Merry Christmas From Singapore

♪Merry Christmas from Singapore♪

Every year, orchard road gets to dressed up with all the Christmas illumination. This year they put so many dolls, candies, bears, and ribbons.

Unfortunately, there was no snow or holly silence on Christmas.

I enjoyed making some deserts for Christmas dinner.

Oh, I miss the snowy silent Christmas so much...

Holiday season

I was organizing my room and found a book which has this message written for me;

==========================================
To a very beautiful and precious woman whom I personally took great delight in getting to know at the Airport,

Instead of looking for the light at the end of the tunnel, try looking for the light through out the tunnel.
Life is good and bad experiences, will make you grow stronger.
Yes! You got the power because you have a heart of gold!
===========================================

This time of season, I am sure so many people are using airport.
I got this when I last went to Japan and met this young man at Narita airport.
I was walking and he needed some help and we ended up had some chat till our boarding time.

He was on the way back to NY.
I was on the way back to Singapore.

It's so interesting how people come across each other's life.
Now I hope he is having good time with his dearest mom and 12 brothers and sisters for this holiday season.

Merry Christmas to you all!

水の本

水の本を読んだ。
シンガポールは水を他国から、おもにマレーシアから輸入している。
水道水は飲めるものの、なんだけケミカルっぽく、おいしー！と思うことはない。
人間の体の６０％は水。
そう思うとお金を払ってでも、自然のミネラルいっぱいの水を口にしたいと思う。

この本読んだら、なんだか雪降る北海道に行って、
暖炉の前でウイスキーが飲んでみたい気分になった。
ってか、ウイスキー飲めないんだけどね～。はは。

A view from my room

Now I am living on 25th floor, a penthouse.

I have this ocean view :D

Soon, I will have to say good-bye to this view.

Bookstore addiction

Since I was little, I had many books around me.

Every time my mom took me to book store, I got to choose few books for myself. (not manga though!)

On school days, I spent a lot of time in library.

I love the smell of paper, preferably old one.

When I went to Japan last time, I got about 20 books; fiction, non-fiction, cook books, plants books...

Now, I still have to go to book stores here in Singapore.

I can spend so much time (hopefully not much money ;P...hahaha) in book stores.

Last weekend, I got these.

Cute books aren't these?

Would be good Christmas gift!

High tea at Good wood park hotel

It feels nice to be at classic hotel, especially weekdays afternoon!







We went to high tea, the English tradition.







Good wood park hotel Singapore
　　　　↓　　　↓
http://www.goodwoodparkhotel.com/


Very lovely hotel!
Good finger food and tea!

We forgot time and fully enjoyed the atmosphere!
.....so, when we left there it got dark!




















Very nice afternoon, it's no doubt!

Sleeping with...

these!

My German Steiff teddy bear and American lavender eye pillow :)

They help me to sleep well...

Exhausted morning

I am really exhausted...
I had feverish dream all night and couldn't get much sleep.
Starbucks coffee doesn't even work this morning.

Well, it's my brother Taka's birthday!
I shall talk to him later!

Lay off

世界中、どこも毎日毎日Economy crisisって。。。
うちの会社も始まっちゃいました。。。
やばいなぁ。

Thanksgiving Day

Hey, everyone!
Tell me you are not in Bombay or bumpping into the riot at Thai airports!
Stay home and have a good time with your family!

Love,
Naomi

朝、眠い。。。

今朝、起きるのが辛かった。。。
朝は苦手な方ではないのだと思うけれど。。。

冬を過ごしてるみんなはもっと辛いんだろうなぁ、と思うと
こんなこと言っていられないんだろうなー。

う～んっ、冬のお布団あったかくてだーいすき。
ぬくぬく。

あ、シンガポールではぬくぬくは楽しめません。
単に眠いだけ。（笑）

Roller blade

Now many of my friends in the world have told me that they've already got some snow, but here in Singapore we never get snow.
Well, taking advantage of it, I went to roller blade to east coast park with my Thai friend, Noon.

It was her first try, but she learnt so quickly!
We sat on the beach afterwards and relaxed.
Good time!

First Snow

My mom has just emailed me and she said Nagaoka got first snow today!
It's unusual to have snow this early!!!

Singapore is rainy all this afternoon and I was just talking with my colleague that it looks like winter grey Nagaoka.

Oh, I just remember my favorite kids weather song!

How the weather? It's sunny.
How the weather? It's sunny.
How the weather? It's sunny. It's sunny today!

How the weather? It's rainy.
How the weather? It's rainy.
How the weather? It's rainy. It's rainy today!

How the weather? It's windy.
How the weather? It's windy.
How the weather? It's windy. It's windy today!

How the weather? It's snowy.
How the weather? It's snowy.
How the weather? It's snowy. It's snowy today!

I made handmade dice, and put all sorts of weather on it.
We threw the dice and we sang the song.
Everyone loved the song!
Teaching was fun!

One morning

I made ham and brie sandwich this morning and brought it to office.
Brewing Starbucks Christmas blend, which taste thick, deep and gentle, starts my morning :)

Have a nice day to you all!

Another SE Asian Fruit

Anyone has any idea what's this?

Do you have it in Thailand, Jane?

When you touch it, it feels like sponge.

When you open it, you have no idea which part to eat.

When you taste it, it is very sour but passionated!

East coast park

There is a wake board park in East coast park.
It's walking distance from my flat and sometimes I bring my books and sit by the lagoon.

At previous flat, there was skate board park.

It is really relaxing and enjoyable for me to see young people challenging their fear!

Well... I used to be one of those...
Well... I can still do it, but not with this dirty water!!

Good friends and their adorable kids

I saw so many of my good old friends (and their kids!) during my stay… it was very nice to see and know that everyone is doing fine. :)

There were a lot more people today, but some reason I can't find eveyone's picture...

Mt. Naeba (2145m)

Waking up 4:30am, and leaving home at 5:00… I have this schedule especially for my outdoor activities :) It's so lovely to feel morning starts very slowly...

We went for trekking to Mt.Naeba.
Driving through one of the most famous colored leaf area, and we got to 1300m to start trekking.

Got off the car and I felt the crisp but quiet lively air – very nice moment! Then, I slowly
roaming around the area and stepped on the ice. Yeah, it was frozen!

When reaching around 1600m, most of things were covered by snow!
Very blight and felt really peaceful…

On the way back, stopping by hot springs, (Onsen), and Japanese soba noodle in Tokamachi.

If it was in Colorado, we would also go to hot springs, but then hamburgers ;P
How are you all in Colorado???

F&F

Family and Friends-　今回の帰国では家族と友達との時間をたっぷりとっている。
そして、改めて大切な人たちだと思う。
みんな、忙しいのに時間を作ってくれて。。。本当に感謝の気持ちでいっぱい。。。

今日はこれから前の職場の上司の婚約お祝いに行ってきます♪
幸せオーラちょっと分けてもらってきます！

Happy Halloween!

I stayed over at my brother's new house.

My niece and I had great time together!
As it was Halloween, we made pumpkin... sadly fake one... Oh, well we don't have Halloween in Japan.

Anyway,

"Trick or Treat!"

Nagano sunshine

Since I always give blessing rain shower wherever I stay, I detected sunshine in Nagano to see colored leaves.
There is small winery which wine was selected to serve for G8 summit conference in Hokkaido. We had lunch there and enjoyed mountain scenery with colorful leaves.
Air was sooo fresh, flowers were swinging, quiet and very lovely…

Look at these picture!

Perfect composition and color contrast!

I remember I even used to go out for taking pictures before... driving, walking with my camera...

When I was taking photograph course, professor said I am not very good at taking photo of human, but very good at compositions of nature, architecture, and color.

Well, maybe it’s my grandpa’s blood?

Vacation---!!!

I am in Japan!!!! Enjoying Fall in Japan = Best season of Food, Onsen and Nature activities!!!

Hope to see more Sunshine then I can smile :)
Everyone remember I am rain woman....* shrug*

Grand parents

I wake up early and went to see dentist.

I needed to take the cover off and fix the cavity underneath during my stay.

Then, I went to see my grandparents who live 20km away from my parent’s house.

They live in little house which sits at the foot of mountain in suburb of Nagaoka city.

They’ve got small plants and vegetable garden.

My grandma loves to cook and she always uses her vegetables for her special dishes which makes her cooking more special and delicious!

After enjoyed her traditional and original dishes, we went to their vegetable garden to harvest Daikon (radish), Negi (leek), Kiku (edible chrysanthemum), Hakusai (kind of cabbage)… They put all the vegetables to my tiny car and my car got full of vegetables!

You can imagine the mixture of all the vegetable smell and dirt in the car makes you feel you are farmar ;P

My grandma used to be a tailor at Matsuya (biggest and oldest department store I Japan) in Tokyo.
My grandpa used to be a photographer for local news paper.

Oh, during my stay, he was interviewed and got on the paper!

He is telling how it was hard to get to the happening site, manual development process, how to deliver the film and so...

He got the moment of getting first gas in Nagaoka, walked over the Mikuni mountains to have picture of the tunnel the "Kanetsu tunnel" which everyone go through when you come from Tokyo, got on the bucket Tarai bune to follow up an over night event.

I love my grandparents very much.
They make international call for me almost every two weeks to Singapore! Isn’t it cool???

My nieces

My dad picked me up to Nagaoka station :)

When I got home my nieces were there and they were pretending being shy to say hi to me. Well, within few min, they were in my arms in anyway :)

Older one is Chiyo, 5 years old, younger one is Kotono 3 years old.

Both are fun!

Business trip: a.k.a. this time vacation!

I have to say that I am lucky to be able to go home by company money.
I am in special team which does global recruitment and placement for Japanese.
So, periodically either of me or the other Naomi who is much taller than me would have business trip to Japan, sometimes to other locations like Malaysia, NZ, AUS, UK.
In 2008, I got to go to Japan 3 times and to UK once.
Busy but our team isn’t always busy so it’s alright for us.



This time I took vacation before my work in Tokyo, thus I got to go to Kamakura, Nagaoka, and Nagano.
I’ve arrived Narita on 25th, Nov evening and took 2 hours train to Kamakura where my best friend Yukari who is acupuncture lives.
She is my best friend from college, we were roommate in Nakajo and she got transfer to CA, I got transfer to CO.
We saw two other great old friends Wataru and Ryuta from college and had good reunion dinner.
They are both from Niigata but living in Kamakura, they are now both dad… we studied at same school, took same classes, but graduated from different schools, but still having dinner like this to share good time; life is good!



Next morning, Yukari and I wake up early and rode bicycle to Inamura beach, pacific ocean.
We had tong, gloves, and plastic bag… as we walked on the sand, we picked some trashes we see… it really felt right and good!
Then we sat down, watching people surfing and didn’t talk much… and I felt something coming out from my eyes… I wasn’t depress or thinking something…just my salt water came out from my eyes… it was so wired.
May be my eyes wanted to wash off something...I don’t know… but I know that I felt so relaxed being and touching real nature for sure.- amazing nature power for sure :)

Last night I saw Michael from Australia who works for Sydney chemical / process engineering risk management firm. He is in Singapore for special project and I got a chance to have good reunion dinner with him and his colleagues last night. (Special dish was fish with strawberry sauce at very nice Chinese restaurant!!!)

I met Michael and his fiancee on the nature trekking trip in Chaing Mai, 2007/2008 new year vacation.I took the trip with Ahn; my colleague and explored the great nature of Chaing Mai.We joined 1night 2 days trekking tour and became a group of 10 people including a well experienced guide.

We did trekking, stayed at tribe house, kanoeing, bamboo rafting, and elephant ride!I enjoyed beautiful sunset, full of sparkling stars, and sun rise when we stayed at tribe family in mountain the most.It was perfect to take your blanket out and lay down to be covered by twinkle thousands of stars!!!

You would imagine SE Asia hot and humid, but that time of season in northern Thailand could be around 12-16degree which is perfect to enjoy hiking!Refreshing breeze, a lot of greenery, interesting plants and fruits, mild mountain range...It was so much fun for me!

This is my way to make good freidns; through those outdoor activities.It has been nice to keep in touch with them and had good time catching up with Michael :)I hope to see Michael and his fiancee soon in Sydney!!!

改めまして！マイミクの皆様へ

こんにちは！

今日のシンガポールはちょっぴり曇り空です。
昨日から、ミクシィにブログをつなげました。

ブログは数年前に始めて、続かず、、、
心新たに、先日改めて開設しました。

英語で書いているわけは、最近英語で物を考えることが減ってきているからです。
たいしたことを書いているわけではないのです。（笑）

今回は１日でも続くよう、みんなからのコメントを支えに頑張りたいと思います！
協力お願いしますっ！！！（もちろん日本語でＯＫだよー！）

German breeze♪

Some of my dear friends from Germany e-mailed me today!
What a coincidence!
I love to hear from my friends :)

One of them from Hanover is a wonderful gardener.
His garden was interviewed, taken photo and published in this book!!!
↓　　↓　　↓
http://www.amazon.de/Wie-euch-gefällt-stilvolle-inszeniert/dp/342103642X/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224491199&sr=8-16

I used to live right in front of his garden.
Sometimes I helped to water.



Oh, I happened to find his garden picture from top and little detail of the wall.
The last picture is his renovation work he was working on! I wonder how it is now!
















Now, he says Autumn has arrived to Germany and leaves turns yellow and red...
It must be very nice!

Fresh juice

It's privilege of living in S.E. Asia - Fresh juice!!!

You go to one of those stand and choose whatever you want to mix.
It's about 2-3 Singapore dollar!!

"ABC" is popular Singaporean mix juice :)

Apple
Beetroot
Carrot

Can you imagine the color of it???

Patronize local farmers' markets

At the farmer's market, freshness if judged by hours, not days.
It's a beautiful, sensual experience to go to the market.- byAlice L. Waters, food activist.

When I was in Germany, I loved to go to markets.
Waking up very early morning, feeling bit cold, pulled on my life-time first red sweater and riding my bicycle... to the markets.

They had so many kind of markets; vegetable, meat, deli, flower and antique...
Gosh, I was so into those markets and had to stop every single little stand.
And little chat with people there- always good time.

My home town also have farmer's markets.
Not big as Germany, but still it's good to see all the local products.

I miss markets.
I miss vegetable with dirt.
I miss seeing all the proudly faces selling their own products.
I miss socializing in small town.

Cheese :D

I made sandwich this morning with camembert and ham :D

Then I wondered the differences between Camembert cheese and Brie cheese.
I've never see remarkable differences...

Anyone know their differences?
Yeah, google knows!
Here is rough summary, it's rather simple ;P

The variations in the two come about from their sizes and their different terroirs,
a French word meaning something akin to “sense of place.”

So, Camembert is about 10-12cm, about 250g, and made in Camember,
Brie is about 27-37cm, about 1500-2500g and made in Brie.

Anyway, I love cheese♪
Japanese say "Cheeeeeese" when we take pictures to make a smileeeeee ;D

Cheeeese, everyone :D

Tonight

I hope everyone gonna have time to look at sky!

There should be the perfect full moon smiling at you :)

Trumpet player's soliloquy

It takes 40-50mins from my apartment to the office.I use most of the time reading books, listening classic music on radio... or in a drowse...

This morning, I was listening radio and heard "Tannhauser" by Wagner.I used to play trumpet, I played for 6years!I was so into practicing in marching band and brass band.

I played Tannhauser when I was 14years old!
It had dramatic Trumpet highlight play and surprisingly I still remembered all the keys!!!From the fanfare to the finale!!!!

You tube:
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=_UvqdCU4dIs

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannh%C3%A4user_scandal

Gosh, I miss being a band!
....mmm... but I am not sure if I can still read score...
*shame* I played piano from 4 years old to 12 years old! *shame*

Okinawa restaurant wih my girl friend!

Good friend of mine and I went to Okinawa restaurant last night.
Because of her big eyes and clear -cut features, she looks like a model from Okinawan or Thai, but she is from historical Kyoto :)
Anyway, we had good dishes there at Nirai-Kanai, at Tanglin shopping center.

The Okinawa has some special dishes!
Here is my favorite "Rafute" aka "Kakuni" in other word.
Here is my recipe :) (not Okinawan style... but anyway!)

・豚バラ肉（最初にフライパンで前面焦げ目をつけて、水でよく油を洗ってね）
・大根（半本くらいお好みで。水からゆでて。）
・ねぎ（青い部分を適量）
・しょうが 1かけ
・しょうゆ 150cc
・酒500cc
・砂糖 大さじ3

Wooooow, yammy!!!!

Fig

Back home, when I was living in small village, there was a fig tree in neighbor's house.
My grand parents were nice to them and my brother and I always got the blessing of the tree and it's fruit :P

There was few pieces of fig in the salad which my colleague had for lunch today.
I got one piece, and remember the tree and the taste...

I just learned the fruit is good for constipation :P

Somehow I feel fig is very feminine.

Anybody agree?

Drink water!

It's essential for the proper functioning of the body to drink at least eight glasses of QUALITY water each day!

Our bodies are two-thirds water; the human brain is 95% water, blood is 82% water and the lungs are nearly 90 %water.

Water removes toxins from the body and helps with elimination.
It aids digestion and converting food into energy.
It helps to have more energy and perform better.

Drink water :)

Singapore is importing water from Malaysia. Thanks to Malaysia ;P

Tomboys!

I found my picture and my niece's picture :)

We are definately Tomboy!
Do you think we resemble?

Washing Soul

Take a Japanese bath-

In the West, a bath is a place one goes to cleanse the body.
In Japan, one goes there to cleanse the soul.

Autumn is the best season to go to hot springs in Japan :)

We have a lot of outdoor natural hot springs.

Some of them are deep in the mountain and along the way you can enjoy the leaves changing colours, gathering some mushrooms, and meeting wild monkey!

Very nice!

Un crabe de pain

"Croissant" -is my life time favorite kind of bread!

I lived in small village till 8 years old.
Everytime my mother took me to see a doctor in city for check up or vaccination, I was excited!Because of this bakery, baking delicious croissant!
(Definitely, it was frontier having the french bread in Nagaoka, my home town!)

I asked my mom the name of the bread and she answered "croissant" in Japanese pronunciation. (Whoever know how we Japanese are good at pronouncing English, you can imagine! ;P Oooops! it's French! )

Anyway, it was hard for me to pronounce the word and I decided to call "Kani-san no pan" which means "Un crabe de pain" in French.

Did you guys ever think the bread look like claw of crab?

My lunch was "Croissant", now I can pronounce to order!

Please Support!!!

As many of you guys know I am in recruitment bussiness...
As a consultant, I interview more than 100 people in a year...

I look friendly, I look talkative, I look good at communicating with others...
yet I know I do have problems with communication.

I have so many good friends and I don't wanna lose them because of my poor communication.

So, this blog suppose to give me a chance to express my feeling.
So far, I haven't speak much of my feeling yet again...
it's because I usually take time to put my thoughts together, it's because I am not use to it...
*oh.... again started my excuse...*

Here I am to ask for your support for me to give frequent comments on my contribution!
PLEASE!!!

Blue cheese sauce

Here is my original recipe!

Blue cheese has some unique smell and strong flavor which not everyone like it...
But here is the special recipe you can enjoy it without hating the taste.

-Onion (half, minced)
-Garlic (minced)
-Stir with butter
-Few kinds of mushrooms (Maitake mushroom is recommended! very nice fragrance!)

-Add heavy cream
-Sour cream
-Blue cheese

-Pasta(Ribbon pasta was good)

-Sprinkle some parsley

Enjoy your dinner with special one with white wine!
Bon appetit!

Rare Fruit in Vietnam

I don't see this in Singapore, but in Vietnam.
Very juicy and sweet!
Anybody have an idea what does it called?

Maybe my gardener friend in Germany might have an idea???

S.E. Asian Plant

This is an interesting plant you ever seen isn't it?

Usually, you don't see this plant itself, but you see its fruit at many of markets in SE asia!

Does anybody know what's this fruit ??

Whoever got the right answer, I will get the fruit ;P