Calorie Mate

I love buying weird food here. This was irresistible because it seems to be all in English. Maybe it's some American 'food'. Well, as it says it's a food replacement which you can perhaps diet on. It's got energy in it apparently, good-o.

I can't say much for the taste. Mainly because I'm gagging at the moment. I thought it smelt a little like blue cheese, unfortunately it doesn't taste as nice as that. I suppose it's a plus for dieters, makes you want to eat as little as possible of the stuff. I gave some to Alice. She's like a dog in her ability to beg for any food being eaten at a given time.

She threw it on the ground after the first bite.

No Time For Flowers

Decorative cabbages are all the rage in the Winter months.

21 + 3

Without this juice, Alice would die of malnutrition. It contains 21 vegetables and 3 fruits in, what would have to be, tiny proportions. It tastes awful but babies don't know anything, so she drinks it. Listen to the grossness.

Carrot, some leafy thing, asparagus, capsicum, some other leafy thing, kureson(?), pumpkin, cabbage, broccoli, third leafy thing, beetroot, purple thing, celery, lettuce, hokusai(??), keeru(?), parsley, eggplant, dunno, radish, another sort of cabbage, apple, orange and lemon.

It really hard trying to guess what English word the Japanese are using when it's written in katakana. Anyway, it's terrible, but I've seen many girls drink it on the subway. Maybe it's a diet food.

Travel Agent

The other weekend we went to a travel agent to ask about some options for the coming Christmas break. She didn't seem too keen to help or suggest anything, but she did give us a few ideas about prices and destinations.

However at the end of our little discussion she tells us that they do not accept credit cards at all. We would have to pay for our whole trip in cash! She said it like it was the most normal thing in the world to withdraw thousands of dollars from the bank, take it across to their office and just count it out.

Another example of Japan's juxtaposition of the super modern and highly primitive.

The Writing is on the Wall

Apparently Spada is a shortening of Super Daddy, and also a car.

This sums up some Japanese people's attitudes quite nicely.

Oi, you, men, get in here and buy some expensive yet fashionable clothing.

Fanta Ads

I think these Japanese commercials are quite hilarious. I've never found all these Fanta flavours, though.

Dad Meal

Another dad meal, pasta and strawberries.

Giant Tongues

Giant tongues are the way they sell toothbrushes in Japan. This is in a tunnel at Omote-sando subway station. I was alone (with Alice) at the time so couldn't get a photo of myself getting a full body licking.

Kurumi

This is Alice at Ito-san's picnic. She's trying to walk Kurumi, or maybe Kurumi is trying to walk her. It's hard to tell.

Warning

Crabs will bite your fingers in this elevator.

Beware

This is a detail from one of the street side maps found at major intersections and outside subway stations so people can find where the hell they are.

There is a whole building to process bicycle parking violations. Just parking. Amazing.

Potty Training

Well, Alice has discovered poo. She can say poo, kind of, and she likes to see the poo in her nappies. So the time has come to get a potty, which we eventually found at Toys R Us in Sunshine city. We totally avoided buying any which had digital flushing noises, or some Japanese anime character shouting "masterful achievement!!" after every sitting.


Not sure what this thing is yet.

So versatile. Bek told me not to force her to sit down on the potty, as it's really bad if they come to fear it. However, after half an hour of her running around with it on her head we surmised that she was pretty okay with the whole idea. Now if only she would keep still for five seconds at a time.

Choice Phrases

They're struggling for decent cafe names lately. However this is not a cafe.

Grass Tiara actually brings to mind a nice image. Too bad the store namers probably had no idea what it meant.

Hard to tell the meaning of this. They were next to a kid's stand full of hats.

Role Play

Alice is starting to personify her dolly and puppy lately. She thinks they need dummies too.

Caresse

Holiday Roundup

We've just been on holidays for a couple of weeks in Australia, and we attended my sister's wedding in Coff's Harbour. Alice had a very nice dress on.





We went to a butterfly house, which is a huge greenhouse because butterflies like it hot and steamy. It takes about five hours to drive from Sydney to Coff's Harbour.

For Rob's buck's party we went fishing and I caught five fish. I forgot to bring the camera, though, so they were really big ones. This is another boat which we went on to see some whales. Karen and Alice were both enjoying it immensely in their own separate ways. We didn't see many whales but lots of dolphins insisted upon not being photographed for most of the voyage.

We also visited the Big Banana, the largest attraction in town. Alice is still small enough to find most bananas quite sizeable.

The other sight to see is the Pet Porpoise Pool, where you can get close to many marine creatures, even if you don't want to. Here's Alice freaking out about a seal kiss.

And here she is struggling to flee a dolphin kiss.

Peacock's arses are almost as attractive as their fronts.

Alice liked the seal and dolphin show inordinately. She was really excited the entire time.

This is Evan, Durand and Asia's baby. This photo is here so my other friends actually know what he looks like, and that he exists.

Australia

Hello, all. I'm in Australia at the moment attending my sister's wedding so I won't be blogging for another week or so.