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15 Nov 09
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Sale in the eleventh monkey shop! Everything is 33% off for a whole month (sale ends December 14)! So all creatures originally priced at $22.00 are now selling for $14.74, and creatures originally priced at $11.00 are selling for $7.37! And I’m also giving away little presents handmade ... |
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15 Nov 09
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New creatures on the block Added a bunch of new awkward creatures to my shop. Meet my new monkeys: Mel, Max, Tess and Bart. Also Rosa the Bear, Ben the Bear, Noel the Giraffe and Naomi the Giraffe.I loved the wedding bears and I really wanted to add a few bears to my shop, I... |
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10 Nov 09
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The youngest certified NLP trainer in the world Last month Yasu got officially certified as an NLP trainer. He received his certificate last Saturday and he is now the youngest NLP trainer in the world! Needless to say I am very proud of him and he’s very proud of himself too!By the way NLP stands f... |
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09 Nov 09
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Vote for my brother! My brother Djamo is an amazing guitarist and all he wants to do is play his guitar and perform on a stage. He has just entered a contest called ‘In Search of a Band’. An artist called Tim Vanhamel has booked gigs for 2010, but he doesn’t have a ba... |
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05 Nov 09
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The Circle Although Bon Jovi is supposed to release their new album on November 10th in some countries ‘The Circle’ is already available, including Japan. According to the poster in the CD store the album was set to come out tomorrow, yet I bought it there t... |
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05 Nov 09
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Pool There are many things I suck at but I love to do, like singing, dancing and playing pool! As a high school student and young university student I used to play a lot of pool. I always performed poorly yet it was always fun. Today I finally tried again, my... |
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04 Nov 09
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Apples Dan J recently blogged about Japan’s surprisingly huge pears. It’s true, most fruit in the supermarket looks super-sized to my Dutch eyes. But apparently that’s not all they have in Japan, they also have tiny-sized fruit:I got the super apple ... |
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04 Nov 09
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No more Bon Jovi concerts for me? I have been to many concerts and was planning on going to many more concerts. During those concerts I’ve always been able to enjoy the band from up close, mostly thanks to the privileges that come with being a member of the official fan club and so... |
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16 Oct 09
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Wedding bears One of my coworkers is getting married this Sunday and today I’m giving her these two bears to celebrate that fact: Actually, she’s already been married for several months but she hasn’t had her wedding ceremony yet. But this is normal in Japan.Ja... |
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14 Oct 09
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New creatures Usually my most recent creation is my favorite and right now that is Hannah the Horse. It took me a while to make her because I was reluctant to try sewing on her manes because I was afraid it wouldn’t look right. But I didn’t have to worry, becau... |
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11 Oct 09
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eleventh monkey at the Cup Noodle Museum Of course I couldn’t resist making another Cup Noodle myself when I took Yasu to the Cup Noodle Museum today, and very predictably I decorated my cup with eleven monkeys: |
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11 Oct 09
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Yasu at the Cup Noodle Museum Yasu loves his instant ramen and ever since I visited the Cup Noodle Museum with my family in 2008, I have wanted to take Yasu there. And today I did. And he loved it.The best thing you can do at ‘The Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum’ (the official ... |
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04 Oct 09
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eleventh monkey out in the world The plushies in my eleventh monkey shop describe themselves as a a bunch of slightly awkward creatures looking for new friends out in the world. Some of them have already found new friends out there, and those friends have been photographing their... |
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04 Oct 09
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My 'first' sale Since I’ve opened my shop on Etsy I’ve made a small number of sales, and my customers were all people I know, like family, friends and students. Of course I’m very happy they’re supporting my little shop and that they like my creatures enough to b... |
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28 Sep 09
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Baby the Human My mother is my best customer. Recently she made another request for a baby of the human kind, as a gift for a pregnant friend. It was a bit different than sewing animals, but I like the result. Like the others he or she also looks slightly akward, but... |
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27 Sep 09
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Tea mail Today the mailman surprised me with a big pink box from the Netherlands. And inside was an even bigger surprise: 240 bags of Pickwick Cactus tea!! It’s without a doubt the best tea in the world and I always brought back a small suplly of cactus tea fr... |
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17 Sep 09
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Sewing at home, at Starbucks and at school These days I’m slowly updating my blog, but mostly I’m sewing, everywhere. Currently, I’m sewing cats and dogs for my Etsy shop and I’m almost ready to put most of them some on sale. But I just wanted share some (low quality taken with my iPhone) ... |
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16 Sep 09
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New update: Saturday in the Netherlands So many things to blog about, so many trips and visits and so many other things to do in my free time instead of blogging... It's hard to keep up, but I'm going to continue to try!NEW: Saturday in the NetherlandsNetherlands updates: R.I.P. Opa, Back,... |
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15 Sep 09
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New Netherlands update: Oma's grave & Opa's funeral So many things to blog about, so many trips and visits and so many other things to do in my free time instead of blogging... It's hard to keep up, but I'm going to continue to try!NEW: Oma's grave, Opa's funeralNetherlands updates: R.I.P. Opa, Back,... |
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15 Sep 09
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Opa's funeral Today was my grandfather’s funeral. We already attended his wake Saturday night. He looked different from what I remember. He was much thinner and his skin was yellow due to his fatal liver disease, so at first it was a bit hard to recognize him. But so... |
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15 Sep 09
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Oma's grave Coming home for my grandfather’s funeral allowed me to also visit my grandmother’s grave who passed away in February. I wasn’t able to attend her funeral, but I did say goodbye to her in the hospice over the Christmas holidays.So today we went to... |
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11 Sep 09
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Minicards Almost two weeks ago, I ordered some minicards from Moo.com, and they arrived this morning!They look absolutely stunning and they are super sturdy. They will serve as super colorful business cards for my Etsy shop. I’m going to punch little bear-shap... |
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10 Sep 09
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New Japan update: Minke and Eelco's last night So many things to blog about, so many trips and visits and so many other things to do in my free time instead of blogging... It's hard to keep up, but I'm going to continue to try!NEW: Minke and Eelco's last nightNetherlands updates: R.I.P. Opa, Back,... |
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10 Sep 09
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Minke and Eelco's last night Of course, I couldn’t let Minke and Eelco leave without doing some purikura with them. We’ve wanted to do this earlier and we tried, but things got in the way, like the lines we too long, or we needed to catch the last train, or we couldn’t ... |
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08 Sep 09
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Forever trying to catch up... So many things to blog about, so many trips and visits and so many other things to do in my free time instead of blogging... It's hard to keep up, but I'm going to continue to try!NEW: Minke and Eelco in KobeNetherlands updates: R.I.P. Opa, Back,... |
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08 Sep 09
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Minke and Eelco in Kobe Kobe is Japan’s sixth largest city and the capital of Hyogo prefecture (where Yasu lives). Kobe is a port city and was one of the first cities to open for trade with other countries. These day it’s famous for being cosmopolitan, its Chinatown and... |
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07 Sep 09
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Bella the Cat I made my first request item: a black cat. She was requested by my sweet mother but it was a request item nonetheless. It’s a present for a leaving coworker and I wanted to name an give her a personality, but because it was my first time using Alchemy ... |
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06 Sep 09
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Felt skulls for Halloween Halloween is on it’s way so I made some colorful felt skulls for my etsy shop. I know Halloween things are supposed to be scary, but I prefer life a little less frightening so I tried to make them cute rather than creepy. |
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02 Sep 09
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the eleventh monkey I’ve been really slow at updating my blog lately, and it’s not because I’m lazy but because I’ve been making this:After our visit to an artsy neighborhood in Seoul I got inspired and started making my own little stuffed creatures, for fun but... |
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01 Sep 09
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Minke and Eelco in Tsukamoto On the last day Minke and Eelco are spending with us in Japan, they finally visited my little apartment. We hadn’t had the time so far because of all the busy sightseeing, but we managed to squeeze it in today.And we also managed to squeeze the four of ... |
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28 Aug 09
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Minke and Eelco at a Japanese game center When we got back to Osaka we had some time to kill before dinner, so we introduced Minke and Eelco to a Japanese game center. The most enjoyable in such a game center are always the taiko drums, where you have to play the drums in time with music. Yasu... |
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26 Aug 09
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MInke and Eelco in Nara In Nara we visited the famous Buddhist temple complex called Todai-ji. The Great Buddha Hall is the largest wooden building in the world and inside it has the world’s largest statue of Buddha, known as Daibutsu. And of course this temple is also listed ... |
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23 Aug 09
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Hiroshima-yaki Okonimiyaki is a very popular dish in Japan. Osaka-style okonomiyaki is prepared much like a pancake. The batter and other ingredients usually things like cabbage, ginger, green onion, pork and squid are fried on both sides on a hot plate using metal... |
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23 Aug 09
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A-Bomb Dome On August 6, 1945 at 8:15 the nuclear bomb Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima, directly killing an estimated 80,000 people. About 70% of the city’s buildings were completely destroyed and the rest severely damaged. The A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima is ... |
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20 Aug 09
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Miyajima So I turned 29 today and we celebrated this with a trip to Hiroshima in the west of Japan to see the famous Floating Shrine. Itsukushima Shrine is a Shinto shrine on the island of Itsukushima, more popularly known as Miyajima, in the Inland Sea of Japan... |
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19 Aug 09
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Celebrating #29 Another birthday, another year closer to thirty, my last year as a twenty-something.Just after midnight Yasu serenaded me with a Dutch birthday song (Lang zal ze leven), and it was impressive! Only in the end he substituted the ‘hieperdepiep hoera’ ... |
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18 Aug 09
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Minke and Eelco at Hanabi in Uji During the summer in Japan fireworks festivals (hanabi matsuri) are held nearly everyday someplace in the country, in total numbering more than 200 during the month of August. The festivals consist of large fireworks shows which usually last for about an... |
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16 Aug 09
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Minke and Eelco at Kyoto's Fushimi Inari Taisha Next on our Kyoto schedule was Fushimi Inari Taisha. Fushimi Inari is the head shrine of Inari sitting at the base of a mountain with many trails up the mountain leading to smaller shrines. Inari is the god of business so many businesses donate torii... |
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15 Aug 09
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Minke and Eelco at Kyoto's Kiyomizudera Minke and Eelco’s first full day had to be spent in quintessential Japan, so of course we went to Kyoto, the former imperial capital of Japan. And even though it was rainy today, Kyoto was still as beautiful and mystical as it has always has been. Aft... |
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09 Aug 09
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Minke and Eelco in Osaka Minke and Eelco are here! They arrived at KIX airport at 8:55 this morning, took a bus to Osaka and then met me at the bus stop in Umeda! I’ve been looking forward to their visit for quite a while, so it was really good to see them! Fresh of the plan... |
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06 Aug 09
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Root canal I’m afraid of the dentist, it’s not a secret. The dentist usually pokes around my mouth with sharp instruments and drills something eerily near my tongue... Just thinking about it is enough to make me cry which is why I avoid going to the dentist.... |
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06 Aug 09
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Together I spent the morning with my grandmother. We went grocery shopping and like all the million other times I’ve been grocery shopping with her we arrived at the store before it opened and chatted with all the other early birds. We also took care of some la... |
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04 Aug 09
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Back After finding out about my grandfather’s passing things have been a bit of a blur, but somehow I went to work a day later, made the final decision about going home, taught some lessons, booked a flight in between lessons and got things ready at work f... |
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02 Aug 09
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Bag of Dutch groceries Tomomi went to Europe for her Golden Week holidays, more specifically to Belgium and a small visit to the Netherlands! She knows I’m not planning a trip home for at least another year so she asked me for a list of Dutch things I missed so she could bri... |
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02 Aug 09
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The Utage Another one of my students told me about the Utage 2009, an international food festival held on a island near Osaka port. That seemed very interesting to us, so we went on the last day of the festival. It turned out to be pretty expensive because we had... |
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01 Aug 09
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Slow but steady Updating the blog as often as I can, especially with Obon coming up. Finished the Korea updates and hope to start the Netherlands' updates soon...NEW: Oude KaasNetherlands updates: R.I.P. OpaJapan updates: Oude Kaas, Fruity Mother's... |
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01 Aug 09
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Oude Kaas One of my students took my advice to try a Dutch pancake restaurant in Osaka, and showed me the pictures of the pancake he tried. Just seeing it sparked a desire in me to go that restaurant as soon as possible. So we did. We’ve been to Oude Kaas (Dut... |
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22 Jul 09
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Eclipse On my birthday in 1999, we traveled to France to see a total solar eclipse, armed with our special protective glasses, we waited staring up the sky, but all we saw were clouds. It got very dark for a few minutes, but we never saw the eclipse let alone the... |
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15 Jul 09
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Saying goodbye to Jungwon How we wished we had booked a longer vacation in Seoul, we’re not sure why we didn’t because we don’t have to work until Thursday... Being in Seoul for three more days would even be cheaper than spending them in Japan. And we’ve had so much fun... |
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15 Jul 09
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Our last night in Seoul We did a lot today but we had so many more plans for today, like seeing some Hi Seoul Festival ceremony, some Blue House where the president lives and works and have another meal of galbi. But somehow we ran out of time and all we wanted was some dinner... |
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