Stinky flowers

Lillies are lovely to look at but I am allergic to them! In fact, I think they stink and they make me sneeze.








These ones are right outside my front door. Hold your nose!

Beautiful bugs

It is amazing what you can find if you look carefully ...








And here is my new 'pet'. Thank you to Y and her daughter for giving it to me :) Can you guess what it is?

A spider?
A bee?



No.


Hint: It lives in water and it will fly when it turns into an adult.








Its the larva of a dragon fly!

By the way, today was the first time for me to hear a cicada in the daytime. The ones that go 'mi mi mi'. I heard the first evening cicadas a few weeks ago - the kind that go 'whee whee'!

Big is not always best!

I feel very depressed. I just learned that my favorite pharmacy will close down.

I really like the small pharmacy inside of Kasumi Supermarket in Takezono. The pharmacy is small and maybe a little more expensive than the big drug store chains, but the staff are wonderful. If I have any kind of medical problem I go ask them for advice and see what they recommend. For example, when I wanted some good pain relief medicine that was also safe for the stomach etc, I searched on the Internet. After that I went to that pharmacy and the one they suggested was exactly what I researched about. The staff take the time to chat and are so kind.

I'm so upset that the store is being forced to close because a big chain drug store opened up very close. I DON'T like that store for buying medicine! A few times I went there but the pharmacist was not at all helpful and couldn't give advice. He just showed me the medicine and said what it is. I can read that by myself! One time he told me the store didn't have what I was looking for, but a few seconds later I found it on the shelf. Grrrrrr!

Anyway, there is nothing I can do about the small store closing. I have always tried to shop there and support them but it seems many people are only interested in low price products. I asked the pharmacist where she will work next and I will try to go to her new workplace.

Please support small stores. Big stores might be convenient, have long hours and have cheap prices BUT they are often not very professional or friendly. I fear that someday there will be no staff in stores and that we will just see robots/machines. Don't laugh - now in Australia there are 'self serve' registers with no staff. You scan your own groceries and pay by credit card. And of course, everyone is familiar with self serve gasoline stands.

Ah, now I feel blue.

Another Indian Restaurant

A while ago a friend recommended a new Indian restaurant in Ninomiya so my husband and I tried it out. It's called Raja - India/Nepal Foods Raja.

There is a lunch menu with various options and prices. We chose the set with two curries, naan (or rice), salad and a drink. It was just over 1000yen. The four curries we had were mutton, Kashimir chicken, keema and vegetable. All were delicious but the mutton was the nicest. The naan was great - really big and not so oily. The waiter asked if we would like more naan {okawari} but I think one per person is enough! Oh, and we chose 'average spicyness' {futsu} for the curry. It was nice but maybe next time I'll try the medium level. I had iced chai to drink. That was okay but I prefer stronger tea. Lassi is not on the set drink menu but you can get it at an additional price.

The service was WONDERFUL! I was really impressed with the sincerity of the greetings, the service during the meal and when we left. I think we will go there quite often from now.

By the way, Raja is not so new because it opened in February. That shop used to be a coffee shop, so you might know the place - the Parkside Building in Ninomiya. On Nishi Odori, turn between Mercedes Benz and Otaru Zushi, go about 100m and you can see it on the right, parking is on the left.

I was pleased to find another Indian restaurant because my other two favorite places weren't so good last time I went. My husband also said the taste wasn't so good, and a friend said so too. I don't know if the menu changed, the cook changed or they were just having a bad day! But the disappointing thing was that TWO restaurants' quality fell. Hmmm.

Great Jazz

Do you like jazz? You can find a great jazz show on internet radio at the BBC website.

Actually, the BBC has a lot of radio stations and many jazz programs, so many I can't tell you about them all. One of my favorites is called the "Best of Jazz" on BBC Radio 2.

Here is an easy way to find it:

1. Go to the BBC Radio page at -->
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/

2. In the toolbar in the top right corner, click on OPEN BBC RADIO PLAYER.

3. A new window will open. Now in the top right corner, find the SELECT TYPE OF SHOW menu box, and choose JAZZ. Click GO.

4. The window will change again. Choose BEST OF JAZZ.

5. Listen!