Hakama (2)

Some old photos that I found from my computer, I just miss these girls ! They were my labmates back to few years ago. I still remembered these girls told that they woke up in the early at 5 am, went the the shop they rented the Hakama to do the preparation and set their hair. 

They looked terrific in their Hakama. As I mentioned before, more or less you can judge one's personality by their choice of Hakama.

The hair accessories are really beautiful.

Hakama is not a must in for every woman at graduation in Japan, some Japanese choose the costume they like to wear during the graduation such as suits or a Gothic Lolita dress. Isn't cool compare to the black gown in many countries.

半沢直樹& Kumamon都很紅

最近在FB的PO文更新發現身邊很多朋友都在追看港劇＂衝上雲霄2＂， 而我就在追看一部叫半沢直樹(hanzawa naoki)的日劇，最近非常紅。雖然部劇在七月開始啟播， 我還是前兩星期才開始看。

其實不常看電視劇，通常看了前面2-3集， 故事沒有什麼吸引就不會繼續看了。這部由堺雅人主演的"半沢直樹"呢是由小說改編的，以銀行作為故事背景,情節也很緊湊。劇中的主人公常被上司打壓，常被逼走入很多困境，有仇必報亦忠亦邪，但運氣超好，每次都能緊張關頭扭轉泉坤。這部劇可能會講出很多打工仔的心聲，身為前銀行人員的我也看地津津有味 哈。半沢直樹這號人物的確超帥的，尤其在對付敵人的時候。劇中前半可以看到大阪一些很好認的景色，後半段就是東京了。我想喜歡看＂白色巨塔＂的人應該也會這部劇有興趣吧！

還有今天早上去買東西時發現多了＂更多＂印有Kumamon的商品。在日本每個縣都有它的代表吉祥物，而Kumamon是熊本的吉祥物近幾年都很受歡迎。為什麼說＂更多＂呢，因為印有它的商品已經夠多了。

Happy "hebi" year (福袋!)

Happy new year everyone! I wish you a healthier, happier and fabulous year ahead.

 Haha, never thought that my first meal of 2013 was instant noodle.

Received from my taiwan friend recently, it tasted pretty good, ho jiak!

 What Japanese usually do on the first day is going to temple to pray , called "hatsumoude"

 (初詣). I went to the temple for our first pray of the year with my friend, it' s a long queue,

 had been queueing for quite a long time.

It's common to do something like drawing an omikuji ( (御神籤, a fortune-telling strips) from the box to see your fortune of the year after praying. And, I got the chukichi (中吉) for 2013, it means good but I dont think they will put in the daikyou (大凶）in the box since it is the first omikuji drawing for everyone. People need good advice, encouragement and positive energy to begin another new year. To believe or not, depend on you.

 

Another thing in the to-do-list during new year was grabbing the fukubukuro (福袋)! I couldn't understand why people would go to the shopping mall in the earlier morning before the mall opened, until I accompanied my friend to queue for their lucky bag last year. [ Lucky bag I got last year ] This is the one I bought from Jeanasis.

We went to Parco this year, also in the early morning around 8am, there were already many people queueing in front of us roughly 300-400 people. And, guess what those who were standing right in front of the entrance were all guys! Dun say only girls crazy for shopping, haha.

As the door opened, everybody was rushing here and there to the shops they aimed. All the elevators were not in service at that time, may be they afraid of occuring of accident when people are rushing into the shops.Since the escalator were stucked with people, I chose to use staircase, many people were running up the staircase, I was just able to run until 5th floor coz I could hardly catch my breath hahaha... then I walked up. I think this is the most fun and exciting part of what to do in the beginning of the new year , like a race to get the things you want since the number of the fukubukuro is limited per shops.

And, this is the content of my fukubukuro. Love it ~

This is the fukubukuro of my friend grabbed from Moussy, cost around 10500yen and there are 10 items stuffed inside including a pairs shoes. This why people are so crazy about fukubukuro, the items inside always cost more than the price you paid. I saw an uncle holding 3 bags queueing for their daughter, well done uncle!

Happy Dragon Year!!

oh, this is my first post in 2012. I was thinking to say happy new year to y'all on 1st Jan but I went to a shopping mall to grab a lucky bag! haha... that 's the only day that I could have my holiday since I came back to Japan. Labbing for all weekdays and weekends, morning until night. I truly believe that shopping could help to alleviate a stressful mind. Most importantly, grabbing a lucky bag ( 福袋 at the beginning of the year might bring you luck for the whole year (according to my friend, personal opinion hehe..). So, that day we went to the shopping mall early in the morning around 8am and you could see there were people lining up in front of the shopping mall. Everyone was there for the lucky bags.

 When the clock hit on 9am,everyone was running into the target shops haha... It's running! One of the craziest thing I did in Japan. My friend grabbed the last 10,000yen  lucky bag and I chose the 5000yen one.

 The reason why fukubukuro so attractive is because the items inside the bags are 50% or more off the list price of the items. Like this one, cost 5000 yen but the content worth more than 25,000yen.

Sometimes it also depends on luck, coz you might get the unwanted item, which you dislike, one way to solve it, exchange with your friends!

This CNY may be one of the memorable CNY. No celebration for the CNY this year, not at all. I have been burying myself in the lab  for the whole new year. But after all these stressful days and nights,  I have finally finished all the experiments and just submitted my thesis few days ago. But there are still many things hovering in mind...

I'm not ready to go home yet, what can I do?

Pa~su~ta ta ta ta

I've recently become fond of pasta, but before this I didn't even give it a look in the menu. I don't hate it but I prefer rice! So, if there is risotto written in the menu, that would be my choice.

Since the lack of time and in need of a quick meal, pasta became my choice instead of instant noodle coz pasta is definitely healthier, I think, giving that the pasta is not with the creamy sauce base.  Japan did very well in developing their own Japanese version of pasta sauce, not in creamy way but lighter and taste good too. I just bought the tuna with soy sauce flavor ,tarako flavor,meitaiko flavor...etc

This is the salted tarako I just bought from the market. I usually serve it with rice or stuff it inside the rice ball ( the onigiri ).

This is my dinner today - pasta with tarako sauce base, topping with salted tarako and seaweed. Yummy!

Hakama

March is the graduation season in Japan. For high school students , usually they wear their uniform to their graduation ceremony while for the female college students they wear "Hakama" ,kinda formal wear for special occasion. There are two 4th year students in my lab, they were wearing the Hakama to their graduation ceremony few days ago. From their Hakama, I think you can judge a bit of their character haha... totally different taste and look pretty.

See, I haven't seen such a cool leopard print on Hakama before, it's so matched with her!

It reminds me the character in Bleach wearing another style of Hakama as well.

New Year Mode part 2

3 Jan 2011 : The first day of Parco sale, I've never seen so many people

in Parco before!

One of the reason of why so many people squeezing into the shopping mall is to grap the lucky bag ( 福袋 ). You don't know what is inside the lucky bag, the price of the goods inside is always 3-5 times cheaper than the price you pay when you buy them respectively, like this one (taken from the internet).
 
Speaking of lucky bag doesn't necessarily mean that it's only clothes, different stores released different types of lucky bag, some are shoes, electrical appliance, snacks, necklace, hair ornament...

Three of us shopped from morning until 3:30pm, we completely forgot to eat and drink! Until then, our body alarming us and we finally we regained some conciousness to EAT! haha... I thought we're lost in the sales. As we arrived the newly opened restaturant, the waiter told us we had to wait for another 90 minutes to be seated. okay, we just needed some time ro rest before eating.

Paying around 1400 yen and then you can eat-all-you -can , just looking at the photos you could see there are varieties of cakes and desserts, which are the "leading role" in this restaurant. Of course to satisfy your appetite, pasta, rice, udon and sandwich ...etc also available.

What a fattening winter break... -_-''

Take care of your RUBBISH!

These rubbish already more than 2 weeks after I missed the garbage disposal day again and again, my gosh what a load of rubbish!!! Actually, I've taken out these rubbish to the garbage side before I went for a trip, unfortunately bumped into the landlord and he asked me to keep it inside my apartment until the next collection day.wtf, I was being stopped from throwing rubbish?!!That's why these 2 weeks-old rubbish still reside in my house.

I couldn't blame the landlord since he just obeyed the rules coz we have the schedule for garbage collection .

The rubbish collection day is depending what it is, for example the combustible rubbish is scheduled to be disposed on monday and thurdays, and you gotta tput that out to the garbage point before 7:30 am. Otherwise, have to wait until the next disposal day.

This special designed bag is for the combustible garbage and green one is for the recycled garbage such as  the glass bottles , batteries, light bulbs and empty aerosol cans .There is other colour for the bag , depending on which area you're in.

Before the bottles or cans are being thrown away, the labels have to be stripped off the bottles and washed then dried before disposing them. Certain large sized rubbish has to be taken by calling to the recycled centre.

This is the table where all the classification of rubbish is listed , made it easier for you to sort out the rubbish.

It's certainty a bit of work, but it became a part of the routine now. And, this is one of the easy way to save our earth.