What a photo could say

What do I think about my new Olympus E420?
DIFFICULT!!!! hahaha

I'm an amateur (_ _o). This is my first DSLR camera. I spent these two nights reading the manuals and trying to take pictures. I took like 50 pictures, and only three of them satisfied me :p

Here they are:

What a photo could say

Please take a look and tell me what you think.

I still must continue reading the manual (>.<). I didn't think that taking pictures could be THAT complicated hahaha

New baby :p

I just brought home my new baby:

Olympus E-420 (^____^)



It is the smallest and lightest among its competitors: Nikon D60, and Canon 450 D. Canon 450D looked really gorgeous but heavy, Nikon D60 was nice but big. I found that Olympus E420 fitted my hands the most. I felt so comfortable holding it. So at last my own hands chose the very right one, and I am so satisfied!!

The battery is still being recharged now so I couldn't "play" with it yet. 5 hours is just too much for waiting!! (>.<)

But I just got a huge HUGE shock. This baby is 60 USD cheaper at amazon.jp!!!! (>.<)
I checked last night and was sure it was not that cheap! oh well....what was the matter with my head!

Shocked..........

H.E.L.P

I'm about to buy my very first DSLR camera......ASAP!!!

I am an amateur so I want an entry level and user friendly one.
I "love" something small, so size does matter too. I want the smallest available one :p

My searched narrowed to Nikon D60 and Canon Rebel XSi (450D). Both are entry level DLSR and are the smallest among their brands.

This blog made a good personal comparison between both cameras I am interested in. The comments also gave me better view about them. But reading it made me even more confused. I like both of them and can't decide which one to buy (>.<)

Does anyone know something about those cameras? Any opinion? I want to go to Akihabara this weekend (^_-)

Today

So this morning I called my friends and invited them to come here to help me finishing the cheese cake :p. Lady in Red, if you're my neighbor, you definitely will be invited hahaha

They stayed here until 6 p.m and we had so much fun. Iki also enjoyed playing with his friends: Kenshin, Hanon, and Sakurako.



Besides my cheese cake, my friends also brought here lots of snacks and drinks. One of them is this Japanese sweet (hmm mizu manju?? - i forgot the name!). I usually don't really like Japanese sweets with Anko (sweet red bean paste) filling, but this one was somewhat "different".



Iki was tired so he slept earlier today, at 9:30 p.m. And as wished yesterday, indeed I am feeling much better today (^__^). Off to bed now. I'll also have an early good night sleep today.

Night night...zzzzz....

Angry

I was very very very VERY angry to Iki the whole day today that I couldn't breath (seriously!!!). He drove me nuts. Whatever he did, he blew me out.

I was angry the most when he refused to clean up his toys. He brought ALL his toys from his room, and spread them all over the living room. I couldn't find any space to walk, got lots of accidents stepping on the sharp edges tiny toys. And by the end of the day he just said: "This is too much, I can not clean. I'm too tired and sleepy".

WHAT?!?!?!

And I was angry during eating time too, and bath time, and brushing teeth time, during shopping, while doing my house chores too. I was even mad at him when I put him into sleep. I was literally ANGRY for the whole day that I got my head really hot.

After he slept at 10.15 pm. I sat alone on my kitchen's floor. Tired and sad. Sad when I remembered him saying "gomen ne, mama" (sorry, mama) while kissing my forehead in front of the bathroom (although 10 minutes afterward he drove me nuts again!). I don't want to shout at him like what I did (a lot of times!) today. I don't want to make him cry like I did (also a lot of times) today. But I just couldn't control my anger. Even after he slept, I still had "black aura energy" inside my chest, ready to burst out anytime.

I needed to do something to calm myself down. So I stood up and checked what I had in the refrigerator.

I ended up baking this cheese cake in the middle of the night!!!



And I feel "light" afterwards (^__^).
Hopefully tomorrow will be better :p

Armpits hair (#_#)

Allright, this is an embarassing topic!!

I love wearing tank tops, but I have this irritating problem with my armpits. They were so hairy (in the winter hehehe), so I started to shave them again as I joined Baby Swimming Club by the end of last winter. The thing is, the more I shaved it, the more those disgusting little black hair would appear. Until it came to the point when I had to shave them twice a day!!! Which was really disturbing - I must bring a razor in my bag just in case those hair started to appear again during tea time gathering with my friends!!!! (>.<)

I tried waxing, it was PAINFUL but didn't work for tiny hair. Then now I'm using a tweezer and spend like 15 minutes every morning to pull the hair one by one. OK, it could be cleaned, but now my armpit skin looks like a non-hairy chicken's skin!!!! I guess it is because of this tweezing thing? Even worse, because there are "newborn" hair that still couldn't be pulled out by the tweezer, the skin looks like chicken's skin with black dots (T_T). I am so helpless. I couldn't lift my hands freely now for I worried someone would see my disgusting armpits' skin (which I think they did see...). I lost my self confidence..... (don't give me an idea of wearing clothes that covers my armpits, because I couldn't bear long slevees, and short sleeves still show my armpits! :p)

I am thinking to remove these hair permanently, using laser treatment, for example. I searched for some info on the net just to find out that the treatment will need like 4-8 times treatments over a year. Which is impossible because I'm moving out of Japan early October...... :( Then I found an info about this epilator. It is an electrical device used to remove hair by mechanically grasping multiple hairs simultaneously and pulling them out. The way in which epilators pull out hair is similar to waxing (though unlike waxing, it only pulls out hairs, it doesn't remove dead skin cells too). Source: Wikipedia.



I am interested so I googled more about it. The reviews on the net are promising. They said that that thing really works, even for a super tiny hair. This blog made such a good description about that epilator.



But I just don't know......should I try that thing? I feel like I want to try ANYTHING possible to clean my armpits :(

Weekend with In-laws

My mother in laws said a lot of times that she wanted to see Iki swimming so last Saturday I asked them to go to Toshimaen, an amusement park that also has swimming pools. It was hot, but well, this is Summer, and this is the only season such public swimming pool is opened here. I thought they would enjoy, but she suffered from the heat, complained a lot (_ _;), and didn't even go nearby the pool at all....!



But anyway Iki enjoyed it. He loves swimming, so he showed his grandfather off a bit of his ability (^_^). He enjoyed the human-made waves there too. He screamed excitedly everytime the wave coming towards him. For him it was the first wave he ever experienced, because previously he didn't want to step onto the beach's sand :p.



Everyone ordered Ramen for lunch, which according to my parents in laws didn't taste good. But for a ramen lover like me, it didn't taste bad. I ate two portions to show them that I really enjoyed the ramen hahaha.



The entrance fee was expensive, but I couldn't stand the complaints so we went back early. Which was a good decision because then it was raining. We went to Tobu department store then. My parents in laws don't like my fashion style so they did a bit make over. They said that my clothes are too casual, and my mother in law doesn't like me wearing tank tops that shows my bras hahahaha. hey...!! This is summer, for God's sake! I love tank tops and Hiro said it's OK!!! (>.<). I let them buying me some clothes, anyway. They had to pay like 500 USD for 4 blouses. Well, that's the price of trying to "change" me :p

We spent the whole Sunday at my sister in laws' place. Iki really enjoyed playing with his cousins. I enjoyed spending time with my sister in laws' family. I also had a bit shopping with her, which surprised my mother in laws. Another tank top?!?! :p

Only 6 more weekends only left. I'll try to make them happy playing with Iki for the coming 6 weekends (^_^)

Locked :p

Iki likes to play with the toilet's lock whenever he goes to toilet. I always warn him but he keeps doing it. Until this afternoon....(I guess :p)

I just finished saying, "stop it, Iki! You could get locked" when it happened. Yes, he was lock inside the toilet by himself!! Suddenly he couldn't open the toilet lock and got panicked. He cried out loud while banging he door's lock, trying to open it while screaming: "I cannot open it! cannot, cannot, cannotttt. helppppppp!!!"

I told him to calm down, which he couldn't at first. It took time to make him understand that the door couldn't be opened forever if he kept crying and banging it because he would break the lock. After a while he could control himself and slowly turned the door's lock. He gave me a relieved big smile while saying "yokatta!!! bikkurishita!!" (thanks God, i was so shocked) :p

His face was red, and he was wet of his own sweat from top to toe hahahahaha



I guess my little boy learnt a new lesson again today :p

Tanabata Matsuri

This should be a last week story, but this week I'm too busy sorting our things and make a lot of lists for our moving out (#_#)

Tanabata (七夕, tanabata), meaning "Evening of the seventh") is a Japanese star festival, derived from the Chinese star festival, Qi Xi (七夕 "The Night of Sevens")．

It celebrates the meeting of Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair). The Milky Way, a river made from stars that crosses the sky, separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. Since the stars come out at night, the celebration is held at night.
Source: Wikipedia

We spent this year's Tanabata Matsuri at the hospital for Iki's yearly check up. People can hang their wishes on small decoration trees there because Japanese believe that they would be fulfilled. It was in hospital, so most wishes written are "getting well soon" papers.

Sendai is famous for hosting the biggest Tanabata Matsuri in Japan, which interestingly is held on 6-8 August instead of 7 July.

The Sendai Tanabata festival began shortly after the city was founded in the early Edo Period. The Tanabata festival gradually developed and became larger over the years. Although the festival's popularity started to dwindle after the Meiji Restoration, and almost disappeared during the economic depression that occurred after World War I, volunteers in Sendai revived the festival in 1928 and established the tradition of holding the festival from August 6 to August 8.

During World War II it was impossible to hold the festival, and almost no decorations were seen in the city from 1943 to 1945, but after the war, the first major Tanabata festival in Sendai was held in 1946, and featured 52 decorations. In 1947, the Showa Emperor Hirohito visited Sendai and was greeted by 5,000 Tanabata decorations. The festival subsequently developed into one of the three major summer festivals in the Tohoku region and became a major tourist attraction. The festival now includes a fireworks show that is held on August 5.
Source: Wikipedia

Every shop along the main matsuri's street prepared their own kusudama (ornamental ball). These are some famous shops' kusudama.

Softbank's:

Starbucks':

Adidas':

au's:

Also amos':

There are famous anime's characters' kusudama too. Like Pikachu's:

This is us with the kusudama

And this one is Tanabata's bamboo trees decoration at Sendai's station (Iya Pre, tanganku emang ketok guede disini hahaha)

Similar with other Matsuri, there were also lots of children's traditional games. This one is taking superballs for 500 yen (expensive!!!). Iki was not patient enough to wait so he almost got inside the pool and wanted to take the balls by his hands (@_@)

And also catching small fishes. Iki really wanted to do this game but I didn't want him too. Well, what would I do with that small fish if he could get one?! Bringing it along to Tokyo?! No way!. And I was pretty sure he would cry if he couldn't get any fish hahaha

We really enjoyed that matsuri. Oh...we did shop too!!! Look at Iki with his huge shopping bag!

Thank you for accompanying us between your busy time, Mee-chan (^_^)

"Jatuh Cinta"

Today was a single day out again (^_^), but this time I went out with my good friend, Aki-chan. Actually it should be the three of us: me, Aki-chan, and Na Young-chan; but last midnight Na young's son got very high fever that she couldn't join us today.

Iki's grandparents picked him up in the morning, so we started at about 11 o'clock. We went to Roponggi Hill first, had some windows shopping and lunch there. Surprisingly there were not many people on Sunday in Tokyo. It's now Obon holiday so most people go to their hometowns.

This was my lunch. My fave Carbonara spaghetti. It was good!!



Then we went to Roponggi Midtown, a very fashionable shopping center in Tokyo. There I fell in love with this bag. It has a unique shape - and I always love the unusual goodies!!



The rope can be extended, and voila!! Suitable for a fashionable mom who likes to go around - either for shopping or traveling :p. An all-in-one unique bag.



But that thing is for damn 63,000 JPY = about 630 USD.... (_ _o). My heart was broken when I saw the price tag....(though Aki-chan said cheerfully: hey...but you will have to pay 100,000 JPY = about 1000 USD for a small Louis Vuitton bag, and almost everyone in Tokyo is bringing it around!!! - pasaran gitu lohh)

Moreover, I'm moving to a small town in Indonesia that I won't need such an expensive bag (sadly...). But again Aki-chan said: Oh come on...you have to stay 'fashionable' wherever you live. Just be yourself!!.
Damn, she really made me 'on fire'!

Oh yeahhh....I do fall in love that I couldn't let that damn bag out of my mind (T_T). But it is damn expensive and I just DON'T need it. Anyway I had a picture of myself bringing it, and that's enough for a sweet memory with a bag hahahaha. I think I will buy a sewing machine and try to make a similar bag for myself later on :)). You know...woman and her weakness towards 'pretty goodies' :p. I definitely will forget it as soon as I have another day out and see another pretty bags hahaha.

The most important is that I had so much fun today. Aki-chan is a great shopping partner :p. Time run fast, and surprisingly we spent like 6 hours in Roponggi today. We visited Na Young on our way home too. Poor Kenshin was very weak (and very HOT). Waiting forward for our next "single day out".

Next destination: GINZA.
Papa-chan, be ready to see my credit card bill :p

Hanabi (Fireworks) in Sendai

Iki longed to see Hanabi but the ones in Tokyo are way too crowded, and too far from our place. That's why we were so happy to get the chance to see the Hanabi in Sendai last week.

We decided to walk from our hotel to feel the festival aura. There were lots of people, mostly wore yukata, heading to the hanabi area. At first we thought that we would join some Indonesian students there, but it was too crowded that we couldn't cross the road. At last we decided to find another strategic place to see the fireworks. Which luckily we found! Though there were bunch of small trees covering the small fireworks, we could still see the big amazing fireworks clearly from our place.



We bought some festival's food specialty like yaki soba (Japanese fried noodle), onigiri, yaki tori, boiled edamame, cotton candy, and a huge paper cup of draught beer for me :p

Look at Mee-chan enjoying the cotton candy



Iki-chan saw many people walking around bringing balloon so he also wanted one. It was too crowded so Mee-chan came to a girl in Yukata bringing a balloon to ask where did she buy it. But surprisingly she gave the balloon to Mee-chan hahaha. Iki-chan was of course very happy :p



We couldn't get good shot of the fireworks. I didn't get any!!! Blame my old camera hahaha (or it was ME who didn't know how to take a good shot?!). But Mee-chan sent me some so here it is :)



The hanabi was amazing. It was really big, and beautiful. I could hear lots of "sugooooi" (great), "kireeeei" (beautiful) screams from the crowd around me.



Here is another one:



It was an unforgettable night. Thank you, Mee-chan (^_^). We really really enjoyed it!!

Beijing Olympics

I am now watching the opening ceremony. It is really spectacular. I just realised that there are many countries I've never heard before hahaha. Let's say: Lesotho. Where is it? what kind of country is it?.
I could hear such new countries for my ears only from this kind of international event.

Shinkansen

We just got back from Sendai today. It took about 1.5 hours trip by Shinkansen. Iki was excited to ride a shinkansen again that he became very very active!



Lately Iki usually gets his own seat inside an airplane. He also sits on his baby seat in the car. That's why this time he also wanted to sit on his own seat inside the Shinkansen, which was impossible because I only bought one ticket (>.<). He was upset and made a lot of noises.... Until then the woman sitting in front of us got mad. She stood up and rudely said: "Urusai!!" (= noisy!!). I said really really sorry but she continued: "Kodomo to Shinkansen de noranaide kudasai!" (= please don't ride Shinkansen with a kid). Which for me was really rude. COME ON!!! There's no rule that a kid is not allowed to ride a Shinkansen!!! GRRRHHHH
Anyway I said sorry again, because I realised that Iki's behavior disturbed other people. But because I was hurt with that woman statement I said sorry again and added sarcastically: "Sumimasen....Nihon-jin wa yasashii to omotta!" (=sorry, I thought Japanese are friendly!)

Which made an old lady sitting behind told me not to worry. That she might have no child that she didn't know how it feels travelling with a kid. I said thank you to her and walked away. I was really sad and hurt.

A foreigner sitting on the front side of that compartment then talked to me. He said that it's a public secret that many Japanese are not friendly towards kids. Which actually I know :p. They rarely helped me out when I got difficulty pulling out the-stucked-stroller-between-the-railway, for example; or giving me "annoyed" eyes if I get inside a train with a stroller. Noone ever gave me a seat on the train eventhough I hugged a heavy-active-kid, they would just pretend to sleep deeply (but amazingly woke up at their arrival stations). But I just didn't expect someone bursted out such a rude statement to me. It's like a slap on my face (@_@).

What a bad ending of my fun getaway to Sendai!!!!!

I had lunch with my mother in law at Ikebukuro and this is what she said when she heard the story: "That's why you shouldn't travel by yourself. If you went to Sendai with ME, someone wouldn't dare to say such thing!" hahahaha. Yeah right!!!


PS: Fun stories about Sendai are coming soon (^_^)

Fun Sunday

We spent our Sunday afternoon at Keiko's (Sakurako's mom) house. Iki-chan and the 4 girls enjoyed playing together, especially in the big plastic pool they prepared for the kids to play in.



They ate ice cream, glasses of ice tea, and boiled corn. I felt so good watching them enjoying themselves!



It was damn hot, the kids had fun with the cool water meanwhile the parents were sweating a lot. The sun was really unbearable. I love sunshine, I love summer, but my skin just couldn't take it anymore. It's painful now :(

After everyone got hungry then we went upstairs to have dinner. The kids loved playing here too, because Sakurako has looots of toys. What a lucky rich girl hahaha



The kids can play together too this time. Look at them working with that hiragana puzzle.



They even sat together during snack time hahaha



Then the kids played with sakurako's father in the other room, while the mothers had some more food, chats and laughes. It was really really fun. Everyone enjoyed the gathering. This would definitely be something I will miss.....!!

Bon-odori

This evening we went to Bon-odori at the station nearby our house with Tomomi's family. At first we passed a jinja (Japanese temple) decorated with many lanterns. We didn't get inside but we could see that there were some people dancing to a traditional Japanese song in the garden.



Then we walked to the matsuri (festival) area. It was full of people that we could hardly move. I regretted bringing Iki's bike, but anyway it was too full that I had to leave it at an empty street nearby. I was "ready" actually if I had to lose that bike :p.

We could see a Taiko's show. It was really interesting. I like to see this kind of performance :)



Even little Iki also enjoyed it.



There were many food stalls and children games along the street but we didn't do many games. It was very hot so we bought kakigori (? is it correct) - shaved ice with syrup on top; and some cans of beers. Drinking beers on that very hot weather was heaven!



Iki-chan did some children game too, the easy one. Like choosing a rope tied to a toy for 100 yen. Iki wanted a mini car, but he got a mickey's shape necklace instead hahaha. He gave me a very dissapointed face :p

Then we did this water balloon catching using paper string. We must not brake the paper string to take that balloon, which I successfully did!



But Iki then just pulled the paper string and broke it (>.<) We lost the second chance then. But anyway I could bring home his yellow balloon.



There were also people dancing to the taiko's beat along our way home. It was really fun. And I think it was because we went there with the right people (^_^). Thank you, Tomomi!



Iki-chan also enjoyed that matsuri. I was wondering why he was so quiet on the way home. Tired or sleepy?!
But seemed that he really needed to pee hahaha. After we parked his bike, he said "toilettt toilettt, oshiko yooo. mama, Iki-chan cannot walk" LOL

Hello and Goodbye

Life is about Hello and Goodbye. Today I got both a very good news and a sad news!

I said "hello" to Kimberly, Yunita's newborn. It's really happy to hear the news, that the baby has finally "arrived" in this world. I'm really waiting forward to see her pictures (^_^), and stories about her.

But I also heard a shockingly sad news. A friend's husband is dead. Well, we are not close friends but we did have a quite long chats everytime we met. And the last time I met her was exactly last week, when she told me that she (and her son) would be very lonely that the husband is moving to another country on Tuesday. She would go to her parents house after sending her husband to the airport and spend the rest of summer holiday there. Her son is a Thomas and Friend's freak too, so his last words to me was "I want to play Thomas with Iki...!!!".
And today I heard the news that the father died in that foreign country....(_ _o). I couldn't imagine that 4 years old talkative boy having no father. So sad....

Yeah...life is really about hello and goodbye.

Tomomi

This afternoon we went to Tomomi's house for lunch. She is a friend who can speak English fluently, and is very very friendly and charming!! Time always flies away quickly whenever we meet!

Iki also enjoyed playing with her son, Aki-kun who is about a year younger. Whenever Aki-kun cried, Iki would came to him and said: "Aki-kun, stop crying yo...let's play car?". He really plays as a big brother hahaha!



They are going to Osaka this Sunday for three weeks. I will definitely miss her!!. Actually tomorrow we plan to go to a summer festival together, but my parents in law are coming over - and I'm not sure how long they will stay here :p.

She invited us to visit them at Osaka, though. And perhaps a trip to Kyoto as well if possible. But I'll just see first how Iki would behave during our trip to Sendai!!