Teddy

I can't believe we've got 11.5 hours left of this year. I'm still in denial. Unnnghhh. Then again, I'm just so glad that this crazy Christmas-New-Years-end-of-year-parade-of-family-guests-one-after-another 年末年始 hecticness is coming to an end.

In keeping with my resolution to spend a quiet Silvester this year (though I won't be curling up at home alone as I initially planned), I will be doing something small with G and (maybe) keeping the drinking to a minimum.

Speaking of the end of the year, you know what happened in Samoa yesterday? They jumped forward in time by a day in order to better coordinate business hours with Australia and New Zealand (Samoa was previously 21 hours behind Sydney), which meant that they went directly from Dec 29 to Dec 31. Weird! But cool.
Read more about it here on BBC.

I told my dad about that and apparently he's actually been to both Samoa and American Samoa. Coooool.

On an entirely separate note (I'm always too lazy to do season-appropriate comics. I'll probably end up posting something Christmas-related in the summer.): teddy bears!

Have an awesome New Year's Eve, and see you tomorrow!

That's the one

Impossible to remember. I had to look it up for this comic and I immediately forgot it again.

Pre-Eating

I'm small(ish), but I have a pretty big appetite. Hence, pre-eating.

Reasons for pre-eating:

(1) When I think the restaurant we're going to is going to be expensive. (So that I'll eat less and hence spend less money. Mostly in Japan. ha!)

(2) When I don't think the food is going to be that good. (So I don't have to eat too much.)

(3) When I don't think the food will be enough.

(4) When I'm going to meet someone for the first time, so I don't have to concentrate too much on the food and not enough on the person. (I talk very little when I'm nervous about meeting someone new, ie. for work/interview/date.)

Does anyone else do this?

Chips

Just came back from G's little sister's birthday cheese fondue dinner. So delicious. So bloated.

Speaking of overeating . . .

Yeah. And then I get all excited about the "bag of chips" a few days later and realize that there are only two chips in there. d'oh.

I Love Globalization

Something my Aussie friend's German boyfriend said at the beginning of their relationship.

At least half of the couples that I know are intercultural/international couples. Or so I think. I should go take a FB poll.

Mom Thing

Mama never answers her cell phone. Apparently G's mom doesn't either. Is this a mom thing?

Mamma Mia

Merry Christmas!

Here's a totally non-Christmassy cartoon.

Soxy

Merry Christmas Eve! Hope everyone's spending a good one!

What I learned from this comic: drawing stick figures in their underwear is difficult.

One Love

What's more, she works in a Buddhist temple . . .

Rather Large

Sorry for being away! I was in Dresden with mama and her guests for a few days. I'm finally back with no plans to go away for a while, so this should mean daily Bonsai. In theory.

Anywho, this is another Asian stereotype that applies to me. Those are G's words, verbatim.

Croissants

My version was better.

Chopstick Bender II

The Asian culture slowly infiltrates G's kitchen.

Animals

Prepping for my German exam. Can't wait till it's over!

Grammers

Too many things wrong with that sentence for you to teach English.

Smart People

It's also handy because I can get updates on new comic entries. What?

Why'd you bother?

A while ago, someone I hadn't spoken to in about two years sent me a quick email asking me how I was doing, where I was, what I was up to, etc. It's not easy to sum up two years in a sentence, so I ended up writing about four paragraphs or so filling him in on stuff. He wrote back three weeks later with a 3-sentence reply. Seriously. Why did you bother in the first place?

All is well on the food front, however. I followed the Meh blog recipe and made chicken sweetcorn soup. Oh man. I used to love to order this whenever we went out for Chinese food. It didn't turn out as pretty (and the egg not as fluffy...lots of things I still need to improve on!), but it was delicious. Thanks T!

Some more translation work, then baking a cake, making dinner, and getting ready for the film festival tonight.

International Comedy Film Festival begins . . . TODAY!

I know this is shameless advertising, but . . . 

The long-awaited opening night of our International Comedy Film Festival (ICoFF) is tonight!

We'll be screening Saya Zamurai (Scabbard Samurai), Matsumoto Hitoshi's latest film, followed by a sushi buffet. There will also be two surprise events before and after the film . . . ! Tickets (for tonight or for the rest of the festival) can be reserved at the Filmtheater am Friedrichshain website. 

Tickets are 9 EUR (incl. buffet) for the opening night, 8 EUR for regular full-length features (7 EUR reduced), and 6.50 EUR for shorts. (nb. +3 EUR for our 3D film Ronal the Barbarian)

We've got a fantastic line-up of short- and full-length comedy films from 14 different countries to be screened over the course of the next 7 days. Almost every film is opened with some kind of a fun "komisch" event. The full program can be found on our website. 

poster design by Ole 

I'll also be doing the introduction for the Sunday screening of Saya Zamurai. If you'd like to see poor stage-phobic Nozomi stutter pathetically on stage for a few minutes, please come see Saya Zamurai this Sunday.

A few of my favourite films to be screened this week are

 Shut Up Little Man! (documentary/comedy, Australia, Matthew Bate)
 Un Cuento Chino [Chinese Take-Away] (drama/comedy, Argentina, Sebastian Boresztein)
 The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (documentary/comedy, USA, Morgan Spurlock)
 Saya Zamurai [Scabbard Samurai] (samurai comedy, Japan, Hitoshi Matsumoto)

but there are plenty of other hilarious films to discover.

More information at http://www.comedyfilmfestival.de/!

(Normal Bonsai update will follow later!)

Addicted

I hope I'm not the only one out there.

I also made cookies this past Advent Sunday. "Moo!"

Actually, it's the leftover letters of my name.

Ain't No Shame in It

"Hey, everyone does it."

(I didn't say that, but wanted to.)

Dramatic (Slimy) Things

Not typical Bonsai, but I enjoyed drawing these Lichtensteinesque mollusks and crustacean.

Sassy Mollusks

I like drawing and eating mollusks.

Social Hibernation

The December blues have hit, and all I want to do is this:

Slimy update to follow later.

Things People Ask Because You're Japanese

My take on Pigs in Maputo's Things People Ask Because You Are Brazilian.

Reference: Hokkaidokürbis Wiki page

I can think of a few others, but that's all for now.

circa 1985

They broke in and stole our spatula

My mom does this whenever we can't find something (ie. eraser, glasses, tupperware, etc.) in the house.

Nacktbereich

My first coed nude sauna experience in Germany.

Overall a totally comfortable, pleasant experience. Not being able to see much might have helped a bit.

Poke

My mom had an operation this week after which she had to inject herself in the stomach with a needle every afternoon. I couldn't even dissect a rat (let alone a locust) in high school biology class, so yeah, needless to say, poking people (or animals) with a sharp tool is not my forte.

Splatter

The best way to avoid stains? Eating in your underwear.

I'm classy like that.

Dental Floss Robot

Grant Imahara. My nerdy heartthrob. I'm not usually like this . . . I swear!

Movember

I kind of enjoy it and kind of don't.

Wiki on Movember.

Mad Conversation Skills

I gots them.

I have a list of weird questions-I-ask-people-when-I-get-stuck-in-an-awkward-conversation-especially-at-a-party, and this is one of them.

G and I ran the Berliner Staffelmarathon (relay marathon) with three other friends today at the airport-turned-park/venue Flughafen Tempelhof. I forgot to start my stopwatch so I don't know what my time was, but it was great to run as a team. Definitely doing it again next year!

Am going to sleep so well tonight. Nacht!

Santa's Belt

I'll take coal any day over a beating.

BFF

The similarity was so uncanny, S and I used to joke that we were actually dating the same person. Anyway, they've only met briefly that one time, so we still haven't given up on the hopes that they will be BFFs.

Asians Like It Hot

If there's one thing that's important about serving food in Japan, it's temperature. As a rule, warm food is served piping hot in Japan (and in most parts of Far East Asia, I think). This is especially important for soup noodles like ramen, as serving less-than-scalding-hot ramen is possibly the greatest imaginable sin known to Japanese culinary culture. (nb. This sin is punishable by ramen hell, where you are forced to eat lukewarm ramen with soggy noodles for eternity. Eternity!) There's even a term for people who can't eat things that are scalding hot. We call them neko-jita, or literally, cat tongue. (Cats can't eat hot foods? I didn't know other animals liked their food hot.) While it's not quite an insult, most cat-tongued people admit to it somewhat apologetically, as if it were something to be ashamed of.

It can get pretty extreme, though. They basically serve everything scalding hot in Japan, including foreign foods that don't necessarily need to be superhot, like pasta. I once burned my entire mouth taking a bite of spaghetti that I didn't expect to be 100 degrees C. How does one even serve pasta that hot? (It didn't even come on those iron plates...just a normal one.)

Anyway, you think I'd learn my lesson, but no. I'm a fast eater by nature (though slower than G and his dad) and I think I most likely will continue to burn my tongue/throat/roof of my mouth eating noodles for as long as I live.

German Etiquette

Football is kinda important, apparently.

Censor

Don't worry, G, not very many people read my blog anyway . . . I think.

Torakins

Another late-night update before I go to bed.

My mama's friend uploaded a video of her cat Tora, the cutest cat ever. It was hard not to draw a picture of her:

"I'm cuter in real life."

...and obsessively watch the video ca. 2500 times.

I need a kitteh in my life.

Dingle

I can't help it.

According to Me

My mother likes to cite herself.

Denglish Fail

I'm sure there are more, but these are just some that I've come across that I find . . . bizarre.

More Denglish fail at Meh Blog!

Chocolate Room

They had an awesome art piece at the Weserburg museum in Bremen that was basically a small room with walls painted with chocolate and a bubbling chocolate fountain in the middle. Whatever it was supposed to be, it smelled delicious. Made me want to lick the walls, and it made G . . .

Ein Dreier

A quick update while the pizza is in the oven.

And then we kept listening to the conversation, and it sounded like he was talking about 3-on-3 soccer. Bo-o-o-ring!