Well the holidays are coming up fast, which means we spent time this weekend looking for presents! Saturday was another trip to Costco, where Sonia was determined to wander around every aisle looking longingly at the merchandise on display. Luckily for the bank balance, Sonia was aware that we had to be able to carry it all home in our arms, and thence to NZ on a small baggage allowance. So in the end the damage was not too bad, albeit we did end up buying an iPod Touch. Which did hurt the bank, but not the baggage.
We now have bookings for rental cars for the two weeks in Auckland, and the flights and hotel in Queenstown are also sorted out. Next is the accommodation and car in Melbourne. We hope to get the chance to drive the Great Ocean Road. I must confess that this is something that I have heard a few mentions of but don't know the details, so it could be great or could be a great waste of time.
This Thursday I'm off to HK for a long weekend while Sonia get's her Bangkok visa renewed. Friday will be spent visiting the tailor, a colleague or two, and a couple of headhunters (I need to arrange the appointments tomorrow morning). Hopefully also get a chance to visit one or two of the restaurants we like. Oh, and sort out the mail forwarding from HK to the company office in HK.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Kawagoe
Saturday saw us going out to a less-known town/suburb called Kawagoe, which one of our NZ/UK friends had seen in the paper and decided to have a look at. Turns out to be an area where some of the streets and buildings are relatively preserved. Relatively as in some of the buildings are pretty old wooden creations with narrow stairways, etc.
There is also a street where a bunch of candy/sweet-makers have their stalls/shops. Japanese sweets are a little different to what we're accustomed to, and while nice are less sugary sweet.
As we walked on down the road, passing an old wooden bell tower, we noticed a shop selling japanese hanging scrolls. Sonia immediately fastened her eyes on one of the pictures, and after looking at about 10 other ones (which the shopkeeper had to unpack from the boxes and hang for inspection), we finally settled on the first one and purchased. It's going to need a pretty tall room, with very plain walls/furniture to show it off to best advantage. Warning to all nieces and nephews: your fingers will be broken if you touch it!
Unfortunately the scroll was packed into a fancy wooden box before I thought to take a photo. I'm not sure when or if we will get up the courage to unpack it before we have a room to hang it in...
Oh, and as we were walking down the road in Kawagoe, it snowed again - only for 10 minutes this time, but there wasn't any snow in the forecast!
Lunch was sushi (very nice), and dinner was Udon noodles (good, but not as good as lunch).
There is also a street where a bunch of candy/sweet-makers have their stalls/shops. Japanese sweets are a little different to what we're accustomed to, and while nice are less sugary sweet.
As we walked on down the road, passing an old wooden bell tower, we noticed a shop selling japanese hanging scrolls. Sonia immediately fastened her eyes on one of the pictures, and after looking at about 10 other ones (which the shopkeeper had to unpack from the boxes and hang for inspection), we finally settled on the first one and purchased. It's going to need a pretty tall room, with very plain walls/furniture to show it off to best advantage. Warning to all nieces and nephews: your fingers will be broken if you touch it!
Unfortunately the scroll was packed into a fancy wooden box before I thought to take a photo. I'm not sure when or if we will get up the courage to unpack it before we have a room to hang it in...
Oh, and as we were walking down the road in Kawagoe, it snowed again - only for 10 minutes this time, but there wasn't any snow in the forecast!
Lunch was sushi (very nice), and dinner was Udon noodles (good, but not as good as lunch).
Monday, February 11, 2008
Pictures
I managed to get some photos off my phone onto the PC. First, picture of the sushi plates stacked high after lunch yesterday.
Lights at Christmas time in Roppongi Hills complex.
Then a shot I got of a dog standing up on the chair at Starbucks while it waited for it's owner to return with coffee. I guess it was a cold day so maybe it was hanging out for a grande mocha latte?
And a couple of photos of kangaroos in Perth. At least they are kangaroo sculptures.
Sonia having breakfast in the sun at the Bed & Breakfast that we stayed at in Margaret River.
And another picture of the hire car - just before we gave it back.
Lights at Christmas time in Roppongi Hills complex.
Then a shot I got of a dog standing up on the chair at Starbucks while it waited for it's owner to return with coffee. I guess it was a cold day so maybe it was hanging out for a grande mocha latte?
And a couple of photos of kangaroos in Perth. At least they are kangaroo sculptures.
Sonia having breakfast in the sun at the Bed & Breakfast that we stayed at in Margaret River.
And another picture of the hire car - just before we gave it back.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Snow, Costco, and にほんご
And even more snow last night. It was forecast and we wondered all day when it would arrive. At about 7pm last night we looked out the window and saw that it was finally snowing. It only snowed for a couple of hours - heavy enough to settle, but it was gone by morning.
Yesterday we signed up at Costco in Kawasaki - a huge store, with the same sorts of things we were able to buy in Canada and the UK. The biggest problem will be the distance to get there from the apartment. If we do the train, we take the subway two stops, then switch to the JR train line for two stops, then back to a local subway line for another four stops. Then about a 15 minute walk to the shop. To get from one train to another takes about 10 minuets walk in one of the changeovers. All in all it takes around 45 minutes travelling. Then you have to carry things back with you. I think we will end up trying to catch a taxi back to the apartment at least one time - see how much it costs. If we end up being here longer and getting a car, it will of course become much, much easier!
Sushi (すし) for lunch today at a restaurant close to the apartment. One of the places with a train that runs around the restaurant. This is not so common - most places that we've been so far make it in front of you and only to order (i.e. you ask for two salmon sushi and they make it for you, before you order your next pieces). We managed to get through 15 plates today, with two pieces per plate. Very nice... We will be looking for somewhere with quality sushi in Auckland when we are back.
I've started to learn to read and write Japanese. There are three character systems, and to be literate you need to know all three.
First is Hiragana (ひらがな), which has about 50 symbols representing the basic sounds (5 vowels plus consonant combinations).
Then you need to know another 50 symbols for Katakana (カタカナ). Katakana is used for any foreign words. For example my name written in katakana is アンデリユー, which when you sound it out sounds something like my English name. Actually more like "ah-in-der-y-ew".
Finally there is kanjii, which are the chinese characters. Each character needs to be memorised, and can be used in multiple different combinations to make different words. The sound for a character varies depending on the position of the character in a word! They tell me you need to learn about 200 basic kanjii for it to be useful.
Luckily, when using a keyboard to write in hiragana or katakana, you actually type the sounds using roman characters. The computer is kind enough to translate for you! So in order to say "thankyou" (arigatou gozaimasu), you need to type the sounds for "ah", "ri", "ga", "to", "u", "go", "za", "i", "ma", "su". The pc translates this to ありがとうございます. Easy!
However if you're trying to learn to read it, you need to memorise the characters and link them to the sounds. Not so easy...
Yesterday we signed up at Costco in Kawasaki - a huge store, with the same sorts of things we were able to buy in Canada and the UK. The biggest problem will be the distance to get there from the apartment. If we do the train, we take the subway two stops, then switch to the JR train line for two stops, then back to a local subway line for another four stops. Then about a 15 minute walk to the shop. To get from one train to another takes about 10 minuets walk in one of the changeovers. All in all it takes around 45 minutes travelling. Then you have to carry things back with you. I think we will end up trying to catch a taxi back to the apartment at least one time - see how much it costs. If we end up being here longer and getting a car, it will of course become much, much easier!
Sushi (すし) for lunch today at a restaurant close to the apartment. One of the places with a train that runs around the restaurant. This is not so common - most places that we've been so far make it in front of you and only to order (i.e. you ask for two salmon sushi and they make it for you, before you order your next pieces). We managed to get through 15 plates today, with two pieces per plate. Very nice... We will be looking for somewhere with quality sushi in Auckland when we are back.
I've started to learn to read and write Japanese. There are three character systems, and to be literate you need to know all three.
First is Hiragana (ひらがな), which has about 50 symbols representing the basic sounds (5 vowels plus consonant combinations).
Then you need to know another 50 symbols for Katakana (カタカナ). Katakana is used for any foreign words. For example my name written in katakana is アンデリユー, which when you sound it out sounds something like my English name. Actually more like "ah-in-der-y-ew".
Finally there is kanjii, which are the chinese characters. Each character needs to be memorised, and can be used in multiple different combinations to make different words. The sound for a character varies depending on the position of the character in a word! They tell me you need to learn about 200 basic kanjii for it to be useful.
Luckily, when using a keyboard to write in hiragana or katakana, you actually type the sounds using roman characters. The computer is kind enough to translate for you! So in order to say "thankyou" (arigatou gozaimasu), you need to type the sounds for "ah", "ri", "ga", "to", "u", "go", "za", "i", "ma", "su". The pc translates this to ありがとうございます. Easy!
However if you're trying to learn to read it, you need to memorise the characters and link them to the sounds. Not so easy...
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
More snow
Well we had more snow on Sunday. It snowed all day from first thing in the morning until about 4pm. In the end it sort of petered out and turned a bit sleety (technical term).
Monday morning dawned icy, with the footbridge across the road covered in ice from snow that froze solid overnight. Lovely clear day though!
The new DM Head has started work and by the end of today had already managed to ruffle a few feathers. There are a large number of feathers that need to be heavily ruffled, but at the same time it's normal to take a few days to understand what's going on before you start changing things significantly. Wait and see what happens.
Monday morning dawned icy, with the footbridge across the road covered in ice from snow that froze solid overnight. Lovely clear day though!
The new DM Head has started work and by the end of today had already managed to ruffle a few feathers. There are a large number of feathers that need to be heavily ruffled, but at the same time it's normal to take a few days to understand what's going on before you start changing things significantly. Wait and see what happens.
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