Archive 2009 December

In few hours the New Year is coming in Switzerland. Japan is already 2010!!! (There is 8 hours time difference)

How was your 2009?

When I look back my 2009. It was drastic and dramatic year for me. I said good-bye to my family name and it’s bit sad for me. I felt like I parted from my mother but it’s OK. Important things always stay in my heart!!

My married life is just 8 months years old, but in such a short time Stefan and I ran up against few walls. Some of them were not so difficult but the others were still difficult for “baby”-married couple.

I can say living in a different country is more difficult than you think. But I hope… no… I’m sure I can manage them.

Because of my sick, I was nearly daunted… but I hate losing myself and I like fighting myself.

Do you know why?  I like the feeling after I overcome my difficulties.

“As long as you climb a higher mountain, you can see the more beautiful landscape from the top.”

“As long as you dive into a deeper sea , you can see rare sea creatures.”

So I also keep on trying in 2010!

Thank you very much for everything who assisted me!!

Especially my darling and my new family in Switzerland. I am always grateful for your kindness.

In Japan people clean their house very properly at the end of the year. We call it “O-souji” which means big cleaning.  Because we want celebrate the New Year in a clean house. When I told about this Stefan and Stefan’s mother, they said Swiss people do it in spring.

As I’m a Japanese I’ve done “O-souji” since I was a child. I can’t help doing “O-souji” so I started it 2 weeks ago and little by little I did it and now my house is completely (I hope!?) clean.

By the way generally I respect for the cleanliness of Swiss people’s houses. I don’t know why maybe compared to Japanese house, Swiss houses are simple and less tiny things.

And here people are very good at throwing away (sometimes throwing away means negative but this time it’s positive).

Of course not all Japanese people but some people who I know, they love to keep used things as a memory or they want to reuse in order to save precious resources. I also sometimes tend to do that…

But I found out that the cleanliness between Swiss and Japan is different. For example here many people don’t wash their hands and gargle when they get home. I never seen this in Japan. And in Japan when you go to restaurant in Japan, you get a small wet towel “Oshibori” to wipe your hands before eating. But many Swiss people clean their house properly! It’s very difficult to explain but when you stay in Japan and Swiss for few days you will notice the difference.

Anyway as far as I know Swiss people’s houses are very clean and I respect that!!

P.S My husband is getting like a Japanese so when he comes home, he immediately wash his hands and gargle!

And sometimes he says: “Yuko-chan you have to wash your hands and gargle! It’s important!!”

“Yes!! Sir”

(^o^)\

Note: The little cute guy in the photos. He is a “Kaminfeger”. Before New Year (After christmas) you can buy it at the flower shop or supermarkets. People say that when you touch him on the first day of the year, you can get luck. The translation of “Kaminfeger” is for the word “chimney cleaner”.

In Japan we don’t have this and England neither! I’m ready to touch him!!

Today Stefan and I went to Stefan’s parents to celebrate Xmas together.

We had “Fondue chinoise” as you know “Fondue” is fondue. And “chinoise” means Chinese in French.

Mmm… but it’s typical christmas dinner in Switzerland.

Pierce a piece of beef and leave it in a “bouillon soup” for a few minutes. When the meat is cooked, you dip it in a different kind of sauce and eat it! It’s very yummy.

It’s like a “shabu shabu” in Japan. But “shabu schabu” we use very thin meat and leave it in a soup just a few seconds.

The boyfriend of my siter-in law, he is an Italien. So I asked him “what do Italien people eat for christmas dinner?”

Answer was “Fish”. I was surprised. I thought they also eat meat like Swiss or America and so on.

Japanese people don’t have specific foods for christmas. But as far as I know we tend to eat “roasted chicken”. After the christmas dinner we eat a Special christmas cake. “Christmas cake” is one of the “must food” for christmas in Japan.

Some people eat also “kentucky fried chicken”!! Because it’s not expensive and many children love it! (In Switzerland there are many McDonalds and Starbucks but there isn’t Kentucky fried chicken!!!)

After the fantastic dinner, we lighted candles on the christmas tree!! The flames brought us a special warm atmosphere!

We had a very nice christmas evening. Thank you very much.

“Happy Happy Christmas”

P.S “Weihnachten” means “christmas” in German.

Hi!. It’s me again!

I made cupcakes after the cookies.  When I finished baking cupcakes, it was already 7 a.m.

The smell was soo good like cookies before, so I checked the taste again… What a sweet breakfast.

I felt like I was a confectioner!!

OK. Now I’ll go to bed. Good night!… Sounds strange. It’s in the mornig, why “good night”? Japanese is better, you can use in any situation “Oyasuminasa-i”.

Since last week Stefan has been on holiday, so our life style is bit crazy now.

After dinner I took a nap and around 2 a.m we started baking cookies.

Stefan helped me a lot and both of us enjoyed “night cooking”.

After 2 hours a yummy smell came from the oven!! We tasted some cookies. They were better than we expected!

After cookies I have to do one more thing… The night will be very long.

To be continued…