Today Go's parents sent us some turban shells from Nagasaki.
Nagasaki is located on Kyushu island (southern Japan) so it quite far from Nara, but thanks to Japan's super speedy post delivery system, package sent yesterday has already arrived this afternoon!

Go's parents are taking a vacation now in Nagasaki (dad's hometown) and will be there for around 10 days. (By the way they live in Osaka so not so far from where we live, around 40 minutes by car).

Anyway Go's dad loves diving and catch all kinds of shellfish.
Seems like he has caught lots of turban shells this time and he sent them right away to us.
These were still in the sea yesterday....look at the size!!

And here is one of the popular ways to cook turban shells......just put them on fire (like barbeque) and add some soy sauce....(okay....it's not cooking at all.....)
then wait around 10 minutes......

And here it is! Now we're ready to eat....

How does it taste??!
hmmm.....hmm......hard to explain.....
Personally.....I thought they looked pretty scary......LOL

- Angelika -

Today I would like to show some great pictures from a good friend of ours (from Europe....he would like to stay anonymous so we cannot reveal his name or country.....LOL)
Anyway he is an awesome modeler, and a very passionate one I must say....as you can see from his awesome works below.
I think he is the number one bike model kit collector in Europe (or maybe in the world!  hee..heee....).

I don't have a clue how you can build such thing....as those are quite small (these should be a 1/12 scale or 1/15 scale...) , I'm sure it mustn't be that easy to build....and look at all the minor details.......it even has a speed meter and wires for the breaks!!  How cool!!
And of course after you build it, you'll have to paint it....and sometimes not only once but several times....

I've seen Go build some model kits as well....so I know that it takes a lot of work to build it, but for Go, he usually don't build anything by the book....he'll make his own original stuff like future cars, flying cars, super long jets, etc......so might take double the time to build one model....LOL

Anyway, what I would like to say is - I will never be patient enough to build a model kit......so for all you modelers, I personally think you all have such a great skill & talent!!! Not everybody can do what you do! 

 

 

    

  

 

By the way, if you would like to send some pictures of the models you have built, we will be very glad to post it here as well!

- Angelika -

 

Today I would like to introduce where we live in Japan.
We live in the city of Ikoma, Nara prefecture, Kansai area.
Nara is right next to Osaka - the second biggest city in Japan, and also next to Kyoto – known as the most old or traditional town in Japan and the most visited place by tourists.
Nara is a lot like Kyoto, there are a lot of old temples and shrines and mountains, and in autumn it is absolutely beautiful with all the colored leaves covering the mountains.
For the geographic input, you can see the map below.
It takes around 1 hour and 10 minutes by airplane from Tokyo to Kansai airport in Osaka.

And this is our home sweet home, with our cute little beetle.

And this is our peaceful neighborhood.....wonder how many houses are there.....never been to the end of this row........
By the way, all the material used to build these houses were brought in all the way from Canada! Yeeeyy to Canada!!!

See how peaceful it is....not much goes around here, especially in winter, it's cold so nobody likes to come out....!
I guess the only time people come out during winter is when they take their dog out for a walk....I think every house here has a dog except for us......not that we don't like dogs, actually I love dogs and would love to get one someday......but I already hate the thought of having to take it out for a walk every single day especially in winter and in the rainy season......hhmmm........or maybe we'll just get a tiny dog that will be satisfied running around our little yard at the side of our house.....now that's an idea.....

-Angelika-

There's this bridge construction going on right in front of our house.....has been going on for a while actually......I think for more than 2 years now......their progress is incredibly slow considering that this is Japan!!!! Usually they are very fast to build everything here.....but this bridge.....why is it taking so long.....?!!

The bridge is supposed to go over this river.....which is not a big river at all.....but seems like they have to do so many things before the bridge comes over it!

Anyway, they had this huge, heavy machinery coming in so I had to take a picture of this cool stuff, what is it anyway???

Maybe a little closer and we will be able to see......

Waaaaiiit a minute, is that the bridge??? Wow......looks like so......guess they're going to slide that big thing all the way down and over the river.....hmmm......can't wait to see how they're going to do that.....!

Anyway, I hope they will finish soon.....since they've been making a lot of big noise this past 2 years! And above all.......I won't have to drive all around the mountain just to go to the nearest seven eleven convenience store or the supermarket, that bridge will really make a nice short cut!!

-Angelika-