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In: Japan, Marriage

No, I’m not talking about the color… If you recall a few posts back, I made Jason some felt cookies for Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day is the day when I give something to Jason (or to other guys too) and White Day is when he gives me back in return. That’s just how things are done here in Japan (and some other Asian countries). Valentine’s Day marketing is aimed towards women. It is, in theory, the day that females give chocolate to the guy they show affection towards or has a secret crush on. You can either purchase these chocolates premade and wrapped in niceRead More →

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In: Japan, Parenthood

Living in Japan, we’re bound to experience a few tremors here and there. Tonight, we had a semi big one. It’s Ellie’s first earthquake experience. How do I define semi-big, you ask? When the tremors last more than 10 seconds and it is shaking hard enough that the sliding doors are banging together and making loud noises.  Besides, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, it was a 6.9 magnitude earthquake out in the ocean just south of Tokyo. We had one tiny one when I was still pregnant and it just made the sliding doors shake a little but nothing major. Tonight, the shaking actuallyRead More →

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In: Japan

I don’t recall if I ever wrote about tanabata (七夕) when we first moved to Japan. Since I’m practically seeing a lot of things in Japan with new eyes these days, I guess we should revisit old holidays and celebration! Ellie’s first tanabata festival! Tanabata is on July 7th every year. It’s a star festival that originated from Chinese folklore. It’s actually a very tragic story…. According to the story (at least from the way I remember my dad telling it to me when I was little), there was an ox herder who, while out with his faithful old ox, caught a glimpse of theRead More →

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In: Japan, Random

J, E and I went out to Odaiba yesterday to check out the 1:1 scale gundam that has been the talk of the town here. We were expecting to see a humongous gundam from far away but what we got was much smaller than we had hoped. It’s not tiny per se but still…we had higher hopes. Actually, come to think of it, it’s probably at the correct size as the one portrayed in the gundam series. I mean, it’s suppose to be big enough to destroy things but yet small enough for a normal human being to climb into it and pilot it. Anyway,Read More →

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In: Japan

This past week, news of the swine flu making its way into Tokyo flooded all the news channels. It’s been like this for a while now…at least ever since the existence of the swine flu was discovered in good ole Mexico. Japan really is a paranoid country. We’ve been here for so long but the mass hysteria never ceases to amaze me. Sure, I worry about catching the swine flu too and even more so now since I have Ellie’s health to worry about but I still feel that the reaction that people have here have gone beyond just worrying. For a while now, theyRead More →

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In: Japan, Parenthood, Reflections

It’s been a long week….and a very long stay at the hospital….one that also made me cry and doubt myself as a mother…. But we are home now and a new set of worries are driving me crazy….main one being whether or not my breastmilk is enough for Ellie…. So tired and so scared of being home alone with her without Jason around. When she cries….I just don’t know what to do….so glad my mom and grandmother are coming soon…. Almost time for another feeding….feeling so exhausted right now but happy….very, very happy… One of my favorite moments when we were at the hospital… MoreRead More →

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In: Japan, Updates

Contractions are 10min apart, 30sec long…And they are quite uncomfortable. Can’t imagine what they will be like as I get closer to labor…  Btw, we get free internet in my room. How cool is that. Posted via email from myorii’s posterousRead More →