BBQ

Korean BBQ

This is a deep part in Osaka. When I got here, I was not sure if I was in Japan or not. I went there as a part of a group, and after I got off from the train, I just tried to follow the group. The purpose we were there was Korean BBQ. There are so many Korean BBQ restaurants in this area. It was Friday, although we made reservation we had to wait half an hour. They cook rice for 50 people at one outside of the restaurant on the ground. I was so surprised, but the rice they served tasted really good! Also, when they were out of meat, someone carry meat on the back of a bike from somewhere. It was weird situation, but the meat tasted really really good!

You can see how much good time we had there from this picture.
We had lots of meat and beer after work.
Eating out at this kind of restaurant on Friday after work is awesome!
All what we had here was weird parts of meats.
This was the second time for me to eat this interesting Korean BBQ with them, but now I learned so many parts of cows.
The first time, I felt they are too gross, and could not enjoy much.
But now I love them!!
This is not a place for date or a place where only girls come, but fun place you once wanna try.

On the way back, all of us smelled really bad on a train.
After I got home, my clothes smelled pretty bad.
BUT! It was such a nice dinner I had for a while.

AMAZING GRACE

Laughter and Sorrow

It was my other friend's wedding last Saturday.
It was a nice small wedding party.
At first, we attended Wedding Ceremony at a chapel.
I started crying when she came into the chapel with her step father.
She looked really beautiful and happy, so I was very happy for her.
Last couple years, she had such a hard time.
Her mother and biological father passed away one and another.
She has a eating problem and could not tell about it to anybody.
Since I saw her struggling her life, I was so happy that she finally could get married with her boyfriend.
After the ceremorny, there was a formal wedding party, and she read a letter to her dead mother.
All of us could not stop crying...
After the formal party, they held casual wedding party with lots of her friends.
At this time, I did not cry and enjyoed the nice party.

This is me when I was ready for singing.
I was pretty relaxed.
I was asked to sing "Amazing Grace" at the formal wedding party.
I rejected it at first, but she asked me saying it was her mother's favorite song, how could I say no...
On the stage, before the bride and groom came into the place, I sang the song without any music.
Once I started singing, I felt really good!
It was much much better than singing in a bathtub.
I usually love singing when I take a bath because of the echo.

I got jealous her dress at wedding party this time.
She wore my color dress, Orange!, and was so cute!
I am not sure if you change dresses at wedding party in the US or not.
But for girls, that is a nice part of the wedding day that we can wear a couple big dresses in one day!

Rcently, I attend several weddings, but have never go tired of it.
Each wedding is different and nice.

SECRET

My Secret

Today I got a secret.
When I think of it, I have never had a secret which I can’t share with anybody.
Usually I love sharing my secrets with somebody.
Humn, that sounded weird…
Okay, I think I usually do not hide anything about me doing something to close people.
When my friends or my family tell me their secrets, I can bear not to tell anybody because at least two people know the secret.
But this one is something only I know.
So I am very excited to have this secret which I would not tell anybody.
Since this is the first time, I at least have to say that I have a secret.
The reason why I keep this secret is my belief.
I believe if I could keep it secret, my dream would come true.
Keep my finger crossed that I could keep my secret.
Weird entry, I know… But my first secret in my life!

MOTHER'S DAY

I Love My MOM

It was mother's day last Sunday.
I wanted to take my mom to dinner on mother’s day.
But my mom had to go somewhere with my dad for business on that day.
Although the last February 3rd was my mom’s birthday, my grandpa passed away on that day.
So we actually could not celebrate my mom’s birthday.
That’s why I really wanted to do something special for my mom on mother’s day.
My sister and I ordered as many yellow spray roses as we could.
We wanted to buy them because they are my mom’s favorite flower.
I went to my parent’s house when they were working, and left them on my mom’s dining table with a card.
We wanted to thank her so much.
On the evening, she called me with crying, saying she did not expect.
She kept saying, “Thank you”
My mom is having such a hard time right now by worrying about us daughters who live away from her, by taking care of our grandmothers who need lots of supports, and by supporting my dad.
I have never seen such a tough mother ever.
I call her everyday and tell her what happens on each day.
She never told me not to call even when she is busy.
She is always so kind to all of us, and I really want to be like my mom.
Mom, I love you and thank you very much for supporting us!

ALOHA!

Hawaian Festival

I had a Hula concert last Sunday.
We danced on a stage outside under sun, so I felt really really good and got suntan.
There were so many Hawaiian dancers from many schools.
We dance the very beginning, got nervous a bit, but I think we got used to since we dance at the beginning at any concert so far.
Watching other people’s dancing is good for me.
Now we are practicing much harder dance for the biggest concert in September.
Kids danced the easier version of the dance we practice now on the stage.
It was sooooo cute, and I was thinking I would make my future kids to learn how to dance Hula dance.
Dancing Hula is good mentally and physically.
It has been one year and three month since I started taking Hula lesson.
Now I learned so many steps and can dance several songs.
Someday in near future, I want to go to Hawaii and dance with local people in Hawaii.
This is something I want to keep doing.

There were several stores which sell Hawaiian stuff.
There were Kona coffee, Hawaiian water, Hawaiian beer, and so on.
It smelled like Hawaii although there was no beach around the stage.
We had lunch at Hawaiian restaurant.
I had Loco Moco Place.
When was the last time I was in Hawaii??
I love Big Island the best.
Would I live there??
Maybe that is a place I want to save as my vacation place.
All employees and their family of our company will go to Hawaii this coming February.
It would be weird trip for me, but it is nice to see that everyone is so looking forward to going all together.
We are going to Waikiki for the trip.
I hope I would be a better dancer who can dance in front of them by then!

REUNION

At My Friend’s Wedding Party

My friend got married last Saturday.
Although I wanted to attend her ceremony, but couldn’t because of Saturday meeting at work…
I could go to cocktail sort of party in that evening after the meeting.
It was a cute cocktail party which lots of their friends attended.
I was glad to see all of my old friends from college at the party too.
We hung out in a group of 8 girls when we were college students.
She was the fifth one who got married, and it surprised us.
All of us thought she would not get married young, since she was such a Tomboy.
She loves to travel all over the world, and she works a couple months only for traveling.
When we get together she does not talk about her boyfriend much.
Finally they decided to get married after 9years relationship.
They look really cute together although their relationship had been quite dry.

We have been friends from college for 20 years.
Now we live separately, and each of us has different life style.
It is always fun to hear about their life.
After we reported what has been going on in each life, we kept laughing.
We have so many silly and funny memories.
Also, since it had been a while since the last time all of us got together, and we got excited.
I think I am very lucky to have these kinds of friends whom I can share our memories with.
Whenever we get together, we can go time trip to our college days easily.
We decided to have trip to all together including their new family members to Okinawa next year.
I can’t wait to see them soon!
Wedding party is such a great opportunity to see lots of friends.
I am going to another wedding party tomorrow, and am getting excited to see other friends there!

PHILIPPINES 4

Last Day in Philippines

It was such a short trip in Philippines.
It was very relaxing nice trip and a good experience for me.
Now I feel like that I was in Philippines long time ago.
I am now back to a real world in Osaka, Japan…
The last day in Borocay, we rode a motorbike around the town to take videos and pictures.
I had never seen these kinds of stores before, so it was very interesting for me.
After sunset, they use candles in a store and close pretty late.
Since they get power from other island, it seemed like they got out of power pretty often.
Maybe that’s why they had candle on those days, not sure….
Even at hotel, there was no light sometime during our stay, but it did not bother me at all since the moonlight was enough.
Their lives maybe difficult, but I strongly felt they are enjoying their lives.

I am often asked, “Are you Philipina? Hawaiian?”
Maybe because I have darker skin.
I got that in Philippines too from people in Philippines.
On a plane, there was a man sitting next to me.
He talked to me in Japanese, but he said, “Are you going to Japan by yourself? Good girl!”.
I was like, “???”
He talked to me with a little English, and asked me about Philippines.
It seemed like he totally misunderstood that I was a Philipina…

Anyway, today is the last day to write Philippines.
There are too many stories I got over there.
I believe taking vacation is good for us in many ways.
Next vacation will be August, which is the longest vacation I can get.
No plan yet, but gotta start planning soon!

PHILIPPINES 3

The Third Day In Philippines

We were in Borocay.
We could get up really early in the morning because we left the curtain open.
We asked to deliver breakfast to our room from their restaurant.
They called us to ask what kind of food we would like to have.
We ordered this much like the picture above.
They set the table on our balcony, so we could have breakfast with looking at the beautiful ocean view.
I would say we spent most of the time at this balcony when we were in the hotel.
We ate, drank beer, had snack, took a bobble bath with flower, and chat at this balcony.

We did a lot of activities on this day in Borocay.
We swam although I can’t swim…
We got a deep tissue massage with facing to the beach.
We rent a motorbike and rode around the town.
The funniest part was Jet Ski.
It was unbelievable for me that we don’t have to have any kind of license to ride Jet Ski…
Anyway, we shared one Jet Ski and I drove a couple circles.
I got scared at first, but soon I got so excited to go fast.
We drove for an hour, and at the last circle, we fell from it because we went too fast, I guess.
We sore on the next day, and got suntan a lot by having fun outside whole day.
When I think about it, I had not have a chance to spend whole day outside in Japan for a while.
I got refresh, and could get relax.
I remember that we went to bed early at night since we got so tired, and woke up early on the next day…

PHILIPPINES 2

The Second Day In Philippines

We had breakfast at closest restaurant from Shangri-La hotel in Manila.
It was pretty good Philippine breakfast, but the problem is that servers and we can’t communicate well…
During this trip, I asked Ryan to speak with people in Philippines most of the time.
It was very difficult for me to understand their English, and was hard for them to understand my English.
Since I relied on Ryan too much, and finally my English became really bad.
Ryan asked me, “Are you tired? Your English is getting bad”
I was laughing because I knew that I was not trying hard to speak well.
He started talking with me in Japanese, and we communicated in Japanese when we were by ourselves.

It was Ryan’s idea to go to Borocay.
He got a flight tickets for us to fly to Borocay, which is 1hour away from Manila by jet.
Somehow he booked a flight for us to go to Borocay separately.
I was fine with that, but after I he left me at the airport and I was not sure when my flight would leave, I was getting nervous.
Finally I got on a jet, and fell in a sleep.
When I got up, the door of the pilot’s space, and saw him reading newspaper.
I saw the flight attendant was struggling with her headache.
Some white stuff from outside came into the jet.
I got scared and started getting upset.
When I finally got to Borocay, I was so tired and upset.
However, after I saw this beautiful beach, I became soooo happy.
How could I keep being upset after I saw this!
We headed to our hotel by jet boat.
Kids who came to pick us up from the airport helped us carrying stuff.
We assume that they were under 18 or so, but they worked really hard.
I felt people in Manila are quite different from people in Borocay.
After I spent half a day in Borocay, I thought a lot about my work in Japan.
Anyway, the second day in Philippines was a good day.

PHILIPPINES 1

1st day in Philippines

I was in Philippines last week with Ryan.
It was my first time in Philippines, and I was a little nervous before I got there.
Everyone scared me saying that I might get kidnap or get something stolen.
However, it never happened!
But it was good ting to be careful wherever I would be, right?
I had a chance to go to Philippines when I was a high school student, and I was looking forward to going there.
I was going to go there as an exchange student for a short time.
It got canceled at the last minute, and since then, I never thought I would get another chance to go there.
It was Ryan’s idea to go there since he has his cousin there.
First impression of Philippines was hot!!
Second impression is that it was so crowed with people, motorbikes and cars.
Everything I saw from Ryan’s cousin’s car were new to me and was interesting.
It was a while since I saw Ryan since the last time, but I even could not concentrate on being happy to see him!

We stayed at Shangri-La Hotel in Manila.
There was a big grocery store near the hotel, and we decided to go check it out.
We tried to enter the place from the exit door without knowing the system.
A guard man with a gun stopped us strictly.
I was surprised because it is just a grocery store, and they had to check my bag!
Before we went to a grocery area, we had some snack in front of the area.
There was a lot of people and I got hit by a big shopping cart.
I did not see who hit me since it hurts so much!
It was as big as American grocery store, but less variety of stuff.
This meat section on the picture above amazed me.
There was really stinky part, and I found bigger fish section.
I think they were not happy to see us taking pictures, plus I saw a lot of guard men with gun, so did not take many pictures not to got shot.

Anyway, the first say in Manila was very exciting.
I had already been glad to go to Philippines on the first day there.

SOY MILK FOOD

Soy Milk Pot

Last Saturday, after work, my friend came over to my apt and stayed one night.
I decided to cook for dinner, and I cooked Soy Milk Pot, which sounds gross, but really good taste.
This menu is one of my best cooking, although it is really easy to cook.
We ate too much, so we skipped desert and walked to a video store.
I really wanted to watch “Saw 3” but have been scared to watch it by myself.
I had watched “Saw1” and “Saw2” with my movie friend who loves scary movies.
I always denied his selection, so one day I decided to watch them and I really liked them.
But I was still scared to watch it by myself, and asked my friend to watch it with me.
I thought “Saw 3” was the best out of three.
We watched it till late at night, and chatted after that for a while.
We slept in till noon, and cooked again, and ate.
I went to Tokyo for business on the next day, but I was not tired at all.
The friend was not my closest friend ever, but I had a really good time.
I realized it is nice to hang out with friend whom I had not hung out much.
I found many things from my friend.

She is going to get married soon, but she will move to the place which is close to my apt.
I wish I can hang out with her much more.