Andrea's Rambling Notes - once from Japan, now from Canada

::Andrea's Rambling Notes - once from Japan, now from Canada::

My notes and my memories: sometimes about a mom - sometimes about a wife - sometimes about a woman - sometimes about our life

::Author::

Name::Andrea
From::Small city/town, B.C., Canada
I am a short girl from the west cost of BC, Canada and I am a proud Canadian. I went to Japan in 2000 because my Dad told me I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn't. He was right. I lived a good life found my husband from the other side of the world and have a beautiful daughter. Basically we lead a pretty normal life filled with normal ups and downs. We both come from different cultures: me Canadian, him Chinese. Living in Japan was a real eye opener about who I am and about the people I associate myself with. I lived and loved in Japan but the time to move on came upon us and in May of 2006 we left and moved to Canada: a huge move for us all. We are now trying to start up again, remodel our lives and create our future for our family. I now feel like a tourist in the country of my birth, my eyes see different and my life will be forever changed. This blog is my notes and observations of our life, our changes, our adventures and new beginnings. Welcome.
View my complete

::Recent Entries::

::Personal Links::

My Japanese Culture Teaching Notes

::My Family's Sites::

Alisha - a site set up by friends and family of my little sis

Phrax - my step-brother

Blue Mountain Stable

::Index::

An Index of past posts - the Japan Years

::Archives::

::Image Event Album::

My Image Event Photo Album

::My FlickR Photos::

www.flickr.com

::Tech Sites::

Tech2all

Blog Flak

::Extra Internet Info::

Canadian Atlas

National Geographic

Wikipedia

World TimesZones - please check this BEFORE calling me!

Currency Converter

eigoNavi - a pretty good language converter

The Samurai Appliance Repair Man - a funny repair site for N

::World News::

Generation Woman

Japan Times

Counter Punch

Japanese General Union - a must! read before working in Japan

::RSS Feed::

Blogarama

Buttons created with the Chicklet Creator

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Kinmokusei

Anyone who has ever lived in B.C. knows that September and October are probably the best times of the year. We call it ‘Indian Summer’; I have no idea why.
The leaves turn colour, the weather is perfect, and you can ride your horse all day and never get too hot or wet.
I miss that time of the year.

In Japan, the closest thing we have to an Indian Summer is right now: October.

I love October in Japan.
The weather is PERFECT, you can sleep at night, the leaves are changing colour, and there are many fall harvest festivals going on.
If you are thinking of coming to Japan I recommend you come right now. September is still the rainy season, so I’d avoid that month.

If you come you will also discover the most heavenly smell in the world.

The ‘flowering olive’: kinmokusei.

I wish we could do scratch-and-sniff on the Internet so I could let you all smell.
The most I can give you is this link with some lovely pictures.

It is hard to explain the smell; there is a lot of orange sent in it mixed with perfume.
I can be in the worst mood and will instantly feel all-calm with the world when I cross its perfume path. The other day, when JiXiang was sick and crying all day, I had a terrible headache. It was instantly gone when I smelt this tree.
I want to bottle the smell and carry it around with me everywhere. Do the Japanese people out there know if there is a perfume that even comes close? I will buy ten bottles. I would love to find an air freshener of this smell. My house would be heaven.

It is a tree. In Shimada I saw a HUGE one in full bloom and I would have paid anything to live in the house that sat under it. Some people trim it into a hedge. It works, but I like it better as a tree.

In Japan we have a million BBQs under the shade of the Cherry trees when they are in bloom, but in China they hold their BBQs under the Kinmokusei tree. I think this would be the best picnic ever.

Do we have this tree in Canada? I hope so. If, no when, we have a place of our own I am going to plant at least ten of these trees all around the yard. They are evergreen and they smell like heaven. The all around perfect tree.
One of my students told me that the flowers taste really bad.
-Oh?
-Ya. When I was a kid I was positive that something that smelt so wonderful had to taste good. Nope! At least it is not poisoness.

Like I said, the perfect tree.
This tree makes riding a bike every day worth it. You miss this smell if you are in a car. On my bike I experience wave, upon wave of sweet heaven smells and am always in a great mood when I get to work.
I think I might do the ultimate in sacrilegious and break off a piece to put on my desk. Then work could never end and I would be ok with that.

Return Home

Posted by (Top)Andrea::10/06/2005 :: 2 Comments:

Post/Read Comments

---------------------------------------