…to Rottnest Island!! It’s only half an hour by ferry! I rode on the Oceanic Cruises ferry, and i can say it was very nice! It looks pretty spiffy but it’s only $56 return, much cheaper than the other, less attractive ferries.

I was given the opportunity to go to Rottnest for free today for some work, so i snapped up the opportunity. Work only took 30 mins and i had the rest of the afternoon to look around by myself. It had been 23 years since i had last been there and it had changed alot from what i remembered.

It’s very popular for tourists, there were hundreds. Once i went away from the main settlement (where the cafe’s and shops were) though, i was pretty much alone except for the odd bicyclist. I walked up to The Basin, a little bay that had a small beach and some rocks.

The Basin

Beach in The Basin, Rottnest

While i was there a group of young Japanese males came along and decided to strip off down to their underwear and take the plunge into the water! I was pretty amazed considering Japanese are known for their shyness around others, especially in front of foreign women!

Japanese Guys Stripping

Quokka

Oceanic Cruises Ferry

I would also like to introduce you to the famouse Cheese & Vegemite Sausage Roll found only at the bakery on Rottnest Island! It’s not very Vegemitey, only just enough for taste, but very interesting nevertheless! (Michelle, i hope you’re taking note of this!!) haha

Cheese & Vegemite sausage roll

Azuma Healing

The photo above represents my new journey in life: my new business!!

After training as a Reiki healer and healing my friends and family, and most importantly myself, i decided to set up a business from home. I love Reiki, i wanted to heal others who need healing.

I have been busily working away on my website all week. It is now on the web www.azumahealing.com and i’m just adding the final touches to it! I’m getting my business cards printed up and now i just have to start advertising.

I have some Japan-themed books i would like to give away for free. A couple have never been read. I would rather give them away to people who would use them and get some value out of them than chuck them out.

If you want any of the books below, comment on this post and i will grab your email from the comment and email the details to you.

I can post to you if you want, but it will be at your cost.

FREE BOOKS

Re-inventing Japan. Time, Space, Nation - by Tessa Morriss-Suzuki
Tokyo no Hana - by Robert Allen (in English)
Passport Japan. Your pocket guide to Japanese business, customs & Etiquette - by Den Engel & Ken Murakami
Modern Japanese Society 1868 -1994 - by Ann Waswo
Easy Kanji. A basic guide to writing Japanese characters - by Fujihiko Kaneda

Well, this week i’ve been clearing out our house, sort of like a spring clean, but in winter. I’ve come to the conclusion that Yasu is a hoarder. He takes on everyone else’s junk!! And he just can’t bring himself to part with it, even though it’s been sitting there for the last 6 months untouched. I think i’ve got to call on the Angels to help me! Why is he holding on to that junk? For security?

Anyways, i have a whole lot of CD’s (and books in my next post) to give away for FREE. The are used but in good condition. Most of these CD’s have only been played a couple of times max.

If you would like one of these, or more than one, please comment using your real email address and i will email you back to get your details. First in first served, basically. If you don’t live in WA, i can post them at your cost. I will get a quote as the need arises.

I will mark off the CD’s on the list as they are taken.

FREE CD’S

Coldplay - Clocks (Single)
Primary - Not For Me (Single)
John Zorn - Aporias Requia for piano and orchestra
The Killers - Mr Brightside (Single)
R.E.M - The Great Beyond (Single)
Evanescence - Bring Me To Life (Single)
Limp Bizkit - Take A Look Around (Single) (theme from MI:2)
Silverchair - Abuse Me (Single)
John Butler Trio - What You Want (Enhanced Single)
Cake - Never There (Single)
Bomfunk MC’S - Super Electric (Single)
Non Intentional Lifeform - “Living or Existing?..” (Single)
Everlast - What It’s Like (Single)
Ben Harper - Fight For Your Mind
Non Intentional Lifeform - Sample of Semen/Pissing Silver (EP)
Pavement - Terror Twilight
Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
Pavement - Brighten the Corners
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Imperial Teen - You’re One (Single)
Imperial Teen - Seasick

I haven’t posted for a while. I won’t beat around the bush. The reason is i have stomach cancer. I was diagnosed one month ago.

Okay, i’m letting that sink in.

That’s the reason why i haven’t been around much lately.

Earlier in the year after my gall bladder operation, i had some Reiki healing to take away the post-surgery pains. It worked very well and made me interested in learning more. Fast forward 6 months and i started going to a spiritualist church in Kelmscott, shortly after i joined a psychic development circle. I met a man there called George, who had cured himself of lung cancer by healing himself with Reiki. He was just a normal man before that and had never had any previous healing experience. The week later i was diagnosed. It seemed like a very big coincidence. It was like it was being pointed out to me. Use George for inspiration. So i am. I have completed Reiki 1, and this sunday i will complete Reiki 2. My aim is to complete Reiki 3, which is when i will become a Reiki Master. I give myself Reiki healing every day. I hope that when i heal myself of cancer i can start my own business from home, healing others. But that is too far forward at the moment. I am just concentrating on learning Reiki.

I’ve also been pointed towards a book “You can heal your life” by Louise Hay. It was on the NY Times best seller list for 13 weeks. It’s about positive thinking and how negative thoughts can manifest a dis-ease, in my case cancer. It is a workbook that helps to change thinking habits from negative to positive, and how to think to rid yourself of dis-eases and other bodily pains. It’s been a great help for me. I was starting to get very weak. Then i started reading this book and making affirmations every day, i started to walk taller, i started to feel much more energetic. My relationship with Yasu started working better. (Before that i was at maximum stress point).

I guess it’s not unlike the book “The Secret” in that it shows you how you can manifest good things in your life.

It’s not everyone’s ‘cup of tea’, but it seems to be working for me.

The reason i waited one month before telling the world is that cancer is a very personal thing. It took me about 2 weeks for it to actually sink in. Then i got the looks from people when i told them. After that some people started avoiding me. They must be frightened i will die while i am with them! Some people can’t look me in the eye anymore. So i started to regret telling my friends. Then i thought, i should tell them, even if their reaction is hard to deal with. It’s because they love me and care about me that they reacted like that.

In fact, the support i have received has been outstanding. Before i was diagnosed, i was losing faith in humanity. It seemed so impersonal and gloomy. Now i have gained my faith in humanity back. I am positive about people, there are lots of people out there who care about others. They are true Angels. I feel this is a lesson i had to learn, it’s a great time of growing for me. As much as i don’t like cancer, at this point in my life i am ready to deal with this experience.

I thank each and everyone of you for reading my blog, and waiting patiently for my next post. I hope you continue to read my blog. I know i enjoy reading yours!

Have a lovely day,

Kelly
xoxo

…you’re going to love this store i found online called Krappy. Their motto is “Gifts from the Edge of Popular Culture”.

My favourite gifts are the Chairman Mao Lighter, and The Kewpies. Interesting to see that their Krappy Music includes Rod Stewart Live! I’m glad it’s not sold out though! haha

If someone were to buy you a gift from that website, which one would you like to receive and why?

I’ve noticed something scary. Yasu is addicted to Wikipedia Japan. I only just found this out the other day because we have an activity room where the computer desk is, that has a window in the wall, so i can see through from the kitchen, and every time i walked past i noticed he was looking at Wikipedia. Before that, i didn’t even know they had it in any other language besides English.

Tonight i confronted him about being a Wikipedia geek. If there is such a thing. I mean who wants to read Wikipedia for fun? I only go there if i’m researching something. Facebook is for fun. Wikipedia is not. But Yasu seems to think it’s great quality entertainment. “What’s wrong with it?” he says. Hmm…lots of things!

Yasu is seriously behind. I speak to all his friends on Facebook. Meanwhile he doesn’t even have an account. Anyway, i’m just wondering if anyone else out there views Wikipedia as entertainment, or is Yasu the only one?

Last Friday, Yasu decided to take 4 days off from work as he was feeling rather run-down and had been having trouble shaking a cold he had caught in Tasmania.

We settled into home life together, it was nice to have him home i must admit. I cooked some great meals for him while he was home, Chicken Carbonara, Pork Roast, Tuna Patties, A chocolate Cake, Pancakes with butter and Canadian Maple syrup every morning from scratch, (none of those store bought ones for me!)  Roast pork and salad sandwiches for lunch, afternoon teas with chocolate cake and bikkies in the afternoons….ahh life was such bliss….until…Yasu opened up his passport and discovered it was due to expire in less than 30 days.

If he was living in Japan this wouldn’t have been a problem. We are in Australia and this presented a bit of a problem considering the time it takes to get a passport from Japan is longer than the time we had before his passport ran out.

Being a Sunday, we could do nothing but wait. However, Yasu kept on coming up with all kinds of scenarios such as “what if i have to go back to Japan? I won’t be able to stay here without a passport will i?”, “Maybe i’ll stay 2 weeks in Japan…there’s no point going all the way to Hokkaido for 1 week”. At this stage my fear started to turn into resentment at the thought of him going to Japan without me. I could just see him thinking what a great opportunity it had turned into. Time to go back and visit izakaya’s with his mates. Meanwhile worried wife sits at home by herself in a land far, far away.

Monday couldn’t come soon enough. We made our way to the Japanese Consulate in Perth. I hate that place. Why? Because they make you stand on one side of the glass and talk into a telephone, and it seems like you’re in a prison visiting an inmate, rather than talking to people from your own country. What are they afraid of? A looney Aum representative spraying some sarin? I don’t know…but it’s not a friendly place. We walked in and immediately the security guard came over and asked Yasu to take his cap off. I was like “what the?” and he explained that if you’re wearing a cap, the security camera cannot get a clear shot of your face. Oh…so you’re treated like a criminal before you do anything! Just in case you do do something. Great one.

After alot of to-ing and fro-ing and many signed pieces of paper later, the attendant informed Yasu that it would take just one week for application and he would have his passport renewed on July 14th! Wow..that’s great, only 1 week total! How come it takes such a little amount of time? Australia has less people, yet it takes us a month or more to get our passports.

So we were immediately relieved that Yasu would not be kicked out, and Yasu was a bit sad that he wasn’t going to get deported back to Japan for his izakaya holiday. And i was relieved he wasn’t going to have a holiday without me! Yes, i know that’s kind of selfish isn’t it… ;o)

After that we parked the car in Northbridge and had a look for somewhere to have lunch. Along the way we came upon Emma’s “Nihon Shokuhin” Supermarket. We were in wonderland. There were 3 very distinct rooms of endless Japanese / Korean / Chinese groceries that just went on, and on, and on. From frozen monaka’s and icypops, to Chocolate and potato chip snacks, soups, noodles, desserts, pancake/hotcake mixes, lollies, Japanese drinks like Kirin gogo tea, Sangaria mixed fruits, coffee in cans, matcha, even Qoo. In one room is a whole 2 aisles of Hello Kitty and Kuromi items like bags, photo frames, lollies, snacks and gifts from Japan. Then there is the limited edition Koala no March, Pocky, Pucca, Meiji, Morinaga snacks! Wow! It’s such an amazing place. We didn’t have alot of time so we had a quick look, stocked up on Kewpie 1kg bottle of mayo, 1 litre bottle of beef bulgogi sauce and Yasu bought me a muscat flavoured Qoo.

On we went and found a little Korean restaurant called Cori Anna. It had some lunch specials so we decided to go in. I got beef bulgogi set with rice and Korean tea. Yasu got bi bim bap set with rice and Korean tea. We also got served some complimentary side dishes. (will post pics later)

After lunch, we were pretty full and felt sleepy, so we made our way home, on the way reminiscing about our first date at a Chinese steamboat restaurant in Northbridge. Thanks to our passport panic, we actually had a really nice day out together!

It has been a while since i’ve posted. In fact, it seems like forever, but it’s been about 2 weeks truthfully told. All because our computer had a melt-down and needed a new hard disk.

We still had internet connection via usb cable on Yasu’s 10 year old Compaq Presario which was a total nightmare. It’s terribly slow even with broadband, and has a tantrum about every 10 minutes where it fails to load any pages whatsoever, and then you have to restart and keep going for another 10 minutes before it happens again.

Before it was installed with Windows it was used primarily for Yasu’s game playing and it worked well enough for that. And it will now be relegated back to that, and i hope that i never have to use it again! Ever! I didn’t realise that a 10 year old laptop would be such a dinosaur. When it comes to cars, our Daewoo is fast approaching 8 years old and it still runs like a dream.

Another thing i dislike about using a laptop i have found is the mouse. I am so used to using a mouse that is attached to our desktop pc that you can click with and move around. But the flat surface on a laptop is so hard. I never did get how to highlight something…it was too far above my limit.

To say i was happy to see our tower again is an understatement, i felt like kissing and hugging it. I didn’t because it’s a little bit dusty, but it’s the thought that counts.

I’m happy to be back. I no longer have to cram all the important internet use into 10 minutes. It’s so glorious! I’ve been on here a whole 1 hour without a glitch, life feels good right now. It’s amazing how something working well can make or break your day.

Just when i thought i’d seen it all… i read this article today. Getting romantic with a robot? Honestly…would someone be that desperate?

Using her infrared sensors and battery power, the diminutive damsel named “EMA” puckers up for nearby human heads, entering what designers call its “love mode”.

If something like that puckered up to me i’d run a mile! Not to mention the feeling you would get when getting kissed by a robot. It’s made from synthetic material, not warm inviting flesh, how could you possibly have feelings of ‘love’ for it?

“She’s very lovable and though she’s not a human, she can act like a real girlfriend.”

But the fact is, that “EMA” is only 15 inches tall, not even half a metre, so it begs the question, are these men getting into something they shouldn’t be? Isn’t it more like going out with a child robot, than a woman robot? At least if they are going to make something like this, they should make it to size. What do you think?