This is a lake near Daikakuji temple in Saga Arashiyama, Kyoto, Japan during sunset. Everything about it is amazing: the view, the late-autumnal colours, the atmosphere, everything. It was so cold that day that I couldn’t feel my limbs, let alone my extremities, for most of the day, but that just heightened my senses to its beauty.

And this is why one of my supposedly intelligent friends¹ cannot see that a feminist reading of engagement rings can result in the conclusion that engagement rings are anti-feminist. That is, engagement rings can be seen as a form of ownership of women. To her, no reading of engagement rings can be anti-feminist because engagement rings are gifts that women should expect from men — women gain a gift that does not disempower men in the process.

But, I’m not here to defend the feminist reading or disprove my friend’s view. My point is that if you’re going to argue a point, at least verify the basis of what you’re arguing.

1. I’m not sure about this, because if you have the potential to be smart or intelligent, but laze about all day and don’t use your brain or try to learn, then are you really smart or intelligent?

I see run-on sentences in newspapers, in formal emails, and even in discussion papers. You expect more from people working in such positions, no?

What’s a run-on sentence? A run-on sentence is a sentence in which two or more complete sentences are joined with no punctuation (fused sentences) or with incorrect punctuation (comma splice). Example:

Incorrect

• Fused sentence: Green is my favorite color it is easy on the eyes
• Comma splice: Green is my favorite color, it is easy on the eyes.

Correct

• Semicolon: Green is my favorite color; it is easy on the eyes.
• Conjunction: Green is my favorite color because it is easy on the eyes.

Understanding proper sentence structure is one of the most basic points to learning any language. Yet, I cannot remember a single instance in which I’ve been taught basic grammar and punctuation in my 17 years of formal education. Assessments went from comprehension exercises to essay writing in a flash. It was assumed that you knew how to structure a sentence and use a semicolon. You were never taught how to write essays either, but you had to figure it out for yourself because failing wasn’t an option.

Re: the entire family:

• No one appreciates the stereotypical obnoxiously loud Asian. You scream at each other by way of talking. But you take it to a whole new level by having entire conversations like this when one person is inside the house and the other is in the backyard. This means that not only are you speaking in broken screechy English loud enough for the entire neighbourhood to hear, but that it’s raucous.

Re: the father:

• Everyone has the right to make considerable levels of noise in the day. But normal people do not abuse this right every weekend and public holiday from 7AM to 7PM. Last week, it’s the chain saw and axe, this week it’s the jig saw, next week it’s the lawnmower. Rinse and repeat. I cannot remember a completely peaceful weekend ever since you moved in. Also, no one who has a dirt patch as a lawn needs to mow the lawn as often as you do. And if you’re not using your lawnmower for 10 minutes, turn it off. No one likes the sound or the smell of petrol.

Re: the mother

• You’re so in love with using your outdoor barbeque that you use it every single day so the entire neighbourhood can smell your food. But it’s not the normal barbeque smell that makes me wish I were having a barbeque too. No, you use it to cook Asian stir fry. And I’m convinced that you use the same marinade for everything, and only change what meat you marinate. The smell never varies except on days you’re cooking fish, and then it’s poignantly fishy.

Re: the eldest daughter:

• Kudos to you for learning the violin, but has anyone told you that you play terribly, and just as terribly as a year ago? In fact, terrible doesn’t even begin to describe how bad it is — it sounds like you’re torturing a kitten. In fact, I initially thought it was your prepubescent brother playing the recorder¹ because that’s how scratchy and screechy your violin playing is. I try not to entertain thoughts of smashing your violin to pieces and watching it burn.

Re: the youngest daughter:

• Please don’t blast your music in the backyard. No one wants to listen to your stereotypical teenage taste in pop music except yourself. They invented mp3 players for a reason, and I know you have an iPod ’cause I’ve seen you use it when we happened to catch the same bus home. Use it.

Re: the son:

• Your laugh is somewhere between a snigger and a cackle. You’re probably louder than the rest of your family, which is especially irritating because you love to snigger and cackle in the backyard during the day and well into the wee hours of the morning playing games . Really, don’t kids have bedtimes these days?

Now that that’s out of my system, I need to remember not to sweat the small things.

1. Most elementary school kids play the recorder at school

Spring is a nostalgic season. It reminds me of good times. Spring makes me happy.

Except that spring is long gone, and it’s been summer for a while now.

2012 will be a much harder year than 2011, I have no doubts about that. But come what may. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.

I never feel quite up to reflecting on my past year, but this meme that I end up completing every year should cover most of the ground.

1. What did you do in 2011  that you’d never done before?

• Watched anime.
• Visited Japan.
• Experienced an earthquake.
• Went on a roller coaster.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions? Will you make more for next year?
I don’t make resolutions.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No, we’re not at that stage of our lives yet.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Close in a family sense, yes, my paternal grandmother. But close in an emotional sense, no.

5. What countries did you visit?
Japan.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
A more solid indication of the direction I’ll be headed come graduation.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
None, really. I tend to remember events over dates.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Probably navigating and subsisting successfully in a country where I did not understand the language, written or spoken.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I try not to regret anything, so I can’t recall one at the moment.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I did get a particularly bad case of gastroenteritis that had me bedridden for 2 days, but nothing worse than that.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I finally came out of the technological dark ages and bought an Android smart phone.

12. Where did most of your money go?
To the Japanese economy.

13. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
My holiday in Japan.

14. What song will always remind you of 2011?
Love Call by Nakagawa Kanon from The World God Only Knows.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?
Probably slightly happier.

b) thinner or fatter?
Slightly thinner, which is bad. Gastroenteritis isone of the easiest ways to lose weight.

c) richer or poorer?
Poorer.

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Spending time on craft projects. Reading for leisure. Learning.

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Nothing. I’d say procrastinating, but I wasn’t that bad this year, I think.

18. How did you spend Christmas?
At home with family.

19. Did you fall in love in 2011?
I was already in love.

20. What was your favorite TV program?
Chuck. The Big Bang Theory.

21. What was the best book you read?
Eat Pray Love was one of the few books I read for pleasure. I can’t say that it inspired me to embark on my own spiritual journey, but it was certainly an easy read and captured my attention for the most part.

22. What was your favourite film of this year?
No Strings Attached sticks in my memory as a good film because of some of the personality traits of the female protagonist.

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
On my birthday I turned 22. I spent it at home studying for my last final as usual. I’m struggling to remember the details, but I’m pretty sure I spent too much time watching some TV show or anime series than studying because I remember feeling guilty over it.

24. What kept you sane?

1. Two people: BBF and TGG, and
2. Copious amounts of TV and anime.

25. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
None. I find it very hard to fancy someone based on looks alone. Most celebrities have little or no personality (and I read very little about them), and public figures just don’t tickle my fancy.

26. Who did you miss?
Nobody.  All the important people in my life are still around.

27. Who was the best new person you met?
Thinking about it, I am not sure there are any new people in my life.

I don’t have many photos of the food I ate in Japan. Most of the times we ate, we were so hungry and the food was so delicious that taking a photo didn’t cross my mind. Being a food blogger is obviously not my calling.

There’s one thing to be said about food in Japan: the Japanese take hot food to a whole new level — the food is always burning to the touch. When I order hot food, I’m used to expecting the food to be warm. I get barely warm burgers in Sydney, but I get hot burgers in Japan. Maybe their culture isn’t so lacking in common sense¹ that they can afford to serve such hot food. It’s worth it, ’cause hot food tastes better.

I have two new favourite foods:

• Takoyaki from Takoyaki Wanaka — not too much dough (bad!), but just the right balance between octopus and dough.
• Unadon from Unatoto – very tasty and comparatively less expensive than other stores and especially so considering the price of eel.

1. Like the American woman who held a cup of hot coffee between her legs, spilled it, burnt herself and sued McDonald’s for product liability. You buy hot coffee expecting it to be hot, duh.

1. They need air freshener badly. Generally, the more lower class the shopping district the more the toilets reek of urine (to the point where it’s nauseating), but even in the most upper class department stores, it still reeks of urine. Sure it’s a public toilet, but toilets in Sydney do not reek of urine (unless they’re the toilets in the Law Faculty at UNSW).
2. Squat toilets are so not my thing. There’s always puddles of pee around the bowl where your feet are meant to be. How hard can it be to pee inside the bowl? Although if this is the state of squat toilets in Asia, it explains why the Western toilets in the Law Faculty have pee all over the floor, and more importantly why all the toilets in UNSW have signs telling people not to squat on the toilet.
3. Warm toilet seats and bidets are also not my thing. The former is self-explanatory (warm seats are gross), and as for the latter, if I wanted a wash I’d take a shower.

Perhaps some background information: I visited Japan recently!

• Passionfruit gelato is pastel yellow, creamy and crunchy (seeds), tangy.
• Green apple gelato is a pastel green, tangy like a Granny Smith apple.
• Lychee gelato is pure white, the perfect creamy mix of lychee juice and pulp.
• Mango gelato is bright yellow, creamy and sweet like non-fibrous mango pulp.
• Peach gelato is off-white speckled orange, sweet like syrupy canned peaches.
• Watermelon gelato is pink, smooth and sugary like non-grainy watermelon flesh.

There is nothing quite like a flavor that is true to its inspired namesake.