We went to the zoo today! I'm not a big fan of zoos and neither is Oli but we decided to go anyway because today is the one day a year where they have a monkey onsen. Onsen is a natural hot spring communal bath that's typical in Japan.. and apparently monkeys also enjoy it. Marcus ran around being nutso and laughing his weird psycho laugh at everything and then passed out before the monkey onsen started at 2pm so he didn't see it. There wasn't much to see, really... a hose from a big truck filled the monkey pool up with warm water and the monkeys didn't even want to go in until a worker threw food into the water. Lame. Apparently up in the mountains in wintertime wild monkeys will come and use the outdoor hot springs and THAT is something I would like to see.

Anyway.
Tomorrow I have to brave the trains to Osaka with Marcus because he has an audition. For what, I don't know. Probably some kind of children's catalog? Whatever it is, if he gets it I"m sure my mom will be proud and I hope I can send her a magazine page with him on it.

That's all! Have some photos.

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I made cinnamon buns and they sucked so bad I had to throw them out. I don't blame the recipe... I read all the reviews and everyone said they were awesome and easy to make. I blame our shitty not-really-an-oven Japanese microwave/oven. I hate baking in it, I should stop trying. Gonna stick to recipes that bake IN the bread maker from now on :o/

I put ads in all the gaijin classifieds to try and sell the watch I bought Oli for xmas. I got one response so far and he's offering me over 10,000yen less than what I paid for it. I tried to barter with him and he just linked me to an online shop where he could buy the same watch cheaper. So I'm gonna take the hit and just try not to think too hard about it.

...was generally about Marcus. But even having a new baby didn't keep us from making a few trips last year.

January - was cold, mostly stayed at home.
February - Marcus' first international flight. We visited Oli's relatives in London, and spent 3 days in Paris.
March - I turned 25, it was uneventful. The tsunami and earthquake hit Japan, Joseph and Chie fled Tokyo to stay in our guestroom. A lot of people fled Japan.
April - Cherry blossom season, my favourite! Oli turned 40 (holy shit Oli's 40)
May - Ana and Tatsuya got married! My first Mother's Day sucked big time. Oli better remember this year!
June - June is hot. Nothing happens in June.
July - July is also hot. Marcus started crawling. We took the shinkansen to Kyushuu and visited my grandparents.
August - Summer Sonic music festival. Canada.
September - more Canada.
October - I make a mama friend. Marcus starts walking. Marcus has his first birthday.
November - Bullshit with work.
December - More bullshit with work. Solution= Get a new job! Marcus' second Christmas!

It wasn't a bad year. This year looks good so far too. In 3 weeks we'll be in Barbados with Oli's mum and my parents, I'm starting a new job that I'm really looking forward to, Marcus will go into nursery school a couple times a week... I'm sure we'll fit in at least one other trip this year. My friends are coming to visit... Lexi, Harber and possibly Dre.. possibly all at once. Really looking forward to seeing them. And who knows what other nice things will happen this year, I'm very optimistic!

Happy New Year.
This morning Oli and I took Marcus to Kamigamo Shrine. It's a Japanese tradition to go to a shrine New Year's Day with your family and it was pretty busy. There were yattai (food stalls) which I LOVE and we ate takoyaki and nikuman. Marcus cracked me up by walking up to the nikuman vendor and doing the "more" babysign to him... I bought him another nikuman and was laughing so hard while the vendor was just confused. Last year we went to the same shrine and took photos, so this year I brought the camera and took some for comparison.

Last year, Marcus at about 2 months.This year, Marcus at 14 months. He didn't want Oli to hold him, lol.


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Merry Christmas! I feel kinda bittersweet about it, but the emphasis is on the sweet. The bitter part is that I got Oli what I thought was a really nice watch (don't worry, I didn't pay full price for it!), and he doesn't like it. He's not being a jerk or anything, actually I had to bug him and bug him before he would tell me it wasn't his taste. I could just tell something was wrong after he opened it. Oh, well. I feel shitty cos I feel like I don't know what he likes... I really thought it was something he'd love but it's too flashy. It's non-returnable so I have to figure out what to do with it.. try to sell it I guess. It's totally brand new so maybe someone will want to buy it from me :o/

The sweet part was watching Marcus get all excited about Christmas. We didn't think he'd 'get it' and I suppose he doesn't really.. but he definitely knew something was up. Oli and I only gave Marcus one present, a little toy car, which is just as well because our relatives spoiled him so much with gifts. A nice surprise was my uncle Kenji who I haven't seen in years (yet lives pretty nearby) called me and came to visit with his wife an brought Marcus yet another present. It was a slightly awkward visit because of the language thing, and even though Oli speaks fairly fluent Japanese sometimes Japanese people are still hesitant to try conversing normally with him if they're not used to gaijin. It's a weird Japanese thing. Anyway, other than the watch thing Christmas was lovely, and Marcus was a cutiepie all day until nighttime when he decided he wasn't going to sleep until 10pm, arg.

Oli got me a SEWING MACHINE which is amazing, and some other littler things like the new Chili Peppers cd, and chocolate, and a travel mug, and I love all of them which makes me feel all the crappier for getting him a present that he doesn't want. I also got him a coffee table book 'Encyclopedia of Serial Killers' which I *know* he likes, and he's getting speakers for music mixing but he picked them out so I have no hand in which ones. Blah. I'll stop thinking about the watch. I just hope I can sell it to someone and get most of the money back :o(

But sewing machine, I'm super happy about! I'm looking up all kinds of sewing projects and to be honest I have NO CLUE how to sew with a sewing machine or what kind of stitches are for what, but I will learn, dammit! And I will make clothing for me and for Marcus and shirts for Oli and little hats for the cats. It will be glorious.

Christmas is coming! I'm actually pretty excited about this one. Not only is it Marcus's first Christmas as a sentient being (I totally don't count last year when he was basically a potato) but I'm really excited to give Oli his presents. And there is a gigantic box in the catroom that is my present and although I'm 99% sure it's a sewing machine, I'm still really excited to open it. So much excitement! There are a couple Christmas parties we've been invited to, with kids, and it's nice to be included now in the expat family gatherings. I think those sort of things will get more and more fun as Marcus gets older and actually understands what's going on but in the meantime, it's fun for me!

Speaking of fun, I've actually been going out these last few weekends. I had a girl's night out with the two other expat mamas Cindy and Amy (Amy just left to go back to the states, I'm gonna miss her *sniff*) and one of the places we went was called Sweets Paradise. It's a totally Japanese all-you-can-eat cake place. Amy has a huge sweet tooth so we decided to check it out before she left Japan. Here's the website (English). Basically you pay 1,400yen ($20?) and have 70 minutes to eat as much as you want. They had a gazillion different types of cake, a chocolate fondue fountain with things for dipping in it, soft-serve icecream in a bunch of different flavours, a coffee and hot chocolate machine and just so you could take a break from the sweet they had a table with pizza, pasta, curry and rice and veggies.

For some reason we thought that 70 minutes seemed like a short amount of time so we stuffed ourselves from the get-go. What a mistake. After 20 minutes of eating cake after cake we just kind of sat in silence feeling sick and staring at each other, haha. I actually ate broccoli just so I would feel better.


cakey heaven.


Cindy and Amy before cake death.

After all the cake we went to a neat Nepalese bar called Milan's, and drank dirty martinis. Which did not mix well with the cake. But, it was fun.. it was really nice to be out with girlfriends of sorts and do girlfriendy things. It just sucks knowing that even when I meet women I click with they probably aren't staying in Japan long and sooner or later I'll have to say goodbye. Cindy is only staying for one year and already I feel sad thinking about her leaving. Guess I'll just have to get in as many hangouts as possible before she goes.

I bought a breadmaker and I've made banana bread and whole wheat bread and it's awesome. We all eat a ton of bread and Marcus lately has been picky about what he eats (but always will eat bread!) so I'm going to make healthy wheat and veggy breads so he's getting more than just carbs. I love kitchen appliances, I'm not really a 'cook' but I love trying. I want a crockpot. And a food processor.

I have NO IDEA what to get Oli for Christmas. He's already bought my present and he ordered it online so it's sitting in a box in the back room taunting me. It's big, I think it's a sewing machine because of the size/shape and it's something he knows for sure I want. I really have absolutely no clue what to get Oli!!!! He loved his birthday present flying lesson, but it's impossible to do it in Japan and I already checked in Barbados. I thought maybe a snowboarding trip because he hasn't gone for years and he loves it.. but I doubt he'd want to go all alone and I'm not going to snowboard or ski, not with Marcus so... that's out. He's so particular about clothing that I'd be scared to get something he didn't like and then he'd have to pretend he did and wear it anyway, haha. Maybe a really nice accessory? Like a designer scarf or something... ugh. I don't want to stress about this but I really want to get him something special. I went to the mall today with Marcus and attempted to get Xmas shopping done and wound up only buying mittens for Marcus. I haven't even found myself a winter jacket yet, I hate all the designs. I even have the go-ahead to spend a couple hundred on a new jacket cos mine is 6 years old and falling apart but I just can't find something I like :o( (if this were twitter I'd #firstworldproblems, lol)

I was looking at Etsy for a gift for my mom, and kept thinking about how much I want to open a shop. I don't know much about sewing, or business, but I really really think I could start something using Japanesey materials (old kimono, anime fabric etc).. even just selling textiles as I've seen some other shops do. Maybe this not having a job now thing is a push in a new more interesting direction?

Annnnd in the spirit of being all over the place here's a video I took of Marcus today at the mall. There's a kid's play centre that has awesome things like this balloon room, and a little carousel, and climbing things.

Hi, livejournal. Why you so empty?

I cut Marcus off from breastmilk last Friday and he's been sleeping through the night, going to bed happy and easily taking naps. So awesome.

I went out drinking last night for the first time since being in Canada and it was great not worrying if Oli is having a hard time with Marcus at home.

Tomorrow I'm doing a photoshoot with a guy from Texas who wants to shoot me in a Hello Kitty mask, bikini and heels.

That is all.

I'm finding it really difficult to keep everything in order... make meals for me, Marcus and Oli.. keep the laundry from piling up, the house from being disgusting, the dishes done, the groceries bought etc etc. It's HARD and I wish it wasn't.
I'm trying though, I really am. This parenthood thing really tests my time-management skills, of which I previously had none, haha. Now I'm all organized, and a bit of a neat freak, and (well I always was) list-obsessive. Is this a good change? Hrmmm...

Marcus now does two signs that I taught him, for 'milk' and 'more'. 'more' is really cute because he so delicately places his fingertips together. I hope he keeps learning new ones. Also he knows the word 'book'. Not to say it, but when I ask him if he wants to read a book he brings me one and sits in my lap. Oh, and he claps right before I read it because he is excited about reading, way too cute. It's so neat seeing all these new things he does, and what he understands is surprising. I always thought at this age they were still well.. BABIES.. but he's acting more and more like a little kid.

Marcus turned one on Saturday. We had a birthday party by the riverside with lots of other little kids and parents. Unfortunately, Marcus caught a cold basically the morning of his party and wanted to sleep all day... poor thing. I had to wake him up because we were already 2hrs late to his own party and everybody was waiting. He got lots of nice presents even though I told everybody not to bother bringing any, a lot of books which he's into lately. It was a pretty good day.

He's fully walking now, and climbing our incredibly steep stairs which is scary. Have to figure out some way to block them.

I'm exhausted (think I'm getting a cold) but I wanted to update as I haven't in so long. I took a couple photos at his party but our friend's gf took way more and is sending them soon I hope, and then I'll post those too.

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