Setsubun

According to Japanese Lunar calendar, February 3 is celebrated as Setsubun or literary means seasonal division: one day before Spring. On that day people across the country throw away roasted beans around the house. Japanese believe that these kind of beans could chase away devils, so that they could start a brand new Spring with all the happiness. No devil, no winter colds. Every house may have different way of doing this based on their family tradition, but generally people will shout "ONI WA SOTO!!!" (Go away, Devil!!!) while trowing away beans to one of family member wearing devil's mask in front of the opened main door ; and then shout "FUKU WA UCHI!!" (Happiness, come inside!) while throwing away beans inside every room in the house. After that each family member must eat the roasted beans as much as his/her age.

It was snowing on Setsubun this year. A pretty heavy one in Tokyo. So Iki and papa-chan was busy playing outside until at last Iki felt really cold and agreed to go back home.



And this was our dinner. Tara Nabe. Boiled white fish with various vegetables inside a hotpot. What could be better for such a cold snowy day?! :p



At the end of the day we also did the Setsubun tradition, throwing away beans around the house. Iki got really excited and made the "throwing away" gestures even until he's on bed.
Papa-chan was the Oni or devil this year :p. Oni wa soto!!!!!



Fuku wa Uchi!!!!



And of course Iki didn't want to eat only 2 beans! hahaha (as he's only 2 years old)

Meiji Jingu

Almost all Japanese make the first visit of the year to a Japanese temple for praying. It doesn't matter though when exactly one should visit it, but lots of people prefer to go on the the New Year day or first few days after it.

Today we made the first visit of the to a Japanese temple. Hiro avoided the crowds during New Year period so we thought today was perfect. We chose Meiji Jingu nearby Harajuku station because it's the closest big Japanese temple for us. We were welcomed by huge gate, literary written as the biggest temple gate all over Japan, and must walk for about 1 km to be able to reach the main temple. There were a lot of big trees along the rocky path, gave me a thick "nature" feeling in the middle of busy-and-full-of-skyscrapers-Tokyo.



This is the gate to the main temple:



Before entering the temple we must "clean" ourselves from dirt. Symbolically by washing our hands and rinsing our mouth, but this time we just washed our hands a little.



Little Iki also got his hands cleaned with that very cold water



And then we entered the main temple. At first we threw some coins into the wooden boxes in front of us, clapped our hands twice, and prayed our wish of this year. After I did my part then Hiro gave me a late warn: "YOU MUST TAKE OFF YOUR GLOVES!!". A very nice late information (@_@)!


Iki throwing away coin into the wooden box

After that we bought omikuji or poem drawing for 100 yen. Omikuji in English were available too, considering the large amount of foreigner visiting the temple.

The omikuji we got at Meiji Jingu was composed, in the traditional 31 syllables form, by either the Emperor Meiji or the Empress Shoken. Those imperial poems express ethical admonitions in the Shinto tradition.

This is Iki's picture when taking omikuji for Hiro:



And this is what is written in my omikuji:
Toki osoki tagaiwa aredo tsuranukanu
Koto naki monowa makoto narikeri

means:
Some are fast, some slow,
But one thing never fails
To pierce through the final goal:
It is sincerity

It does have a deep meaning for me :)



It was an unbelievably 6 hours trip! And it was a big mistake to wear high heels :p

ふぐ (Fugu)

Fugu is the Japanese name of blowfish, whose skin and some internal organs are highly toxic to human. Fugu's meat has a very incredible taste, but it could be very poisonous if served incorrectly. Therefore only specially licensed chefs are allowed to prepare and sell Fugu to public. This makes Fugu one of the most celebrated and notorious dishes in Japanese cuisine. The best time to eat Fugu is during winter, when Fugu has lots of fat all over its body. It's when Fugu's price becomes very expensive. (Information taken from Wikipedia)

Last Saturday we had fugu as dinner at Ginza with friends. The homepage of the restaurant is here. Photos and menu could be seen there as well. I had my camera repaired at that time, so I couldn't take any pictures of my own. (_ _!)

The restaurant is not big, run by an old couple, but it gave us a very friendly environment. After we ordered drinks, came squid sashimi and sweet potato meal in small saucers as appetizers. It tasted really really good and we cleaned them up in a second. Then came thin sliced Fugu sashimi as the main food, with ponzu as a dipping sauce (citrus tasted soy sauce). The meat was really tasty and tender, melted in my mouth. Too bad I couldn't eat this much because Iki loved it and didn't allow me to eat much (T_T). And then came spicy deep fried fugu, the only menu I could eat for myself because it's too spicy for Iki hahaha. Again the taste wasn't disappointing. And at last the Obaachan brought a nabe pan with boiled water inside and put it on the gas stove in the middle of our table. Then she brought a big plate of Fugu head, cut in bite sizes with many kinds of vegetables. First of all the fugu was put into the pan and boiled together. After everyone finished eating it, then the vegetables were boiled too. When everything was finished, white rice were put inside the pan and boiled together with the nabe left broth. It's like having fugu and veggies taste porridge. Tasty though a bit too thin for me :p

It was really a satisfying dinner. Typing this made my drooling again, too bad (really really TOO bad), I don't have my own photos :(

Our New Home

At last all our stuffs arrived from Korea last Saturday. At last I got my lovely computer. At last I got my precious recipe books. At last Iki could happily "see" his toys again. At last we could eat with proper dishes, not borrowed ones, not with Thomas and Friends printed ones :p. And At last we could have really normal life. It was not comfortable having everything in temporary!!

So let me introduce you to my new kitchen. Where I may spend more than 50% of my life at.



We stay at Hiro's company's apartment complex. There is one dorm and about 5 apartment buildings here. There's a gym, but could only be used by the wives during weekdays from 9-5, which is impossible for me to enter with Iki. There's also one kindergarten inside, located right in front of our building, but Iki couldn't enter it before he's three y/o. There are a lot of children living here, so I think Iki is starting his social life step by step (and so I am!). Everyday I meet the wives and we have pretty formal small talks. In contrast to Korean, Japanese are "bit afraid" of foreigner. We have to give good impression to each other too. One's husband could be the manager or supervisor, or director :))

So far I like our new life here. Within a month I already could feel that this is a very nice home. And after we got all our stuffs last Saturday I fall in love even more with this place :p. Iki also got used to this new home quickly.



Too bad, this new home is AGAIN just a temporary home. Hiro MIGHT be sent abroad again around March. Where? still company's secret :p

Snowing and Today's Rant

It was snowing today. The first snow in Tokyo this winter. Weather forecast said that the temperature today was the lowest this year, though for me Tokyo is still much warmer compared to Incheon. Once Iki knew that it was snowing outside, he stopped eating his breakfast and asked me to bring him out. He really got excited and didn't want to continue his breakfast so I took him out after Hiro left to the office. He was very happy to play outside, trying to catch the snowflakes, and cleaning his jacket and trousers from them :p.

He enjoyed playing that he didn't want to go back home. I ate super spicy Indonesian food yesterday so this morning my stomach gave me huge kicks as the reaction. I really needed to go to the toilet but this boy completely ignored me. So I was just squating helplessly, felt cold because of my own sweat, with goosebumps all over my body until he got wet and satisfied playing. And when we finally got home and I could sit on the toilet in relieved, he cut me off and said he wanted to pee URGENTLY. Argghhh (>.<)

I let him playing with snowflakes again in the afternoon so I thought he's tired and would nap soon. But at home he was still very active! I laid on the floor beside his bed (am not allowed still to lay on his bed), pretending to sleep, but that boy was jumping around my body, tapping my body in full power, while screaming "CHA CHA CHA". I started to feel cold so I told him to stay on his bed and sleep, but again he ignored me. I was tired so I closed my eyes, and covered my ears with my palms to reduce his loud CHA CHA CHA voice. It was when his head hit my pubic bone in his full power. God, It was so damn painful and I totally knew intan's feeling! I was about to shout at him when I saw him smirking while holding his head. I just didn't know what to say and what to do. I left the room and told him to sleep by himself. And he did......only few minutes after I left!

I could breath again then, so I did my houseworks. But it didn't last long. I heard Iki's cry. He sat on his bed, sweating. I was speechless when I saw him wearing his mitten (earlier today he could put his mittens on by himself for the first time). I tried to make him confortable by removing the mittens and his socks but he got angry and told me not to do that. So during his 1.5 hours sleeping, he woke up like 4-5 times, and got angry whenever I tried to remove either the mittens or the socks. Again I lost chance to give myself a little rest today.

Hhhhhhh....what a day.....!!!!

Oh FYI, he wore those damn mittens until Hiro's back home and we were ready for dinner!

Lonely :p

Yesterday night Iki started to sleep in his own room alone. At last I could sleep on my very own bed by myself, without any strong kicking from Iki.

He got really excited when we prepared his futon (Japanese style bed on the floor). Iki, who usually hated to use blanket even voluntarily asked me to put the blanket on him properly. I think he's glad to get his own territory. Before sleeping he told me in his limited vocabulary: "bebeh no" while tapping his chest (translated: I'm not a baby). I was not even allowed to lay down on his bed :p



We put wireless inter-phone in his room so that I could hear anything happens there. I shouldn't worry he would wake up midnight and cry a lot because I could run in a second I heard his voice from the speaker beside my bed.

In fact I felt lonely that I couldn't get into deep sleep last night. I checked his room many times just to make sure that he's alright and gave him little kisses. I hope I will get used to sleep without him as soon as he's used to sleep by himself :))

And today was Hiro's first day back to work again after spending the whole one month with us. Since I knew him I'd never spent 1 full month, 24 hours together with him, and neither had Iki. So last holiday was our first full month family gathering and we (Iki and I especially) got spoiled a little bit too much. I almost forgot how tiring it was to spend a whole day only with Iki, and so did Iki. He cried when Hiro left his morning and actually I also can't help not to wet my eyes :p. I could understand Iki's feeling because I felt it too. We were "lonely" hahaha

Indomie....seleraku :p

Following up my previous posting about Indonesian Food-sick, Hiro accompanied me to Ueno while his parents took care of Iki at home. Beforehand he looked for information on the internet where exactly the asian food market is. It's located at the underground of Ameyoko building, in the middle of the fish market. I felt like I read about this once at Nova's blog but couldn't remember the detail. It was my first time going to Ueno area and I found completely different shopping environtment. I've never seen such cheap market in Tokyo so far, though the price of goods at the Asian market was ridiculous for me. Especially that I know the real price in Indonesia. Yeah well....those actually "cheap" goodies are imported goods here!



Anyway I bought few Indonesian ingredients. I found tempe for 500 yen (around 45,000 IDR), Indomie 100 yen, chilli 300 yen for 100 gr (I would got 1 kg in Indonesia with that price!), Bawang merah, bakso babi, bakso ikan, Lemongrass, Sambal ABC, santan, Tamarind, and my very important Kecap Asin ABC among others. I saw Labu Siam and Banana leaf too but didn't have any idea how to cook/use them yet.
The fishes at the fish market are sooooo cheap!!! We bought Sujiko (young salmon roe) for 1000 yen and Hoke fishes 1000 yen for 3. We also got Tuna sashimi (toro and chu toro), big ones, for 2000 yen totally! The seller said that he gave us such price because the wife's cute (read: me) hehehhe. I'll come again sometime in the future to that place for those cheap fishes, and maybe some Indonesian spices (I prefer my mom or friends sending them to me though hahaha)

So yesterday morning I had this 100 yen Indomie goreng as breakfast. With sunny side up egg and sujiko as toppings, and additional 3 fresh chillies for taste. Oh man....It was really good!! Indomie....seleraku....... :p

Indonesian Food-sick

Been eating mostly Japanese food for this 1 month. I thought I could survive that I put all my Indonesian food supply leftover inside our shipping stuffs instead of bringing some as hand luggage. Indeed now I'm suffering of Indonesian Food-sick, all food I also missed a lot at this time. Most of all I miss the spicy-salty-and sour taste of Babi Rica-rica!!



And damn Sheila's blog about her Culinary Paradise during her visit to Indonesia!!! It made me drooling even worse. Don't have time to go to Ueno and find some Indonesian spices around that place, especially because I don't know where it is exactly :p. Indonesian restaurants here are expensive and I'm too afraid it's not worthed the taste. All I could do is waiting for our shipping boxes, which will exactly come next Saturday!!

Arrrghhhh another suffering week (>.<)

Ski

After spending more than two weeks unpacking, shopping, and building furnitures; at last yesterday we had a one-day ski trip for refreshing.

We started early in the morning and headed to Omiya station. Hiro bought discounted tickets from travel agent. A package of Shinkansen tickets and lift to the ski area for 16,400 Yen for two persons. It took about 1.5 hours from Omiya station to Gala Yuzawa station by Shinkansen (bullet train). The train was not crowded during weekdays so Iki could get his own seat. He really enjoyed the journey: looking outside the window, eating his obento, and also reading magazine.

Almost at the end of the journey, the Shinkansen went through a very long tunnel and we found a completely different view after that tunnel. A world covered with thick snow. What a two different world separated by a long tunnel!

The last station is connected to the ski resort. We changed our clothes into ski wear and Hiro rented the ski equipment for him, then we took gondola to the ski area. The view from Gondola was amazing. It was my second time being there, and still I had to hold my breath.

Iki was really excited. He was already looking forward for this journey so ran directly outside to play as we arrived. We had late lunch because he didn't want to get inside the restaurant. We brought him to a special area for small children, put him on a slide, pull him uphill and let him slide down freely. He screamed happily and asked for more and more. Well, pulling him uphill and running as fast as I could to stop him sliding were really a sport for me hahaha

He also had his first "ski" with Hiro. His feet are still to small for kids' ski board so Hiro just put him on his board and they slided together. They really enjoyed it and hopefully Iki's feet would get bigger on our next ski trip. Hiro is a good skier, I enjoyed watching him skiing. Sexy :p

We really had so much fun. Everyone enjoyed playing together. Was really a nice refreshing.

After playing a lot Iki got really tired and sleepy. He helplessly hanging on my lap, couldn't open his eyes anymore, when I changed his ski wear. He slept again almost the whole journey back to Tokyo.

Now we're back in Tokyo, back from our short getaway, ready waiting for the next 50 boxes coming from Korea within few days. Only God knows how to put all our stuffs inside this "already full" apartment (@_@)

Accident

Just got back from georgeous sukiyaki dinner at my parents in law's house when I saw new messages mark on my Indonesian number's mobile phone. It's from my mum and my brother. My sister got an accident, will be sent to manado asap.

I lost my power reading that. My sister is now working at Damao island, Sangihe Talaud. It's a very small island where there's no phone line, let alone mobile phone signal. My family in manado also don't know her real condition. My bother told me that she got her head injured at a motorbike accident during her duty. She's unconcious and vomitted a lot. And since she is the only doctor at that small island, no one could help her now.

God, I'm scared to death now......

Learning and busy. Or busy learning...? :p

Papa-chan is still on holiday for two weeks now but we couldn't go anywhere else for refreshing yet. There're just so much to buy, to do, and to learn (esp. for me). Within two weeks I must learn new Japanese recipes, make research which store sells the cheapest price for different stuffs, generally to adapt with my new life here.

Hiro translates new recipes everyday and explains a lot of Japanese culture and habit. I must learn Kanji characters also now, since Hiro later on would be very busy and might not be available every night to help me out. Everyday Hiro gives me 4 kanji characters to learn. Started with cooking glossaries kanji and our family's name. After I finished with my Kanji "homework" then I'm allowed to touch computer (which is usually after 1 a.m!).

I still do blogwalking sometimes from my mobile phone but I couldn't leave any comments yet. I'm so sorry but I think I would make it up later on after I get my life rythm back, and especially after I get my computer too (it's still on the way here from Korea with other boxes). I'll also upload photos at that time because I couldn't transfer photos from my camera to this iBook, and papa-chan's computer is free only after 2 a.m. I miss chatting with my friends too, and hope I could catch up the latest rumors. Thanks for still visiting and dropping comments here, please excuse me for a while because of this learning thing. I'll be back active in this cyber world again soon. Pretty soon (^___^)


And Ohhhh!!! I must also start my exercise again since my tummy is getting fatty now (@_@)

New Year

Our first new year in Japan.



We woke up really late today and I cooked ozouni in a rush. It's Japanese traditional food for New Year. Toasted mochi (rice cake) in clear chicken soup.



Japanese also eats Osechi during New Year. Detail story about Osechi can be read here in Wikipedia. Osechi could be really expensive. At department stores it's sold for about USD 100 each box.
We just bought the cheap package at Seiyu, nearest supermarket. I didn't look that bad, though hehehe. And it did taste pretty good :p



I planned to go to Japanese shrine to see how Japanese celebrate New year there. But Hiro is sick. So we just shopped some more food supply at the nearest supermaket and then I co



This is our simple way to celebrate new year this year. We are still exhausted with this moving thing, and still have long to do list. But we do hope this year would be at least as amazing as last year. And I do hope yours would be too. Happy New Year (^___^)

Happy Birthday, Iki (^__^)

Today, two years ago, Iki was born. Was a big 2006 New Year surprise for us, and will always be our new year gift every year. I couldn't prepare something special for him today since we're still busy with our moving stuffs. I just cooked Sekihan, Mochi rice with red bean, Japanese traditional food for celebrating big day.



He ate really a lot. Even before the sekihan was ready he started eating the side dishes already. Really was a hungry birthday boy :p



We had Soba for dinner. Japanese eats soba on New Year eve because soba is symbol of happiness: thin and long. Meanwhile Indonesian eats noodle on birthday for a long life. Hopefully Iki will have long and happy life. We also ate Japanese New Year food Osechi and left some for tomorrow :p



He got Thomas and Friends audio book from his auntie family, and various Thomas and Friends goodies from his grandparents. He screamed excitedly everytime he opened the wrapping and found his favourite character goods inside. All those presents were given earlier since today they are not in town.

And today for the first time he slept by himself. I just tucked him to bed, rubbed his stomach and gave little massage on his feet as usual; then he told me to go out because he wanted to sleep by himself. Earlier in the afternoon he also took a nap by himself. A big relief for mama-chan hahahaha

Happy Birthday, Iki-chan. We love you and are very proud of you. Hope you'll live your life to the fullest (^___^)

Hello and Goodbye

Again, quoting from a friend long time ago, Life is about hello and goodbye. I said goodbye already to my old kitchen and now am widely smile to say hello to my new kitchen here :)



We are settling down now. These few days have been hectic with unpacking our hand carry luggages (9 boxes and 3 suitcases), and shopping for house needs. In Korea we were almost fully facilitated by the company but here we really have to buy everything. We rented an empty apartment from Hiro's company's apartment complex. Lucky we got the futon set (Japanese bed style) as a gift from my parents in law, and we could also borrow some stuffs from them until our shipment arrives from Korea. I got headache counting the money we must spend, as well as thinking about the 47 more boxes coming from Korea within three weeks. I haven't even finished unpacking our hand carry, and feel so exhauted now :))



Moving out was not really a pain for me. The worst part was the cleaning part only. Then I just have to sort out which stuffs to be brought by ourselves, to be sent by air, and to be sent by ship. It took almost 24 hours (yeah yeah...we did it on the last two days HAHA). On the moving day 5 persons from the moving company came to our apartment and did all the packing stuffs. I just gave order and watched them working hehehe, They were very professional and to my surprise they finished packing the 47 boxes neatly only within 3 hours!! Later on the company will also unpack the big boxes and here I will just have to arrange our stuffs (but later would be ME only, because Hiro won't be available anymore).



That company even took care of our mountainous trashes, taking care of my christmas tree and helped us packing our hand carry luggages. But we have to pay 6000 USD for such professionalism. Oh, not us. Hiro will send the bill to his company :p



Tomorrow is Iki's birthday. But I couldn't prepare any cake for him. I made a big plan actually, baking a Thomas train birthday cake for him. I even looked for the train mould and bought it already. But it's still a big mess here and it's impossible to bake any cake for him :( . Haven't even bought anything to be cooked tomorrow. I have no power anymore to go out for shopping after he slept tonight.


Last pipis at APT in Korea

Yeah...I think I am ready to start our new life here. I must learn a lot this time, especially about Japanese language and culture. Must adapt to this new society with lots of rules. Let's just see if I'll grumble here later on hehehe

Gotta go for some more cleaning before going to bed. Be right back with more stories tomorrow (hopefully! :p)

My empty kitchen

I took this picture this morning, before we left. Goodbye my first kitchen!!! (T_T)

?!?! I just realized when I saw that picture that I forgot to take Iki's food guidelines from my desk's wall!! (@_@)

Goodbye

We're at JAL excecutive lounge now, having brunch while waiting for boarding time. Enjoying last luxurious facility from Hiro's company hehehe

I felt sad when we left our empty apartment this morning, we we said goodbye to our very kind apartment's security guard, and when we waved goodbye to Hiro's translator from taxi. Goodbye Incheon, goodbye Korea. Memories here have special place in my heart, and can be read somewhere in my blog :p

Goodbye.......

Our Christmas

It's Christmas!!
Papa-chan even woke up early this morning. We directly headed to the Christmas tree, and Iki screamed happily when he saw big yellow present for him waiting under the tree. These past few weeks he's been waiting forward for Santa Claus' coming and asked for "uuh uuhh" (Thomas train) and "nyanya" (cat - in Japanese) as his Christmas wishes.

And look what Santa brought for him (^__-)



And because it's impossible for him to have a real cat, Mrs. Santa made a quick cat cupcake:



He ate it excitedly with spoon!!! He didn't want to make his hands dirty (@_@)



Then we went to Bokjuk restaurant for lunch. Definitely was our last visit there, since we are nearly at the end of our staying here. Papa-chan bought me a pair of cheap winter boots as Christmas present (?!), for emergency use during our ski and Hokkaido trip later on.

We had steak for dinner, with boiled veggies, potato salad and a bottle of red wine. I made simple Christmas decoration to attract Iki's attention from his railway set.



And he was excitedly trying to blow off the Santa Claus and Snowman candles - and finished his dinner as well.



We closed this day by turning off all the lights in this house and stared at the sparkling Christmas tree together, just like what we did last year. Iki bowed thank you to the Christmas tree (for the presents he got hahaha), and said goodbye to all the hanging decorations there because tomorrow I will have to pack it.

This would be my last posting from South Korea. Tomorrow the internet connection will be stopped and all the computers will be packed too. See you all again with other stories from our new rented apartment in Japan (^_____^)

Farewell with Deung Kalbi

Last Sunday we had farewell dinner with friends at Deung Kalbi restaurant nearby our apartment. The Deung Kalbi there is one of the best Korean food for us. Really tasty and delicious. We went to that restaurant regularly so it was also an opportunity to say goodbye to the owner and all the staffs. They were very kindly and helpful whenever we had our dinner there.



He gave us a bottle of big Korean Soju as a farewell present. I almost dropped y tears. Oh how I hate farewells!!!. Thank you, Ajosi. We will definitely come to your restaurant if we got any chance to visit Incheon in the future. Your food is one of our best memories of living in South Korea

Merry Christmas!!

Have a nice holiday, and may Santa find you!! (^___^)



Tons of loves from our messy-with-boxes apartment in Incheon

Coins

Iki loves to collect coins and put them into his big piggy bank



And this afternoon Hiro "operated" piggy's tummy and brought all the coins to the bank. We thought me might get about 50,000 won - 100,000 won in total (USD 50 - USD 100)



But surprisingly we got 269,600 won = about 269 USD = IDR 2,500,000!!
The coins only filled the piggy's feet area. Couldn't imagine how much would it be if the piggy's full!!

Farewell Dinner

Tonight we had farewell dinner with Hiro's colleagues. Tomorrow is Hiro's last working day. Boiled King Crab was the main menu. Too bad I didn't take photo. I had to take care of Iki who was suddenly full of energy.

Yeah...it was a nice ending. Nice food, nice people, nice goodbyes.

But the farewell party was like a very loud alarm in my head: WAKE UP AND START PACKING, LAZY BUTT!!!!

We're going to move out next week, but I haven't even packed one single box yet (#_#). Arrrgghhhhh

Iki and Snow

It was a bit snowing this morning so Iki asked me to take him out excitedly while pointing out his snowman pictures. He wanted to see snowman outside!!

I still have my flu so actually I planned to stay warm at home today, but I didn't have any heart to see his curious face about snow. Seemed that he didn't have any memory about snow he saw last year (_ _;).

As predicted he was really really happy. The snow was not that much though but the thin layer was enough to make him excited. He tried to catch the snowflakes and stamped his feet around while saying "uwawa...uwawaaa" (means bubbles in Japanese). He thought the snow's the same with soap bubble :p



He didn't want to go home then. Enjoying himself a little bit too much. We stayed outside for more than 1 hour. As the result now I got my body temperature raised (_ _o). Oh my.......!

Last Lasagna

Today we had lasagna for dinner. Our last lasagna in this house. Tomorrow I must clean my oven because we will pass it to a friend this Saturday. The door is broken, thanks to Iki!! (>.<) But it still works, by holding the door tightly until the food is cooked :p



Usually Iki doesn't like to eat lasagna but this time he ate a lot. So happy to see him eating enthusiastically, and somewhat for us that lasagna tasted really really good. Might be the best lasagna I've ever had in this house. It was a very nice farewell to my lovely oven. My very first oven.....

(_ _;)

I'm sick (+_+)

Feel like there's hammer inside my head and muscle pain all over my body. The worst is the vomitting part. I hate to see the food I cooked with all my effort being thrown out.

I have lots of things to do. Haven't started to pack anything yet. Why should I get this sick at this time?!?! Grrhhhh

I hit Iki!!!

Yesterday I hit Iki for the first time (_ _;)

He was driving me nuts. I knew it's because he couldn't pass his BM. He felt uncomfortable but he simply kept he "trash". He was too afraid to push because he always got pain. He asked me to put him on his toilet seat for many times though, but once he felt that "it's really time to push", he got really panicked and jumped out of the toilet (>.<). He didn't want to play by himself, he didn't want to eat, he didn't want to go out, he didn't want to sleep. He was just being clingy the whole day. Meanwhile I also got my period yesterday, with very bad mood because of stomach pain and muscle pain all over my body. One thing leads to another, I couldn't remember the details, I hit Iki on his butt.We both were so shocked. He cried out loud for few minutes while I checked his butt, trembling. I could see my palm's mark on it. I hugged him and said sorry until he stopped crying. He looked at me in the eyes, bowed sorry, smiled and hugged me back. It made me feel even worse. What a terrible mother I am!!!!!!!!!!

I cried silently in the kitchen after he's asleep. I could still hear the loud SPANK in my head. No, I don't say a mother who spanks her baby is bad. It's just I promised myself that I wouldn't hit Iki. I had bad experiences during my childhood so we (Hiro and I) have decided not to hit Iki at all. But I did it yesterday. I'm a horrible mother!!!!!!!



Look how sweet he is....and how could I spank him?!?!?!

I emailed Hiro right away yesterday and last night we had a midnight talk after he got back home. He suggested me to go out of Korea for refreshing and offered a getaway weekend alone to Indonesia. Ehm...getaway WEEKEND?!
Let's say...I'll leave Korea on Saturday morning, arrive in Surabaya at night and have nasi bebek as dinner. Eat ayam penyet Bu Kris for breakfast, buy some traditional snacks, have kwetiau siram Apeng for lunch, eat Bakso pak Salam for second lunch, find tahu tek tek for tea time, and buy mie dok dok to be brought to the plane. Then I'll be back in the plane to Incheon on Sunday night.
Oh oh oh....what a getaway!!!!

I said thanks but I refused. Maybe next time :p

But I promised him not to hit my little boy anymore. Forever!

Kimchi

Early winter has passed. Making kimchi for winter stock season has passed too. I could hardly see people fighting to buy huge Chinese cabbage and radish at supermarket already.

Kimchi is Korean traditional fermented side dish served almost everywhere here in Korea. If as an Indonesian chili sauce is a perfect match for white rice, then for Korean it's Kimchi. There are many kinds of kimchi, and in fact not all Kimchi are spicy as what the world imagine as they heard the word.

Anyway these are type of Kimchi I like the most:



These Kimchi are the most common one, could be found at almost every restaurant. I like the fresh one and those are served at Seolongtan restaurant nearby our apartment are my favourite.

One fact about Kimchi I figured out when I was in Korea already was that the Kimchi served on our table could be some leftover from the previous customers, and the restaurant will also serve our leftover Kimchi to the next customers. And people do not use special spoon or chopstick to take Kimchi from the small saucers. It's the same chopsticks they use for eating (@_@). "Sharing" is one of Korean's important motto.

The Kimchi at that restaurants taste good anyway, so I kept eating it. Hey....if you live in Roma, live like Romans do. I live in Korea so I have to follow at least some of Korean customs :p.

But we're guarded by Hepatitis B injections for safety reason :p