Tremendously overdue and just tremendous in general update

Hi kids, how've you been? We miss you all! We miss that we missed Ange's Bday, Beno's farewell, Baccae's Toga Party, Nick and Georgia's burrito love and pizza. We also miss West Lakes food court's fish and chips.

So you're wondering what we've been up to?

J&F Farewells
Our friend Linda left on tuesday, which naturally required a lot of drinking and some eating. We missed her farewell BBQ but we made it into the kitchen in time for the fun to really start. And by fun, I mean lots of alcohol (not so much on mine and Sarah's part) and seemingly endless repetition of a Japanese song that goes "Linda Linda! Linda Linda Linda! Linda Linda! Linda Linda Linda!" and so on. (With such lyrical diversity, I'm sure you can't imagine how I found it annoying...) The day after that, Oche left, but no one knew he was leaving and to be honest, we didn't see him before he left. Weird. Then our good friend Sebastien, one of the nicest guys I know, left back to France. We're going to see if we can catch up with a few J&F people when we hit Europe!

From top, left to right: 1) Linda is the one pointing, 2) Nicolas, Ayumi and Sarah bewildered by the drunken goings-on, 3) Sarah and I get exited, 4) Fumio decides to breakdance, hilarity ensues, 5) Kira... I don't know what Kira is doing, 6) Sarah does the ALIEN DANCE! (aka "We no speak Americano")


Spaghetti Party!
The reason we missed Linda's BBQ was because of Chizuko's Spaghetti Party! Miho was finally better and Chizuko invited us to lunch. We took our Malibu, pineapple juice and garlic bread with us, and Chizuko made us two different types of spaghetti to try, one with eggplant, ham and ... I have no idea what else, the other a kind of herby tomato with feta cheese. They were both quite nice, though I admit, I ate just the pasta and tomato sauce, none of the extras!

DenDen Town
On tuesday we went with Miho and Mai to DenDen town. DenDen Town is like Tokyo's Akihabara district, only it's in Osaka, obviously. Sarah bought a tripod stand for her camera, while we looked at the newest iPod gear, over expensive "jewel" headphones (seriously, they look nothing like jewels, how dare you try to charge that much??!?!?) and Sarah's favourite gaming shiz! It was REALLY hot. We toiled on, looking through game shops, wasting our money on machines that gave us awful keyrings, buying figurines we really didn't need (Okay, that was me, but they had Meyrin and Lacus cheap! Now of course I have to get Kira and Yzak.)and had a look at cosplay shops. Wigs here are pretty expensive, but way cool. I want Aqua hair! We stopped for a snack break at Maccas (what, it was so hot! Maccas is air conditioned, has ice cold coke and is delicious! And cheap. so many reasons just to stay there forever!) Then we (reluctantly) walked into the heat and continued down the road... to get icecream! It was delicious, by the way. Soft serve is called "Soft cream" and comes in many different flavours, including "Corn Pottage"... wtf is that?

1) Carly under a nice looking arch, 2) Sarah finds a sword, 3)Akatsuki BLING Gundam with Cagalli and Mwu La Flaga sparkling on the box, 4) A giant Gundam punches a hole in the no-photo rule, 5) Den-Den Town, 6) Statue from Fall Out 3 game.


Hard Rock Cafe
After DenDen town, we went to Hard Rock Cafe. Sarah was excited about the food, me about the cocktails and I didn't think Miho or Mai knew quite what to expect. The cocktails were arse. You paid $10 and they didn't even put them in a cocktail glass, just like, a normal coke glass! Not impressed! Also, despite ordering three different cocktails, they all looked identical. Boring! Unfortunately, with the exception of Sarah's blackened chicken pasta, the food was pretty lame too. Sarah loved her pasta, Mai's caesar salad was okay, but Miho's fish and chips were absolutely awful. The chips were gross- tomato sauce couldn't save them, and the fish was... It was about 5 small fish, not one piece, which wasn't so bad. The fish was 70% tasteless batter and grease, and 30% warm sandy tasteless fishmush. Lemon did not assist in any way, and I felt sorry for Miho. My garlic bread was quite average, and I was not impressed. The only area in which I rate it is music, cause it had awesome music, and at the perfect volume; you wanted to dance but you could still talk easily.

1)Mai, Sarah, Miho & I at Hard Rock Cafe Osaka, 2) Mai and Sarah, 3) Miho and I

Shoppping
After sternly deciding on a budget, we then proceeded to go shopping. Hyakuen stores are quite dangerous- deceptively cheap they are, yet buy $15 worth I do. Understand this mystery, Yoda does not. We found a Daiso right near us- just a 10m walk away. We literally spent an hour scouring its depths, and i spent $13 on $1 products. I bought "shiny powder". We also hit UniQlo. We'd found a great bargain there before, many great bargains actually, but this time, we wanted to buy another and it was GONE. Oh we didn't know how well we had it- if only... but it was not to be, as I even tried ringing the Umeda UniQlo and they too were sold out. Of course, I didn't know this until Miho rang for me, after asking my carefully translated question and then announcing I did not speak Japanese, the guy launched into quickfire Japanese which seemed much more elaborate than the simple "hai" or "ie" I was looking for.
Nonetheless, we still triumphed, returning with more clothes than were previously had. We love UniQlo.

Kelly’s Party
Kelly’s party was on the 40th floor of a building in Miyakojima. It was pot luck so we bought Pesto Pasta (courtesy of Sarah) which went down well. When we came in we were the centre of attention which was unnerving; we felt like hobos attending an expensive dinner (maybe not too far from the truth). Most of the people were Chizuko’s colleagues, including Kelly and his brother Corey who are Canadian. The Japanese people were very nice and keen to talk to us; I think I scared them talking about sharks, snakes, poisonous spiders, octopus and jellyfish, drop bears and killer kangaroos.
There was more Takoyaki, which we declined, slightly alarmed. The view was killer, as you’d expect from 40 floors, and we took some nice photos including “you’ve run a marathon and now you’re puffed out”, “you're that suave Japanese guy who thinks he's Italian”, “ and more. Also, we had fun train watching and saw some fireworks from far off.
When we left, we looked down from the 40th floor (the building had a hollowed out square in the middle... a straight, 40 floor death drop) and if that wasn't facing my fear of heights, I'm not sure what was. I also kind of felt like I should have a light saber, and that Luke Skywalker was coming to toss my boss into the abyss.
At 11:30 we decided we’d better catch the train home, alas, the last train was at 11:34 from a stop 10 mins away. This was slightly awkward but Chizuko and Miho came to the rescue, refusing to leave us on the streets. We walked back to Chizuko’s, buying a delicious “soft cream” (soft serve) cone in choc-vanilla. It was cheap but ridiculously delicious.
Then we got to sleep on a real Japanese Futon! It was pretty comfortable actually, though I did have a weird dream about trying to convince a plastic bag to turn back into a boy. The boy was also pregnant. Weird stuff, I know.

1)The view from the balcony, 2) same view, diff pic, 3) "You're a walnut, hanging from a tree", 4) "You're a plane, coming into land, tilting a little to the side", 5) "You're a samurai", 6) 40th floor of the Death Star, 7) Fireworks in the distance, 8) Carly and Sarah, 9) Miho and Carly, 10) Sarah and Miho, 11) view from the balcony with a blue light, 12) futon party, 13) "dead" on the futon, 14) a mighty sly monobrow sneaks its way across Saros' forehead.



The day after
After a nice sleep in, we watched SYTYCD America (and got the COOLEST idea) then we departed for Maccas- futatsu cheeseburger, ooonion to muuuustard to pickulshu nookie de! I also created beauty with our leftover wrappers.We then headed back to J&F and had a lovely shower, wasted our time (Onion, NO! Mustard, NO! Pickles, NO!) and made Miho Tacos for tea! And watched Gundam Seed ;)
















^^ I created a TANK! ^^


"Planning" with Miho
Today we decided to visit Miho and plan more activities for September. What actually happened was we watched America's next top model, then headed to Daiso and UniQlo. Upon comparing my budget and my money, I was alarmed and vowed not to spend much money. I then bought two dresses, a skirt and a scarf and some presents. And a new handbag. Oops? So we're trying to plan again on thursday. Also, on the train on the way to Miyakojima (Miho's station), a kid got his hand stuck in the train doors... they didn't close on his hand, his hand got dragged into the space where the doors slide into when open. He screamed and screamed, and it was really freaky. In the end about 6-10 Japanese men were trying to pull his arm out while holding the half closed train door open. His hand, when pulled out, was fine... Sarah and I half expected it to come out bloody and like raw meat. It was both relieving and slightly disappointing, after the feeling of horror! Also, I'm not allowed to eat Maccudo (Maccas), chips, or ice cream until next sat. If I do, I have to eat lots of octopus. I am a sad panda.

















^^ Never thought I'd be grateful Adelaide train doors are so weak...^^

Shoutouts:
To my family- Sorry about Skype, I didn't blow you off, talk to you Thursday for sure!
To Kim Simpson, your malteser and Mars bar goodness is unbelieveable!
To Kim Bowden, I'll try to catch you on skype this weekend or friday?
To Ange, you should really check your email more often.
To Ben, we really should have bought those hats.
To Laura Turner, get on those pantsu cards!
To Laura Simpson, I didn't even know you had a cat. Looking forward to Skype date!
To Kirilly, yes, when we get back, we will make punch!
To Beno, your pizza makes me jealous.
To Georgia, you haven't commented us! WHY?!
To John, wow, grounded? Sucks to be you!


Hugs, Kisses and ... (you can fill this one in Ange),


Ichinose Maki
A.K.A.
Darth Vader
A.K.A.
Carlos Jorgen
A.K.A.
Carly



P.S.

Dear Diary,
Nose a little itchy today...
xx Ichinose

P.P.S

Secret Video coming soon here ;)

Weekend Fun

On Friday, we were organising some stuff for work when Juerg invited us to walk down to Nagai Park with him. It was about a 20 minute round trip, and after we got about half way there, it started to rain! The rain was not very cooling, and I was dying (both in my head and verbally... by verbally, I just mean that I whinged the whole way there and back... "It's so hot... milk was a bad choice!). We did stop to see our local Hyaku Yen ($1) shop, though it was like, $1.05- jeez, price hike?




















^^ Saros and Juerg posing- this... thing... whatever it is, shoots out steam (unfortunately hot, not a refreshing cold mist) every 10 mins. ^^


We do most of our shopping at the $1 store, they're really cool. This one had more food than the other's we've seen and we spent a bit of money! Juerg bought fireworks. Nagai park is huge, and there is an inside garden that you pay to get into. We'd just gone for a quick walk, so we didn't go in this time, but we found the pool complex which looked horribly refreshing (I say horribly because we didn't have our bathers and it was about to close... so we couldn't use it!). We did a lap of the park (including having some fun on the playground) and walked back to J&F Plaza for our cocktail night, which for me at least, will now be The-Night-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Mentioned.








































^^ Playground ^^

It began with bowls of punch and ladels, fun music and Cal Kings. Nicolas started singing, this guy called Chris convinced everyone to play Titanic (beer and various other liquor) and Nicolas, Chris and Linda had to drink. (It looked truly disgusting). Then Juerg decided to set off his fireworks- there were some cool sparklers, Nicolas, Sarah and Linda had some fun with a trolley and then one firework made a rather loud bang... then we got told to come back inside :(

















^^ Being responsible with fireworks ^^
















^^ Nicolas, determined to push Sarah and Linda into a row of bicycles. ^^

We then turned the J&F Kitchen into a disco and somewhere along the line I made some sort of punch that probably was akin to paint stripper (Sarah said it was disgusting but Juerg and I continued to enjoy it) and we danced! Sarah got the great idea to make pancakes, and Nicolas and Ayumi decided to help. Linda also helped, by pouring so much brandy into the mix that the pancakes tasted purely of brandy.

















^^ Linda gives Sarah a shot of Sapphire Gin to drink. Sarah responds favourably to this suggestion. ^^















^^ J&F "Night which shall not be mentioned" Party ^^


By the time we went to bed, I was very, very drunk and the next day, I felt very, very bad. Sarah was a mix of a little sympathetic and a lot amused. I felt quite horrific on Saturday, compounded by the fact I knew we had to meet Chizuko and see the fireworks! It was a true act of heroism on my part that I didn't just expire on the spot.


















^^ This was taken before the paint stripper punch was poured. I now leave you to imagine my state the next day. ^^

After another nap and a vegemite sandwich, made lovingly (or resentfully, who knows?) by Sarah, I managed to get up and get on the train. I'm not going to lie, the whole way there I felt like shit (Sarah also not feeling too good at that stage). The train moved and swayed, the streets were packed, it was boiling hot and every few meters had a new set of traffic policemen shouting things into loud speakers. ("TURN LEFT FOR THE SUBWAY. TURN RIGHT FOR JR RAILWAY. STOP CROSSING, THE LIGHT IS TURNING RED. STAY WHERE YOU ARE, THE LIGHT IS RED. STAY WHERE YOU ARE, THE LIGHT IS RED. THE LIGHT IS ABOUT TO TURN GREEN. CROSS THE STREET, THE LIGHT IS GREEN.")

Naturally, we understood none of this (Chizuko translated sometimes for us). Miho was home sick and missed out- Sarah and I were really glad we went. We knew we were going to watch the fireworks from Chizuko's brother's office, which was actually on the 21st floor of the Umeda Sky Building, which we will be going to. It's a very tall observatory, with an elevator ride that looks incredibly frightening to someone with a minor fear of heights. It will provide me with unlimited and incredible fear, but I'll go anyway, because it looks too cool (and horribly, horribly high) to miss out on.























^^The Umeda Sky Building in all it's see through elevator and passage glory ^^

The last fireworks show we went to wasn't that impressive to us- It was hot and uncomfortable wearing Yukata (awfully so), we'd had to walk for ages to get there, the fireworks went for an hour and a half with 5 minute bursts then 5 minutes off, which was weird, had fireworks we'd seen before and we were just tired and over it. The 21st floor had an absolutely incredible view. There was a mountain... eh forgot it's name, dead ahead, and a view of the river and the ten or so bridges over it. The sun was going down over the mountain, and we could see most buildings and parks. It was a wonderful view, unlike anything in Adelaide.











^^ Sarah's Panoramic of Osaka from 21st floor ^^




















^^ Another Panoramic! ^^

We had proper seats, and the building was air conditioned, which was already an improvement from the last fireworks. We met Chizuko's family, who were really, really nice. Her brother has just gotten a promotion, and Chizuko showed us the desk system. Closest to the windows are the supervisors, then another table where the higher rank sits closest the the window. Further away is another table, and furthest of all away is where the starting employees sit. Chizuko's brother is now just one step away from supervisor! We met his wife and daughter, who seemed shy of us, and Chizuko's sister. They were amazed (and a little dubious) about our Allen's Snakes Alive, which were amazing. Chizuko brought Yakisoba, Ominomiyaki and Tempura, which I declined (citing food poisoning as my reason, rather than incredibly awful hangover) and Sarah mostly enjoyed... Sarah said the Tori Tempura tasted like KFC and enjoyed it immensely.

















^^ Sarah and the Tori Tempura ^^

Night fell, and the city below us lit up. We could see police cars parked on the bridge below directing traffic slowly. Then all of a sudden, the fireworks started and someone flicked off the lights. I wasn't expecting much, but it became clear that this show was far superior to the last. The fireworks were set off from a barge parked in the middle of the river, and were dazzling. There were fireworks we'd never seen before, including gold fizzling fireworks with rainbow colours- pink, green, purple and orange all at the same time. There were smiley faces and hearts (the hearts were always upside down though), cats, fish and squid. There were stars and what looked like Saturn, fireworks in contrasting colours and fireworks that were low and went sideways over the water instead of into the air. Sarah regretted not bringing her proper camera, and my camera overheaded and the battery died well before the show was over (though I had been filming for about a half an hour, not a bad effort). The show went for about 50 minutes non stop, and everytime there was a beautiful firework, everyone on the office floor clapped or went "Ooooh/Wow/Sugoi!".



^^ Fireworks ^^

By the time we left, both Sarah and I felt far improved and enjoyed the Umeda Sky Building (even the toilets had windows with a great view!). We had been a little confused as to why Chizuko's brother kept describing his company as "Sexy". Sarah and I just smiled politely, wondering how that made sense (I commented that the visitors stickers here actually stuck (unlike DECS visitors stickers... those things just roll straight off. This was the right thing to say, as her brother's company manufactures the glue on the stickers! SEXY!)
It wasn't until we were in the lobby when it hit us like lightening... We looked on the wall and saw the company's name was "Sekisui" which, when said fast and slurred (everyone was drinking to the fireworks), sounded remarkably like "Sexy". We laughed for a long time about that one.

The walk back to our train station was interesting, and instead of buying a ticket each time, we bought a Kansai rainbow card for the subway. We put on $10 and it just subtracts your ticket cost each time.Feeling better (and in my case, hungry), we stopped for a cheeseburger at Tennoji and then went back to J&F Plaza where Sarah was keen to get to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". I've been "letting slip" some misleading information about events, so she thinks she knows what's coming. Yep, every "Have you got up to the part where..." was bullshit, Sarah. You can thank me later for not spilling. Now I have to set up my lesson for Yoshida's classes (just got the info and am feeling apprehensive!) so sayonara for now!

xoxo Carly

P.S. The Italians did move out, thus have not been disturbing out sleep. They apparently come back occasionally to visit one of the other Italians who didn't move out. They're staying in a hotel at the moment.
P.P.S. Dad, please tell Nanna V the tissues are coming in very, very handy.

The Summer Festival

Hi Guyth!

After deciding last minute not to go to Pure (we were very disappointed with ourselves but it was the right call) we woke up the next morning with reluctance. Our first stop was the atms, to finally get cash out. We'd gotten a nasty shock on Sat when they were completely dead and we had about $3 in money and no Japanese place takes non-Japanese cards. Pretty annoying, if you ask me, and don't get me started on their stupid bikes! Anyway... We caught the train Miho's station but it was HOT! In no way were we looking forward to wearing Yukata outside in the heat.

We got there about 12:20 and Miho did our nails for us! It was a very intricate process, including removing my old bright green nail polish, several coats of... I don't know what, the top coat and then sparkly shiz! Mine are a kind of sparkly salmon pink with gold flecks and pinky-orange and green jewel things. Sarah had bright pink with black and gold flowers on hers. Then Saros and I attempted to paint our toe nails prettily with varying success- Saros had very little success and I had none. While this was happening, we were watching Fox Crime (with some great catch phrases- "Fox... Mysterious".... "Fox.... Crazy") and NCIS was quite thrilling! xx Gibbs! We also showed Miho Sarah's stop motion project (on my FB videos) and almost cried when we realised Tik Tok had disappeared from my videos. WHY GEORGELOCATION, WHY?! But, it was not her fault.





















Miho's mum made us Yakusoba noodles for lunch, which were quite delicious, and we put our Yukata on. By the time we were actually ready to leave, it was 6:30. When I say ready to leave, I really mean "knowing we had to leave but quite happy just to stay anywhere with air conditioning". At least it had cooled down a little by that stage!



























We wandered around seeing various side stalls of food- chips, biscuits, steak on a stick, octopus tentacles on a stick, manta ray? on a stick, Yakusoba noodles, shaved ice stalls, and all manner of cheap and nasty light up crap like you'd see at the show. No girls, those light up Minnie mouse bows do not look awesome in your hair, they look STUPID!















^^ Mmmm, look at all that sea animal on a stick goodness!!^^























^^ BEAN PASTE TUB!^^


We watched the fireworks from Miho's bf Yu's house (His real name is Yukato or Yurako or something, so Yu-san works for me)and it was quite different from here- the fireworks went on for an hour and a half with breaks in between. They'd do a burst of fireworks about every five minutes, which was kind of weird. Miho and Yu made us strawberry flavoured shaved ice, which was cool- they put condensed milk on top which gives it a flavour not unlike an unnerving strawberry milkshake.















^^ Us with Miho ^^

















On our way back, Chizuko took us to Mos Burger, a place we were intruiged but a little afraid of. It was then we had our first J Cheeseburger! (It took a little explaining to get just cheese, meat an ketchup but we got there). This, unlike the pizza situation, was a double win; we liked the burger, but we didn't like it so much that we would go to Mos Burger every day! And, after staring longingly at the Furido Potato stalls (chips), I got my wish!



















On the train home, we had to get off a few stops early. For some reason at night, most of the trains have some sort of "get off" message and everyone has to leave and get on the next train instead. We were lucky the first time that the guard found us and told us to get off, and ever since then we watch carefully when people get off. Unfortunately, luck was not on one Japanese man's side, as everyone got off but he was asleep and no one woke him. On the platform, everyone we kind of just staring and wondering what to do, but the problem was solved when the (almost)empty train took off. Every one on the platform just had this "oh...this is awkward... what will happen to him... should I have woken him up? Hmmm" expression on their faces.

When we got back to JF, we were greeted with great (drunk) enthusiasm, a whole group was drinking and we were keen to make up for Saturday's sobriety! We hightailed it down to Life, which was conveniently still open at 12am or so, bought some cocktails and got back to JF. We tried to teach everyone Cal Kings (no easy feat considering not everyone knows English and we don't know Japanese) but finally settled on Game of Goon (obviously without the Goon). Oche was pretty drunk and kept stuffing it up (no idea how long they'd been drinking before us) and Arthur, a guy we formerly thought was incredicreepy (incredibly creepy), was actually French and didn't speak Japanese. This was a problem for him, as our assigned numbers were Japanese (I was Juichi, Ju, Que, and Hachi) and he found himself drinking quite a bit. Everyone ganged up on Oche who was ridiculously, drunkenly inept and got caught out almost every time.
















^^ Nice girl, White shirt man (who left the next day), Oche, Shoe, (O-san and Arthur out of sight) Juerg, Toyohiko ^^

Finally, the party broke up (not after we helped make Arthur pretty!) and we headed up to the roof. Oche had disappeared to go to bed half an hour earlier but made a surprise reappearance on the roof for our dance party. Sez played some music and with the exception of SuperCoolRainbowHairGuy, everyone was dancing! We obtained Jeurg and Oche's promises to help us in our secret J-Project, which should be way exciting.

















^^ Juerg and Arthur...^^


Wonder how Arthur is feeling today? ;)

Shouts out to Kim: I assume you were meaning I looked like an ADORABLE spaz and we're trying to avoid pizza! Georgia: for your reasonably prompt assurance on Tik Tok, and hello, comment us! Kim again: You're awesome, what can I say? Also Ange and KIM AGAIN! You're a machine Kim, a love machine who is making up for the fact that NO ONE ELSE LOVES US! FEEL THE GUILT (and comment)!

Carlos, out! *picture me standing in a heroic pose on the top of the roof, shouting that*

P.S.
I've been getting lots of Deja Vu all over the place, which is weird.

P.P.S. If you want to post anything to us, please address to (and include the Japanese symbols/the image below):

Room 109 C V and S L
J&F Plaza
4-7-16 KIRE -NISHI HIRANO-KU OSAKA-SHI OSAKA




P.P.P.S.

We have a J Phone that can email people but the address looks like a virus:
ed3c8d3fd7vnjb@softbank.ne.jp
You can email us at this address and it will come through as a message on our phone, alternately, we can send an sms to your emails! Love it!