amidst the phobia

With the missing plane making headlines all over the world this past few weeks, I'm a bit hesitant to travel again.

Then I realised, maybe I should share something positive in my last flight to Amsterdam. This was early December 2013, and was my last business trip for the year.

For some reason, my flight back to Japan was delayed, and while figuring out what to do in the meantime, I made friends with a Filipino whose own separate flight was also delayed. She had come from Norway and through a series of transit was making her way home to the Philippines to visit her family.

She was just sitting a few seats from me, and overheard me calling my colleague about my plane delay. Usually when a person asks me where I'm from, I reply the country where I'm going back to; so in this case I answered Japan. If I was in the mood to have a relaxed conversation, I'd say something like, I'm Malaysian but living in Japan. That would usually spark some questions, but that unfortunate news made me feel tired already.

Somehow she started thanking me for helping her country during the then recent Typhoon Haiyan that lashed out the tropical island country. As she continued on her expression of gratitude, and me not wanting to spoil that moment, on behalf of the generous Japanese, I just nodded and smiled back at her. Somehow I started to tear up too, as I thought of the Japanese themselves who were struggling with the economy and nuclear breakdown; but still magnanimous enough to also extend assistance to other countries.

I invited her to have lunch together, since we had some time to kill. Since the delay was only going to be about 2 hours, it made sense to have some food together. She had a compensation voucher from KLM, so she treated herself to some nice lunch.

We started chatting, and even took pictures. I did try to clarify that I was not Japanese, but I think she did not hear me!

Anyways, she sent me off to my departure gate as my flight was earlier. Unfortunately, I found out that the plane was being further delayed. This time I got my own compensation voucher from KLM as well. By then I was really feeling grumpy having to wake up early, and then learning that the train to the airport was not working.

So I went back to the airport cafe, and got myself more food. I could have gone on to look for my new Filipino friend, but I figured maybe some little quiet time by myself would be nice. I sat there munching on Dutch croquette as I thanked God for that encounter earlier. 

Using the Euro5 phone voucher, I made a call home, surprising my dad. Then I realised it was quite late in Malaysia! I had a few minutes to relay my tale before the phone minutes ran out. 

I headed back to my departure gate, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Then I saw a few colleagues from the European office and realised they were on the same flight too; and was glad for some company. I guess it was God's way of assuring me that no matter what, I'm not alone. 

my toilet crisis

Remind myself not to do housework so late at night again!

I had just finished cleaning the toilet when I realised the water would not stop flowing.

The first thought that came to mind was to switch off the water source, but I had not dealt with this problem before. I tried to call a few people while I figured out how to make the water stop.

In the Japanese style toilet with the little washlet, I can't just open the tank cover to find out what's wrong, because in my previous experience, the water would gush out instead. That time was when I had just moved in, and good thing I managed to call the real estate agent who had just dropped by then.

A few calls were made, but obviously at 1:00a.m., no one would be picking up the phone! I was so glad Ako-san picked hers up, I knew she must have been sleeping from her voice. But I figured, she was one of the closest and if anything, her husband would be around to help if needed.

She tried to guide me through the phone, as I struggled to imagine what she was saying in Japanese. We tried the water source next to the toilet, but that was too tight. Then we tried the water source outside my room. After a few attempts, because I was not sure how tight or in which direction I should turn the switch, and there were two (it was like trying to detonate a bomb, what if I made the situation worse?!) we finally managed to get the water stop.

After confirming that there was no water flowing out from the kitchen sink too, I proceeded to open the tank cover, and discovered that the tank cleansing pill had gotten stuck near the hole. I heaved a big sigh of relief as I called Ako-san back to thank her for her guidance.

It seems like such a simple thing looking back, but living in a foreign land, with this sort of problem in the middle of the night in winter can sound like a crisis!

did i sleep through it?

Apparently there was an earthquake a couple of days ago. I only found out about it when I came into the office the next morning when my colleagues were talking about it.

As I recalled where I was that time, obviously I was at home since it was very early in the morning. But I was quite sure I was about to go to bed, or had just dozed off. I had just finished chatting with my European colleague on a business trip I was organising, and he was asking me about the time in Japan.

That was when I looked at the clock and it was almost 1:30am.

The 6.3 magnitude earthquake had struck the southern islands of Japan but was strong enough to be felt in the Kansai area.

I told my colleagues, I must have gotten used to earthquakes already having lived in Japan for a number of years. But deep down, I wonder what would happen if there was a fire and I had been deep in sleep!

skiing in kannabe

Finally got the chance to go skiing over the weekend - first time in Kobe!

I had taken some pictures with my phone camera, but since it doesn't have reverse camera, I couldn't take any of myself. It was a rather cloudy afternoon, and it even rained a little. Too bad no extra snow, but still happy I got my ski and snow fix.

So I'm really glad our colleague Yokogawa-san brought a portable video camera along, and even composed a nice little montage (with one of my fav Japanese songs)* of the ski trip in Kannabe. Makes me want to get one of that too!

* Update 10 March : Apparently Youtube had removed the accompanying music, must have been due to copyright issues. Bummer!

the beach from yesteryear

So I was trying to see why there are still some drafts sitting in my blog, I found the following images which was probably uploaded in 2008.

I'm still trying to figure out why these were significant enough to be shared. Or maybe it's some long-forgotten story that I had meant to tell.

5 minutes after reading this, I'm thinking perhaps I wanted to show what kind of beaches we have in Japan!
   

going for gyoza

One of the new recipes I tried for the first time was making gyoza, the Chinese dumpling that the Japanese love. I've had lots of it especially at ramen stalls, and recently in Kobe at a little restaurant specialising in just gyoza. So I decided to give it a try thinking it shouldn't be that difficult.

Just need to have some minced pork, which you should marinade with salt, pepper and sesame oil. I added garlic paste for added oomph. You can also add in soy sauce or oyster sauce but I decided to make it simple first. Then mix in the chopped cabbage and spring onions.

I didn't know there were many types of dumpling skin until I tried buying them at the supermarket. This is for the fried dumpling type. After letting the marinaded mix stand for about half an hour, I wet the edges of the skin slightly, then put a tablespoon of the mix in the middle. This really depends on how much you want to get in, but usually the fatter it is, the better. Just be careful when folding it.

On medium fire, put about 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in the frying pan, fry the dumpling. It looks quite dry at this stage, but try to get a little brown on both sides of the skin like the above. The meat should be half cooked by then.

After about 10 minutes, pour a little water at the base of the pan. The dumpling should soak up the water pretty quickly. Then add a little more and cover the pan to steam up the dumpling. Wait for about 10-15 minutes for the meat to thoroughly cook, and the dumpling should now be a little moist but with crispy skin at the edge. Your dumpling is now ready!

I made a 2nd batch using prawns instead but with the same ingredients as above as I had leftover skin. It had a different texture, but still as nice. Both goes well with sambal vinegar dip, my improvisation of the usual vinegar spicy oil sauce.

keep me warm

Since electricity bill has gone up last year probably due to the minimised use of nuclear reactors and dependence on limited resources, I decided to explore the Japanese methods of keeping warm.

Wearing thick socks is a no-brainer, but one will be amazed at the number of colourful and cute socks in Japan. I had gotten these as birthday gifts from Yuri last year, so they were very timely.

I had seen these haramaki pants for some time now but never really thought of getting them until a conversation with Hyun when she was preparing to head back to Korea for the New Year's. Basically these are like warm woolly shorts that you wear on top of your undies. I guess this is the Japanese version of long johns.

Directly translated to "belly wrapper", you can get them for as cheap as JPY100. The cuter ones or with better materials are usually more expensive. These were on sale because they were trying to clear last year's inventory!

The other suggestion was the yutanpo, which is commonly known as hot water bottle. I was really happy to see these at the 100yen shop since I was just trying it out. I thought it was quite cute, with a little woolen pouch.

I just slip these under the comforter before going to sleep. It does a reasonable job of keeping the bed warm, so now I don't need an electric blanket!

I think these conscious efforts are kinda paying off since my electricity bill is lower than what it was this time last year. :)

valentine's in japan

Along with Christmas, Valentine's Day has become somewhat so commercialised that everyone is cashing in on these events. In a country like Japan that loves novelty and has a culture of gift-giving, these are perfect opportunities for retailers.

I'm really astonished by the many creative ideas for gifts and lovely merchandises that they come up for these events. Each elaborately packaged that I'd buy just because they look pretty!

However, Valentine's Day is celebrated a little differently in Japan, and also South Korea. On Feb 14, the grrls get gifts (usually chocolates) for the guys. There are 2 types - one is the usual where if the grrl likes a guy, she would give presents to express her feelings, and the other is called "obligatory" chocolates for female colleagues to give to their male colleagues.

One month later on Mar 13, it will be the guys' turn. In the 1st scenario if the guy is interested in the grrl, he would get her gifts. Then the grrl would know for sure how he felt. Please don't ask me why it takes 1 month for the guy to respond!

This year as with previous year, the IT grrls pooled some money and bought "obligatory" chocolates to the guys in the IT department. Since usually guys outnumber grrls, we had to spend a bit to ensure the guys don't get measly chocolates.

It became such a topic of contention because some felt it was not fair, another pointed out this year's cost was higher because more guys joined the department recently. One even suggested we should just call it off if no one really wanted to give, just because it's a "culture".

I told the organiser, that it's the thoughts that count. Trying to explain this phrase, I illustrated by saying, even if the gift was handmade and not necessarily expensive, I'm sure the recipient would appreciate it.