K://Backup_of_Thoughts

Ms. Komatsu’s iPhone stand, both cute and useful.

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:05:00 +0200

Ms. Komatsu’s iPhone stand, both cute and useful.

Being a regular at the airport Clinique shop = being remembered...

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:01:00 +0200

Being a regular at the airport Clinique shop = being remembered = free stuff.

Hanging out with the very talented ms. Komatsu for the last...

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:49:00 +0200

Hanging out with the very talented ms. Komatsu for the last glasses of wine before take off. Vacation mode is on!

Believe it or not, for five years I’ve been wanting to...

Mon, 20 May 2013 04:00:00 +0200

Believe it or not, for five years I’ve been wanting to ride Rapi:t for Kansai Airport. Today we’re off!

Spending the night at Toyoko Inn Osaka, Japanese breakfast...

Mon, 20 May 2013 02:25:00 +0200

Spending the night at Toyoko Inn Osaka, Japanese breakfast included.
Gonna miss onigiri!

Bye bye Minami Kusatsu. It’s been fun.

Sun, 19 May 2013 07:05:00 +0200

Bye bye Minami Kusatsu. It’s been fun.

Last hours in the Shiga apaato, waiting for inspection.

Sun, 19 May 2013 06:16:00 +0200

Last hours in the Shiga apaato, waiting for inspection.

The mother of omu-raisu!

Fri, 17 May 2013 06:28:00 +0200

The mother of omu-raisu!

Moving out the last of the things from our apartment in Shiga....

Fri, 17 May 2013 04:03:00 +0200

Moving out the last of the things from our apartment in Shiga. We would never had made it without the valuable help from the Takeoka family. Eternally grateful for you saving us, time and time again.

What you get if you quote Shakespeare.

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:56:00 +0200

What you get if you quote Shakespeare.

Vacuum bags. Simply pure awesomeness.

Thu, 16 May 2013 07:20:00 +0200

Vacuum bags. Simply pure awesomeness.

These guys modeled for me for the never ending photo project,...

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:36:00 +0200

These guys modeled for me for the never ending photo project, Hello Gentlemen. Thanks for making the Japan-part a great success!

TheGuy texting me from the Japanese license center - where they...

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:37:01 +0200

TheGuy texting me from the Japanese license center - where they don’t require geography on your resume.

TheGuy - on logic, at the driver license center in Shiga,...

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:12:00 +0200

TheGuy - on logic, at the driver license center in Shiga, Japan.

Kinda got me thinking as well: If this is the way you, as a female, get your drivers license in Japan…I don’t want to drive a car in Japan.

Foodporn of the day: Colorful inarizushi (fried tofu filled with...

Sat, 11 May 2013 18:20:26 +0200

Foodporn of the day: Colorful inarizushi (fried tofu filled with rice)

Tasted exactly like a rainbow.

Walked out the door to get dinner and BAM! Pimped up pink...

Sat, 11 May 2013 18:13:14 +0200

Walked out the door to get dinner and BAM!

Pimped up pink ride.

Love Japan.

Packing and getting rid of shoes, clothes and other stuff that...

Thu, 09 May 2013 09:40:00 +0200

Packing and getting rid of shoes, clothes and other stuff that my life has gathered during five and a half years in Japan.

This is emotionally, as well as physically, exhausting.

A great exercise in English for everyone

Mon, 06 May 2013 17:42:00 +0200

The Chaos by Charivarius

Dearest creature in creation
Studying English pronunciation,

I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse

I will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.

Tear in eye your dress you’ll tear,
So shall I! Oh, hear my prayer,

Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!

Just compare heart, beard and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,

Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written).

Made has not the sound of bade,
Say said, pay-paid, laid, but plaid.

Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as vague and ague,

But be careful how you speak,
Say break, steak, but bleak and streak.

Previous, precious, fuchsia, via,
Pipe, snipe, recipe and choir,

Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery:
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,

Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles.
Exiles, similes, reviles.

Wholly, holly, signal, signing.
Thames, examining, combining

Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war, and far.

From “desire”: desirable—admirable from “admire.”
Lumber, plumber, bier, but brier.

Chatham, brougham, renown, but known.
Knowledge, done, but gone and tone,

One, anemone. Balmoral.
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel,

Gertrude, German, wind, and mind.
Scene, Melpomene, mankind,

Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather,
Reading, reading, heathen, heather.

This phonetic labyrinth
Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth, plinth.

Billet does not end like ballet;
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet;

Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.

Banquet is not nearly parquet,
Which is said to rime with “darky.”

Viscous, Viscount, load, and broad.
Toward, to forward, to reward.

And your pronunciation’s O.K.,
When you say correctly: croquet.

Rounded, wounded, grieve, and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive, and live,

Liberty, library, heave, and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven,

We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.

Mark the difference, moreover,
Between mover, plover, Dover,

Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police, and lice.

Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label,

Petal, penal, and canal,
Wait, surmise, plait, promise, pal.

Suit, suite, ruin, circuit, conduit,
Rime with “shirk it” and “beyond it.”

But it is not hard to tell,
Why it’s pall, mall, but Pall Mall.

Muscle, muscular, gaol, iron,
Timber, climber, bullion, lion,

Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, and chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor,

Ivy, privy, famous, clamour
And enamour rime with hammer.

Pussy, hussy, and possess,
Desert, but dessert, address.

Golf, wolf, countenance, lieutenants.
Hoist, in lieu of flags, left pennants.

River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.

Stranger does not rime with anger.
Neither does devour with clangour.

Soul, but foul and gaunt but aunt.
Font, front, won’t, want, grand, and grant.

Shoes, goes, does. Now first say: finger.
And then: singer, ginger, linger,

Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, age.

Query does not rime with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.

Dost, lost, post; and doth, cloth, loth;
Job, Job; blossom, bosom, oath.

Though the difference seems little,
We say actual, but victual.

Seat, sweat; chaste, caste.; Leigh, eight, height;
Put, nut; granite, and unite.

Reefer does not rime with deafer,
Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.

Dull, bull, Geoffrey, George, ate, late,
Hint, pint, Senate, but sedate.

Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific,

Tour, but our and succour, four,
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.

Sea, idea, guinea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria,

Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean,
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion with battalion.

Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay.

Say aver, but ever, fever.
Neither, leisure, skein, receiver.

Never guess—it is not safe:
We say calves, valves, half, but Ralph.

Heron, granary, canary,
Crevice and device, and eyrie,

Face but preface, but efface,
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.

Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust, and scour, but scourging,

Ear but earn, and wear and bear
Do not rime with here, but ere.

Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen,

Monkey, donkey, clerk, and jerk,
Asp, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation—think of psyche—!
Is a paling, stout and spikey,

Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing “groats” and saying “grits”?

It’s a dark abyss or tunnel,
Strewn with stones, like rowlock, gunwale,

Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict, and indict!

Don’t you think so, reader, rather,
Saying lather, bather, father?

Finally: which rimes with “enough”
Though, through, plough, cough, hough, or tough?

Hiccough has the sound of “cup.”
My advice is—give it up!

An Italian meal is incomplete without dessert: Caramel gelatto...

Mon, 06 May 2013 16:42:27 +0200

An Italian meal is incomplete without dessert: Caramel gelatto with shaved chocolate, espresso, meringue and Vadalvi grappa. Nomnomnom.

Anniversary lunch with TheGuy at Osterietta Il Glicine was a...

Mon, 06 May 2013 16:20:00 +0200

Anniversary lunch with TheGuy at Osterietta Il Glicine was a trip to Italy and back.

Salmon sashimi, prosciutto salad with mozzarella, cabbage soup with squid and lamb with braised green leaks.