The Year Gone By

Highlights of my 2011:

Walking down the aisle with dad (didn't think this would be possible when he fell ill):


Taking the vow of life:


As I'm moving to Aichi today and won't have internet till January, I wanted to post my thanks and wishes to all my dear readers today. Thank you for following Diary of a Japanadian. I will continue blogging once I settle in new apartment. Have a very merry Christmas with beloveds, and a happy new year!



Until next time,

Sak

Christmas Gatteau Chocolate

Hadn't baked for ages. Too long, indeed, to call myself fond of baking in my profile any more. So, the damage was to be undone in a serious manner, and since I was at my folks', I took advantage of their kitchen -way better equipped for baking than my new apartment, and did some Christmas baking.

A chocolate cake was my hubby's request. Are chocolate cakes Christmas-y? was my question that was popped in my head, but sis was applauding his request, so I thought, what the heck.

And here is my holiday creation. Ta da!

I couldn't shake off the notion that a gatteau chocolate isn't exactly a Christmas cake, so I thought I should at least make it snowy. Traditionally speaking, a Chrismas cake should be of dried fruit of some kind, no?

Anyways, we had a little family Christmas dinner so I thought I should post some photos of sis's creation, too.



I made the soup, by the way.



Merry Christmas!

Until next time,

Sak

Can I Just Say...

It's been a while since I last posted, but I'd just not had the heart to -the heart that is nearly breaking, since I have to leave my work in the end of the month. I've been telling everyone at school that I am leaving, but it's just making me feel worse.

My newly-wedded hubby is being transfered to Aichi, and I am going with. It entails a lot of goodbyes for my part, and I am not being very good at it so far. I only know that I deal best with anything in my super positive, watch-me-I'm-gonna-laugh-about-it way. I hope I can pull that off till the end.

Some don't care, and some don't even know me that much. But some have earnestly told me how sorry they are that I have to go. A young student actually shed tears for me today. It nearly killed me. The last 5 years of my life will probably look really short in my death bed. But they were my first 5 years of my life in Japan, and will always going to be one of the best parts of my life. I hope I will never forget that.

Until next time,

Sak

Pancakes!

Woke up and couldn't think of anything but a plate full of big pancakes. Do you ever have one of these mornings?

I once claimed myself to be the best blueberry pancake maker, but haven't made one in ages and lived up to my self-reputation. Guilty as charged.

So I flipped some up.



Why did I leave this divinity for so long? One can only imagine I was crazy.

Until next time,

Sak

Sunday Brunch & Pieces of France

Here's our brunch this morning.



Very much inspired by what we had in Paris every morning, minus the sausages. French people don't eat a lot of meat for breakfast, do they? Allegedly, their traditional breakfast consists only of yogurt and bread with freshly squeezed orange juice. But at the hotel the selection was of continental, and they served egg and several forms of meat every day, thanks to the invasion of internationalism.

Notice the apple sauce?


I made it with apples that an artist that we bought two paintings from at Place du Tertre in Montmartre.

Here's the story. From the get-go, we wanted to buy a painting in Montmartre for our honeymoon, and there were just so many local artists that were great to choose from.

But there was this guy with really tranquil-looking, heart-warming, beautiful paintings of seasonal woods and trees and brooks and sunset. We talked to him for good half an hour, and found him really genuine and nice. He explained that all his paintings were of trees in his home town in Normandy. I fell in love with the one with white birches I'm holding (a lot of his paintings were of white birches, and I loved them all), and T liked the other one with apple trees blooming. The man even showed us three apples from which he picked off one of his trees painted in it.

We wanted both, but they are not exactly Monet paintings, but they weren't cheap together. So I made a negotiation AND asked him to throw the apples on top. He got my humor, and made an accord.


I didn't declare the apples in the trunk at the airport, so the Normandy apples from the artist's trees safely abided here in my apartment.

We are also having coffee that I bought at Galeries Lafayette. Dark and dense, full of aroma, and very French.


We miss Paris already.

Until next time,

Sak

Eat, Eat, Love!

Highlights from honeymoon, food-wise.

Bon appetite!

The last thing I ate in France.

Better shown than explained, right?

Until next time,

Sak

Packing and In Panic!

I am off to the airport in ten hours, during which I am, planning at least, to pack, have a nice long bath, get 8 hours of beauty sleep and have a hearty breakfast. I will have to remember not to leave anything important behind, like wallet and glasses, like I did the last time I went to France.

Let me tell you a story. The last voyage to the country of my dreams, I miraculously managed to leave my wallet behind. It's a good thing no one tried to rob me in Paris because I would have been killed or at least done some serious damages to 'cause I had had literally nothing for him or her to hawk off me. Imagine a Japanese female tourist walking down St. German de pres sporting a Pucci bag and Manolo boots and be completely penny less. Ridiculous, right? Yet penniless I was, and without my sister's magic plastic card, I would have had to turn my miserable ass back home at Narita Airport on the day one.

I also miraculously left my glasses at the hotel on the day I visited Luvre to face Mona Lisa. It would have been the most anticipated, marvelous artsy moment for me too, outshining all the things I have artistically done and seen in the presumptuous little life of mine. It might as well have beeen the moment for me to see a unicorn. So I stood there, and then there she was. On the wall. In that ridiculously small frame of gold or brass or who-can-tell-what-the-fuck. Right in front of me. Except there was this 10 cubic square meters of space! Who the fuck knew Lisa was not to be viewd within a decent distance? And when I say decent distance I mean I-am-able-to-actually-see-the-painting distance. Anyone who wears glasses but not on an every-waking-moment-of-his-or-her-life basis should be warned at the entrance of Luvre or provided with binoculars. But no warning, or no binoculars, even a monocular. So I did what I could to catch a glance of the centuries-old lady the 21st century way: zoomed in on the painting with my Cybershot. Haha, take that, Da Vinci!

Wasn't about art anymore at this point.

So anyway, I can't leave anything important behind this time. Need to make my reunion with Lisa at Luvre, and I must apologize to her that I failed to make our first encounter properly.

Oh, and and I need to introduce her my husband, too. How can I do that without looking directly into her eyes, no matter the distance between us, right?

And I just spent 10 minutes of the 10 hours that I had left. Crap and a half! Gotta go!

Until next time,

Sak

The Hills Are Alive and I Am So Damn Happy

There are few things that one gets to say only once in her life time, and I'm going to say one of them now:

I just got married!


I honestly can tell you that I have never felt happier and more loved in my entire life, not just by T, my now lawfully wedded husband, but by all these people, even the ones that are an ocean away or two. I've been getting so much blessings from every one, from a tiny little student to an 86-year-old at school, and from friends from all over the world. Thank you! And thank facebook!

My favorite and only nephew was there at the wedding, too, which made me extra happy.


You most definitely earned that berry, sweetheart.

Went to the city hall for the registration on the same day, too, and became officially a Mrs. The man at the registration window certainly did not give a rat's ass, but I was on the cloud nine.



Until next time,

Sak, with loaded love

Film Report -One Life

Finally saw the BBC film, "One Life" that I had anticipated since spring.

I'm a sucker for anything with animals and nature to begin with, but I really, really loved it!

This strawberry-colored frog carries its infants on its back, one baby at a time, climb up a tree to let them swim in a dew paddle on a leaf and raise them there. Isn't that amazing?


You go, little frog mom!

Until next time,

Sak

Breakfast in Tokyo

Was at the head quarter in Tokyo for two days, and got to have favorite breakfast at Bagel&Bagel in Meguro Station.


I was thinking how I probably won't have these business trips for a long time, if ever again, after this and thus the bagle breakfast at Bagel&Bagel will be had even less.

Was a bit of melancholy moment there.

Until next time,

Sak

A Day Trip Made Perfect

On the last day of summer, we decided to make a day trip to Kiso, a valley-town that's just an hour drive.


Lunch time! After a very long wait, might I add.


A very old house that is very old-Japanese style.



And here, we visited a ravine that was divine (see how I just rhymed?).


A little hike down a path ...


... and


Ta-da!


They should have filmed The Lord of the Rings here.


Thank you, T, for a wonderful summer time!

Until next time,

Sak