Taiwanese wife in Nagoya

Emily's new born, 4 weeks old. Seeing the baby only made me realise how much maternal instinct I have, that is... none.
__________________________

Comparing to the supressed, reserve, conservative and meticulous neat Japanese, Taiwanese are sometimes understood as overly-friendly, easy-to-content and lacking of forethought and thoroughness.

Hanging out with Irene (my best friend married to a Japanese guy), I was always cracking up about the funny stories inspired by the culture shock. One time she was trying to make the Korean rice powder pancake, chichimi, from the package. The instruction saying that she should pour some flour into the mixture but there was none in the kitchen. She fiddled around the carboard and found the pancake mix. She thought, oh well, that is also flour so she poured in the pancake flour into the bowl. No one told her that the pancake mix has got the vanilla flavour and sugar mixed in, the result was revolting (please imagine pouring the soy sauce over your strawberry cake). She was so embarrassed, trying to stop her husband having the second helpings (I think he was eating it out of duty).

Over the golden week holidays, Irene went to the Pachinko Parlor with her husband. While her husband walked away looking for other machines, she was sitting in front of the machine by herself. The credit is running low but she had no other kind of entertainment but to continue her game. She pulled out the 5000 yen bill, and blindly stuff the money into the slot within her eyesight. In the noisy and smoke-filled space, she found out that her money was not crediting her game. It turned out that she had just funded the machine (and the guy) sitting to her right.