't in Japan), but it wasn't working. Luckily the internet conexion was, so I went to the JMA site and that's how I knew that was a 7.9 (at that time), and that there was a tsunami alert. We still couldn't believe what was happening in front of our eyes! We were talking to our neighbors who were all outside the appartment too so they didn't have a good idea about what was happening either. But the gas and water services were suspended in several parts od the city, and also electricity (in my area we were without gas and then water for a couple of days).

Later that afternoon, we finally went inside our house (we were a little afraid because all of the crackings on the wall, but we were on alert and preparing our stuffs to carry them to the car. I started to clean up - once again - the huge mess the EQ did, took some coffee and watch the news. Oh boy. It was so unreal. I watched those images of the tsunami arriving to the coastal cities and just wanted to cry thinking about those people. The knot on my throat was unbearable. And all I could think of was about how lucky we were.

Finally, we talked with our family and friends in another country via Facebook and web phone.They were so worried! My brother told me that he was in school at that time and they were watching for the news on TV at class very concerned and supporting him because they knew his sister (me) was in Japan. The markets were all closed and the combinis were all crowded with almost anything, but luckily the manager of the combinis managed to bring more things to sell with his own car, so that's how we could buy more tea -there wasn't any mineral water at all- and chips. We didn't sleep at all and then we went to our friends' house to spend the night and to watch the news.

What I learned with all this catastrophe, was that we take a lot of things for granted sometimes. They could all be taken away from us, without any previous warning. Now I make sure everyday before heading to work, to kiss and give a big and warm hug to my fiance, to tell him "I love you" everyday, and try to be prepared for anything (to have my emergency kit ready always!) But we have to go on with our lives, not live in fear.

First time I hear of this..

@ NZ2011: I was going to mention that same episode from The Simpsons too! Hahaha first thing that came into my mind after I saw the picture. Anyway, I liked this idea.

Relax.. it's just a little light reading! After I saw the first labels I thought: "Geez, why is it always food involved somehow?" LOL Then I saw there were another variations, like 'outdoor', 'culture' and 'fashion'.. Funny article anyway.

I had an experience once with my boyfriend, in a small town. We got lost in our way to the Prefectural Office and it was getting darker (almost 5 p.m in winter). So we try to approach an old lady to ask for directions. She saw from a certain distance that we were foreigners (at least we thought so, because she look at us on the face, we don't have asian features though we are childs of Japanese), and she didn't even bother to look at us anymore and when my boyfriend tried to ask her, she made an angry face and avoid us and crossed the road! It felt like she thought we were going to steal her or ask for money.. That was a bitter attitude from her and my boyfriend felt outraged, it took days to take that image from him. Perhaps she just distrusted strangers approaching to her, but anyway, it was an isolated case for me. The other ones were little things, like people staring at us in the market/restaurants, etc., and though I don't like to drag too much attention, I got used to it.

Some friends of mine also commented of cases when they went to certains stores, and they have been followed by security guards, or being stopped at the exit of stores to check out their bags (well, in that particular case, the cashier lady forgot to take off the alarm tag from the clothes). Affortunately they stil had the receipt, so they could prove they didn't steal anything, but it was an embarrasing moment nevertheless. Well, come to think of it, it could happen anywhere in the world, not only in Japan..

Even the monkeys go to the hot springs but meee!! LOL :P

Wow.. I live near Nasushiobara city.. This is scary news! :S

Ahhh.. This is a very sad story. What a soulless 'son'.. I imagine his father felt helpless already for being in his situation, at least for me this was an act of cowardice and lack of love and respect. I heard some elderly people can be difficult to manage sometimes, but I don't think they deserve this end. It doesn't matter if the children are 'doing sacrifices' to take care of their parent, they seem to forget we all gonna get old too someday (maybe, if they don't die before of course).. Would they want to feel like a 'load' to their kids too? If they can't manage to treat their parents anymore, the only solution is taking them to a care center, not the 'dreamed choice', but it's better than this. I know some kids raise with a profound anger towards their parents, and maybe for good reasons, but in the end, the only way to go (except perhaps some few serious cases), is forgiveness. Well, this may sound too idealistic, but if we could only understand that..

I had a friend in her 40s who just HAD to give chocolate gifts to all of her male workers every year. And a chocolate egg every Easter's day. While I didn't understand why did she bother to spend money to do that (even if it wasn't very expensive) it was very sweet of her. But she didn't use to receive any 'cookies' or chocolates back in March, she wasn't expecting for that anyway. I think men doesn't care that much about those kind gestures as women do. We used to talk about this with my boyfriend, so he reminded to give her back a chocolate box for the White Day, hehe.. But in the case of my friend, I know she didn't do it because she felt 'obligated' to, but because she wanted to show some appreciation for her coworkers. To me she was one of those kind and sweet people who knew how to put a smile on everyone's faces.. Well, I've changed my job 2 years ago, but I still remind of her, and I'm sure she will do the same this year! LOL Ahhh...this article brought me back good memories of those times..

Say whaaat?? It must be a joke, right? Looks like a kid's first experiment in the kitchen LOL.. There's no way I'd eat that!

LOL I'm addict to the tissues too!

Ahhh!! so cute! ^_^