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