Yoshio Kojima

Yoshio Kojima is my favorite Japanese comedian at the moment. He usually appears on TV programs as part of the guest ensemble only wearing his little speedo shorts and saying frases like " Sonna no kankei nee " and "Oppapī " .

I always wonder if he's cold since hes wearing almost nothing, but anyways, the important thing is that he makes me laugh, so I'm posting one of his videos from youtube, enjoy!

Kinkakuji Temple

Gako chan came to visit us all the way from Yokohama, so we went sightseeing in Kyoto together, unfortunately the weather turned very very snowy, I thought that because of the weather there would be few people site seeing, boy was I wrong, Kinkakuji temple was packed there was a line to get in that looked like a world premiere event was being held inside or something like that, but after we finally made it in it was worth the long line, I think it was a special day, we got to see the temple covered in snow it was beautiful.

Here are the pics:

Getting used to daily life

The hardest part of moving to a new country is adapting to a completly new culture.
Everyday I learn something new , things to avoid upsetting other people, how to cut sushi, how to recycle, etc

Its very important for me to fit in and be like everybody else, even though I am a foreigner, so Im learning how to cook japanese dishes and how to combine them.

The tipical japanese dinner is composed of :

1 main dish (mostly meat)
1 side dish (mostly rice)
1 soup (can be miso , wakame or vegetable)
2 okazu (mostly made from vegetables)
1 tsukemono(pickled veggies)
1 pot of tea (oolong or green)

after that , if you still have room left in in your tumy, you can have dessert wich can be mochi, manju, uiro, jelly or a more american option like cheescake or fruit.

Yesterday I made my first tamagoyaki, it was pretty good, but the flavors really settle in once the tamagoyaki is cold, dont eat it while its still warm. Here's the recipe:

http://www.bob-an.com/recipe/dailyjc/basic/tamago/tamago.html

Hina Matsuri and Marrige Requirements

Today was Hina Matsuri , I don't have enough money to buy the really cool hina sets that every one displays in theyr homes, they are quite expensive, some cost more than 1,000 dollars, but they are so pretty they are worth every penny.

This is a picture of a typical hina set:

Someday Ill have a daughter and enough cash to get one of these sets but today is not that day so I made my own litle binbo hina sama display, because I refuse to let the day pass and not have something that commemorates this special day. Here is my picture, I used a cute little doll I bought at a Jinja in Nara and I made a little origami flower , I used a manju box as the base :

Other than that, I went down to city hall today to get the information needed in order to get married to a foreigner in japan, basically they told me all I need is my passport and my certificate stating that I am single in my country , legalized and translated by my country's embassy and that is it, my boyfriend has to fill out a form and also get papers stating which district he is from, after we get all those papers put together and deposit them in city hall then it takes from 1 hour to 3 days to get it approved and then we will be married.

After all that is done I then have to go to immigration office in Kyoto to see what happens after you marry in Japan, Ill keep you guys posted.

Getting Married in Japan

Ive been away for a couple of days, I couldn't post because I was on the road moving around a lot, but I'm getting ahead of my self, let me start at the real beginning of this.

Back in my country, I started to learn Japanese at Apec University where I became very close friends with my J-teacher Tomoko Sensei, in a period of about 1 year and a half, we ended up hanging out a lot, going to concerts, the movies or cultural activities , things like that , so 1 day a J-friend of hers was coming to my hometown to find out some info about classes at the university and so , we ended up going together to meet him and show him around town, long story short, me and that J-guy are finally getting married.

So now begins the part where I will let you know step by step how the marriage to a foreigner thing works here, Ill be posting as I go through the process, anyways, here is step one but every country's requirements are different so you might want to check with your local Japanese embassy if you are outside Japan right now.

Step 1: Get a legal statement that proves you are single in your country.

In my case, the document is called "acta de solteria" which is basically a statement signed by a judge and 3 witnesses proving that I am not currently married and therefore eligible for marriage, this paper has to be legalized by the external affairs office in order to be legal and valid in japan.

I got this paper before coming to japan so that was no biggie, but, the Latin American countries have only 1 embassy in japan and it is in Tokyo, so I had to travel to take said document to my country's embassy in order to have the document validated as legal and then translated, after I got the translations I now have to go to city hall and see what are the requirements for marrying a foreigner in Kyoto, every state has different requirements so I have to wait until Monday to find out, but there is one thing that is truly giving me a headache about this whole affair; the fact that I have a tourist visa at the moment and cant stay longer than 3 months, my visa expires march 25 which is the day I would have to return to my country, legally speaking.

so Ill be keeping you guys posted as this little dorama unfolds, wish me luck.