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In: Food, Japan

It’s finally summer in Japan and that means it’s time for the annual “what-the-heck” flavored Pepsi again! Every year, Pepsi Japan comes out with “flavored” versions of their soda for a limited time.  One year it was cucumber Pepsi.  Last year we saw Shiso Pepsi and Azuki bean Pepsi. This year’s flavor? Baobab. So what is Baobab? Well from the illustrations on the bottle, it kinda looks like it’s related to something in Africa.  Here’s a close up image of the label. Now, my Japanese is not very good so I cannot make out what it says on there but I do see the wordRead More →

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In: Family, Japan, Life

With all the crazy things going on with us, we decided we needed a break last Sunday. So what do we choose to do? We go out to Baby Disco. Ohh, yea, baby! There really is an event called Baby Loves Disco. I kid you not. In fact, it’s a worldwide thing. You can check it out at babylovesdisco.com We actually went there with the couple of families that we knew from our birthing class. We get together every so often and watch our kids grow up together. It’s pretty fun for both E and I. Anyway, Baby Loves Disco was quite an interesting experience.Read More →

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In: Japan

June use to be THE month when people got married. I’m not quite sure why but for as long as I can remember, June has always been associated with weddings (at least to me). I love weddings. I love being invited to them. I love attending them. I love watching them. I love being in them. Though, I’ve only been in one and I was the bride so I’m biased 🙂 My favorite type of weddings are the really traditional ones. When I say traditional, I’m thinking more along the lines of the type that have a lot of cultural backgrounds to them…like traditions andRead More →

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In: Japan, Life

Surprisingly enough, this happens to me quite frequently… Japanese student (JS): Hi, I’m Mayuki. Me: Hi, I’m Jennifer. JS: So where are you from? Me: California. JS: But where are you from originally? Me: California. JS: Oh… *looks disappointed* (awkward silence) Me: Oh, but my parents are from Hong Kong! JS: *face brightens up again*  Wow, so can you speak Chinese? Me: Yes!  In fact, I’m fluent in Chinese. JS: Oh really?  That’s amazing! It’s interesting to note that most of the time it’s the Japanese people (mostly students) I meet who seem more interested that my parents are from Hong Kong than the factRead More →

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In: Geekiness, Japan, Reflections

I love ice cream. I’m also very Chinese and is always on the lookout for bargains. That’s why I was so happy the other day when I saw a sale on Haagen Dazs ice cream when I was at the market. It was 9:00am in the morning but I bought ice cream and I ate it. I did say that I love ice cream, right?  There’s never a bad time to eat ice cream in my world. Mmm, look at the yummy ice cream… While I was sitting outside of the market enjoying my mini cup of ice cream, I started thinking about how muchRead More →

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In: Japan, Updates

Ok kids, time to learn a little more about Japan! Yay! Golden week – a special week in Japan when the government hands out free gold all week long. Ok, I kid.  That’s not what Golden week is.  This is a closer description… Golden week – it’s a week that contains several public holidays that combine together to give a week long break for many Japanese people. Or as I call it “Japan’s national Spring Break holiday” since many people take the entire week off for vacation or just to relax. Seriously, this has got to be one of the coolest thing. It’s not justRead More →

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In: Japan, Marriage, Random

Another day, another random conversation. This afternoon, we were on a train that was predominantly covered in ads for HIS (the travel agency).  They are trying to promote some summer travel package for France.  I made another comment about wanting to see France which then somehow led into this conversation about the volcano in Iceland that erupted recently. If your curious about the eruption at Eyjafjallajokull (I kid you not on the name), here are a few places of interest: A news article Photos of the activity A great blog with an open letter to Eyjafjallajokull. If I were you, I’d go and check outRead More →

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In: Food, Japan, Marriage

I admit, I don’t like fruit all too much.  Well, it’s not that I don’t like fruit, I just find the natural sugars of fruit to be too sweet for my liking.  So naturally, I don’t like fruit flavored anything, especially ice cream. It’s cherry blossom season so many restaurants and dessert places are offering sakura/cherry flavored food items.   More specifically in our case, Baskin Robbins (aka. 31 flavors) has brought back their much loved Cherries Jubilee (or as they call it here “Burgundy Cherry”). Unlike the US, Cherries Jubilee is a seasonal flavor in Japan.  It’s saddening for Jason since he loves that flavorRead More →