Mother's Day

Sunday was my very FIRST Mother's Day! 

We spent the beaaaaaauuuuutiful day outside doing what I like doing best: visiting parks, taking pictures, and walking around. :)

Warning: Cherry blossom pictures ahead 

(I can't get enough!)

After a lazy morning breakfast of toast and eggs, we finally got out the door and headed to Tenjin-yama park. It looks a lot further on the map, but it's shockingly close to the Seishin park that Elisabeth and I frequent. Now that we've been to Tenjin-yama koen, I'm kicking myself that it took us this long to get there. The views were AMAZING as the park is up on a hill!

 

Elisabeth was napping at this point so we found a quiet and shady spot under a birch tree and laid out our picnic blanket and enjoyed coffee from our thermoses. 

It was the perfect spot viewing the mountains south of us, my favorite view.

One of the big crows woke her up so we decided to head further up the hill since we saw a lot of people coming and going from that direction. We were not disappointed with the views! 

 

Further up the hill, is a Japanese garden with pond and waterfall (lots of people there and not stroller friendly), as well as probably 50 yaezakura trees in various shades. 

 

 Yet to bloom. :)

After much oohing and aahing, we headed back down the hill.

More maple admiration...

The shade of red when the sun is shining through the leaves is truly indescribable.

After seeing what Tenjin had to offer, we decided to catch the subway from Sumikawa station to Nakajima koen, my second favorite park. Before we did that, Kevin ran to take some photos of a shrine we passed.

On the walk to the station, we passed a little side street with a row of tulips in every color. I had to whip out the camera for it!

 

Some of the later stations on the Namboku line we use are above ground. I love this tunnel look. The stations downtown look nothing like it. 

 

At Nakajima koen, we enjoyed a break with some onigiri at the Japanese garden part, which is my absolute favorite section of this large park.

 

From Nakajima koen, we walked downtown to Sapporo station. We wanted to check Bic Camera's used camera section (I've been hoping to see a heavily discounted Canon 5D mk iii in good condition) and then to Lavi soup curry in Esta on the 10th floor. 

  

We saw a group of people dressed as Mario characters driving around in carts. :D I love it!

People were taking pictures of them like crazy and snapping photos. Fun!

 

After the soup curry, a Sapporo only dish, we took the subway home and walked the long way home, passing by our playground park. 

 

Kevin did some stroller tricks which make Elisabeth laugh, and that makes me laugh. 

How can you not smile at a face like that?!

 

Ooooh and chunky legs in tights! Cute!

 

It was a really wonderful first mother's day. :)

 

Failed Hiraoka-koen adventure

Kevin had a 4 day weekend in honor of Golden week so we enjoyed lots of outside time this weekend. We puttered around our own little park here and enjoyed each other's company.

 The cherry blossom at our local Seishin riverside park had faded in the winds we had one night.. unfortunately. These were still hanging on though! :)

And there are some trees yet to bloom! Yay!

Tuesday, we set out to find Hiraoka koen/park. It's a trek when we googled it but walking has never scared us so off we set to the closest subway station and beyond. We had Kevin's map app to keep us on course...and we walked. 

Along the way, the flowers we passed were lovely. :)

 

Ok, so I really love daffodils and tulips! :)

Long story short, we got caught in this lovely whipping wind and rain storm. (note how far Mt Moiwa is, we were on the south side of it again...but faaaar)

 

Out of the blue, we found a little children's clothing store to wait out the rain in. Yay! Shopping! :) I could have bought the whole store but we only picked up a couple shirts for Elisabeth. 

Then we kept walking along our supposed route.. stopped and picked up lunch... kept walking... started wondering how far this park really is... sinking feeling we might be lost... omg where are we? ...well we might as well see what's out here... ok, there's seriously nothing out here anymore, just greenhouses and hills... uh oh. 

So yeah, long story short, we walked all together 4 hours that day, didn't find our park and missed it several kilometers in the wrong direction. OOOPS.

We ended up at a 711 and asked the cashier if she could call us a taxi (using our phrasebook since no one speaks English here) and then took a taxi to the subway station we came from. It was a 6 hour trek that day and we were exhausted by the time we came home. And bummed we missed our ume experience. 

Oh well. Perhaps next weekend. Bahahahhahhahahaha....

Grocery shopping in Sapporo

We have a three grocery stores in our area: Max Value (which is right at the Nakanoshima subway station and not stroller friendly), Co-Op down our street, and Seiyu (on Hiragishi dori).

Alueella on kolme ruokakauppa: max value (metroaseman vieressä), co-op (samalla kadulla) ja kauempana on Seiyu. 

We do our immediate needs shopping at the first two, but our big meal planning shopping at the Seiyu. The reason being, that the first two have a decent selection but Seiyu beats them out in both selection and price. 

Seiyussa teemme suurempia ostoksia, sillä siellä on paremmat valikoimat ja halvemmat hinnat. Toisista ostamme vain kiireessä ja päivittäistavarat esim. maitoa.
 
(After doing some googling by the by, I found out that Seiyu is actually a part of the Walmart big corporate thing. I don't know if I feel like this is a good or a bad thing, but whatevers!)

(on our walk home)

The other thing that I like a lot about Seiyu vs the others, is that there are two more floors of clothing and home stuff (a la walmart style), so if we need something (say, hangers), we can grab them there too. 

One stop shopping: the best.

Seiyusta saa myös muutakin tavaraa: kotijuttuja, vaatteita ym.
 

They also carry baby items, which most grocery stores don't. In fact, formula (if we fed her that), baby food (if she would eat it) etc can usually only be found in drug stores! I don't know if this is the case in some giant supermarkets (we've yet to see one), but it's kind of annoying that if I want to grab her some snacks that I have to make two stops. 

Also, our smaller grocery stores don't seem to carry all sizes or brands of diapers, wipes etc. Super irritating.

Täällä ostetaan yleensä vauvajutut esim. korviketta, vauvanruokaa jne apteekeista! Ei asia meitä kauheasti ole vaivanut, koska eihän toi tyttö ole koskaan kumpaakaan ottanut, mutta onhan se varmaan rasittavaa japanilaisten äitien mielestä käydä erikseen toisessa kaupassa. Vaippavalikoima pienissä ruokakaupoissa on huonoa, yleensä vain pari merkkiä tai yhtä kokoa. Seiyusta saa kaikkea niin senkin takia tykkään käydä siellä.

So on to what we bought.

Our meal planning this week was this:

pork curry donburi

ginger pork shogayaki

miso ramen

(beef) yakisoba (one of my favorites)

Tofu-veggie stir fry

Some meatballs for Elisabeth 

Eggs and bacon for Easter breakfast

Salmon dip ingredients for an appetizer to bring to the BBQ

Ostoslistalla siis tarvikkeet yllämainituille. Alhaalla sitten mitä ostettiin. 

This is what we came home with:

The Libero diapers we brought with us are running out, so time to try some Japanese Pampers. We also ran out of wipes, so I did some research and found out how to look for alcohol and paraben free wipes.

Elisabeth WILL NOT eat baby food, so the only "for baby" items we buy for her are these snacky foods that she gets at home or when we are out and about around town.

Liberovaipat loppuu, Pampersit tilalle. Myös Liberon wet wipesit loppumassa, uudet tilalle! Löysin blogin, jossa kerrotaan miten ostaa alkoholittomia jne niin helpotti ostospäätöstä, kun osasi oikeita sanoja etsiä paketista. Sitten myös vauvanaksu-keksejä vauvoille. Näistä Elisabeth tykkää ja ne on helppoja ottaa mukaan kaupungille! 

We picked up lunch since we were starving at this point. All this sushi for only 284 yen and 378 yen. So we had a sushi lunch that was amazing good (blows US and Finnish sushi outta the water) for only 652 yen, we had a sushi lunch. That's about $6.52 and even less in euros. Woot!?

N. 5 eurolla saatiin sushilounaan. Maistui paremmalle kuin Suomen ja USA:n sushit yhteensä ja oli vain ruokakauppatavaraa. 

Our meat products: bacon, pork, pork belly, pork for ramen, beef, salmon, ground chicken and in the middle naruto (a fish cake) for ramen. 

Lihatuotteet: pekonia, possua, possua, possua (rameniin), naudanlihaa, lohta, kanan jauheliha ja naruto keskellä (joka on siis öö kalajuttua jota laitetaan ramenin päälle).
 

Dairy/protein: Tofu, eggs, milk, yogurt (hopefully not as sweet as others we've tried), cream cheese

(what's up great value brand lol)

 Maitotuotteet ym: tofu (joo ei ole maitotuote), kananmunia, maitoa, jogurttia (toivottavasti ei yhtä makeaa kuin muut jota ollaan kokeiltu!), tuorejuustoa.

Our plastic wrapped produce: tomatoes, onion, carrots, maitake mushrooms, ginger, bean sprouts, cucumber, potatoes, shredded cabbage.

The tomatoes are about $2.85, onions, carrots and potatoes were about $1.85, the three little cucumbers were about $1.50, the bag of cabbage was about $1.00. The cheapest items were the mushrooms 67 yen each ($0.67) and the bean sprouts at 26 yen ($0.26). 

 Muoviin pakatut vihannekset: tomaattia, sipulia, porkkanaa, maitake-sieniä, inkivääriä, pavun ituja, japanilaista kurkkua, perunaa, kaaliraaste.

To me, the price of carrots, onions, and potatoes is crazy. Teeny weeny bags for way more than I'd ever spend in Finland. That's the difference I guess in cuisine as well though? Finns eat a lot of potatoes! 

Hinnoiltaan tomaatit voi verrata Suomeen, mutta kalliimmat ovat perunat, sipulit ja porkkanat. Prismassa saa kyllä enemmän kuin kilo perunoita reiluun euroon! Me saatiin 5 pientä perunaa. :D
Halvempia ovat sienet (reilusti alle euron) ja idut, jotka ois Suomessa ollut niin halpoja, ettei kukaan uskaltaisi ostaa, kun niissä on varmaan vikaa. ;) 

The fruit section here is also very limited in my opinion. Apples and oranges are easily $1.00 or more EACH and a small bag of them is about $5.00. Crazy! I have yet to see pears or much else. We do buy bananas however (just not this time), and they're more affordable at about $2 for a little bag. 

We also had at home already some garlic, which is about $2 for a few heads. 

Hedelmät ovat ihan hullun kallita täällä, eikä valikoima yleensä ole parempi kuin banaani, omena ja appelsiini. 

Pantry and other items: 

Banana chips, chocolate cookies (I'm obsessed with this brand, they have so many flavors and I love them with my naptime coffee), sugar (we haven't bought any yet!), wasabi, prunes (Elisabeth needs them!), bread, corn (for ramen), fresh ramen (that go in the fridge), sesame oil,  and green onions (because I forgot them in the picture above ugh).

The bread here comes in small bags (only 5-6 slices) and is ginormous and THICK. You can however also buy a small loaf and cut it yourself, but we don't eat that much bread, just with breakfast a couple times a week, so this suits us fine. 

They also ONLY seems to sell super white bread. :P It's delicious but not nutritious. Oh well...

Muut ostokset:
Banaanilastuja, suklaakeksejä (kahvin kanssa nam!), sokeria (ei olla ostettu vielä), wasabi-tahnaa, luumuja Elisabethille, leipää, maissia (rameniin), itse ramen-nuudeleita (jääkaappitavaraa), seesamiöljy ja edellisestä kuvasta unohtuneet kevätsipulipussit. 
Leipävalikoima on rajoittunut vaaleaan leipään. Vaaleampaa kuin ranskanleipää! Pienissä pusseissa on vain 5-6 siivua, mutta siivut täällä ovat ainakin 3cm paksut ja puolet isompia kuin Suomessa. Saa toki ihan kokonaistakin leipää ostaa, mutta ei me tota pullaa usein syödä niin ollaan hyllylle jätetty. 
 

We have a teeny-weeny fridge, so here's a shot of what's in it. :D 

Pieneen jääkaappiin kyllä mahtuu...

Top shelf: Eggs, yogurt, mushrooms, ramen, leftovers, butter

Middle shelf: meat, ramen, cucumbers, leftover rice, meat, bacon (hidden in back, miso)

Bottom: potatoes, bean sprouts, leftover spinach, carrots, salad dressing, yakisoba sauce, soy sauce, green onions

Door top: baby food that needs to get tossed since Elisabeth didn't like it, condiments for rice, cream cheese, Japanese mustard, ginger, curry roux cubes. 

Door bottom: Sapporo Classic (only found in Sapporo), milk, green tea (Kevin loves it!)

Ylähyllyllä: kananmunia, jogurttia, sieniä, ramenia, edellisen illan ruuat, voita
Keskihyllyllä: lihaa, ramenia, kurkkua, keitettyä riisiä, lihaa, pekonia ja piillossa takana misoa.
Alahyllyllä: perunoita, ituja, pinaattia, porkkanoita, salaatinkastike, yakisoba-kastiketta, soijaa, kevätsipulia
Ovessa ylhäällä: roskiin menevää vauvanruokaa, riisin mausteita, tuorejuustoa, inkivääriä, japanlaista sinappia, curry-kastikekuutioita
Alhaalla ovessa: Sapporo Classic olutta (saatavilla vain Sapporossa), maitoa, vihreä teetä. 

Time to get ready for our party so I'm gonna have to end it here! 

Be back soon hopefully! :)

Lupaan kääntää myöhemmin! Pian alkavat grillipippalot alakerrassa! :)

This week's recap

Wow, this week flew by! 

Just another regular week here. Elisabeth took some great naps earlier (3+ hours!) and I took advantage of my alone time by spending it on pinterest (lol), drinking LOOOOOOOTS of coffee, learning more Japanese, and crocheting!

Highlights of this week:

On Monday, I did laundry. It took LITERALLY ALL DAY to do it. I had two loads going, one without a dry cycle (it's a 2-in-1 machine) and one with. The without one (Kevin's shirts) took a few hours to wash (no friggin' quick cycle?!), and the one with...oh, I don't know. 

Like seriously, I lost count. 

I started it sometime early afternoon, maybe noonish? It wasn't done till like after 6 pm. Oh, but they were still wet... so I split the load and put it into two machines and set the dry cycle. Ummm it went until sometime in the morning when Kevin went and got it. I dread doing laundry now! Every time it's something new with those machines. GRR!

I thought these appliances were supposed to make our lives easier? It really makes me miss my fantastic beautiful 7kg Samsung washer at home, complete with a quick cycle that washes in 1h 6min. It even sings when it's done! ♥ Oh, and our dryer downstairs... ONE hour! ONE! ...sigh, these are just some of those homesick things...

Tuesday...I don't even remember what I did Tuesday. Is that bad?

Wednesday, we went to the grocery store and picked up dinner for a couple nights while Kevin was at school. (Tofu stir fry & beef yakisoba) I love going to the grocery store with a plan. We spend MUCH LESS and get MUCH MORE it seems. What's not to love about that?

Thursday and Friday, we did the usual walk around our closest playground (closer than the one I've shown before), it's just 2 little blocks away. :)

On both days Elisabeth decided I was spoiled with long naps and free time and decided I ought to spend more time getting her to sleep than she actually sleeps. Oh fun! I love to meander around the neighborhood for an hour while she sleeps for 30 min...

Saturday, we went grocery shopping in the morning (and bought a ton of stuff) and then in the afternoon, we went downtown to Bic Camera (which is more than cameras) and then walked to find an H&M near Odori park, then came home and made pork curry donburi again and hung out with our neighbors.
(H&M here has some pretty different stuff than Finland!)

Today, we ate a wonderful Easter breakfast (bacon, eggs & toast) and then took a walk again. It's SUPER warm today, very sunny and for once (!) not windy! Perfect weather for our afternoon/evening which will be the building's BBQ! :) It's in celebration of spring as well as a goodbye and welcome party for neighbors (including us!)!
Sounds like fun to see what a Japanese BBQ party is like! :)

I'm going to try to find time (since it didn't happen this week) to blog about some topics and I've even been taking pictures for them and all. Woot?! I've never been a "planning" blogger before, but my how things change.
Upcoming topics I want to blog about:

• what we bought at the grocery store/grocery store info in general
• our neighborhood and the houses here
• our experiences of traveling with a baby -- a first look (since we're not too far into this yet)

Now here's the fun part... tell me what you want me to blog about! :)
Yes, you!
I will do my best to cover the topic if I can!
Just leave a comment on this post, send me a message on facebook/skype/email or whatever social media you know me from!

Can't wait to hear from you!
(otherwise this blog might be a little...boring if it's just about our day to day walks and laundry debacles!)

Who can tell me what bird is in this photo?
Mikä lintu kuvassa? 

Suomeksi melkein sama: 

Viikon alussa Elisabeth nukkui ihanat pitkät päikkärit (3+ tuntia), jolloin sain aikaseksi blogata, juoda liikaa kahvia, virkata ja oleskella netissä. Ihanaa! Viikko menikin tosi nopeasti ihan vaan kotona ollessa.

Maanantaina pesin pyykkiä. Suomessa se on ehkä lempikotityö, täällä se on ehkä kamalin. Siihen menee KOKO PÄIVÄ, eikä ne pyykit edes kuivu (koneet sekä pesee että kuivaa). Koti-ikävää on eniten kun ajattelee 1) elukat ja 2) Samsung pyykinpesukone ♥

Tiistaita en muista... ööö.

Keskiviikkona mentiin ruokakauppaan Elisabethin kans ja ostettiin parin päivän ruuat. Kauppalistan ateriat olivat tofu-vokki ja naudanliha yakisoba (nuudelijuttu). Tätä ei voi englanniksi ilmaista, mutta aina kun syön seuraavana päivänä lounaaksi edellisen illan tofu-vokkia, tulee sana mieleen: riisipöperö. :D 

Torstai ja perjantai meni siihen, että päivän jatkuva tavoite oli saada tytön unille. Haahuilin ympäri lähikatuja aina tunti kerralla ja neiti nukkui makeat 30 minuuttia. On se kivaa meille kaikille kun 7.30-9.00 välillä on vaan 2-3 päikkäriä ja kaikki kestänyt 30min. :P 

Lauantaina käytiin aamulla ruokaostoksilla (ostettiin paljon kaikkea!) ja iltapäivällä keskustassa shoppailemassa Bic Camerassa (joka ei ole vain kamerakauppa) ja sitten H&M:lle. Jossa siis paljon kaikenlaista mitä Suomessa ei ole. Sitten syötiin possu-curry riisikulhoa ja hengailtiin naapureitten kanssa.

Tänään syötiin pääsiäisaamupalan: pekonia, kananmunia ja paahtoleipää ja sitten mentiin "nukutuslenkille". Nyt se parvekkeella nukkuu ja toivon mukaan nukkuu kauankin! Kerrankin ei tuule ja on ihanan lämmin ja aurikoista!

Iltapäivällä alkaa talon grillijuhlat/läksiäiset/tervetuliaiset (?) ja uskon, että se tulee olemaan tosi hauskaa nähdä millaiset japanilaiset grillikekkerit on! :) 

Toivon mukaan saan aikaa lähipäivänä bloggailla lisää. Aiheeksi olen suunnitellut jo (siis en yleensä näitä postauksia suunnittele):

• mitä ostetaan ruokakaupasta/ruokakaupoista yleensäkin infoa
• naapurustoa ja täkäläisten taloista
• kokemuksemme vauvan kanssa matkustamisesta (näin vähän karkeasti, koska olemme vielä alussa asian kanssa)

Mutta, nyt jotain kivaa! Ehdottakaa ihmeessä minulle aiheita, josta haluatte kuulla lisää! Lupaan tehdä parhaani löytää tietoa ja kertomista asiasta! :) 

Minusta vain vähän tuntuu, että blogista saattaa tulla tylsähkö jos on vain meidän arjesta (päiväunista ja pyykistä). ;)

Laittakaa kommenttia tähän tai viestiä facebookiin/skypeen/s-postiin! 

Rainy day

The wind was kicking and it was pretty cloudy and rainy this morning. Thankfully, the clouds parted enough for us to get to the store and pick up milk (and ice cream!) without getting a drop on us. Yay! It was like a double whammy, Elisabeth fell asleep in the stroller and is continuing her nap as I type.

I'm taking this ice cream challenge seriously and Kevin is jumping on board with it too. Duh, who wouldn't?! 

So amongst our Japanese leek and spinach, Hokkaido milk, and dashi stock sachets, was this little box of heaven. I say that, because it was one of the best green tea ice creams I've ever had. Mind you, I like green tea ice cream! (We've been eating our share of ice cream before it's made its way to the blog...!) 

They're called Parm and made by Morinaga company. (it's a milk company apparently, they make everything from ice cream to formula!) They are also the makers of Pino, which are featured in the link I posted yesterday.

They're also pretty small. Definitely good for portion control. It means I can have one every few hours and not feel bad. ;) Huehuehue.

We also picked up chocolate melon bread. It's a sweet bun with cookie dough on top. You can read a better description here. It didn't taste like melon at all (the name comes from the way it looks), but apparently some do! Kevin's been on a search for melon bread, he had some high hopes for it. We've tried something similar, but with a whipped cream and custard filling. YUM! 

The grocery store by our house, co-op. Not the most flattering angle, but like I told Kevin, it's a phone camera, I'm not trying to win awards with these pictures today.

The view from their parking lot. I love the mountains!

And we've been noticing the attention to detail here. Most of the man holes and little covers on the street and sidewalk have designs on them. I particularly liked this one. :)

The soccer field has pretty much no snow on it. And in general, the streets are more and more bare. I looooove that we're really getting into spring now! The weather next week is supposed to be up to +15C (59F) during the day and sunny!

Speaking of sun, it keeps poking its head out through the clouds. Maybe we'll go for a proper walk when Elisabeth wakes up or if it's still sunny around sunset. :) 

Oh yeah, the translation.

Taisin eilen unohtaa suomentamisen! Hupsista!

Eilen siis aiheena oli rutiinehin asettuminen, kävelystämme kuvia ja jäätelöhaasteesta. 

Tänään siis kokeiltu uusi jäätelö: valkosuklaakuorutteinen vihreä tee-vanilja! 

Melonileipä. Joka ei siis meloneilta maistu, eikä sen välttämättä kuuluisikaan.

Co-op, meidän lähiruokakauppa ja maisema parkkipaikoilta. En kyllästy ikinä näihin vuorimaisemiin.

Täällä on koristeellisia yksityiskohtia joka puolella, jos niitä vain etsii. 

Jalkapallokenttä on sitten virallisesti jo sula. Muutenkin viime viikon lumi, +5-10 C lukemat päivällä ja tämän päiväisen sateet ovat saaneet paljon lunta pois katujen varrelta ym. Ihana kun kevät tulee! 

P.S. forecan mukaan, Tampereen ja Sapporon ilmat on aika samanlaiset tällä viikolla!