I saw Hamukichi did chinning exercises today. 

Yuki : Oooooohhhh~

Yuki : Hamukichi does chinning exercise!

Yuki : ....but he finished quickly...( I want to see more..)

------

Nyankichi sensei : I think the reason Hamukichi didn't go inside of the can is because he found the can was almost empty. He didn't wanna fall into the can. 

Frog : o...ok..

Yuki : That Hamukichi's exercise was funny. 

I am very sleepy today, so see you tomorrow! 

I heard someone pronounce 'skype' as SUKAIPE in Japanese.That made me somehow happy. Although many Japanese prounce skype as 'SUKAIPU', It is actually correct Japanese way to pronounce 'skype'. Yes, the service name is a combination of 'sky' and 'pe', no wonder if someone says 'Sukai-PE'

なんだかスキャナが突然真っ黒になりました。こまった。というわけで、今日はカラーのらくがきで。

My scanner doesn't work well today. it shows only black image! So today I did colored doodling instead.  

I feel like visiting Japan last week didn't happned. It was too short to recognize myself being there. 

Yuki : hummm, but I miss Japanese hot-bath and umeboshi etc etc.

Nyankichi sensei : You didn't stay enough in Japan.

By the way, I bought a book called その英語、ネイティブにはこう聞こえます(How your English sounds to native speakers). It is about common mistake when Japanese people speak English. For example, the phrase, I sometimes use, 'I lost my weight' sounds like 'my body dissepears' for native English speaker. The correct way to say is 'I lost some weight'. hahaha~!

I picked Hamukichi up at my friend's house. My frind took care of hamukichi and uwokichi while I was staying Japan. Thank you very much!!

I was excited to see hamukichi after about 2 weeks not to see him, but....he didn't really show his emotion and kept sleeping!!....hmmmm.

I have jet lag more than I thought. I was gonna take short nap...but...it became 4hours nap! and it was dark outside...

Nyankichi sensei : I heard that if you have 17hours time difference, it would take 17 days to get rid of jet lag. 

Frog : then, it would take more than a week for her to back to normal San Francisco life.

I changed my Japanese iphone to new cell phone to reduce the monthly cell phone fee. The new cell phone is very unique. Since it is supposed to be for Kids, the phone's functions are very limited. For example... you can not register more then 10 phone number, you can not get/give phone call the person you don't register, the cell phone uses only Hiragana, and it costs only 75 yen/ month!!

I kinda liked the simplicity of the cell phone, so I played with it. I registered animal's name instead of real name and excited to get phone call from 'Hippo' 

I came back to San Francisco via Los Angeles. I had to transfer to another flight to San Francisco from Los Angeles, but there are too long line to enter the U.S when I got immigration office. I had to wait about 1 hour......

Everyone : ............o.....h......n....o......

Because of the long line, we missed the flight. Luckily, we got new and earliest flight to San Francisco instead of the original flight. HOWEVER, due to the bad weather in San Francisco, airplane could not depart and we had to wait another two more hour......

Everyone : I don't wanna use 1 stop flight from Japan to San Francisco!! Never!!

It took about 24hours from my house in Tokyo to my house in San Francisco.

Good bye Japan for while.

Yuki : Bye bye pudding, bye tonkotsu ramen, bye raw octopus!

Nyankichi sensei : you are mentioning only foods...

See you!!

Today was my last day visiting Japan this time. I had good foods, met with good people, was being very busy & sleepy! 

By the way, Japanese sushi's fishes are much bigger than the one of the U.S, and sushi's rice are smaller than the U.S one. I finally had raw octopus sashimi, sardines and Engawa!

It was snowing today in Tokyo but I went to a cafe called "ART FOR THOUGHT" in Ginza. It was very cold outside, but inside of the cafe was very warm which made me relax. You can enjoy art works while enjoying tea/coffee/other drinks and foods. Check it out!

ART FOR THOUGHT 

http://artforthought.jp/

I finally had a cup of pudding after two years not having it. There are no such delicious and good price puddings in grocery stores in the U.S. I was very happy to have one while I am staying in Japan.

A food company called, Ohayo nyugyo does really good job for puddings. You might wanna try this pudding!

http://www.ohayo-milk.co.jp/products/dessert/

I hear some unfamiliar words from Japanese TV program, such as The Center exam, 1.17 great earthquake, radiation, and so on. 

Nyankichi-sensei & Frog : Every country has a lot of worries.

Yuki : I thought I feel strange when I see news in Japanese since I haven't seen it for while. but it didn't take time to get used to Japanese style news!

大変なニュースがたくさんです。みんなの心配ごとが少なくなりますように。 

After two years of not soaking in the bath, taking Japanese style bath makes me so happy. Sometimes Japanese style of bath has citrons and they smell so good. Citron tea after taking bath is the best way to make me warm :)

I had Tempra today. Eventhough I had jet lag, the taste of Templa was great! 

Everybodody : Yum yum.

The tempra came with many topping such as wasabi powder, shiso poweder and salt. I liked wasabi the most.

I ate Ramen today. Even though I had a jet lag, the taste of Ramen was very good!! The ramen restaurant I went was Ippudo. Again, it was good :)

I came back to Japan temporary with no sleep the day before my flight. 

Everyone : Hello Narita airport!

It took about three hours from Narita airport to downtown Tokyo. It took about 24 hour from my apartment in San Francisco to my house in Tokyo. It was not easy to back to my house with big suitcase, especially in Kanda station, there were no escarater!!!!! I hope Kanda station became more barrier-free!! 

I found something fun and happy in my house. It is my cactus!

The cactus has some sprout and there are other sprout in the dirt! since the pot is glass, I can see them through. Interesting!

Frog : what's this?

Yuki : probably the water melon seed that I put last summer. 

Today is January 11th, 10 month after the 311 earthquake. After 2 month from now, it will 1 year since the 311 earthquake happened in japan. I don't know if one year is very long time or very short time. Even it has been10 month after the 311, people surrounding me ask me about how Japan goes. I actually don't know how to answer and I can only say 'people that I know seem to be good!' 

Nyankichi-sensei : I don't see news about 311 these days. Is this because I am in the U.S?

Frog : We should look up internet news more!

いつもはこんなにあったかくないのに、最近妙にいいお天気です。

Today was very warm during the day in San Francisco. 

Yuki : I don't need to wear coat ~~

Nyankichi-sensei : It's strange. January is usualy much colder.

There are some people wearing coat, but on the other hand, some people wear summer dress and T's.

(Frog wear scarf, and nyankichi sensei wear own fur all year around

ども　　　　　　　　　　　　　　ども　　　　　　　　　　　　ども　　　　　　　　　ども

I have changed my home page's top illustrations from turtles to dragons. Yes, this year is dragon! It's been only one week since the year turned to 2012 from 2011, but I feel I am already familier with the number 2012!  (Usually it takes few weeks to get used to the new number)

ホームページのトップイラストを2012年用に変更しました〜。まだ2012年がはじまってから1週間しかたっていませんね。でももう既に「2012」の数字に慣れてきました。今年もあっという間なんだろうな。

今日は日本の皆にいる方へのみのご案内です！

グリーティングカード販売について、詳しくは、以下をご確認ください。

- sfwalkingbeans.com (日本語ページ用意しました） 

http://www.sfwalkingbeans.com/greeting-card/

This information is only for people in Japan. (sorry if you are not in Japan!) 

sfwalkingbeans, which it the studio I work with my friend, created original greeting cards and will sellin japan. if you are in Japan, and interested in having those cards, please contact to sfwalkingbeans.

Thank you!

I had healthy veggie hotpot with my friend today. The hot pot has chicken balls with mashed lotus root, tofu, mochi, several mashrooms, greens, and Maroni (japanese vermicelli).

The weather in San Fransicso is hotter than Tokyo, but still hotpot is delicious. :D

My eyes got tired because of computer works, so I tried 'hot eye mask with lavender smell' which my friend brought from Japan.

Yuki : OMG it's sooo good.

↓

Yuki : You know? this lavender smell makes you relax and brings you to good sleep.. 

↓

Yuki : zzzzzz

Oh it's very quick until she sleeps. The eye mask really works.

おすすめです！↓

花王　めぐりズム 蒸気でホットアイマスク ラベンダーセージの香り 

http://www.kao.com/jp/megurism/mrm_hoteyemask_lavender_00.html

Since Holidays are over, there are many Christmas trees on the street. The trees are all real woods. 

Yuki & Nyankichi-Sensei & Frog : here and there...

Fish's dancing. 

Fishes : Happy new year~!

Yuki : Yea this is new year.

Nyankichi sensei : Yes

Frog : why they are dancing...

This year is dragon in asian calender. 

Yuki : Hello Mr Dragon!

Doragon : hi!

Frog & Nyankichi sensei : look at his reg!!!!

My plan for 2012 - I will create a lot of illustrations. 

I went to Sokoji in San francisco to ring the temple's bell.

A buddist monk : The sound of ring shows your mind.

Boom boom boom boom boom

I likes the sound of the bell ringing through out the room. While I was listening the sound, suddenly it turned to 2012. I like the turning to 2012 from 2011 was not very dramatic. After rang the temple bell, I had macha tea and zenzai(sweet red beans soup).

Thank you 2011, and hello 2012!!