Category Archives: home stuff

Bunko and Obon

Posted on by

We were pretty much holed up inside our home the whole day. Hubs was pretty busy cutting up his books, scanning it and uploading in his Dropbox application so he can retrieve it in either his iPhone or iPad with the ibunko app. By scanning books, we can save up some room in the house (if a person buys an average of 10 books a week, you can pretty much imagine how his house looks like) and he can read them whenever or wherever he likes. Of course his favorite books won’t be dissected.

So since he’ll be cutting books, you can imagine how big his cutter was. Honestly though, I didn’t imagine the cutter to be as big as this! I was pretty confused with the size of the box when I was signing the delivery form.

20110820-111056.jpg

And I was pretty impressed with the scanner Hubs ordered from Amazon. It can scan a back to back paper in just a second, without having to flip the paper to scan the other side like the one we had in the office.

20110820-111337.jpg

Fruit of Hubs’ labor today. From iBunko App

20110820-111925.jpg

Bunko by the way is a small sized paperback that’s pretty popular here in Japan.

Having had stayed inside the house the whole day, we were surprised that outside our the house, a festival was ongoing in the open field just a few steps from our apartment. Thankful that we had to go out for dinner, otherwise we would have missed this traditional Japanese event.

Obon Odori (お盆 盆踊り) is one of the summer festivals in Japan. Obon is the Buddhist tradition of honoring the dead and it involves Odori or dancing. Most of the participants (basically our neighbors) were wearing their summer kimonos.

20110820-113910.jpg

20110820-113923.jpg

It’s a good time for neighbors to bond as well.

20110820-114247.jpg

We dropped by the Obon Odori when we were on our way out. Later, laden with heavy purchases from the grocery, we were able to catch the last part of the Odori for a (very) short video.

Happy weekend everyone!

talk about home

Posted on by

If you have Six Million Philippine Pesos, it would go a long way in the Philippines if you’re planning to buy a house and lot and decorate it besides.

But we’re not based in the Philippines and we have to plan accordingly based on where we are based. Now, Japan. And if you live in the city like we do, and a city close to Tokyo at that, real estate prices really do skyrocket. Our previous researches points to houses with area of ~60sq.m. that’s priced at roughly (tadaan!) 60 MILLION YEN.

And that’s just the house. You have to buy your furnitures and home fixtures and home decors right? Plus the curtains, the carpet, the rugs, the linen. And of course you need to have those home interior goodies coordinate and compliment with each other in terms of colors and theme right?

I was window shopping yesterday in Bo Concept in Queens. I was daydreaming already as I walked around the place (and I’d say they have such a huge place for their display) and wondering how much should we earn for us to have our dream home already. The good store lady gave me a brochure. Guess, I’ll continue daydreaming with that.

Earlier, I was complaining about the expensive furnitures here in Japan with some colleagues and Teof recommended I go visit Nitori in Jack’s Mall. He said though that it would be good to browse their website first.

And boy it was such a good suggestion. The website told me it’s not a bad idea to dream, alright.

Do browse. http://www.nitori.co.jp/en/index.html

I love their digital catalogues. And I most love the kitchen part. Do check out the oh-so-convenient cupboards. Even if you’re of a petite stature, you don’t have to get a chair or a small ladder just so you can access your cupboards.

Ja. It’s 11:45 pm now. I guess it’s high time to continue dreaming about our dream house.

Happy dreaming minna-san (everyone)!

on sales and sheets

Posted on by

The summer sale is just so crazy this year. Everywhere you look, there’s a nice piece of garment or accessory to catch your eye, discounted at such a very reasonable price (even as low as 50%!) making it quite difficult for you to refuse. It doesn’t help as well that the city is just teeming with shops selling women’s clothes and shoes and bags and accessories. A good timing for the bargain sale as well since most companies give out half of the year’s bonus around this time of the year. Or was this the sole reason malls and shops time the sale during this period? But then again, as hubby pointed out, there are lots of sale periods in the country throughout the year. There’s the Charming Sale; The New Year sale where you can get really good bargain with them happy bags if you’re lucky enough and well the Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter bargain sale. LOL.

Anyway, sale season are such a boon especially when you’re still on the look for home items to stuff your home with. Curtains for one are just so EXPENSIVE here in Japan that you’d want to wait for the bargain before buying one. I haven’t seen one that I like yet though. And well, the question really is “how do you buy curtains??”.

Anyhow, our objective this summer sale was more on linen for the bed. We need to have an alternate for our organic-themed bedcovers. Fell in love with this. Pink-themed Burberry linen. Heart.

Loved this as well!!

But alas, Burberry wasn’t on sale.

Thankfully though, we found this lovely futton/comforter cover. Just perfect for our pink and brown theme at home. When we fitted it in, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the underside is of pink and brown stripes design. It’s as if underneath the beautiful chaos is organized beauty. Heart.

And bed cover!

One thing we’ve noticed though ever since changing the sheets. It’s been really difficult to wake up in the mornings. Soo sleepy yet!

furniture leg socks

Posted on by

When our dining set was delivered to us, Watanabe-san put some thin brown cardboard on the bottom of each table and chair leg so as to protect the wooden floor from any scratches when we move the furnitures during usage. Alas though, it appears it wasn’t enough.

So I finally bought our furnitures some socks. I wanted the brown-pink pattern, consistent with our house motif, but the packs the shop has for the pretty brown-pink pattern weren’t enough to cover all our dining chairs’ legs. Hence, I opted for this one.

I tagged this as “only in Japan” since it was in Japan that I saw these first, some 7 years ago I think. I do believe though, that these socks are already available in Manila.

 

on towel holders, formalities and melons

Posted on by

On paper towel holders. Scoured the whole of Gumyoji, Bandobashi and Kannai for 100 yen shops but I still haven’t found the paper towel wooden holder I had in mind. Similar to this one, yes.

I bought one during my Japan stint last 2007 in a 100-yen shop but I just couldn’t find a wooden one now (they have the metal and plastic ones). I can buy in upscale malls but somehow I can’t accept that I am buying something that costs more when I can buy the same kind in a 100-yen shop (not all 100yen goodies are of good quality though). The one above sells at £3.49. So, the search continues…

On formalities. Now, whenever an acquaintance, say an office acquaintance you have only just met recently would ask you “how are you?” I think one would instantly reply, “i’m good” or “i’m ok” without really thinking about your current emotional or physical state. For some, the how-are-you question is more like the small talk that’s prelude to more small talk. You don’t really think about what you answer. Anyways, when you’re asked the how-are-you question, etiquette would make you ask the same question back. And if ever you encounter a person who deeply thinks about his/her answer to your how-are-you question and who may answer more than “i’m good” or “i’m ok”, do listen closely. True people like them are hard to find.

On latest craze. It’s the melon season. You can buy a perfectly-ripened-can-eat-immediately whole melon at 200yen. I was afraid to buy at first because I don’t know how to judge if it’s ripe already or not. I took the plunge. And it was worth it. Perfect for our 1st month celeb.

down the chute

Posted on by

I think a lot of people would agree with me when I say that when it comes to packaging, food presentation, food decoration et al, the Japanese is the leader of the pack. The amount of detail they exert on every packaging is nothing short of amazing. Me and my friends usually say sometimes (when for the nth time we were amazed with the packaging), “the Japanese really think of everything!”. And even for simple household stuff, the packaging can be quite a pleasant surprise sometimes.

Take for one the common salt. I still wasn’t able to buy us a cute (yes, it has to be cute) containers for the kitchen and yet I have to buy salt already. No worries, the salt already comes in a good packaging, that’s good enough for display.

Pull the tab. It says “akekuchi” meaning, opening point.

Pry open using a fingernail.

And voila! Salt can now go out the chute. So handy.

Dandy.