1 good, 1 gross and 1 wtfh

not all good today though. the one good thing was that i tried Pronto for the first time – it’s a cafe that’s all over Osaka (and Japan, i believe) – and they actually sell surprisingly good pasta for 600+ to 700+ yen! which is not too bad. i had their special of the month – salmon and spinach carbonara, and it was nice!

then i was heading to the dentist, and at the junction i encountered a gross sight. this japanese man was in a tight-fitting sleeveless tshirt, and his arms were so-so and his body was far from toned. to make things worse, he had on faded black jeans – which i think are really ugly – even though he had flabby thighs. yuck yuck yuck.

to top it off, i went to this dentist that was recommended to me, but ended up being there for 1.5 hours – like seriously, wtfh? – and 2000yen poorer, but only slightly marginally cleaner teeth. i wont go into the details of this bizarre dental experience, but i was subjected to a 15min explanation – in japanese – on the x-ray of my jaw and teeth (when any idiot can read a simple x-ray) and on basic, basic dental hygiene that we all learned in primary school – something which the nurse was surprised to discover.

more mind-boggling was that i was told to brush my teeth for at least 30min a day, and that i should NOT use any toothpaste at all. are you kidding me? that’s the first i’ve heard of it. they also made me do some bacteria check thingy and explained everything again in painstaking detail, before i got annoyed and asked when the regular examination was going to happen, because all that crap was not what i had come for. got a slipshod cleaning instead, and feel thoroughly cheated!

am not happy with them! the dentist even recommended that i see him once every 3, 4 months, which after all that crap, simply reeks of gold-digging. gah.

6 good things

the past 2 days werent that fantastic, but i should still try to count my blessings! i guess they’re all related, but who cares?

1. went cycling around and discovered this area behind loft/hep5 with quite a few small cafes, shops and boutiques. will look at them more closely another day. i discovered a reasonably priced french restaurant too, so i believe a visit there is on the cards.. sometime.
2. a friend came down to visit from tokyo, and we tried the famous negiyaki behind HEP5 – was possible only because we were there rather late, at about 8.30pm. and oh man the negiyaki is sooo delicious! it reminded me A LOT of carrot cake back home – the white hawker centre type with lots of egg – and i loved it. i now understand why the queue there is forever ridiculously long.
3. same said friend brought me Krispy Kreme donuts! yay. very touched cos he had to queue 20min for it.
4. had a very lovely conversation over an extended lunch with some of the rest here. discovered that quite a few of us are definitely leaving after this year, which means that the osaka city government will be losing MORE THAN HALF their ALTs. it will be a good time for them to cut their costs – 13 of us leave and they might hire about 3 new ones. hurh.
5. same said friend from tokyo gave me two “farewell” presents. one of which is Primataste Hainan Chicken Rice mix! :D so happy. the other one is a bible with japanese translation, with the explanation that it helped him when he’s sad or troubled, etc, and hopes that it might be useful to me too. both of which are very sweet gestures, and i really appreciate them!!
6. i actually managed to come up with 5 things for the past few days – which werent good! so i think that’s a good thing too. haha

3 good things

i’ve been chastised for being lacking in positivity, and was instructed to blog about 3 happy or good things everyday.

well, it’s worth a try right?

so…

1. my house has been in a huge mess and i’ve been slacking off cleaning it for the longest, longest time, but today i’ve finally got a clean house and bathroom and sink. yay.
2. on a similar vein, i’ve been lazy on the washing and tidying up of clothes and random stuff, but it’s all done now! have to work to keep it up though.
3. went food shopping and found relatively cheap smoked salmon pieces – sold cheaply because they’re the leftovers from cutting out the nice slices. i bought them, and made myself a smoked salmon sandwich for dinner! it was sooooo good and my first since i left london 3 years ago? and i still have enough for another sandwich tomorrow, and i’m going to let loose on the cream cheese this time. yum yum :)