Le bordel (de nouveau...)

Ah-la-la, nous les Francais on sait les faire, les revolutions...
Bref, passons.
On se demandait si Luc etait descendu crier dans les rues de Mulhouse banderolle au poing? Hahaha....

Gaba

I guess this post will only make sense to those of you who are Neuroscientists, I apologize for this. A few weeks ago we discovered that canned Gaba was sold in certain supermarkets, under the form of chocolate! Knowing what Gaba is to the brain, we found it rather amusing and odd. Hiroshi bought it a few days later, out of curiosity I guess. On the package it says "Did you ever feel relieved after eating chocolate? etc etc...". Well, I don't know, could be. I think most people feel like eating chocolate when they are stressed or depressed, but does it actually make you feel better? I don't know. Anyway, I was eager to try it out, skeptic of course, but secretly expecting some kind of mood enhancing effect or something. Don't worry, I tried hard but those are no happy pills. Very good chocolate I must say, very dense and aromatic, but no effect whatsoever. Funny though...

Gerard

Le camembert le moins cher (620Yen ou 4,5Euro), qu'on peut trouver a peu pres partout, c'est Gerard. Pour d'autres fromages, dans les magasins un peu plus sophistiques, il faudra debourser un peu plus. Gerard est pas trop mal. Peut etre un leger arriere gout de je ne sais quoi, mais je suis presque completement sure que c'est du vrai fromage. Et puis on peut pas s'offrir un camembert a 10Euros tous les jours (ou meme jamais!).

Festival

Trip to Daiba (Tokyo bay) where the Festival du film Francais au Japon is taking place these days. We saw a film called
Frankie (Fabienne Berthaud, avec Diane Kruger). The story is about a top model that falls into depression. The film goes back and forth between her days as a model and her stay in a psychiatry clinic. Not that impressive according to us. Actually quite boring. I guess there were better ones on the list, but you never know before trying.

Food

Some weekend food we have been eating recently.
Tasty bouillabaisse, juicy burgers, smooth breakfast pancakes, all prepared by my private chef Hiroshi!

Garbage

For the series "If it's Japanese it's...".
Somewhere in Japan an old barber digged out this creepy "practice doll head" from his barber shop. As it scared the hell out of his grandchild he thought that it would probably have the same effect on the cats and the crows that mess up his garbage. Might work....


While I'm at it, this is our garbage collecting plan. It came with a 20-page booklet on how to dispose garbage in the right way. Here you go (the list is not exhaustive):
Monday: - Glass bottles and cans.
- cardboard boxes, magazines, milk cartons, open, piled up symmetrically and tied with a string.
- Other unburnable like pots, pans, light bulbs, garden waste.
Friday: - PET bottles (no cap, no label).
- Plastic, egg boxes, cup noodle, yoghurt cartons...
Wednesday and Saturday: - Burnable (in transparent or semi-transparent bag), kitchen waste, paper, wood (30cmx50cm!) etc...

It was quite tough when I first arrived, because I am not used to sort out garbage in this way, and certainly not to open and tie my milk cartons together! What disturbed me most was that one has to keep garbage in the kitchen for 4 days (and carefully plan when to eat fish). We actually store some of the kitchen waste in the freezer while waiting for "garbage day", so it's OK. But for some things I really have no idea in which category they fall in, and in which way it should be folded or tied or wrapped. Someone I know said that before buying something he always evaluates how much fuss it will be to dispose of it, and then thinks twice if it's worth it.
Oh well, I guess it is good for the environment. I just hope they don't mix all the stuff after they collect it anyway!

Plum blossom

Finally some signs of spring arriving. Winter here is not as long and cold as it was in Sweden, but somehow it felt like a real winter anyway.
The photos were taken last weekend in a plum tree garden close to Tsukuba.