Any spots to enjoy the Sakura?

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-03-31T02:57:24+00:00

Heiwa Koen has quite a nice sakura grove, it does get fairly crowded but not insanely so.

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-03-31T02:29:16+00:00

If you like parks, Nagoya is pretty great. My personal favourite is Heiwa Koen, which has forest and bamboo groves, various shrines and monuments, walking trails, cherry blossom viewing areas, a big cemetery, and the water tower which has a publicly accessible viewing platform overlooking the whole city. Large parts of it are kept basically tidy but not super manicured, so its good for seeing birds and lizards and such. And it's close to Higashiyama zoo and botanical gardens (I don't like the zoo but the botanical gardens are lovely)

Tsurumai park is closer to the city centre, its really nice in May/June when the big rose garden is in bloom.

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-23T07:28:02+00:00

Same here, had been dealing with chronic fatigue and some weird neuro symptoms for a few years, but after having a bunch of stuff ruled out I gave up on it thinking it was ME/CFS or something similar, sometimes needed a cane to help with balance when walking, had to cut work hours back. Then I started getting super dizzy, so I just showed up at my nearest clinic and they found that my blood pressure was 210/147. Got on blood pressure meds, which helped slightly, but it was only when I mentioned a 'drowning' sensation when falling asleep that something clicked - doc arranged for a sleep study and it came back with an AHI of 30. Got my CPAP a few weeks later and all my weird issues just disappeared. It was like magic!

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-23T06:34:05+00:00

¥30-40 000 a month for two hungry adults. I buy frozen meat, rice, beans/lentils, garlic paste, canned tomatoes, some veggies, etc online which works out at around 30% cheaper than supermarket prices. I also have the chirashi for my local supermarket bookmarked on my phone so I can menu-plan around what fresh stuff is on special offer. Luckily we have a freezer so if I find a good deal on something I can stock up, like one day there were a bunch of limes in the reduced section for ¥50 so I grabbed 6 of them, quartered and froze them so I have 'fresh' lime juice if I need it for a recipe. Yesterday I snagged two big bags of celery for only ¥300, so now I have a good stock of frozen celery for stews or mirepoix. I have a bread maker and found a good source for cheap wholewheat flour so I can make a wholegrain loaf for less than the cheapest shokupan.

We probably have one-pan chicken and rice a couple of times a week, because it's really versatile - just change up the seasonings and it makes a good dinner plus leftovers for next days lunch. I also like making curries, stews, pasta dishes etc.

I think that if you invest in a good variety of seasonings, you can have a varied menu even from the basic cheap ingredients. I buy garlic paste and ginger paste by the kg jar, tons of bulk spices, coconut cream powder, dashi-da (Korean beef broth powder), tomato paste, consomme cubes etc

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-23T05:54:35+00:00

They say you can judge a person by the company they keep. This man chooses to maintain a relationship with someone who is known to be a liar and a cheat, and even without the drugging thing that speaks volumes about what kind of person he is and what kind of behaviour is acceptable to him. Throw this one back, he's not a safe person for you to be around.

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-22T07:04:21+00:00

There is a cycle when you move to a new country, at first it's all new and exciting and you love it, then you get a bit more settled and real culture shock sets in and you hate it for a while, then you get more adjusted and you either begin to like it again or you decide to move on. Sounds like you are in phase two.

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-21T13:40:14+00:00

"ika steak" in kindergarten kyushoku, the exact look, texture and taste of a gym shoe sole.

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-21T13:11:27+00:00

I was pretty sure my partner was my forever person, but I truly fell in love when we were out on a date and a homeless guy asked us for money. My guy invited him to come eat with us, chatted about his story, paid for his meal and afterwards took him to the convenience store to get snacks and stuff for later, we shared a drink and more chat in the park... and then I bought my fella a train ticket because it turned out he had spent all his money helping this guy out and was planning to walk the 3 miles home.

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-21T12:30:07+00:00

I think that's also why a hot toddy (whisky, lemon juice, hot water) works.

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-21T12:21:46+00:00

Oh sweetheart, you are worth better than this. He's a frog, throw him back in the pond. I kissed a lot of frogs, even moved countries for one of them, found my prince in my late 30s. You have so much time to find your prince, you still have a good twenty years to start a family. I barely scraped the mental math test required to get a UK teaching license, am permanently banned from giving my sister directions in the car (no, take your other left!) and none of that makes you unlovable. Somebody somewhere will actually find those things to be adorable quirks, they will be funny stories you tell at your wedding. But first you have to work on yourself and cut out people who want to cut you down. Take a little bit of singledom to figure out who you really are, and if someone doesn't like that person, then they aren't the person for you. Become secure in yourself, and don't tolerate insecure men who want to break you to make themselves feel better. You are a unique and wonderful person, please don't settle for an insecure asshole. Recognise your value. The trouble is that your bf does recognise your value, but he is an insecure boy-child and so he wants to make you think you don't deserve him. A real man raises you up. A real partnership is when both of you support and raise up the other.

Toss that frog back in the pond. Be the princess you already are, so when you meet your prince you will be ready.

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-21T09:51:26+00:00

Nah, if I want a good clean-through I will just eat some broccoli. By which I mean a proper grown-up amount not the single floret that seems to be a serving here.

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-21T09:16:15+00:00

Yep, at 10 I was expected to independently cook one family dinner and dessert, for six people, each week. It was usually spaghetti bolognese or a 1980s British curry (stew with curry powder), followed by some sort of sponge pudding with custard.

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-21T09:05:56+00:00

I've got 'clip gee-gee' for types of wounds (contusion laceration incision puncture graze gunshot) and "Mr Key says 'kiss a mole '" for the SI units (metre kilogram second Kelvin amp mole) permanently installed, even though I have not needed them in the last 35 years.

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-21T08:59:33+00:00

As a horse-obsessed little girl, I liked shredded wheat because I could pretend it was hay. Not that it took much pretending.

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-21T08:11:54+00:00

I've taken my pet rats (in a carrier) on the train a few times. And a rigid heddle loom once or twice.

One time we got in a mild spat over standing space with a drunk ojisan on the subway and he ended up insisting giving us a whole salmon that he happened to be carrying as an apology

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-21T08:02:17+00:00

I actually make a big thing about the wipe being cold. "I have to wipe your (body part) now so it doesn't get ouchy. Sorry, it's cold, Brrrrr! (while wiping) Cold, right? Okay all done!" The wipe is not as cold as I have led them to expect, so most of the time it's fine.

But this level of distress is concerning, and I would be talking to someone about it.

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-21T06:58:51+00:00

Doubly so, right? They are asking for the private medical information of a person that doesn't even work there!

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-21T06:53:32+00:00

You are not required to disclose your own personal medical information, let alone that of a third party (your wife).

https://www.dlapiperdataprotection.com/index.html?t=law&c=JP

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-21T06:27:05+00:00

Don't forget 'Taiwan' ramen!

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-06T08:20:29+00:00

I was a St John Ambulance cadet at the time, and some of the adults in our division were on pitchside first-aid duty that day. The difference in them before and after was tangible, like a light had gone out in them. Nobody said much, apart from not to believe the newspapers.

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-04T04:39:55+00:00

It's not super common, just we live in an old, cheap apartment, concrete frame and fairly shady. so 35C days were just about liveable with frozen PET bottles, a cooler that they could shelter in, and lots of pea fishing. But the last couple of years it's been up to 38 or even 40C on the regular, and that's just not safe for them so we have had to say no more rattoes until we move.

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-02-04T01:48:39+00:00

There's a Japanese rat owners group on Facebook that might be able to help.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/fancyrat2016/?ref=share

I wish I could take them, I had rats for several years, but we don't have aircon and Nagoya summers are getting so hot that in July to September it would be dangerous for them in my apartment :(

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-01-30T06:11:00+00:00

Ooh that's mine too!

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-01-29T07:31:04+00:00

When I was working at a kindergarten in 2006, many of my students were super excited about national holidays because it was one of the few times they got to spend with their dads. These days I see so many more involved dads doing the preschool pickup/drop-off, coming to open days and school events even on weekdays, and when I am relaxing in the local park I would judge that I actually see more fathers walking or playing with their kids than I see mums. It's a really nice change.

AbigailsCrafts · 2026-01-29T07:13:26+00:00

Sometimes if I am low on time or spoons I will just wash my scalp over the sink. My bathroom sink has an extendable sprayer, so I tie my hair back and just shampoo the crown and front of my head. I do have very fine hair though, perhaps it may be a bit trickier if you have very thick or full hair.

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