Shu-cream!!!!

We went to Pacific Mall the other day when something stopped me in my

tracks. A poster for Beard Papa's!! It's a shu-cream (cream puffs) chain from Japan. I have to admit, I was never a huge fan of Beard Papa's. My palette had grown accustomed to the soggy shu-creams from conbinis and I couldn't really rationalize spending the extra money if I had to let the product "sog up" in the fridge anyways. But, it's a different story here. This means I no longer have

to make my own!!! After I had finished jumping up and down in front of the poster, I looked around frantically like a squirrel that had just caught a whiff of a border collie. I then headed to the food court in hopes of actually finding the store. Then...there is was. I frolicked over and giggled like a little girl, with my hands up to my face as I oohed and ahhed over the different flavours. I decided to go with a half dozen (3 vanilla and 3 matcha). I have to say, I'm still not into the fresh ones. I had to take it back home for some soggifying action. BUT, I do need to say amazing matcha! I dare say they might have used real matcha!

Japan Quake and Tsunami Donations-double your value!!

Double your donation to the Canadian Red Cross! If you have an ING Direct account, log in and make a donation from there. ING will match your donation! You'll still get receipts for all donations over $10.

SAFE!!!

I love Softbank!!! I was finally able to track down my last friend in the earthquake zone. On Sunday, I got antsy waiting for news (especially since she was in Fukushima). I remembered that Softbank had an emergency disaster message board for their customers. I checked her number with no luck. But I guess they must have sent her a notification that someone was looking for her, because when on a whim I checked again tonight (as all the news on the nuclear plant was driving me insane) and there was a message!! She was safe!!! I can't begin to describe how relieved I felt. I felt like I really smiled for the first time since Friday..while almost crying at the same time.

Akita on CNN!!

Just caught a quick glimps of Akita on CNN's Situation Room. Due to the nuclear plant threat, they evacuted Anderson Cooper from Sendai to Akita City! I can't wait to take a look at Akita tonight, just to calm my nerves that everything/one is okay. From what he said in his preview for AC360 it looks like aside from supplies and utilies it's okay in Akita...even though I know, I'm still worried...

One thing after another...

Well, I've been holding off on this post as quite frankly, I was still looking for people. On March 11, 2011 off the eastern coast of the Tohoku region Japan an 9.0 earthquake struck. This was further aggravated by a catastrophic tsunami and the looming threat of a nuclear meltdown. I've been spending the past few days practicing my multi-tasking skills: watching CNN, NHK, NHK-world, Asahi, Tokyo TV, Fuji and NNN simultaneously while scouring written reports for clues on what was going on. Initial information, especially from sources here in North America were frustratingly vague in the beginning (WHERE in Japan?!?!), and the mispronunciations didn't do anything to help suave my frayed nerves. After what felt like forever, I finally heard from most of my friends in Akita to be assured that everyone there was okay. The lack of power was hampering communication. There are lines for basic supplies. While they were shaken and stirred, everyone was okay. It appears that there were only some injuries in Akita. I am waiting on one more family to respond, but I'm hoping they're staying with family in a more secure building. My friends in Gunma, Chiba and Tokyo were also in similar situations. They were okay but their lives are a bit hectic due to the frequent aftershocks and blackouts. As one put it, "I need to go and make onigiris to prepare for the blackouts!"
The worse part was waiting on friends from Sendai and Fukushima. As the airwaves were flooded with horrific images, in combination with the lack of information from those area, the radio silence was brutal. Finally got words through friends that our Sendai friend was okay. Still not sure about my friend in Fukushima. I can only hope she has picked up and evacuated. Her city, Koriyama, was inland enough that she should have been safe from the tsunami, but with the aftershocks and nuclear threat I can't help but still feel uneasy...I can only tell myself that she's far away enough. According to Google Maps she's still outside the evacuation zone (she's about 70km from the plants). And I've caught snippets of Koriyama in the mountain of coverage. One person mentioned stopping in Koriyama for supplies on their way to Tokyo (stores open are a good sign, right?) And some of the footage of them checking people for radiation were also taken in Koriyama.
I guess, as much as I want to jump and a plane and start digging...All I can do is watch and hope.

Darn you Google Search!!!

One step forward for google equals I don't know how many steps back for me....
If you read my last post, I have been creating a new website for Kids for Kaga, an organization I volunteer with. However, I have been struggling with getting it to come up in search engine results. Earlier in the week, I finally got the site up to show up on the second page! Not bad after only 1 week. But, when I checked again today...DOOM!! It was nowhere to be found. Even when I searched for the site using "site:...", only my sitemap came up. Oh search engine gods, have I angered you in some way?

List Darn it!!!

Well, I've been helping with an organization called Kids for Kaga since last year. It's a grass roots programme that sends students from the twin cities of Dundas and Kaga on cultural exchanges. I decided it would be fun to work on a new site, as the old one is out of date, and it looks like it's run by city hall, so updating it out of our hands. The main structure of the site is up. I still need more content but I've been trying to get it up in the search results. So, that has been a bit of a frustration, as the builder I used doesn't have what I want....anyways, this is the ulterior motive to this post. One of the recommendations is to have other sites link to it so that spiders will find it. so, here goes the shameless plug!
Kids for Kaga
Kids for Kaga
Kids for Kaga
Kids for Kaga
Kids for Kaga!!!