Atteding a wedding for the frist time

Last weekend, Paul and me went to his hometown, Kelowna. I have gone there with him 3 times but this time was for his friend's wedding and this was my first time attending a Western style wedding :)

The wedding was very casual. The Ceremony and the party took place in a community hall. no dinner. I still liked the style but I would like to join a regular one some day.

The couple gave us a baby pine as a present at the wedding. I was going to plant it in our yard and told by Paul "Pine trees grow meters!!". Well, I never planted any...

On the way to the wedding, I could see beautiful scenery! It is colder in Kelowna then Vancouver we live and there was still some snow on the ground. Fortunately it was nice weather on the weekends :) I believe I am a sunny maker! hehe =)

This was also fist time in my entire life! I went on a frozen lake. Paul and me were kind of scared. We didn't know its dangerous to step on it or not, though, seemed fine and it was very exciting moment for me who grew in a city where rarely snow!

The good thing was that Paul seemed to have started being aware of our marriage. We talked about our wedding would be very international, and lets put all different nationalities on each table together! I know it will happen at least in 2 years though X(

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Japan received 2 Academy Awards.

2 Japanese films won awards at the 81st Academy Award. I never heard of both of them though.

LA MAISON EN PETITS CUBES / つみきのいえ(tu mi ki no ie) received The award for Animated short film. This is first time Japanese got this award.

[In a world gradually flooding with water, an old man adapts to changing circumstances and looks back on his life.]

Refer to The Official Academy Awards web site (LA MAISON EN PETITS CUBES)

つみきのいえ Means "building block house". Here is the amimation film from Youtube. It takes only 20 mins, no speaking in the movie but I was moved! Why don't you take only some time to watch this?






DEPARTURES / おくりびと(o ku ri bi to) received The award for foreign language film.

[When cellist Daigo Kobayashi finds himself unemployed, he returns with his wife to his hometown and answers an ad he believes has been placed by a travel agency. The available position, however, turns out to be with a company that prepares corpses for cremation--an elaborate ritual for which the stunned Daigo proves to have a surprising aptitude.]

Refer to The Official Academy Awards web site (DEPARTURES)

Japanese funeral is rather unique. You may be find interests in the idea about death based on Buddhism in japan. But sounds like the move has not been trunslated into English yet. I found the Trailer with English subtitle.

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Japanese comedy

I think each nationality has own sense of humor. My boyfriend, Paul and me mostly have the same sense of humor but sometimes not.

I can't really find American comedy funny sometimes. Some are too cruel or too violent to me. like south park. Family guy and Friends are funny for sure and also liked by international students maybe because those TV shows are easy to understand and on TV always.

I don't like When we watch Japanese TV-show with English subtitle and I laught so much but he doesn't laught at all. I feel our culture difference.

But this show made him laugh :) This guy is a popular comedian who named Jinnai Tomonori. His skit is always only himself in it.





I will post more movies that maybe funny to everyone.

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A drunk Japanese minister at G7

A Japanese Financial minister fell asleep at G7 Conference who named Syouichi Nakagawa. He made excuses for that after the conference was just too weak and he seemed actually just drunk. I found he resigned yesterday after all. This news is big in Japan lately.



Even though, He has been already know as a drinker, People don't like their delegate to act like an idiot of course. Besides, this news was brought to the world by the media. The criticize is mostly like this "this is shameful", "he is embarrassing us", "He is not aware how important his position is".

A famous comedian said about him. "If he would have done great job, people would less criticize him with this." I don't really know what he has done before as the position. The problem is he showed he is incapable enough to screw covering up his mistakes. The comedian also said "He should have showed more extream shameful behavior, like sleeping during the interview or fell down from chair many times so that people would think this guy is just different from anyone else ordinary!" Japan is luck of people capable to lead others. When I heard American president Obama's speech I just felt jealous. If there is such a guy who has power and skill to attract people, be able to make people proud their country, Japan doesn't need to change the prime minister every year...

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Happy Valentine's Day

The pic above is a japanese rice crackers for Valentine....

I had a happy Valentine's day today :) My boyfriend, Paul put pretty roses in a vase on a table for me to find when I wake up this morning. He also took me to a nice restaurant in a hotel for dinner. I got excited when I heard he already made a reservation for Harrison Hot Spring Resort! He said he tried to reserve for Valentine's day few weeks ago but its full. We go in 2 weeks but no matter. I am glad that he knows I miss Hot spring so much. The hot spring probably not be very alike Japanese one though, I am looking forward to having a north american style hot spring for the first time!

I am often told that I am not very romantic. I told him that he doesn't need to spend much money (we are saving up money for moving to Japan this year) or be stressed out forValentine's day. I don't mind as long as he doesn't forget to give me flowers, but he gave me more then that ;) I feel bit guilty I didn't do anything for him today. I am going to bake a chocolate cake tomorrow though (I didn't have chance to get ingredients) I promised with him I will give him good treat next Valentine in japan!

In my country, Valentine is the day that girls give chocolates to guys. Couples go dating but guys normally don't need to give their girl friends anything. Girls give chocolates to favorite boy friends, male co-workers and fathers. It sounds easier for guys? but Japanese guys actually stressed out on Valentine's day. They are scared if they can get any chocolate or not. They are scared to find if they are popular among girls or not.

The day is also good opportunity for girls to ask guys out and guys are suppose to answer if he can be her boy friend on March 14. The day on March 14 is called ''White Day". If you are a guy and got any chocolates on Valentine's day, you got to give something back to the girls, including your girl friend. not chocolate but something else bit more worth then what you got from them! so this is not so good for guy either. To me, I prefer the Western style Valentine to the Japanese style of course! :) Japanese guys usually don't buy flowers for girl friends anyways.

I hear that in Korea, they have White Day too and there is the day that people don't have partners yet get together and have party on April 14. They call the day "Black Day". One of my Korean friends says Black Day is the last chance to find a partner for people who didn't have any romantic happenings on Valentine's Day and White Day. I think this is very good idea, isn't it?

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typical japanese commercial

After I found the 24 commercial, I also saw some other Japanese commercials came up with it. Come to think of it, commercials in Japan are always made cute (can be childish) like flowing movies.

Pizza store commercial.



Car insurance campany commercial.


I see this taste of ads in Japan lots more then I see here. This is also because of culture difference, isn't it? I like both anyway:) The music sticks my head!

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japanese commercial (24 twenty four)

My boyfriend and I are into 24 new season 7 lately. We try hard to manage to sit in front of TV at 9pm on Monday for this.

This is One of things I feel thankful for being here! being able to understand English.

Few years ago, I was watching 24 with Japanese subtitle and had to wait sometimes to watch next ones until they got subtitles on. I think that If you ask Japanese why you study English, most of time, they answer you that they want to enjoy movies, songs, books in English.

I found a quick-eat food commercial that was on Japanese TV some yeas ago. Jack Bauer hurried on a train fulled with high school students. What are you doing there, Jack?







He is answering "YES!!" to the girls saying "this is delicious", "I love jelly one" and answers at the last "NO!!" to the girls saying "Why don't we eat it here?" ('cause eating on a train is bad manner)

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About this blog

Hello, Welcome to my blog, Tanpopo Journal;) "Tanpopo" means dandelion in Japanese. I named it just because I hear it sounds bit nice to English speakers! (I don't know it does to every one or not)

Let me tell you about my self first. My name is Harumi. As you have probably noticed, I am from japan. As you have probably noticed, I still make lots of errors in English, thousands of errors. I say, I care!! but why don't you let me pretend I don't care? I want to improve my English skill of cause but I am going to focus on keeping writing and enjoying writing. I hope my English will not bother you too much!

I have lived in Canada for total 2 years and few months. I am living with my boyfriend in Vancouver. His name is Paul. We have been dating for about 2 years and he is the reason for me to live in Canada, to have the current situation that I am waiting for Canadian immigration process to be done. I appreciate God I could meet him when I fast time came to Canada to study for a year. Encounter with him changed my life significantly. I love him but I am still struggling in totally different culture and life here.

I am going to write journal with my own point of view. I also would like to talk about stuff in Japan, also from Japanese websites. I need to get to used to blogging in English. When you see strenge things here, please let me know or just let them slide! Thank you :) I hope you will enjoy my blog!

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