Blog Archives

Arashi!

7/31/2011

Arashi fans came to Imagine this weekend!

Sometimes I host visitors to Sapporo on the Couch Surfing website - usually young, foreigners travelling around Japan.
They come and stay at Imagine for a night or two for free, sleeping on futons on the carpet and buying food from the supermarket etc.
Couch Surfing is a wonderful people-to-people friendship and trvel website.

But this weekend?
Two university students from Shanghai came, and an American woman who is working in China came. WHY?
They all came for the Arashi concerts at Sapporo Dome!!! Saturday night and Sunday night.
Isn't that amazing? J-Pop has reached so far that fans in China will actually buy airtickts and fly in for the weekend to see their idols in Sapporo.

Fox in Minami Hiragishi!

7/30/2011

Minami Hiragishi last night...my garden....just after a BBQ party....a fox appeared!
A big, healthy fox.
He was sniffing at the BBQ grills and boxes of charcoal on the front door step.
Wow!

I've heard that there are sometimes foxes in Tenjinyama Park, the Hiragishi Cemetary and the Toyohira River area...but I never expected to see one right here in my garden.

My cats were still outside and I went down to rescue them, because foxes can kill cats.
Popo-chan actually CHASED the fox. He got a big surprise when the fox turned around and growled at him! He chases the neighborhood dogs down the street - but they are mostly old and tired and on leads. This "dog" turned round and growled.
We picked up Popo-chan and turned on the garden hose to drive away the fox.

Sapporo is a big city, but nature is living here...living and growling!

A garden I don't have to weed!

7/26/2011

At the weekend I went to Ecorinmura Garden at Eniwa.
Designed by a famous British gardener, it is former farmland, now laid out in a series of theme gardens with many cute little buildings and statues hidden among the trees and flowers.
I really enjoyed it - and particularly this fantastic big tomato tree that is all ONE plant growing in water.
The gardens are about 10 years old, so still feel a little new - but it is beautiful and the famous animals (llamas and alpacas etc) are cute.

But - a lot of the garden is not really "English" garden - more like a formal French style of garden.

In Japan people say "English garden" and they really mean a "Cottage Garden", all the flowers mixed together around a lawn. The French, more formal style has a square, with paths leading in and out of it, and plants laid out in a plan on color or type.
If you go to the big houses of France (and England) you see the more formal gardens, and Ecorinmura and Yuni gardens in Hokkaido are more like these.

But...beautiful. And I didn't have to do any weeding so VERY happy.

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Tohoku\'s Wish Lists!

7/20/2011

Let's go shopping for Tohoku!

Tonight I went shopping on the Amazon Japan website and I bought five insect coil cans for a volunteer group in Miyagi.

Amazon Japan will deliver it for free.

The group made a "Wish List" on the Amazon website and anyone can look at this and other lists, then buy it and send it for free.

GREAT idea! It means people in Tohoku get what they need - I notice a lot of sports drinks, tools and basics such as slippers and kitchen equipment. People in Tohoku will go on and on...and on...needing things, so I think this is an excellent way to give.
Vicky, who organised the Walkathon for Tohoku, told me about this Amazon idea.

Of course we've all given money to disaster charities, and some people have given items too (I gave 10 pairs of kids' boots and a lot of dried food to a charity group based in Miyanomori), but this is a way to give very practical things.

Why don't you have a look at the Wish Lists yourself and enjoy some shopping for Tohoku?

Here is the link with information.
Amazon Japan.

Wonderful Japan!

7/19/2011

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/14183115.stmweeblylink_new_window

Olympic application in....wait and see...

7/16/2011

I've applied for Olympic tickets on FOURTEEN days!
From the Opening Ceremony on July 27th, through Athletics and Gymnastics.
It took ages inputting my name, address, credit card details, event, seat numbers etc etc....well...actually I asked my kind, kind partner to do it for me - because I was worried I'd make a mistake in the Japanese language on the Pia Ticket website.

The results of this lottery will be announced on August 5th.

Either I will get nothing
Or...
I will get too many tickets and then I'll have to pay for them all and be bankrupt!

:-((

I decided there was no point in applying for sports where Japan is strong, such as judo or swimming. And I really can't get excited about a canoe race.

So - Athletics or Gymnastics.
Crossing my fingers!

London Olympic tickets.

7/12/2011

London here I come!
Well, maybe...

Last week the Japanese ticket sales for the 2012 London Olympics started. It's a lottery system and there are 3 weeks of application time with the successful applicants hearing in August.

So, I've spent a lot of time on the Pia Ticket website looking at the list of available tickets: the sports, the dates...the PRICES! Trying to decide what tickets I have a chance of getting. As I live here in Japan I can ONLY apply for tickets here.
None of my friends in Britian - or anyone they know - got tickets yet. People are angry because under European Community laws people in EU countries can apply for the tickets available for British people. So instead of 60 million British people trying to get tickets - there could actually be 500 million Europeans applying for the British tickets - as well as the tickets on sale in each country.
If I was a French person, I could apply for the British tickets AND the French tickets!

I was born in London, so to see the Olympics in my home city is a once-in-a-lifetime thing and I will be going for sure. Even if I don't get tickets I will go to enjoy the festival feeling of a major world event.

But the Japan Olympic Committee has some strange ticket offers!
The sports are:

Athletics
Badminton
Bike
Canoe
Gymnastics
Rhythm Gymnastics
Judo
Sailing
Swimming
Synchronized Swimming
Tennis
Table Tennis
Wrestling.

Canoe?????? Sailing????? Bike?????
I think the Japanese O.C. had to accept these tickets in exchange for having many judo and swimming tickets.:-)

There is no chance to get judo or swimming tickets, or badminton and wrestling, because many Japanese going to London want to see these sports.
So? Athletics maybe? There are 11 days of events for that. Gymnastics has 9 days.
Um...HOW do you watch sailing? From the beach with a telescope?????!!

Oh, and the Opening and Closing Ceremony? The cheapest seats for the Opening Ceremony will be....Y30,000. That's a lot of money to pay for 2 hours of sportspeople marching into the stadium with flags...

And so.....I have to make my application by the end of July.....what shall if try for? Canoe races????

Maeda-san Manga.

7/8/2011

My New Year card for 2011 - designed by Maeda-san.

Remember this?
I sent this New Year card this year - me and the family all riding on the bike taxi.
This card was designed by Shuichi Maeda, a budding manga artist.
His mother is a student at Imagine and after she sent me the family New Year card 2 years ago, I was so impressed by her son's work that I asked him to design for us too.
I gave him photographs and he created the whole idea of the rabbit-eared bike taxi (my partner is a bike taxi driver in Odori), and then he drew this fun card.

Maeda-san has his own website now to promote his art. If you'd like your own manga card please contact him! His prices are very reasonable and I'm happy to support him.

His website is
http://pub.ne.jp/maedaart/

More English Tea Party pictures!

7/7/2011

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The late arriving rose bush guest...

7/6/2011

12 hours after the tea party on Sunday - this guest finally arrived!
Yes, the rose bush that is at the front of the house near the potato patch - it came into bloom. It's gorgeous. Small flowers, but they start orange...and some of the blossoms slowly turn dark pink.
Very beautiful.