I supposed to...

Yeah, I was trying to write this blog, but... no, no, no excuse.

Finally, I have to take an exam which is called "TOEIC" tomorrow.
Here in Japan, it is important to get high points of this exam to get a better job.
Especailly jobs which I can use English. I've never taken that exam, so even though
I do use English, I cannot use it as a job.

I know it is a little bit strange but this is Japan. Actually nobody recoginize whether I can speak or not without that points.

Anyway, I will take it just in case. Hope I can get high points but I know I'm not good at grammer..

My life hasn't changed, just work and work. My co-workers are good except one lady.
She is... ah, she's she. I mean she works among boys, so she doesn't know how to get along with girls. She's always checking what we're doing. If we do something wrong like I go get some rest somewhere, she'll definetly find out and warn me. I do my job within my wage. She has to do her own job, I think.

It'd be better to study a little bit..
I will write my next top5 list and I will write a review of Black Snake Moan which I really impressed.

Top 5 Movies; If I Could Be... (Coolest Characters)

Whenever I try to write this blog, I'm always thinking about a theme which I want to tell. But I had no idea what should I wrote, then I stuck.　

Anyway, I found a good topic.I always look forward to listening podcast program which is called "Filmspotting".

It's about movies. They focus on the brand new movies and other movies.And then they always choose 5 movies along the theme. I really like it, and sometimes I write about 5 movies on my japanese blog.So this is the English version.

So I'll write same thing as my japanese one.I might be able to write every week.

This week's top 5 are　If I Could Be... (Coolest Characters)
Yes, if I could be a coolest character or anybodywhom I could be...who do I want to be?
Characters in fantasy, characters who's got a skill,who's got a talent,characters who can do somethingspecial which I cannot, like fling, singing beautifully etc.Or character who's just beautiful, character whocould meet somebody perfect.It's a really interesting topic, I assume.and it was really hard to choose, seriously.

Ok, let's get it started.I cannot choose 5, so I will choose men charactersand female characters separately..First I will talk about female characters.I'm not a boy, it was really hard to choose femalecharacter for me. I guess I don't want to be a girlnext time :-p

Anyway,
my number 5 is Pursy Will from "A Love Song for Bobby Long"
It was not special movie to me, but I really like Lawson Pines who lives with Pursy and Bobby Long.He's just gorgeous. So I just want to spend time with him.

my number 4 is

Lara Croft from "Tomb Raider".

Basically, I like woman who's intelligent and also strong. She's also beautiful, but anyway I want to act like her. Lala and my number 1's character are a little bit similar, I guess.

OK, let's move to next.my number 3 is

Violet Sanford from "Coyote Ugly"

She's not special, but she's got a talent for singing. And she's got a nice boyfriend whom Australian actor Adam Garcia is acting.

my number 2 is

Celine from "Before Sunrise"

When I started studying English, I thought I wish I could be like Celine.She's French but she speaks English fluently.I do speak but I cannot talk about everything like as my japanese.I want to enjoy the intellectual conversation like her.Movie was also beautiful, I wish I could go to Vienna.

Finally my number 1. my number 1 is

Sydney Bristow from "Alias"
I know it's not a movie, but I couldn't avoid her.She's perfect to me, I love her so much.She's very strong,she can speak any launguage all over the world.And also she can tempt everyone! How cool she is!So my number one is Sydney. and maybe she's the number one including boys.I wanna be her, really.

How about boys? I have many many charactors whom I want to be.

My number 5 is

Dr. John Dolittle from "DOCTOR DOLITTLE"

If I could talk to animals, that would be wonderful, evensometimes I don't want to listen especially the words of my dog.It's a really intersting talent, I think.

He is the character who lives in Fantasy,my number 4 is

Legolas from "THE LORD OF THE RINGS"

Actually I'm OK if I could be Aragorn, but Legolas can livemuch longer than him.And also I like his stoic life style even he'svery good looking guy.

I couldn't choose those two nice guys. A common point isboth of them are...

my number 3 are
Alex Rider from "STORMBREAKER"

or

Jason Bourne from "THE BOURNE IDENTITY"

My female number one is Sydney, you know. I love a spy so much, coz they're just great. They can do anything they want.I will start talking about Alex first.I could choose James Bond but he's bit old, even though he's handsomeguy.Alex just found his potential abilities. I do prefer young guy who has a bright future.I don't know that future will be bright or not, though.
Jason Bourne lost all his memory but his body was just rememberedthat he was a spy. That plot is really cool, isn't it?He could move like a spy, he can remember a number plate of outside.even he wasn't conscious. It's tragic story, but also attractive.

Even though he's not a good guy, sometimes he attracts me.

my number 2 is
Rusty Ryan from "Ocean's Thirteen".
Danny Ocean attracts me as well, but I don't want to organizeeverything. The position of Rusty is flexible and he's alsocool guy who is a smart dresser. A criminal but he never fail.Great, I want to be him.

I like the guy who is smart,strong and also cool, yeah, everyoneloves him.

I wish if he was much younger,but my number 1 is

Indiana Jones from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade".

He's a professor, yes he's smart, he can fight against bad guys,he's strong and everytime he falls in love with gorgeous girl;moreover he has a sence of humor. How perfect he is!I want to be him and have an adventure with his funny dad.But I don't want to eat the brain of apes.

Thoese are characters whom I want to be.

How's yours?

Who do you want to be??

Another characters I thought were...
Frank Martin from "The Transporter"

Daniel Morales from "Taxi"

Dirk Pitt from "Sahara"

Peter Parker from "Spiderman"

John Connor from "Terminator 2"

haven't written

I haven't written for ages!Finally I'll start working from this wednesday.I was looking for a job which I can use English,but..I couldn't wait until I can find proper job.
Anyway, I've been doing well.and I've been thinking about my future these days.I will take a course of cookery next year in Perth.So I have to get a score of IELTS maybe around 5.5 points.Humm I guess it's hard for me as long as I go toschool for that.One of my friend will go back to Australiaand take that course. I just envy her!I wish I had enough money...
I'll let you know about my job later.It's just boring office job, I guess.

At the japanese restaurant.

Hi, there.
I forgot to introduce you guys my exchange student
(monkey??) Julius. He's from Layne's, Perth.
Now he's staying with my bears like that picture.
He's going to show you the life in Japan with this blog sometimes.
He quite enjoys his life in Sendai.




Last week Julius and I went to city to meet my friends.
We went to a typical japanese restaurant calls "Izakaya",
this is discription of Izakaya, just in case.
That picture on the right is " Hors-d'œuvre" in French,
basically it's free in Japan. We call it "Oto-shi". From the left they
are tomatos, octopus and broad bean. Hope Julius could enjoy those.







This is "japanese sake". It is really hard to explain for me,
we call it "mokkiri". I didn't know we call it so...
Actually, sake overflows onto the tray under the glass.
So you can drink those extra after you finish drinking with
your glass. This type is called "mokkiri".
I asked my frind that why do they use that tray. I guess it'd be better to use a glass which is bigger. They said, "Ah, you're not japanese, huh? This is the japanese spirit. Because you will be happy with drinking extra sake after you finish up your drink". Hummmm.
Maybe you can try at Senoji in east victoria park. Ask them about "mokkiri".



This is a picture of "Yakitori", I think you guys tried many times.
It's really famous meal in Japan. It was really delicious. The dish of this picture was very unique.







The last picture is very unique as well. That picture with Julius
and me is "Hibachi". You can find out what it is from the link
above. It is really an old type heating which I've never used it.
Maybe my grandparents used to use it.
Of course it didn't work, and it was not cold day anyway.
They sat down like this for warmth long time ago.
But it was really embarassing to take that picture!!
Everybody in the restaurant was watching us!
We had a good time at the restaurant. Only one thing I couldn't enjoy was alcohol. I cannot drink "sake"!! I could enjoy "syochu" but I still miss wines, hahaha.

Pub in Sendai

Hi there,

Japan has so many good things actually, but we don't have

"Nice Pub"s, especially in Sendai.

I went to Irish Pub with my friends last night.

It is located in the eastern bloc of Sendai station.

For me it is hard to get there,

15mins walk from house to local station,

12mins to get to the city and 10mins walk to that Pub.

See, it's not convenient!

I supposed to drink before I watch movie at the theater

where is in front of that pub, but it didn't open yet!!

It was 4 o'clock in the afternoon! Wow, can't believe!

It's Saturday night! What's it going on? Hummm :-(

Anyway, I went to there after I had watched a movie,

movie was "Stranger than Fiction" which was nice,

and started drinking.

I really fancy dry white wine, you know,

so I asked them whether they have it.

Answer was NO,

they've got only sweet white wine!!

Bugger!! That is the only one...I thought they have

many kinds of wines...only one? It's not a pub, damm!

And also they don't have a glass of shampagne,

a bottle costs $35. There is no choice...I like red wine,

so that's OK, but still....I couldn't be satisfied.

And also I couldn't find "wedges" as well.

This pub is not good, so I have to try another pub.

We've got only 2 pubs in this city. So that is

the only hope..Hope that is good. I'll try next weekend.

The guy who is from another country maybe from

Middle East was not a nice guy,worse luck.

I could talk to my friend who was working with me

two years ago, it was nice. It was the only thing

I could be satisfied last night.

Ah, I miss Balmoral... ;-<

that picture is the eastern bloc of the station.

mobile!

Finally,I've got a new mobile.

I thought I don't need to buy a mobile because I have to

save money and also I don't use it so much.

But the life without a mobile seems to be difficult these days.

So I was looking for the cheapest plan and mobile itself.

In Japan, there are 4 major companies for mobile,

docomo,au,softbank and willcom.

I used to use "docomo", but it is too expensive.

au has a good plan but I have to use it at least 2 years,

of course I can use it even I use only 1 year but that case would be expensive.

willcom is famous for PHS,not mobile.
It seemed to be suit for me and It has a plan which is cheap.

It says that if I buy it now, I don't need pay for a machine itself.

So I was about to buy it,actually.

But I checked carefully, I realized if I contract with a specific plan,

I could get free mobile.

I don't need that plan,so this company doesn't suit for me as well.

The last company was softbank.

It's kind of new company. It was called vodefone at least when I left Japan.

I don't like that company but now it was changed and they've got a new plan

which seems good.
If I don't care what kind of type of mobile,

it means I don't care to have old type model,

it is just 1 cent and I can cancel anytime I want.

Wow, that's the one which I was looking for.

So this is my new mobile!

I have to be careful not to use too much anyway...

Party!

The weather of Sendai was not good these days.

It was cloudy and a little bit cold today.

It's totally different from Perth's.

That humidity makes me sick...

I met my ex co-workers in the city today.

We had a lunch at the restraunt, of course without alcohol,unfortunately.

But a wine at the restraunt in Japan isn't good.

And basically they're not from Australia.

Maybe cheap one.

I found the wine from Margaret river today,

but it was really expensive! (around $40)

Anyway, 17 friends gathered at the restraunt,

yes it was a big group.

I was quite happy to meet them again!

We could talk a lot like as usual.

Even though I spent in Australia for one year,

I felt like I saw them yesterday.

One thing everybody asked me was why you guys snuggled up

and took a photo everytime.

I couldn't answer because it was usual for me..

See that photo which I attached !

It was only me snugglingup to next person.

It's bizarre!!

First step

Hi there,

I've just started this blog. Hope I can keep writing... :-p

I will not write a long diary,
but I will try to keep writing something small thing about me,

my family, lovely little old dog, my friends and also my town & Japan.

I hope I can let my friends know about them until I will go back to Australia.

Anyway my name is mioko. I came back from Perth,Australia last week.

Still miss my friends heaps.

This picture is a station of Sendai where I'm living now.
I felt a little bit weired when I came back there.

Everything hasn't changed, but I felt like I'm a stranger...

OK, this is the first post for me.
I'm waiting for your comments!!

thanks