I'm back!
That was a slightly longer break than I intended to have, but never mind!
My carpal tunnel is a million times better than it was before. In fact, I haven't really had any associated pain or tingliness for quite a while. I went to the UK for a month and a half and really didn't use the computer much during that time, apart from to do work (yes I worked while I was back, so I didn't really have a random 6 week holiday. That would be nice though!), and I think that helped. I also changed my whole work configuration in Japan so I now have a nice ergonomic keyboard and mouse pad and am generally being much more conscious of how I sit and what my arms are doing while I work. So hopefully this will prevent it from coming back or getting worse!
If anyone reading this ever gets carpal tunnel or something similar, I really recommend acupuncture. I went before I went back to England and that made me go from pretty much constant pain and tingling to pretty much no pain and tingling, which lasted for a couple of weeks, so I would definitely recommend trying it! I was pretty sceptical before I went but it really worked!
I've been back in Japan for a week now, and I have to say that I really missed Japan while I was in England! I've never really felt that as strongly before, so maybe that's a sign that I've made much more of a life for myself here than I had before. Big changes are afoot in the next couple of months though so that may change. Oooh, mysterious!
One thing that I did not do while I was back in England was read a lot. I think I finished two books, for the whole 6 weeks that I was back. I was having a reading slump, I think. It happens! I did spend a lot of time with family and friends and that is probably better than shutting myself off with a book. It's a pity though because my parents have loaaaads of books so it would have been a good opportunity to raid their bookshelves. Oh well!
Anyway. I'm back, yayyy! I will try to be a good blogger and actually update fairly regularly.
2015年8月25日火曜日
2014年10月31日金曜日
Super exciting life update!
So yesterday was a pretty momentous day for me. It was the last day at my job... and a busy one! I didn't leave the office until it had gone 11! This is mostly my fault as I assumed that I would have time in the last couple of days to sort out the data on my work computer and clean my desk, but I didn't vouch on new work coming in earlier this week. Ah well! It's weird how staying that late doesn't seem like a bad thing when you know that you don't have to work the next day (and that you won't be wasting most of a precious weekend day by sleeping, because it's Friday and everyone else is at work. Mwah ha ha ha!).
Anyway, I quit my job as I got to the stage where I think I either had to accept that I would be working there until I was forced to quit for whatever reason, or to actually try to do something that I've been wanting to do for ages, which is becoming a freelance translator. I have no idea if the freelance lifestyle will suit me (or if I will be able to get enough work to make this financially viable!)... I expect that the reality will be radically different from the idealised version I've been pining after for years, but if I am going to do this then I figured it was better to try now, than in a few years when my husband and I might have more responsibilities than we currently do. And if it doesn't work, then I can go back to an office job (or an English teaching job) and feel more satisfied with the decision.
In terms of books... this means that for at least the next month or so I should have more time to read! Yayyy! I haven't really been aiming to read a particular number of books this year, but according to goodreads I have finished 82 books so far (I'm pretty sure that my blog does not in any way give off the impression that I have read that much!) which is so close to 100 that I feel tempted to aim for it... but then I don't want to rush through books (which is something that I do too much anyway) just for the sake of having read a nice round number by the end of the year. So I'll probably just carry on reading the same way that I normally do. Hehe.
Also, I think that I am probably not going to be able to get that much work for the first half a year at least of doing freelance stuff, so I have been toying with the idea of doing NaNoWriMo, and I think I might give it a shot! I have an idea that I've been mulling over for a while, and although writing was always something that I really enjoyed, I haven't tried to do any for years. I realise that fully deciding to do this on the last day of October probably isn't the way to go into it, but I may as well try, right? I've been secretly wanting to since I heard that it existed (so at least 10 or so years ago?).
....now wondering what to do with the rest of my day. Maybe changing out of my pyjamas and showering would be a good start! I'm also feeling a really strong urge to clean my house, but that doesn't seem relaxing enough for a day off!
Anyway, I quit my job as I got to the stage where I think I either had to accept that I would be working there until I was forced to quit for whatever reason, or to actually try to do something that I've been wanting to do for ages, which is becoming a freelance translator. I have no idea if the freelance lifestyle will suit me (or if I will be able to get enough work to make this financially viable!)... I expect that the reality will be radically different from the idealised version I've been pining after for years, but if I am going to do this then I figured it was better to try now, than in a few years when my husband and I might have more responsibilities than we currently do. And if it doesn't work, then I can go back to an office job (or an English teaching job) and feel more satisfied with the decision.
In terms of books... this means that for at least the next month or so I should have more time to read! Yayyy! I haven't really been aiming to read a particular number of books this year, but according to goodreads I have finished 82 books so far (I'm pretty sure that my blog does not in any way give off the impression that I have read that much!) which is so close to 100 that I feel tempted to aim for it... but then I don't want to rush through books (which is something that I do too much anyway) just for the sake of having read a nice round number by the end of the year. So I'll probably just carry on reading the same way that I normally do. Hehe.
Also, I think that I am probably not going to be able to get that much work for the first half a year at least of doing freelance stuff, so I have been toying with the idea of doing NaNoWriMo, and I think I might give it a shot! I have an idea that I've been mulling over for a while, and although writing was always something that I really enjoyed, I haven't tried to do any for years. I realise that fully deciding to do this on the last day of October probably isn't the way to go into it, but I may as well try, right? I've been secretly wanting to since I heard that it existed (so at least 10 or so years ago?).
....now wondering what to do with the rest of my day. Maybe changing out of my pyjamas and showering would be a good start! I'm also feeling a really strong urge to clean my house, but that doesn't seem relaxing enough for a day off!
2014年5月20日火曜日
Life update!
Exciting things going on in Jenny land at the moment:
I bought a sewing machine!
And made a skirt! And it turned out surprisingly well! I guess my years of reading sewing blogs paid off, hehe.
I'm going to try making some work suitable clothes next. I wear pretty much the same kind of thing every day, and have done for the past 5 or 6 years, and unfortunately some of my shirts are starting to develop random holes in them (not mendable ones at the seams, but just holes in the middle of the fabric, haha), so I need to replace them, and it is DIFFICULT to buy things that fit me and flatter me here, especially for smart work clothes which tend to have a lot of ruffles and stuff on the front here (generally not flattering for me - I do NOT need to make it seem like I have any more volume on my chest than I already do!), or to be plain shirts which I cannot see fitting me at all, seeing as I have enough problems finding shirts that fit and flatter me in England.
In general I am not THAT bothered anymore by how I look or my body shape, but when trying to buy clothes and shoes here I really wish that I was skinny, small chested and had small, narrower feet. (Okay actually I wish I had smaller narrower feet anyway, not because I hate the way that my feet look, but because buying shoes in England is really difficult, never mind in a country where the biggest shoe size for women is normally 25-25.5 cm - around size 6 to 6 and a half in UK sizes). Because that is the shape that 99% of clothes and shoes here are made to fit.
Also need to buy some wool so I can start knitting again! I love knitting.
I restarted the couch to 5k program!
I have tried this a couple of times, and never stuck with it because life got in the way, or I got sick or something... but I'm determined not to let that happen this time! I've done the first two runs of the program, so I should hopefully be finished by mid July... I'm actually finding it much easier this time round than I did the previous time I tried, for the following reasons:
I bought a sewing machine!
And made a skirt! And it turned out surprisingly well! I guess my years of reading sewing blogs paid off, hehe.
I'm going to try making some work suitable clothes next. I wear pretty much the same kind of thing every day, and have done for the past 5 or 6 years, and unfortunately some of my shirts are starting to develop random holes in them (not mendable ones at the seams, but just holes in the middle of the fabric, haha), so I need to replace them, and it is DIFFICULT to buy things that fit me and flatter me here, especially for smart work clothes which tend to have a lot of ruffles and stuff on the front here (generally not flattering for me - I do NOT need to make it seem like I have any more volume on my chest than I already do!), or to be plain shirts which I cannot see fitting me at all, seeing as I have enough problems finding shirts that fit and flatter me in England.
In general I am not THAT bothered anymore by how I look or my body shape, but when trying to buy clothes and shoes here I really wish that I was skinny, small chested and had small, narrower feet. (Okay actually I wish I had smaller narrower feet anyway, not because I hate the way that my feet look, but because buying shoes in England is really difficult, never mind in a country where the biggest shoe size for women is normally 25-25.5 cm - around size 6 to 6 and a half in UK sizes). Because that is the shape that 99% of clothes and shoes here are made to fit.
Also need to buy some wool so I can start knitting again! I love knitting.
I restarted the couch to 5k program!
I have tried this a couple of times, and never stuck with it because life got in the way, or I got sick or something... but I'm determined not to let that happen this time! I've done the first two runs of the program, so I should hopefully be finished by mid July... I'm actually finding it much easier this time round than I did the previous time I tried, for the following reasons:
- I have a beautiful park near my house to run in. Seriously. It's lovely. I will take pictures at some point. It's only a few minutes away from my house. A nice place to run in definitely seems to be helping!
- Before when I tried it I was running around my hometown, which is also nice, but full of people I know (or at least was at the time), and I was scared of running into. I stand out much more here, but I don't really know that many people properly, and to be honest do not care as much as I did before.
- I walk a LOT. And the area I live in is ridiculously hilly, so my legs are already used to getting me up and down ridiculous hills several times a day.
- I am letting myself go slowwwwly. The main aim is to build up my endurance so I can run (okay, let's face it, jog slowly) for half an hour without stopping, rather than to go quickly. I can work on that later!
So the runs so far have been kind of easy (still getting a bit out of breath by the end, but I can remember having to force myself to carry on through the last few running sections of my first run the last time I tried). I also haven't had much soreness or anything so far (I expect this is thanks to all of the hills), although my leg muscles are feeling a little bit tight.
At some point I expect my enthusiasm is going to wear off a bit, but I am determined to do it this time! I plan to read lots of running related books/blogs to keep my enthusiasm up, so if you have any recommendations let me know! And I'm keeping a running journal this time so hopefully I can look at that to motivate myself when the lazy part of my brain is trying to talk myself out of putting my trainers on and going outside.
If I make it to week 4 I'm going to buy myself some proper running clothes, because it is about to get HOT here and I don't think any of the clothes I own now are that suitable for running around in 30+ degree temperatures.
Not so good things....
I am in a bit of a reading slump. I'm still reading, but a couple of weeks ago I was getting home from work, watching maybe one episode of parks and rec (I am currently on a massive rewatch of all of it, yayy!) while eating, doing all of the other stuff I need to do around the house and then reading until it was time to go to bed... but at the moment I just do not feel the urge to keep on reading once I'm back, and I'm finding it hard to read while on the train etc. Hopefully I'll get my mojo back soon though, because I really really do love reading and I am at my happiest when I manage to get a good chunk of reading into my day.
I am in a bit of a reading slump. I'm still reading, but a couple of weeks ago I was getting home from work, watching maybe one episode of parks and rec (I am currently on a massive rewatch of all of it, yayy!) while eating, doing all of the other stuff I need to do around the house and then reading until it was time to go to bed... but at the moment I just do not feel the urge to keep on reading once I'm back, and I'm finding it hard to read while on the train etc. Hopefully I'll get my mojo back soon though, because I really really do love reading and I am at my happiest when I manage to get a good chunk of reading into my day.
2014年3月5日水曜日
Jenny's December/January/February adventures!
So... seeing as I was away for so long, I figured I may as well write a post about what I was up to! Leaving out having the worst cold and most persistent cold I've ever had (because who wants to read about that?), this is what I've been up to since I stopped posting in December.
I went to my husband's home town for new year. Christmas is not really that much of a thing in Japan. Although people do celebrate it, it's more a day for couples to go on dates and for people to eat KFC (I'm not joking). The day itself isn't even a holiday! New year, on the other hand, is a huge family event. It's basically the equivalent of Christmas (or at least how we celebrate Christmas in Britain!). The whole family gets together, drinks, eats lots of delicious food (with some traditional not so delicious things thrown in for fun), and watches a lot of TV together.
My husband comes from near Hiroshima (in fact his Grandmother was living in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb fell), so we also went into Hiroshima to go shopping and meet some of his friends. And to eat Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki! Mmmm. (If you haven't tried okonomiyaki, you should, it's gooood. I'm not sure if Hiroshima style okonomiyaki is that common outside of Japan as it is difficult to make, but Osaka style is also really good and much easier to make, so probably more widely available). We ended up with time to spare, so we walked around the peace memorial park for a while, which is always nice, if depressing when you think about the reason it's there..
This is a cenotaph for the victims of the bomb, and if you look through it you can see the atomic bomb dome. The bomb actually exploded pretty much directly above it, which is why it's still intact, as it was pushed down rather than out. I ended up being pretty disgusted this time as when we went up to the atomic bomb dome there were people there taking pictures of themselves smiling and doing stupid poses with it, which is SO NOT THE POINT. Urgh, people.
I also went back to the UK for a couple of weeks to visit family, as my mum had a small stroke (she is okay, but lost some motor function in her hand, and isn't speaking with the same ease that she did before. She's slowly getting better though!), and work told me that if I needed time off to go back I could. So I did. Mostly unpaid time off as Japan has pathetic amounts of annual leave, but still.
I didn't do anything super exciting while I was back... I mainly helped my mum to cook and shop and stuff, but I did go to Newcastle (technically Whitley Bay) to visit my sister, which was nice! Their house is pretty near the coast, so we went on a nice walk there. Yay!
And then this last weekend (technically after I started blogging again, but meh, whatever) I went skiing with my husband and some of our friends. I've never skied before, so ended up spending a LOT of time lying on the snow rather than skiing over it, but I took a lesson and by the end was sort of getting the hang of it. Yay! It was fun! I don't really have pictures from it as I was mostly too busyskiing falling over, but here's one that I took from the ski lift so you can see how pretty it was. It's not entirely straight as I was deseperately trying not to drop anything while I was taking it, haha.
Pretty!!! Maybe not so much if you're used to snow, but I've never lived anywhere that gets a decent amount of snow so I was running around yelling SNOWWW!!!!!! the whole weekend, hehe. (Running and yelling may have only happened in my head)
And that's it! Luckily, my lack of blogging hasn't also coincided with a lack of reading, so I still have plenty of books to review...
I went to my husband's home town for new year. Christmas is not really that much of a thing in Japan. Although people do celebrate it, it's more a day for couples to go on dates and for people to eat KFC (I'm not joking). The day itself isn't even a holiday! New year, on the other hand, is a huge family event. It's basically the equivalent of Christmas (or at least how we celebrate Christmas in Britain!). The whole family gets together, drinks, eats lots of delicious food (with some traditional not so delicious things thrown in for fun), and watches a lot of TV together.
My husband comes from near Hiroshima (in fact his Grandmother was living in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb fell), so we also went into Hiroshima to go shopping and meet some of his friends. And to eat Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki! Mmmm. (If you haven't tried okonomiyaki, you should, it's gooood. I'm not sure if Hiroshima style okonomiyaki is that common outside of Japan as it is difficult to make, but Osaka style is also really good and much easier to make, so probably more widely available). We ended up with time to spare, so we walked around the peace memorial park for a while, which is always nice, if depressing when you think about the reason it's there..
This is a cenotaph for the victims of the bomb, and if you look through it you can see the atomic bomb dome. The bomb actually exploded pretty much directly above it, which is why it's still intact, as it was pushed down rather than out. I ended up being pretty disgusted this time as when we went up to the atomic bomb dome there were people there taking pictures of themselves smiling and doing stupid poses with it, which is SO NOT THE POINT. Urgh, people.
I also went back to the UK for a couple of weeks to visit family, as my mum had a small stroke (she is okay, but lost some motor function in her hand, and isn't speaking with the same ease that she did before. She's slowly getting better though!), and work told me that if I needed time off to go back I could. So I did. Mostly unpaid time off as Japan has pathetic amounts of annual leave, but still.
I didn't do anything super exciting while I was back... I mainly helped my mum to cook and shop and stuff, but I did go to Newcastle (technically Whitley Bay) to visit my sister, which was nice! Their house is pretty near the coast, so we went on a nice walk there. Yay!
And then this last weekend (technically after I started blogging again, but meh, whatever) I went skiing with my husband and some of our friends. I've never skied before, so ended up spending a LOT of time lying on the snow rather than skiing over it, but I took a lesson and by the end was sort of getting the hang of it. Yay! It was fun! I don't really have pictures from it as I was mostly too busy
Pretty!!! Maybe not so much if you're used to snow, but I've never lived anywhere that gets a decent amount of snow so I was running around yelling SNOWWW!!!!!! the whole weekend, hehe. (Running and yelling may have only happened in my head)
And that's it! Luckily, my lack of blogging hasn't also coincided with a lack of reading, so I still have plenty of books to review...
2013年12月21日土曜日
Jen fails at book blogging
So I am not particularly good at this whole blogging business, it seems. I have a huge pile of books that I've read but haven't talked about at ALL on here. And I'm getting to the point where I would really struggle to write about some of them at all coherently, so I think I might have to a few mini book review posts with just a few comments about stuff that I've read. I'll do better next year, I promise!!!
I have recently passed the 1000 page view mark, which I'm sure is not a big deal for most bloggers, but I'm quite shocked considering how spotty/incoherent my posting is! And happy! Thank you! *happy dance*
I have hardly had a chance to read this week at all (I've been doing stupid amounts of overtime whilst being slightly ill, this is not a combination that leads to the ability to do anything more than sit gormlessly on the sofa when I get back from work) but I'm going to try and remedy that as well! And now I'm going to go and make a start on the final part of A Tale of Two Cities now, yay!
Thank you again for reading my blog! I will try to post more regularly/more coherently from now on, although um, that may have to wait for the new year as I'm going to be stupidly busy again at work next week (which includes working on Christmas day. What a lovely Christmas present, Japan!), and then next Saturday I'm going off to my in-laws for a week. But come January, when I'm back in Yokohama, I'll be better! I WILL!
I have recently passed the 1000 page view mark, which I'm sure is not a big deal for most bloggers, but I'm quite shocked considering how spotty/incoherent my posting is! And happy! Thank you! *happy dance*
I have hardly had a chance to read this week at all (I've been doing stupid amounts of overtime whilst being slightly ill, this is not a combination that leads to the ability to do anything more than sit gormlessly on the sofa when I get back from work) but I'm going to try and remedy that as well! And now I'm going to go and make a start on the final part of A Tale of Two Cities now, yay!
Thank you again for reading my blog! I will try to post more regularly/more coherently from now on, although um, that may have to wait for the new year as I'm going to be stupidly busy again at work next week (which includes working on Christmas day. What a lovely Christmas present, Japan!), and then next Saturday I'm going off to my in-laws for a week. But come January, when I'm back in Yokohama, I'll be better! I WILL!
2013年10月14日月曜日
Jen rambles... about Harry Potter and other stuff
It's another real life post! Yayyy!
Today is the last day of a 3 day weekend in Japan, yay! Although, boo, last day! I normally don't like to leave my house at the weekends, because I'm antisocial, but I've been surprisingly social for me recently. Last weekend I went to see an English version of Avenue Q in Tokyo, which was funny, although I would have appreciated it if the person sat behind us hadn't been making comments all the way through it... you're not at home in front of your TV, shhh!
On Thursday I went to a gathering for alumni of my university (I honestly have no idea what it was for, heh), which was also surprisingly fun! I don't normally go out on weekday nights, mainly because I get really tired the next day, but I think sometimes I should. It's good to break up the routine a bit.
Then on Saturday I went to a home party thrown by one of my friends from work, which was also fun! And I persuaded my husband (who is just as antisocial and averse to meeting new people as I am) to go, and he had fun too! Yayyy! Also, yum, food.
My husband is currently working his way through Harry Potter, and is currently on the Prisoner of Azkaban. He hasn't read them before or seen the films, but he's got really into them, in spite of the fact that he's made fun of me since we met for liking the books. Hehe. He was trying to tell me his theory on where the book is going, but couldn't remember Peter Pettigrew's name so called him Spaghetti instead. And then kept on going "Damn you spaghetti!!!" hehe.
Okay, that wasn't very interesting, so have a random Japan picture!
Today is the last day of a 3 day weekend in Japan, yay! Although, boo, last day! I normally don't like to leave my house at the weekends, because I'm antisocial, but I've been surprisingly social for me recently. Last weekend I went to see an English version of Avenue Q in Tokyo, which was funny, although I would have appreciated it if the person sat behind us hadn't been making comments all the way through it... you're not at home in front of your TV, shhh!
On Thursday I went to a gathering for alumni of my university (I honestly have no idea what it was for, heh), which was also surprisingly fun! I don't normally go out on weekday nights, mainly because I get really tired the next day, but I think sometimes I should. It's good to break up the routine a bit.
Then on Saturday I went to a home party thrown by one of my friends from work, which was also fun! And I persuaded my husband (who is just as antisocial and averse to meeting new people as I am) to go, and he had fun too! Yayyy! Also, yum, food.
My husband is currently working his way through Harry Potter, and is currently on the Prisoner of Azkaban. He hasn't read them before or seen the films, but he's got really into them, in spite of the fact that he's made fun of me since we met for liking the books. Hehe. He was trying to tell me his theory on where the book is going, but couldn't remember Peter Pettigrew's name so called him Spaghetti instead. And then kept on going "Damn you spaghetti!!!" hehe.
Okay, that wasn't very interesting, so have a random Japan picture!
Onsen (hot springs) monkey! Yay!
This was taken at an onsen in Nagano prefecture, where monkeys come in the winter. Understandably, as Nagano when I went (last year in November) is FREEZING!
Aww, monkey.
2013年9月28日土曜日
Not necessarily book related things, huzzah!
So... I haven't really done this so far, but I figured I may as well do a not strictly book related post. I should come up with a name for this, as all the best blogs seem to have one, but I'm lazy so.. later. Hehe.
Work is becoming stupidly busy (I'm having to do overtime... which is completely normal in Japan, but it's not normal in Jennyland, which is where I live!), so I really don't have THAT much book reading time recently. Boo. I have, however, been ending up in bookshops with nice big selections of English books and buying too many books recently, so I'm beginning to build a good TBR collection. Not sure if this is a good thing, our apartment doesn't really have that much space! Oh well! The things that I have bought recently that I am most excited about reading are Maus and Persepolis, yay! Thank you Shinjuku Kinokuniya for actually having a graphic novels section!
Ahh, that last paragraph was almost completely book related! Hehe. Oh well...
I managed to catch up on all of Breaking Bad, and am now enjoying watching it as it comes out... but I can only get the most recent episode on Monday, and I don't actually have time in the evenings after coming back from work to watch a whole episode of something, so I might ignore the internet from Sunday evening onwards until I've actually caught up.And if you haven't watched breaking bad, it's probably physically too late to watch it all before the last episode now, but you should catch up with it if you have the chance, as it's amazing! AMAZING!
One of my friends writes a blog, mostly about travelling around Japan, called Zooming Japan, and she interviewed me and several other people about dating Japanese men. You can find it here if you're interested! There's a picture of me and my husband on there too, so that's exciting?
And finally... seeing as I haven't really talked about myself much on here, a few exciting (?) facts about me!
1) I was born in Sweden. But I'm not in any way Swedish, although I do have a Swedish person number or something, which might make it easy for me to get a bank account in Sweden should I want to. Yay!
2) I had plastic surgery when I was.. 5 or 6. Because I'm an idiot, and decided to step off a roundabout that was still going round when I was little, fell over and split my lip pretty badly... it healed strangely, and left me with a permenantly swollen looking lip (on one side) so I had (free) surgery to make it look normal (yayy, NHS!). You can still see that one side of my lip is slightly bigger than the other if you know about it. The best thing about the whole experience was being able to eat mashed bananas with brown sugar (one of my favourite childhood snacks. Not entirely sure why) and watch a care bears film.
3) I decided to study Japanese almost completely on a whim. I think my thought process was... ooh Japanese, Japan is an interesting sounding place... Japanese is difficult, I want a challenge... YAY JAPANESE! If I hadn't gone to a UCAS fair in Manchester and seen a Japanese studies stand, my life would be COMPLETELY different now. (I was going to study English or philosophy - way to choose useful degrees Jenny!)
4) I can see Mt. Fuji from my window (as anybody who follows me on instagram will be aware of, as that's pretty much the only thing I post pictures of, haha).
5) I also really enjoy knitting and crocheting, and although I don't have enough time to do them all of the time (if I did that, when would I read?! WHEN?!?! I'm not skilled enough to do both at the same time), I have a couple of months each year where I get hooked (get it?) again. I have a crocheted Totoro and mini totoro (the white one) on my desk at work. I would post pictures, but um, they're on my desk at work so I can't. Oh well!
6) I LOVE podcasts, and spend most of my commute walking and standing time listening to them. Obviously there are a few book ones in there (Books on the Nightstand and Bookrageous being my favourites), but my all time favourite is Adam and Joe (both the XFM one and the 6 music one), but I'm not sure they are available anymore (although I'm sure they're out there if you search for them)...
I also enjoy Answer Me This, The Bugle, Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's Film Reviews, This American Life, The Ones Who Knock (about Breaking Bad) and A Cast of Kings (about Game of Thrones).
If anybody has any recommendations for other podcasts, book related or not, tell me!
Work is becoming stupidly busy (I'm having to do overtime... which is completely normal in Japan, but it's not normal in Jennyland, which is where I live!), so I really don't have THAT much book reading time recently. Boo. I have, however, been ending up in bookshops with nice big selections of English books and buying too many books recently, so I'm beginning to build a good TBR collection. Not sure if this is a good thing, our apartment doesn't really have that much space! Oh well! The things that I have bought recently that I am most excited about reading are Maus and Persepolis, yay! Thank you Shinjuku Kinokuniya for actually having a graphic novels section!
Ahh, that last paragraph was almost completely book related! Hehe. Oh well...
I managed to catch up on all of Breaking Bad, and am now enjoying watching it as it comes out... but I can only get the most recent episode on Monday, and I don't actually have time in the evenings after coming back from work to watch a whole episode of something, so I might ignore the internet from Sunday evening onwards until I've actually caught up.And if you haven't watched breaking bad, it's probably physically too late to watch it all before the last episode now, but you should catch up with it if you have the chance, as it's amazing! AMAZING!
One of my friends writes a blog, mostly about travelling around Japan, called Zooming Japan, and she interviewed me and several other people about dating Japanese men. You can find it here if you're interested! There's a picture of me and my husband on there too, so that's exciting?
And finally... seeing as I haven't really talked about myself much on here, a few exciting (?) facts about me!
1) I was born in Sweden. But I'm not in any way Swedish, although I do have a Swedish person number or something, which might make it easy for me to get a bank account in Sweden should I want to. Yay!
2) I had plastic surgery when I was.. 5 or 6. Because I'm an idiot, and decided to step off a roundabout that was still going round when I was little, fell over and split my lip pretty badly... it healed strangely, and left me with a permenantly swollen looking lip (on one side) so I had (free) surgery to make it look normal (yayy, NHS!). You can still see that one side of my lip is slightly bigger than the other if you know about it. The best thing about the whole experience was being able to eat mashed bananas with brown sugar (one of my favourite childhood snacks. Not entirely sure why) and watch a care bears film.
3) I decided to study Japanese almost completely on a whim. I think my thought process was... ooh Japanese, Japan is an interesting sounding place... Japanese is difficult, I want a challenge... YAY JAPANESE! If I hadn't gone to a UCAS fair in Manchester and seen a Japanese studies stand, my life would be COMPLETELY different now. (I was going to study English or philosophy - way to choose useful degrees Jenny!)
4) I can see Mt. Fuji from my window (as anybody who follows me on instagram will be aware of, as that's pretty much the only thing I post pictures of, haha).
5) I also really enjoy knitting and crocheting, and although I don't have enough time to do them all of the time (if I did that, when would I read?! WHEN?!?! I'm not skilled enough to do both at the same time), I have a couple of months each year where I get hooked (get it?) again. I have a crocheted Totoro and mini totoro (the white one) on my desk at work. I would post pictures, but um, they're on my desk at work so I can't. Oh well!
6) I LOVE podcasts, and spend most of my commute walking and standing time listening to them. Obviously there are a few book ones in there (Books on the Nightstand and Bookrageous being my favourites), but my all time favourite is Adam and Joe (both the XFM one and the 6 music one), but I'm not sure they are available anymore (although I'm sure they're out there if you search for them)...
I also enjoy Answer Me This, The Bugle, Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's Film Reviews, This American Life, The Ones Who Knock (about Breaking Bad) and A Cast of Kings (about Game of Thrones).
If anybody has any recommendations for other podcasts, book related or not, tell me!
2013年7月1日月曜日
If only Bernard's watch was real...
Ahh, Bernard's Watch. That was quality TV (not sure whether it was bad quality or good quality though, hehe). I wonder if the rumours that the boy who played Bernard went to the same university as I did were actually true. I should have gone to find him!
Ahem, anyway, I'm going to stop alienating most of the people reading this and get to the point (um, not that I really have one...)
I have been feeling a distinct lack of time recently. It's not that I don't have any free time (I do!!), it's just it's all getting used up. Too many things that I want to do, not enough time. If only work didn't keep on getting in the way.
Recently I have been....
Watching (amongst other things - I haven't really talked about this on here, but I do a lot of box set watching, heh):
Breaking Bad (I started watching this ages ago, didn't see what the fuss was about then stopped... after 3 episodes. Then I realised that pretty much everyone whose opinion about things I respect said how amazing it was, so started watching it again.. and was pretty much hooked straight away. Yup, I'm stupid. Anyway, I'm trying to catch up before it comes back in August.. Not sure how feasable that is!)
The Walking Dead (One of my colleagues loves it, and I'm enjoying it so far! I'm also trying to catch up before it comes back. I have a lot longer for this one though)
Reading:
A Japanese book of short stories by Otsuichi, which is just as good as I hoped it would be. I haven't been reading that much in Japanese recently though.
The new Murakami. Haven't got that far with it, because it's too short and I don't want it to be over. Which doesn't make any sense. But I need to read it before the translation comes out, otherwise whats the point of being able to read in Japanese?! TELL ME!
Inifinite Jest. Because I feel the need to pick stupidly challenging stuff, apparently, even though I'm very bad at actually seeing this kind of thing through. (This might explain my choice of degree... people say that Japanese is really difficult to learn?! Sign me up!!!) So far though, I'm really enjoying it! I remembered that I actually like not really getting whats going on, and then slowly seeing the pieces come together. The endnotes are insane though. INSANE! I'm glad I was somewhat prepared for reading it, knowing that some bits of it might be a slog helped me through them. I'm past page 200, which is apparently the point where you stick with it till the end.
And that's it. Infinite Jest has so much going on and so much to keep track of that I don't want to read anything else in English in case it confuses me.
Stuff coming up when I have time (who knows!):
Requiem - Lauren Oliver (not sure how I feel about this, so this might take a while!)
The Orphan Master's Son - Adam Johnson (again, not sure how I feel about this one either. Where have my opinions gone today?!)
The Last Girlfriend on Earth – Simon Rich (I will write about this before I forget what I thought and have to read it again to remind myself!)
Stuff that I'm almost definitely not actually going to write anything proper about:
Kūchū Buranko (Flying Trapeze) - Hideo Okuda (It was interesting and I enjoyed it more than the first book in the series. Not sure I'm that bothered about reading the third one though. Too many other exciting things to read!)
That's it. I haven't actually been getting THAT much reading done recently, I've been kind of sick for the past week or so, boo. And my TBR list just keeps on getting longer and longer and longer and longer...
Ahem, anyway, I'm going to stop alienating most of the people reading this and get to the point (um, not that I really have one...)
I have been feeling a distinct lack of time recently. It's not that I don't have any free time (I do!!), it's just it's all getting used up. Too many things that I want to do, not enough time. If only work didn't keep on getting in the way.
Recently I have been....
Watching (amongst other things - I haven't really talked about this on here, but I do a lot of box set watching, heh):
Breaking Bad (I started watching this ages ago, didn't see what the fuss was about then stopped... after 3 episodes. Then I realised that pretty much everyone whose opinion about things I respect said how amazing it was, so started watching it again.. and was pretty much hooked straight away. Yup, I'm stupid. Anyway, I'm trying to catch up before it comes back in August.. Not sure how feasable that is!)
The Walking Dead (One of my colleagues loves it, and I'm enjoying it so far! I'm also trying to catch up before it comes back. I have a lot longer for this one though)
Reading:
A Japanese book of short stories by Otsuichi, which is just as good as I hoped it would be. I haven't been reading that much in Japanese recently though.
The new Murakami. Haven't got that far with it, because it's too short and I don't want it to be over. Which doesn't make any sense. But I need to read it before the translation comes out, otherwise whats the point of being able to read in Japanese?! TELL ME!
Inifinite Jest. Because I feel the need to pick stupidly challenging stuff, apparently, even though I'm very bad at actually seeing this kind of thing through. (This might explain my choice of degree... people say that Japanese is really difficult to learn?! Sign me up!!!) So far though, I'm really enjoying it! I remembered that I actually like not really getting whats going on, and then slowly seeing the pieces come together. The endnotes are insane though. INSANE! I'm glad I was somewhat prepared for reading it, knowing that some bits of it might be a slog helped me through them. I'm past page 200, which is apparently the point where you stick with it till the end.
And that's it. Infinite Jest has so much going on and so much to keep track of that I don't want to read anything else in English in case it confuses me.
Stuff coming up when I have time (who knows!):
Requiem - Lauren Oliver (not sure how I feel about this, so this might take a while!)
The Orphan Master's Son - Adam Johnson (again, not sure how I feel about this one either. Where have my opinions gone today?!)
The Last Girlfriend on Earth – Simon Rich (I will write about this before I forget what I thought and have to read it again to remind myself!)
Stuff that I'm almost definitely not actually going to write anything proper about:
Kūchū Buranko (Flying Trapeze) - Hideo Okuda (It was interesting and I enjoyed it more than the first book in the series. Not sure I'm that bothered about reading the third one though. Too many other exciting things to read!)
That's it. I haven't actually been getting THAT much reading done recently, I've been kind of sick for the past week or so, boo. And my TBR list just keeps on getting longer and longer and longer and longer...
2013年6月6日木曜日
I'm baaack!! (Um, if you noticed that I was gone)
It has definitely been too long since I posted anything on
here…
What happened?! I hear you cry…
Well… my parents came to visit me for two weeks, and then I
got busy at work, and to be honest coming home and staring at the computer
screen writing more stuff just didn't seem that appealing.
I have been reading in that time though! Obviously! Although
not quite as much as I would have liked.
So, coming up...
1Q84 – Murakami Haruki (Yup, I finished it! Yay! Also boo
because now it’s over) (Also, I definitely did not originally have it down as 1Q83. Nope!)
Pandemonium – Lauren Oliver
Drop Dead Healthy – A. J. Jacobs
The Know-It-All – A. J. Jacobs (So you can maybe guess how much I liked Drop Dead Healthy, hehe)
The Last Girlfriend on Earth – Simon Rich
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making – Catherynne M. Valente
Kūchū Buranko (Flying Trapeze) - Hideo Okuda
The excitement is almost too much, isn't it?!
Pandemonium – Lauren Oliver
Drop Dead Healthy – A. J. Jacobs
The Know-It-All – A. J. Jacobs (So you can maybe guess how much I liked Drop Dead Healthy, hehe)
The Last Girlfriend on Earth – Simon Rich
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making – Catherynne M. Valente
Kūchū Buranko (Flying Trapeze) - Hideo Okuda
2013年4月7日日曜日
In celebration of reading
For the firt few years that I lived in Japan, I would buy English books very rarely - maybe one or two a year. Books are generally fairly expensive here, and bookshops with English book sections tend to only stock the most popular and most mainstream English books, which isn't necessarily what I want to read. So I kept myself happy with Japanese books and TV.
I have realised, though, after starting to use most of my spare time to read, that not reading was, while not actively making me unhappy, not something that I should ever let myself do again. I had forgotten how good it feels to lose yourself in a book (something which I've only recently been able to do with Japanese books - it's hard to lose yourself when you're reaching for a dictionary every few words), and how spending time reading is never something that I regret doing.
Now I've well and truly caught the reading bug again. I find myself reading if I wake up a few minutes early, reading while I'm eating breakfast, reading on the train, reading in my lunch break when I end up eating alone (and secretly praying for more of those days), trying to read and cook (I do NOT recommend this!), and reading before I go to bed.
I owe a lot of this to Laura (of Devouring Texts), as finding her review of "The Year of the Flood" by Margaret Atwood opened my eyes to the world of book blogging, and book podcasts, which have been making me want to spend all of my time every day reading. Thank you Laura!
I have a lot of books to catch up on, the list of books that I want to read is getting slightly ridiculous, and I'm starting to leave my house to go to work later and later (just one more chapter syndrome!), but I feel so much happier now in general than I have done for a while.
In conclusion... books are great, did you know?!
Reading! Woo!!!
I have realised, though, after starting to use most of my spare time to read, that not reading was, while not actively making me unhappy, not something that I should ever let myself do again. I had forgotten how good it feels to lose yourself in a book (something which I've only recently been able to do with Japanese books - it's hard to lose yourself when you're reaching for a dictionary every few words), and how spending time reading is never something that I regret doing.
Now I've well and truly caught the reading bug again. I find myself reading if I wake up a few minutes early, reading while I'm eating breakfast, reading on the train, reading in my lunch break when I end up eating alone (and secretly praying for more of those days), trying to read and cook (I do NOT recommend this!), and reading before I go to bed.
I owe a lot of this to Laura (of Devouring Texts), as finding her review of "The Year of the Flood" by Margaret Atwood opened my eyes to the world of book blogging, and book podcasts, which have been making me want to spend all of my time every day reading. Thank you Laura!
I have a lot of books to catch up on, the list of books that I want to read is getting slightly ridiculous, and I'm starting to leave my house to go to work later and later (just one more chapter syndrome!), but I feel so much happier now in general than I have done for a while.
In conclusion... books are great, did you know?!
Reading! Woo!!!
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