Today's Joke

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-- How to stop people from bugging you about getting married --

Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings,
poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, 'You are next.'
They stopped this after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals...!

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Actually am in a long-term relationship and when I go to someone else's wedding some meddlesome people say 'You are next, aren't you?' to me or to my partner... Quite annoying and I want to say 'Please, leave us alone'. Well, however, I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to say the same thing to them at funerals!!!! HA HA HA.


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Oh my sunshine

Long time no see.

I've been busy preparing for my permanent residency in the UK these days. I need to provide heaps of documents that prove I've been living in the UK with my partner legally... such as official documents from the government, bank statements, credit card statements, payslips, travel vouchers, water and electricity bills, doctor's registration documents, and in addition, the photos of me and my partner and love letters as well(!). We also need to write a declaration letter addressed to Home Office in which we have to say 'We are the real couple and we will continue to live together forever blah blah blah...', just because my residency application is on the basis of our relationship (the category of the visa is called 'Indefinite leave to remain for married couple, unmarried partners or civil partners'). The process of the application is a pain in the neck, but once I got the residency I wouldn't need to worry about my visa at all in the future, so I've got to prepare for the application carefully. Hopefully I'll get it the end of July, and I can live with my sunshine - my partner, for good!

the roof of Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

The sun is shining everyday these days. Not my partner who is shining, well, although he is always shining...lol... but the real sun shows up I mean. The temperature hits 25 degrees everyday, and under the sun it's felt like almost 30 degrees! People are sunbathing. I used to hate getting tanned, as when I was in Japan people said women's white skin looked much better than coloured one. I used to use an umbrella under the sun in summer, which prevented sun-tan. But now in the UK everybody wants to get tanned. British people envy my fairly coloured skin. So, am not using an umbrella any more. Get some colour and try to look naturally healthy.

I thank the sunshine, which gives me an energy and cheerfulness.

Which sunshine I mean, do you say? Well, of course, both the real sunshine and my lovely partner, my sunshine...! Ha ha. Excuse me for being foolishly singing the praise of my boyfriend...:p


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My Summer Delicacy

Summer has come to England! These 2 weeks the sun shines everyday, the temperature hits 25 degrees in the shade and people are out for sunbathing on the grass. We went on a picnic last weekend and basked in the early summer sun.

I miss Japanese food sometimes and especially in summer I feel like eating 'Somen'. Somen is very thin noodles made of flour, which are so smooth and easy to eat even when I am not very hungry. So, these days I have cold Somen almost everyday. I put some vegetables, sea weed, Japanese red mint powder (called 'Yukari') and Japanese whitebait with a small amount of soy-sauce-based cold soup. And, I also put 'Natto' in it. Natto is fermented soy beans which is quite gooey. People who are from eastern and northern parts of Japan love it. Sadly, most of foreigners don't like it because of its smell and gooeyness. When my partner tried Natto for the first time he said 'This stuff smells like socks that have been worn for a week!!!' ......Well, I disagree, but, well...I understand. But he is used to it and eats it now.

Anyway, Natto makes the noodles smoother and tastier. Although Natto smells bad, it's very healthy. Eating this cold 'Natto Somen', I feel that summer has come. I feel the same when I drink Pimm's at a pub. Pimm's is a spicy and fruity alcoholic drink popular in the UK, which is especially nice to be drunk mixed with ginger ale or lemonade and some slices of summer fruits such as strawberries, cucumber, oranges, limes and mint leaves added. When I drink this, I feel the strong sunshine in my mind even when I am inside the house, imagining boating on the river, wearing a nice white hat and white dress like a Victorian girl, relaxing and listening to the stream of the river...

I beg, 'Summer, summer, stay with me. Don't go away!!!'


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After the Voyage

Today's Haiku


on the twilight beach
a bony branch earns its rest
after the voyage


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The Face of Another

The other day when my partner and I were about to go out, he told me to hurry up. Then I shouted back to him, 'Wait, I have to finish my make-up!!!!'. I rarely go out without wearing make-up. I feel I definitely need to 'make my face' properly, otherwise I feel really bad and as if I was not myself. According to my partner it doesn't matter whether I wear make-up or not. But it DOES matter for me. Why? Don't know. I just do it. Do I change myself by make-up? No. Can anyone change his/her personality by make-up? Can anyone become another person? I don't think so. Fundamentally I am me, you are you. Make-up never changes the person.

DVD 'The Face of Another' (the British Film Institute)

I would like to introduce a book/film titled 'The face of Another' written by Kobo Abe, my favourite Japanese author. In this story, the main character loses his face because of an accident during a chemical experiment. His face gets lots of scars and keloids. After the accident, he loses his confidence, as his wife behaves coldly and refuses to make love with him. He drives himself and decides to create 'a fake face', a mask which is delicately made with artificial skin, looks like a real face when he wears it. His doctor creates this. With the new face, he looks very handsome young man, which satisfies him. Wearing it, he plans to pretend to be a stranger and seduce his wife to see if she is really loyal to her husband. And the result is....

I tell you again. A fake face naver changes the fundamentals of human. I would say, if my partner did the same thing as the guy of 'The Face of Another', I would spot him at once as my partner. The eyes would tell it's him, the small movements would tell it's him, and the aura would tell IT'S HIM, NO ONE ELSE!!!

This story asks 'What is being yourself?'. Quite philosophical, moralistic, sad and funny. You can read the book or watch the film (DVD). The book was written in 1964 and the film was made in 1966. I recommend both, but the film is especially beautiful and easier to understand.

So, what is your real face? Tell me....


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Angels and Demons

The film I am very very looking forward to watching now is 'Angels and Demons' which is the adaptation of the novel by Dan Brown, directed by Ron Howard, starring Tom Hanks. I quite liked the previous film of the series 'The Da Vinci Code', and am expecting to be given a big thrill by the new film. It will be out on May 14 in the UK...I have to go to cinema!!!

It was 2003 when I visited Rome and the State of the Vatican City, the place appears in the novel and the fim. I didn't know much about Christianity and this central authority of Roman Catholic. I just thought 'Wooow...this place looks magnificent...' And later when I read Dan Brown's book 'Angels and Demons' I remembered the churches, chapels and the square my partner and I visited, noticing the place was the real centre of holiness.

I still remember Swiss Guards standing still in front of the gate, sometimes moving by rule as if they were clockwork robots. They appear in the novel (and of course in the film) as well. When I smiled at one of the guards, he very very slightly smiled back to me, and I thought 'Oh, he is human! What a lovely smile!' I wanted to do something more to make them laugh, but I wasn't brave enough to be naughty...I am an angel...not a demon...no doubt about that...

Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing Vatican again in the new film, being on the edge of my seat, clinging onto my partner and scattering popcorn...ha ha.


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Breathing, so silently

This is the new photo for my website, The Chamber of Lizard Queen. The original photo was taken by myself in the Natural History Museum in Oxford about 2 years ago. It is a skeleton specimen of Tuatara, a kind of lizards found only in New Zealand and now endangered. This species has been living in this planet since 200 million years ago. Can you imagine, 200 million years ago!

As you know, I have got a small lizard (actually a gekko) tattoo in my back. The reason I chose a gekko is because I like this animal. And the reason I like it is because it crawls everywhere so quietly with its small legs, watching the world so silently with its clear eyes, and it is one of the most primitive animals on this planet. It somewhat looks like a dinosaur, but not loud-mouth like a dinosaur. It is small, always in the shade, but always watching things cunningly. It has rough but smooth skin. It is ugly but beautiful. I thought I wanted to live like a lizard. That's why I got my tattoo.

living Tuatara

I saw living Tuatara in a zoo in New Zealand, when my partner took me there, his birth place. A few Tuatara were in a cage and hiding under the trees and rocks. Their eyes were cute, just like small jet black stones.

The philosopher Tuatara knows what eternity is, since he has been living so long time. He looks like Solomon, since his eyes caught and learnt so many things that happened on this ground. However, he never tells any stories, he just swallows all the stories, since living is only an important thing for him. The fact that he is living at this moment is the only truth for him.

I wish I could live like him. I can be silent forever, but I cannot stop writing, never! Well, I guess I am that kind of species...Call me 'Writara' or something (writing lizard? ha ha)... Anyway, I too keep on crawling and watching the world, like Tuatara, for a long time.


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