SHIKIMIKIE

When I say to people that I came from Japan, most likely, they would assume that I'm from the city. Yes, I have been to the big cities before. But what I am frustrated about, is that it seems to me that some people don't know anything beyond that. Japan isn't only about tall buildings and stuff. It's also about nature, earth, and fields. Just so you know, I live in a place where it's not so modernized (yet) although apartments are now slowly replacing the fields, there are still a lot of fields that can be seen and there's no denying that I live quite far from the busy city of Tokyo.

That apartment that you can see from the picture above is totally non-existent way back 2008. It used to be a field. Can you see the spring onions? Amazing right? It's just so nice to see things like that. Just a thought though, would that little field be placed here in my place (Manila), there wouldn't be anything left because of the thieves. In Japan, you can leave it with full confidence and still have it the next day.

A view from a nearby place. I used to bike around a lot so I'm really very familiar with the stuff around my place. Let me tell you a short story. I have a grandma neighbor who used to bring me to this place to pick up crops. She always called me to help her to sort of give back to our presents from the Philippines. Strawberries and lettuce are just some of the examples of the crops she used to give us. Unfortunately, when my sisters came back from Japan this year, they told me that she already passed away. :( I'll definitely miss her. I actually thought that in our neighborhood, she'll be the first one I'd talk to when I go back to Japan and proudly say to her that I've already graduated college.

This place. I used to pick BLACKBERRIES from this place. Like, I just can bike around and be satisfied with the gifts of nature in this place.  Where in the city can you do that? Everything comes with a price there. But not here. Oh I miss JAPAN.

Bamboo trees! I miss seeing them! I used to cross this street when going to the bus station/supermarket.

My place to be! THE PLAYGROUND! When I was younger, there's even a swing where my real grandmother used to ride with my sister (still a baby) on her arms. There also used to be some sort of square thing with little squares where you insert yourself and stuff. Sad to see it gone.

I used to bike a lot here and just play alone. Usually, when we go back to Japan (around March-June), students are in school so there wouldn't be much people in here. I usually am alone here relaxing and eating chips. FATTY! LOL. I usually lay on the slide and look up the sky and wait for the sun be gone. And sometimes I go here and just pick dandelions and just blow it like crazy.

Such a great view.

Notice how the sky is so blue? I miss that.

I believe this is some sort of preschool. Awesome mountain view, aye? I also used to bike around this place because my mom used to ask me to get something to the supermarket/drug store and this is one way to get there. But there's also like, a shorter way but the thing is the road is steeper.

This is the steeper road. The thing is it's way down going to the supermarket and way up going home. Imagine going home with all the stuff you bought? I actually wonder why I don't loose weight when in Japan. Like, it's all walking and biking and stuff there. But of course it comes with more eating. FAIR ENOUGH.

This is actaully the gate to get into the AMERICAN MILITARY BASE. When it's SAKURA SEASON, there's just a pretty row of CHERRY BLOSSOMS. It's actually prohibited for normal people to enter this place (SMALL AMERICA) but I've been inside like, probably five times my lifetime. My mom is friends with some Filipinas who are married to navies and yeah. And when it's like their OPEN HOUSE, they allow people to shop around. For me, I usually bike around here (not inside of course).

Sorry if this post is a little bit messy. I just don't know how to express my longing for Japan is a very coherent way. All pictures are courtesy of my sister from her last trip to Japan this year (April - May 2012). I noticed that this post became kind of my personal experience than actually introducing the other side of Japan. LOL. NO REGRETS!

For some reason, I'm not really good at forecasting stuff. If you watched THE VOICE UK, great. If not, then just pretend you did. I actually guessed that BO BRUCE (woman in gray dress) from TEAM DANNY is THE VOICE. For some reason, I really really like her style of singing. It's just so...different. People often say that if you really have a good voice, then there's no need for you to do stuff that will make it even better. Let's get it straight though. I don't like people who do SO MUCH with their voice to the point where I feel like it's unnecessary. But for me, there are a lot of singers out there. And yes, a lot of good singers out there. Now, tell me how can an individual say that he/she likes a good singer an extra notch to another singer when they exactly sound the same? Get what I mean? So yeah.

If you don't know yet, LEANNE MITCHELL (woman in black dress) won the competition. I'm alright with that. I have nothing against her. She's actually good too. They're all good. It's just that WE ALL HAVE OUR OWN PREFERENCE.

And also! I realized that for some reason, my choices are those who are coached by a band member. I once predicted that Tony Lucca from Team Adam would be THE VOICE. And just recently, BO BRUCE from Team Danny. Coincidence or what? No idea. But thinking about it, I'd still pick BO whenever team she probably belonged. Thoughts?

These ingredients, done. So, at the end of the day, we kind of ended adding up another sachet of that Cheese Magic. And just because we actually don't know much of what we were doing, we kind of failed. LOL. But anyhow, still good. Still edible.

Probably because of the pasta though. Like, it's sort of a salad pasta and not really some sort of MACARONI in MAC. LOL. But yeah, So the plan was to boil the pasta and to pour the cheese at the end. But I kind of suggested that we should heat the cheese to "activate" it. LOL that's really how I said it. "TO ACTIVATE" is the word of the day. So yeah, I wonder where that suggestion went. Like, it makes sense. Don't they heat MAC AND CHEESE in an oven or something? Mmmmm. So yeah.

So after boiling the pasta, time to add cheese! We kind of had a hard time mixing stuff and adding salt to taste and all that. The thing is it doesn't taste the same. Or maybe we were just expecting another taste to come. The thing with my mom is she is easily conceived my advertisements. LIKE SERIOUSLY. If it she saw it in a commercial, she'll buy it. CONFIRMED. LOL. But at the end of the day, we managed to mix and find a taste that's right for a mac and cheese. HOORAY!

Final look of it! Also topped it with sliced-sliced cheese. LOL so redundant, right?

I kind of had 4 servings of this small bowl all in all. I would recommend you use real macaroni pasta for better taste adherence though (perhaps). Enjoy and good luck!