Happy Easter (*・ω・*)

HAPPY EASTER

A day late, but we had a free day yesterday and while the weather was nice I didn't want to waste time blogging in front of my Mr.
The sakura season is already over, it doesn't last very long but we went to view the sakura during the evening and eat a lot of street food. We also played games and won some fish! Because of how busy the streets are during these events we didn't take Bug so unfortunately he missed out this year. Because sakura and cherry blossom viewing is so popular in Japan, a lot of themed items are released, all limited to the duration of the season. McDonald's is one franchise which hops on board the sakura theme market. The bun was pink - whether or not it was naturally coloured or artificially, I didn't really care. It had a super sweet taste and the bun itself was sweet.. oddly I wasn't very fond of it!

  

My Parents sent me a parcel, though it was full of goodies for Bug! He got a cute little hat and some shoes. My Mother also included some teething gel, though he is only a few months old he is starting to chomp down on EVERYTHING and gets very upset if he isn't chomping on his fingers - which leads to soggy hands, soggy clothes, soggy everything! Cute huh? I also don't know what products are available in Japan, ones that I can understand fully so we start to mix in a bit of English for my own sanity. On Saturday he reached his 100th Day after Birth which in Japan is a special milestone for Babies, so I will blog about it next time.

April Announcement!

   I missed the chance to create a blog on Mother's Day, and I was going to make a blog YESTERDAY, but after realising the date I thought it would be better to wait till after the Day of Fools. Right now I am full of cold, even though Spring has finally begun here in Japan and the cherry blossom are finally out! My area however does not have anything grand to look at, well nothing I have discovered -- yet.

   So, Mother's Day is in March for us British folk, and even though I am in Japan I still sent my Mother something home, I sent her a custom card (thank you MoonPig) and she was delighted with them. Yesterday I managed to send her a little extra for Mother's Day, although it was late, it's been difficult preparing her something, however over the last 3 months I have managed to finally get it done.

   Cute huh? Unfortunately for me, Japan doesn't celebrate Mother's Day until May (I believe, please correct me if I am wrong) and by now you are probably wondering where this is heading, with that strange assumption, you are probably right. ASIDE from the fact actually buying Mother's Day related items is difficult when Mother's Day is celebrated in different months, I couldn't actually celebrate it myself - yes myself. I have an announcement to make, thus the dates this blog is posted on needed to work right (ie; is she lying?). I have a Son, who is going on 12 weeks tomorrow. Those who follow Facebook/Instagram will have known about him since January a few weeks after his Birth. For our own privacy and personal reasons, his online alias is Bug or occasionally Lil Mix since his Daddy is Japanese. Why Bug? Because after awhile he was no longer a "Jellybean" and I was often feeling sick hence BUG.

   My entire pregnancy was a secret until he arrived - only two Friends knew, and our Family. So yeah, no Facebook updates, nothing, the whole thing was a secret so many of my Friends were shocked! I did drop hints here and there, hospital visits were mentioned, my weight gain wasn't so efficient so I often complained about that, however people assumed I was sick - SORRY. I will in the future blog about my progress, and answer any questions in comments.

   For now, my Motherhood duties are being taken one step at a time, and boy is it a big challenge in a country that is not my home, so there may be a few posts about how I cope with this, the differences (trust me, there are a LOT) and why I chose to have him in Japan away from my Family. But other than that the blog will remain it's usual non-existing consistency of nonsense, especially since cherry blossom season is out, I have a cute sakura blog in the making.

DOGinTheパラレルワールドオ ーケストラ

At the start of March I had been invited to see DOGinTheパラレルワールドオ ーケストラ, or rather DOG in the PWO for short! It was my first time seeing them live in concert, and it was their final live of their Japan tour so as expected the Band gave it their very best and put on such a dramatic performance.
DOG in the PWO are such a creative band and I enjoyed seeing them live, I was also given the chance of meet and greet, or after show guest, which you could casually talk with the band after the show (and if you asked nicely had a photo opportunity with them).

The band announced the Live would be recorded and released later this year on DVD, so I look forward to watching that at some point. They also announced a few other release dates, tour dates and ended with "SECRET" which the crowd gave shocked and disgruntled responses.

I don't really follow DOG in the PWO however, but I have not been to a concert in a while now. Of course their Vocalist was crowded with Fans after the show, so a simple and small gesture was all I was bothered with rather than crawling through a mass of Fangirls. Their Drummer amusingly had a gathering of elderly Women, who I am wondering if they are Family Friends or relatives, but it was so sweet watching them fawn over him! I managed a photo oppertunity with one member, who completely trolled my photo, so I was given a second one. After we said our good byes we left to go home. Sadly we couldn't keep our passes, but I did get a photo of mine.

Happy White Day

Ahh, I've not blog again in a long while, again. So I'm juggling my chores to quickly get a small blog out the way!

Today is White Day in Japan, my Partner got me this cute flask. I never have time to finish a hot cup of tea, so this flask is really handy! Do you celebrate White Day? This is my first because I'm in Japan, and honestly, I wouldn't have cared if I got nothing. HAH!

Yesterday we visited a British Pub - in Japan! However I am not disclosing the name, purely because of the bad attitude of the Bar man. They don't deserve the review. One comment almost tipped me over the edge for a reaction, I wanted to stand up and go 'Oi mate, I'm British, if you want me to act like a senseless drunk, I will.' But I decided against it but now I regret it because of his further attitude to my Friends made me wanna smash a bottle over his head - woo Britain.

I have a few more blogs to come, recently I only have web access by my phone, but I am doing a 100 Happy Days challenge on Instagram. It's kinda fun but seems so much like a chore and I'm bound to repeat what makes me happy, like nabe, I love nabe. I could do 50 photos on nabe, maybe I'm just too hungry right now?

I'm going to edit this later, I swear.

♪ Late new year ★

It feels like an eternity since I last blogged here as I've been super-super busy. I actually lost a few readers during my unannounced hiatus, but oh well. Maybe now is a good time to update?

The New Year: I'm gonna mash together New Years eve-eve, New Years eve, and New Years day.
So it's not my first time in Japan to ring in the New Year, however it was my first time not as a concert hopper "celebrating" with visual-kei bands.
   New Years eve-eve (is that the correct term?) I celebrated with my Japanese Family, however my Partner was celebrating with Work mates - which I wasn't told about until I arrived and he said he was leaving, which gave me no 'preparation' for an anxiety attack. Which left me a little shell shocked, oh if only I could have drank beer. It was fun, but everyone's name escaped me apart from one person, oops. There was a comment about my ring, which at the time my fingers were swollen and she said; "trapped and bound by strong love", which was rather cute.. even if she was mildly drunk.
   New Years Eve I spent the day with a very hungover guy who didn't roll in until 2:00am. We spent the entire day moving furniture into the other room - which was meant to be our bedroom from the start only we stayed in the tatami floored room on a futon since moving in for some unknown reason. Anyway we purchased a kotatsu and Winter here is basically kotatsu season, so cosy and warm!! We (he) managed to stay awake to watch TV and see the New Year in. It was far too cold for me to be outside - even though I insisted I was fine, damn health worries, I wasn't to get 'too cold'. Anyway we opened the doors to listen to the people at the shrines surrounding us ring the bell, it was oddly soothing yet eerie? After I wished my Parents a Happy New Year from Japan we both went to bed.
   New Years Day, SHOPPING. I was surprised to see people going about their daily life as normal? Actually my Partner had to go to work but certain things were possibly happening, and he called in to explain. Yeah I felt like I was dying, so much for insisting I was fine the previous day. We still oddly went shopping, and Japan is famous for it's LUCKY BAGS, which I purchased a couple, so finally, picture spam.

I love this brand "DIG DEEP" I previously purchased a long shirt from them and when I was this as a Lucky "Box" I couldn't resist. I was torn from many other sets, but I only liked one item from them, plus this came with a cute fuzzy room set. It came with 5 pieces and a badge accessory. 

Fuzzy room wear set

2x t-shirts (blue + black)

1x long sweater (grey)

Of course they have random bits of English on them which always amuses me, the grey one reads "BUT HERE" and leaves me asking, "BUT WHERE?"

   My second purchase was this bag, I have so much to carry at the moment that a shoulder bag hurts, and I hate wearing a bag where the strap crosses my chest and simply says: hey, I'm separating your boobs and making them look more noticeable.It came with a hat, not that I wear hats but it's cute and I did actually wear it on one of those QUICK WE HAVE TO GO OUT BUT YOUR HAIR IS AN AFRO moments.

It also has a purse which I have not transferred anything to. It took me 3+ years to change to the one I have now I am that fussy with certain changes. But anyone who has been in Japan long enough to be offered a point card and unknowingly says 'yes' you end up with thousand credit card sized cards overflowing your purse in no time! At the moment my count is: 10 since arrival, 11 if you count a train card, and 15 if you include business cards, it's not even an obsession! 

   During the New Year in Japan, Children are given these little envelopes as presents. It is probably the same as Chinese New Year - hence the Horse. However it's my first time here with a Japanese family keeping me under their wing, so they gave me an envelope too. Isn't it just cute!?

Bonus photo: Yokohama has a Krispy Kreme, this is my attempt at persuading my Family to visit. We only seem to have mini vendors in the UK, unless there are restaurants too, probably in London. Although we never went inside, I'm a fan of Mister Doughnut, yum.

Double Bonus Photo: My drip tried to kill me during my Hospital stay. I had to call (my wonderful) oba-chan nurse to unhook me at 4:00am, the tape was so hard to remove she basically pinned my arm to the bed to rip it off, uncomfortable when there is a needle wedged in your arm. 

Stay tuned for more.........