Stand Alone, Stand Together.

Don't they look like parents and their adapted child?

After the Festival...

In Japanese, there is an expression 'after a festival'. It's to describe a kind of emptiness and solitary after a big event. Would it be the same in English, maybe?

The other day, I saw hundreds of Chinese lanterns thrown on the ground in China Town.

I felt very much like after a festival...

Because They Have No Bones

I bought a banana hanger recently.

Apparently, a banana hanger keeps bananas fresh for longer. When bananas are hung rather than placed on the surface, they get ripen naturally and evenly then last days longer.

I know I may be a shallow victim of marketing but we will see.

The Suspects

On the Sunday morning, somebody did ring our door.

I answered but no reply so I went down and had a look.

There was nobody around the door...apart from...

Did You??

After a week...

The tulips are open...

Some are even going...

Coupe les poils du nez

I don't think I never saw any 'Hana-ge Cutter' when I was a child so I guess it should be relatively a recent invention. 'Hana' is nose and 'ge' is hair in Japanese so you can guess what it is?

I have happened to get 3 Hana-ge cutters in my life but none of them remained at me.

In Japan, it is a kind of joke prize for an office Christmas raffle and I have won a Hana-ge Cutter twice at those occasions.

First one was when I was still working in Tokyo so it immediately went to my male boss at the time, and he was so pleased to have it, good good.

Second one was when I was working for a Japanese publisher in London and it went to my husband immediately and he was quite happy to have it, good good.

After a couple of years, I accidentally dropped my husband's Hana-ge cutter on the bathroom floor. That was it. It's gone quiet forever.

Yes, it was my fault, I admit that. So when I was back in Tokyo, I went to an electric gadget shop to buy a new Hana-ge Cutter for my husband.

There were about 20 different kinds of very similar Hana-ge cutters lined up, but something strange was going on there.

Only 4 out of those 20 were actually named 'Hana-ge Cutter' properly and rest of them was labeled 'Nose Hair Trimmer' in English!! Produced by Japanese manufactures for Japanese customers, but why English? What's wrong about Hana-ge Cutter?

I felt angry about this pretentiousness. It's like selling them labeled 'Coupe les poils du nez' in Harrods London...well, thanks for Google Translation.

Anyway, to protest this pretentiousness, of course, I refused to buy anything labeled 'Nose Hair Trimmer' and did choose one from this limited range of 'Hana-ge Cutters'.

So that was the 3rd one.

Now, my fear is that Hana-ge cutter may not survive for long. They are definitely facing extinction.

New little friends

Niboshi is dried anchovy in Japanese. It is one of the authentic ingredient to make fish stock in Japan.


And in fact it is not bad to eat as it is, too. Because of its rich calcium, it is recommended especially for children and pregnant women to eat them regularly.

I started eating them since I got into serious calorie watch after my trip to Japan for this New Year. You never dream how shocking it was for me to find out I was nearly 20kg heavier than I was when I came to London in 1995.

So now I have given up all chocies and biscuies, instead, these new friends came into my life, oh welcome!

BTW can you tell there is a little rebellion going on in my little friends in the top pic?