Why none of my clothes are fitting me right now.....

My friend Jen and I wanted to do something to raise money for the Red Cross specifically for the Japan Earthquake/Asia Pacific Tsunami efforts.  And because Jen is such a great baker and I am not, we decided to have an Easter bake sale.

The first point of business was finding the perfect location.  We needed lots of customers.  Hungry customers.  We thought about churches (neither of us belong to a church so that was a no).  We were thinking about my office which was a possibility.  But we put the request in first at Jen's "office" which just happens to be Pearson Airport.  You see when she is not baking, Jen is a flight attendant for Air Canada.  In fact, many people probably don't know this about me, but I was a flight attendant for Air Canada for one summer right out of university.  That's how Jen and I met, on the first day of training.  I'm not sure why but when she walked into the class I practically yelled "Come sit next to ME!" And she's not sure why, but she did.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Anyway, Jen was able to get us permission to sell in the Air Canada employee area.  Over the course of a day, there are probably hundreds of flight attendants, pilots, ramp attendants and ticket/gate agents that pass through the area so we had the perfect customer base for our sale.

Most of the baking was done by Jen over 2 weeks.  I was able to help out on weekends but unfortunately Jen and I live really far apart.  But maybe it is fortunate, any closer and I'd be over at her house begging for cookies on a daily basis.  Just the weekends of tasting and more tasting has made me the opposite of ready for summer clothes.  I'll still be wearing my fat winter sweaters in July thanks to this sale.

Baking, packaging, transporting.  A lot goes into a bake sale.  The day of the sale was pretty exciting.  We were up at 5am and at the airport setting up by 6.  Jen's husband Mike and two lovely employees of Air Canada Carin and Mike helped us set everything up.

I wish we had more pictures, but we were too busy selling to take very many!  Jen has some more on her blog post here.  We had planned to sell from 7am to 3pm but by 12:30 we had sold out of everything!  People were so generous and kind.  Jen and I agonized over pricing, which is funny because many people told us to keep the change, or would just give us an extra $5 for the cause.  One woman came by and told us "I gave up sweets for Lent, but I just want to give you this", and handed us $20.

Doing something like this reminds you of the kindness of people.

At the end of the day we had raise $1461 for the Canadian Red Cross.

Dave contributed to this total by selling $100 worth of cookies at his office for us.

Many thanks to:

Carin Brown and Mike Trauzzi
The employees of Air Canada for their support as well as our friends and families
Dave's co-workers at RBC
Jen's mom, Paty
Jen's husband, Mike
Dave

Not to brag, but I'm pretty proud of Jen and myself.  I guess that is bragging.
Oh well.

Heavy Heart

It's been almost a week since Japan was hit by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded.  Followed by the tsunami.  And now the uncertain nuclear situation.  Of course it is snowing, to compound the misery of the rescue workers and all the people without power, food, and any kind of comfort.  And throughout it all the Japanese people remain calm, kind, dignified.

I feel like we were just there experiencing the kindness and hospitality of the people of Japan.  And since we've returned, when I think of vacations, I can only think of going back to Japan. It hurts my heart to see all the devastating photos and footage that have come out in the past 6 days.

Something that helps is to see how ordinary people rally to try and help.  For instance go to etsy.com and type in the word Japan, and you will get a list that if you dig you will find people donating a portion of their sales to Japan relief.  These are not huge conglomerates, just small business owners doing what they can.

I bought this from such a person from her shop on etsy:

The picture is called Thinking of Home, and the artist Naoko Stoop is originally from Tokyo, Japan now living in Brooklyn, NY.  There is something so sweet and wistful about the picture, it reminds me of being homesick when I lived in England.  The picture is $20 with $10 going to the Red Cross Japan.  While there browse her other pictures, all will take you back to being a kid and the wonderful ways you would fill the hours of the day.

Japan, I can't stop thinking about you.  Thank you for teaching the world a lesson about grace in the face of disaster.

Cup noodle Museum!

What's convenient, cheap and yummy?  Staple for all poor university students around the world (I used to buy it at the gas station down the street when I went to University in the UK--believe me I was Poor with a capital P then).  Instant Noodles!!!

Tomo and Shu took us to the Cup Noodle Museum.  To be honest I don't even know where it was,  we just got in the car and got driven.....I think it took us an hour to get there.  It was a small museum, a tribute to Momofuko Ando, the inventor of instant noodles and cup noodles.  

The best part of the museum is that you get to make your own cup noodles.  First you decorate your cup, then you pick 5 ingredients to put in it, pick your soup stock and then they seal it up and off you go with your very own flavour.  

Me, Dave and Momofuko

Wall of Cup Noodle

Yes, I know, so original.  I cracked under the pressure.

We're so proud

My invention, tofu, garlic, corn, kimchi and egg.  Curry soup base.
Yummy!

As close as Dave gets to cooking

After the Museum, Tomo and Shu took us somewhere else pretty cool.  It kind of looked like the middle of no where, but it was a patch of land just before the airport.  And when you stand there and a plane comes in, it looks like its coming right at you.  It was really pretty amazing.

Me and Tomo waiting

About as close as you can get to a moving airplane!!!

Thanks Tomo, thanks Shu for a really special day.

Our trip to Japan - Osaka

 Osaka was our next stop, an easy 30 minutes on the train from Kyoto.  We were very lucky that a friend of Dave's from a Contiki tour he took in Europe many years ago, Tomo, lives in Osaka and was kind enough to take us around.  Nothing beats having a local guide to show you the city!

Osaka Castle

Me and Tomo

Tomo and Dave at the top of the castle

After the castle Tomo took us for some Okonomiyaki.  This was my first time trying these Japanese pancake type things and they are delicious.

The chefs

DeeeLish

The restaurant was right by this observatory (I can't remember what it was called).  But the night view of the city was amazing.

Osaka at night

Our hotel wasn't far from the city hotspot called Shin Sai Bashi.  Lights, bars, shops, restaurants, and lots and lots of people.

Look at dude's crazy hair on the left

Shopping arcade, see what I mean about lots of people?  As far as the eye can see...

Died and gone to Asahi heaven

Thanks to Tomo and her husband we got to try something that wasn't in our guidebook.  More on that next post.

Our Trip to Japan - Kyoto

From Tokyo, we took the 3 hour shinkansen train to Kyoto, using our Japan Rail Pass pictured below.  Like the Eurail pass, it is good for unlimited rides on the JR rail lines (except for the super express Nozomi trains).  Everything you have heard about the trains in Japan is true.   They are clean, fast, and on time.  The pass we got was $307Cad and was for regular class for 7 days.  There is also a "green car" pass for a premium (like a first class car I guess), but the regular cars are so nice I don't know that it would be worth the extra money.  Like the Eurail pass, you purchase an exchange order in your home country and then exchange it for the Rail pass once you get to Japan.

Japan rail pass and train ticket, sorry not the best photo

We only alloted 2 days to Kyoto, and given jetlag and the fact that we kept getting lost, I would definitely have changed that to 3 if it were possible.  But it wasn't (we booked all our hotels in advance), so we made the best of it.  Kyoto is beautiful and a definite must see in my books.

Kinkaku-ji - The Golden Pavilion

Everywhere we went there were huge groups of students

Kiyomizu-dera

We ran into these lovely ladies in the Gion District on one of the many occasions we were lost.
Note it was 33 degrees (celcius) that day.

And we ran into this little Kitty too

We were only in Kyoto long enough to hit a few of the main sites, but it's a great walking city and if you find a well situated hotel, you can walk around to many sites.  The temples, however you would have to get to by bus or taxi.

Our trip to Japan -Tsukiji Fish Market

Ever since I discovered Hello Kitty at age 8, I dreamed of going to Japan.  Back then I imagined it to be a sea of pink Sanrio stickers and dolls and notebooks and smelly erasers and all that crap that makes an 8 year old asian kid's heart beat faster.  But as an adult I just became fascinated by the culture and history of the country, and it stayed at the top of the list of places I wanted to visit.

In September, it finally happened!  We took a 2 week trip to Japan visiting the cities of Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara, and of course Tokyo.  And it did not disappoint.  Thought I would just do a couple of posts about our trip.

If you were planning a similar itinerary to ours, my first tip would be to fly into either Tokyo or Osaka and then fly out of the other if the flights are available out of your city.  We flew in and out of Tokyo, which meant there was an extra 3 hour train ride that we had to make which could have been avoided had we booked into Osaka and out of Tokyo.  Not a huge deal but when time is of the essence, the less moving around the better.

We got to the airport 4 hours before our flight, a bit ahead of the recommended 2.5 hours for international flights but SO worth it as we got the emergency exit row.  I don't know who was happier, me or Dave.  For the 13 hour flight, it was a real luxury to have the extra leg room.  I'm not saying I need extra leg room, but when your husband is 6 foot 2, you always get the middle seat and there is always a big leg in front of you.

I'm sure you've heard stories of how clean Japan is.  This is at the train station at the Narita Airport where you catch the train that takes you into Tokyo (about $30 for a 45 minute ride, my understanding is that a cab ride can cost up to $200 or more).  LOOK AT THE FLOOR (not at Dave).  This is a TRAIN STATION.  Clearly the 3 second rule for food that falls on the ground doesn't apply here.  You can just park it next to what you've dropped and eat it off the floor.

Our first morning in Tokyo, we woke up at 5am (jetlag I love you) and as that gave us some time to kill before our 12pm train ride to Kyoto, it was the perfect time to go to the famous Tsukiji Fish Market.  I would recommend doing this on one of your earlier days of arriving since you will undoubtable be up early due to the time difference and the early morning is when the market is hopping with action.  Ships start arriving at 3am and the tuna auction (now closed the the public), is at 5am.

Action in front of one of the many big fish market hangars

Dave's new friend

Apparently they are not concerned that styrofoam is not biodegradable

Dave had a sushi breakfast there (not that day but later in the trip) and said it was incredible.

Tips for the fish market:

• Go early in your trip when you'll be waking up early from jet lag
• No open toed shoes (seriously the ground is wet with fish goo and fish juice)
• Long pants/jeans not recommended (for the same reason as above) unless you roll them WAY up
• You will see things so gross you won't even want to take pictures for fear of nightmares later in life.