Happy Australia Day!!!

(we got a new camera, yippee!!!)

First Blog of 2007

Happy Bleated New Year, here are some fainting goats!

Kentaro and I have officially lost our camera.

The last picture we took with it was on New Year's Eve when his whole family was gathered around making mochi balls. It's a Japanese thing. Whether it got mushed into the mochi and gobbled up with the rest of the food we're not sure, but that was the last time we saw it.

We braved the cold that night and headed to Saijo Inari Jinja where 60,000 other residents of Okayama decided to take in their hatsumode, or first shrine visit of the new year. Thinking we could beat the crowds we left the house at 10pm, only to get stuck in some very uncelebratory traffic. It took us 3 hours to drive 15km, and we would have walked had it not been zero degrees outside.

We made use of the time by creating all kinds of resolutions for 2007. Ours are rather broad this year, along the lines of: Get a job, find a place to live, get married, settle down, etc.

It was definitely worth braving the cold, crowds and fatigue once we clamped our chattering mouths around a hot taiyaki and prayed to the fox gods for a healthy and prosperous 2007.

Wish us luck, and best of luck to you too!

Guam Guam Guam

There could not have been a better place to be this year for Christmas, for us.

Thanks to Mom & Dad, the most hospitable and generous people on the planet. Loving your work! And thanks to the Butthead & Jess, for getting your butts (and your heads) to Guam in the nick of time.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Kentaro and I are doing our best to eat up and create more physical insulation to combat the chilly temperatures. Japanese houses, unlike my ex-house in Sydney, are the same temperature inside as outside. They only prevent drafts, and some aren't even too good at that.

Here are some glimpses into our first week of December...

Salt and Sesame learn their Japanese names

Salt = Shio
Sesame = Goma

Shio-chan and Goma-chan have been a right pain in the oshiri for the past few weeks. Getting them from Florida to Japan was an effort far more difficult and costly than I could have imagined, but thankfully they withstood their tough journey and have arrived on the other side genkier than ever.

It is cuter than words can describe to see them perched on the maple tree in the backyard of Kentaro's mother's house in Okayama. They have never until now been able to get in touch with their wild birdy roots, and they are revelling in bark-biting and grass-grabbing to their hearts content.

Kentaro and I are also pleased to be in contact with real nature again after 9 months living next to Mt Refuji.

Five Things we have done since coming back to Japan:

1. Had some kind of nabe (hot pot) every night.
2. Bicycled around Okayama soaking up the atmosphere and slurping up the noodles.
3. Taken a business trip to Tokyo and (hopefully) established some contacts that will provide us with an opportunity to work. We need jobs. Desperately.
4. Spent quality time with Kentaro's mother.
5. Frozen our butts off. It's cooooold!

Allow me another wee proud sister moment...

and read this article. (I particularly liked the description of family background in his interview).

Finally have the memory card...

of the pictures we took in Guam this September. Here's a few!!

Cleaning up our act

Sold the Ford, vacated the apartment, closed the accounts, shipped the birds, had the mother of pigouts, flung our nasty, smelly sandals into the Atlantic and now we sleep, to wake and leave on a jetplane.

To those we couldn't see this time in the States, and to those to whom we bid a too hasty farewell, you are in our thoughts.

May the next chapter of Indy & Ken begin!

Kissing it all goodbye

Ahh the yard sale. I could (and should) write a book about the amazing and colourful characters the humble yard sale can attract in South Florida. Holding the sale this time on glamorous A1A we were wondering beforehand if we would even get any bargain-hunters or whether the New York snowbirds would spurn our attempts to flog great crap at low, low prices. Thankfully our fears were abated by a stream of steady customers who paid US to haul away our bits and pieces.

A mid-30s blonde rocked up with her sugar daddy and proceeded to riff through a trunk of my old clothing with such fervour that 10 cars stopped to see what the fuss was about. She ended up buying the whole trunk, and when her daddy handed over cash for the sale, she insisted he was ripping me off and handed me another fistful of cash after he turned his back. Apparently he gives her an $8000/month allowance but it is just never enough!

A seasoned biker couple stopped by and bought ALL of Kentaro's tools then decided to stay for an hour or so and tell us about their travels across the U.S. I convinced the wife that she needed my big purple gypsy skirt and she bought it despite the fact that she hasn't worn a skirt in years. I guess those sales wench days paid off!

An absolute bomb of a car pulled up and a little ol' Jamaican grandma jumped out and made a beeline to my Italian black felt hat. She bargained me down until the price was right for her and then plonked the hat on her little shrivelled face and I so WISH I could have taken her picture as she looked hilarious. I think I wore that hat to the Golden Slipper in Sydney when Catbird won... hope she finds the same luck from wearing it!

Half way through the day Kentaro and I tried a spot of visual merchandising and divvied up the 'guy's stuff' and the girl's stuff' onto separate tables. No sooner had we finished our displays than a couple rocked up and flew like magnets to the appropriate table. The girl oohed and aahed and promptly swiped up most of my Japanese girly memorabilia - candles, fans, norens and the like. The guy got some shot glasses and a hammer and Kentaro and I smiled, pleased with our successful marketing. The rest of the day was smoother and we know what to do for our last attempt this weekend.

And Kentaro sold his Toyota today! Now if we can just sell the Ford, we will really be starting to wrap things up.

How original are you?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 56 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Back again and ready to go.

Apologies for the lull in blogging - the current times are tumultuous for Indy and Ken and we feel poised ready for a great leap into the known but unpredictable.

Guam was great. Then came a 10-day whiz around Japan. From north to south we visited Atami, Aomori, Shiga, Kyoto, Kobe and Okayama. We were wined and dined by the owners of a few very prestigious premium sake breweries and then had free time in Kyoto and Okayama for a few days catching up with family and friends.

This gruelling 'business trip' back to Japan provided us with even more fuel for contemplation over whether or not to stick it out in our current unsatisfactory situation. We opted to not, and are currently packing ourselves up and selling all big belongings such as our cars and furniture.

We will be leaving Florida as soon as loose ends are tied up and will go back to Japan. My only regret for leaving earlier than scheduled is that I have not had the chance to see so many of my wonderful relatives as I had planned to.

Kentaro has not lived in Japan for over 10 years and has misgivings about his worth to Japanese companies. They are ruthless for disregarding any work experience not undertaken domestically. They are also infamous for taking a worker and sucking out his spirit little by little until only a shell of a man returns at midnight to his family every night. Of course this only applies to Japanese nationals - my job prospects will be much brighter, albeit limited to teaching more bad Engrish.

We're just gonna play things by ear, which is all anybody can ever do! Wish us luck.

Takeuchi Shuzo's award winning sake, Shiga


"Chindongya" strolling musicians & moi, Atami Onsen


Cooling off with some kaki-gori at Kiyomizu-tera, Kyoto


Kentaro's niece, Mayu-chan, practising fountain-dancing, Okayama


That's right, I used to have friends! Wan Lu and Evelyn, Okayama

Butthead Bingo

Well it appears as though my little buttmunch picked the winning combination.

And what will the winner receive?

A whopping 10 grand, if you please!

You can buy 10 more Gucci dogs!

Wastin' away again in Guamaritaville

Not even the rural Mino or the beachy Pompano could prepare me for the slow pace of life here on Guam. Time in this place just draaags by and can be measured in such pleasures as sunsets, sake sets and Spam omelettes.

The wedding plans are coming along nicely although eloping to Vegas is emerging more and more as a financially viable alternative. We'll see.

Check out my Dad's blog for pics of their new pad. It's boonielicious.

Crikey, what a bummer

May he rest in peace, the mighty Crocodile Hunter.

And from an interview on June 21, 2001:

Terri Irwin says:
Steve always says, "Whatever you do, keep rolling!" I tell him "They aren't going to show it if you die." (laughs)

I hope that video is kept safe to protect the privacy and dignity of his family. I can't believe there are polls on the internet asking people whether they think the footage should be shown or not.

Poor Terri, Bindi and Baby Bob.

Us in August

1. At Kentaro's company dinner at a fab Italian restaurant in Boca Raton.
2. 2 minutes walk from our place in Pompano, just south of a cute lighthouse.
3. At a Thai temple in Homestead.