Back in Japan

After a wonderful vacation in Canada with my family and friends I am back in Japan. After more than 24 hours of traveling, my wife and I arrived in kobe. Although it was wonderful to be back in Canada, it is always great to get back to your home. I slept like a log last night, probably due to the fact that I was dead tired, but the fact that it was "my" bed also helped a lot I think.

I was somewhat anxious because we left our fish for 10 days. I bought a food block for them that is supposed to dissolve and slowly release food into the water, but upon arrival, it didn't seem to work well. On the bright side, my fish were alive and healthy.

Check out my latest video about my trip back home and the fact that ANA were kind enough to bump us up to business class.





While at my parents' house, I had the chance to drink some of the new Dan Akroyd wine. that's right, Dan Akroyd of SNL and Ghostbusters fame. He is a native of Ottawa, Canada and is now flogging his own line of wine. You can by them at the LCBO (Ontario liquor stores). It was actually pretty good. There will be a video about it soon!


This is what Christmas is all about. Well, I suppose this is part of it. This was the Christmas dinner that my wonderful parents prepared for my wife and I. I had two full plates like this. This is part of the reason I left Canada a few pounds greater than when i arrived. i suppose that is a sign of a proper Christmas vacation.


About 2 weeks ago I shot a video of myself doing a little Christmas shopping inside Nishinomiya Gardens in Nishinomiya, Japan. It's an upscale shopping mall located between Osaka and Kobe.

Japanese Golden Week ゴールデンウィーク

It's been a year since I first came to Japan. I arrived here last year, a few days before Golden Week ゴールデンウィーク and Japanese Golden Week begins yet again, today. That's right, it's vacation time. Eight full days away from class. It's a time to relax, sleep late, consume malt beverages and study some Nihongo and other things.

Here a video I made about my one year anniversary in Japan:
A Year in Japan



A piece of randomness:

I was looking from a free Kansai weekly paper and saw this. Actually my wife spotted it and pointed it out to me. Not the best selling point for a house I think!


I was in KALDI on Sunday looking for some peanut butter when my wife's keen eye noticed this. By the way, KALDI is a coffee shop that sells loads of foreign food items. There's one located in Motomachi in Kobe (close to Chinatown). So, I picked up a jar of Skippy Peanut Butter and this wine.

It's Sakura Wine. That's right, cherry blossom wine. There were actual cherry blossoms at the bottom. We tried it last night with dinner and both didn't like it. It was far too sweet. It actually tasted like liquid candy. I've never been a fan of sweet wines, but this one reminded me of bubblegum in a bottle...with flowers.


You can see the two cherry blossoms up close. Seemed like a great novelty item!


Ume Tonkatsu!

Just before we purchased the wine, we stopped for lunch in a small restaurant in Motomachi. They had some great eats for low prices. I tried the Ume(plum) Tonkatsu. It was basically deep fried pork cutlet covered with salty plum sauce. It was really crispy (how i prefer my tonkatsu) and the sauce added a very interesting and enjoyable flavour. This was a definite treat for me! The meal also came with a bowl of steamed rice and udon soup.