Minimalism - Online Income - ESL - Japan
2007 was an eventful year, starting with fortune teller Kazuko Hosoki predicting that it would be the best year for me in over a decade. I’m not really into astrology, but she wasn’t far off with that prediction. My Top 5 Life Changing Moments from 2007 5. Taking better care of my health On July 1st, I put out my last cigarette. With a baby on the way, I wanted […]
With the new year getting closer, I thought it was time to give LongCountdown.com a new look. Most people like to use the freely available themes you can get for the WordPress blogging platform. I, on the other hand, prefer to get my hands dirty and hack into the code. Before I explain the changes, here’s a picture of what this site used to look like: Wait! What’s that little baby doing there? Firstly, some […]
Japanese New Year is the season of Omikuji – random fortunes written on strips of paper that tell you whether the new year will be a good one or not. Many Japanese people are superstitious and believe in fortune tellers such as Kazuko Hosoki, and lucky charms called Omamori. Protect yourself with elephant poo For many years, my favorite Japanese lucky charm was the faceless baby monkey, Sarubobo, from Takayama. That was until […]
Recently, my wife has been interested in getting one of those high powered steam cleaners. It all started when she saw an ad for a “sample cleaning” whereby someone comes to your house and demonstrates the power of their product by cleaning your kitchen and bathroom for just 1,000 yen ($10). In this case, the product was the Domena NVT Eagle Jet 2 vacuum steam cleaner. How much does an Eagle […]
It’s late afternoon on Christmas Day 2007, and Ricky is having a nap as I write this. Our son has just turned five months old and woke up this morning to his first Christmas. Unlike the rest of Japan, we are fortunate not to have work or school today so are making the most of it. Santa Claus got in through the front door Japanese houses don’t have chimneys, but […]
In my last post, Making Mochi in the Mountains, I told you it was my first time to to make Japanese mochi. I wasn’t the only person doing something for the first time. Rikuto sees snow for the first time Our trip to the mochi ceremony took us way up into the mountains on a winding road surrounded by snow. We were all surprised snow had fallen since it was […]
We hopped in Mami’s little pink car and took a drive out to Gujo city with our friend, Mr. H, for some traditional new year mochi making. Mochi can be described as “steamed rice pounded into a glutinous cake and used as a staple ingredient in a variety of dishes, including desserts”. This seasonal activity is a Japanese custom I hadn’t experienced until today, so I was quick with my camera to […]
England has always seemed to be quite advanced when it comes to supermarket technology. They had long, spacious, barcode-reading checkouts when I was 17 and worked in the frozen section of Waitrose. It wasn’t many years later before they introduced hand-held, customer-carried barcode readers so shoppers could check prices for themselves. People buying less then ten items have been able to go through an “express” checkout for years, and all that time, the checkout girls and boys have been allowed […]