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Slow Saturday W Uncle K
I spent a night at my parents’s house with my sis and uncle.
My parents are in Hawaii on business now so we had to take care of our doggy.
I wanted to get up early to go out on a date with my uncle, but could not.
I was so tired from last night.
Well I am always tired on Saturday from all my work from Mon-Fri.
Yes, I am weak.
I need to sleep.
Anyway, I woke up and finally got ready to go at noon, and had lunch all together.
My sis left for ski to Hokkaido today, so Uncle K and I went to our cousin’s dog’s hospital to leave my dog for two days.
It is always hard to make her spent at dog’s hospital.
She always can’t eat and sleep well when she spent nights at my cousin’s.
Uncle K and I went to a shopping mall to do some shopping.
Lately, I am crazy about Assam Black Tea Latte from Starbucks.
I wonder if you have the same menu in the US.
We stopped by at cake shop to get some desert after dinner.
And we left to Kyoto.
In a car, we talked a lot about what’s going on lately.
We have so much to catch up.
I love talking with uncle K.
After we got to Kyoto, we picked up my grand ma and went to a small Chinese restaurant.
They are all yummy!!
It is nice to spend time with family.
Slow but fulfilled Saturday.
Not Ready For Working
I had a headache and stomachache today.
Ah how foolish I was to drink that much…
I gotta think about my age, I know…
I woke up pretty early although I stayed up late last night, but of course I did not get out from my bed till late afternoon.
Now I love watching Ally McBeal.
So I am in a bed with surfing intenet and watching American dramas.
Since my grandma is at my parents’ house till tomorrow, I went to my parents’ to have dinner together.
We had good time.
Now I have already chosen what to wear tomorrow.
I just need to get ready for tomorrow in my mind.
Well I have definitely not been ready yet.
Christmas Eve
Christmas is an event I love so much.
I am not Christian, but I just LOVE Christmas.
Why? Because nobody get in fight on Christmas.
Oh, wait a minute!
I was scold pretty bad today, actually.
My phone at office rang in this morning about my Internet business.
The customer did not tell me her name and started yelling at me suddenly.
She ordered our product and it did not arrived the day she arranged.
That’s our bad, so I will fly to Tokyo to apologize to her.
It is kinda scared but what else can I do?
Customer service is difficult, but I learned a lot from her claim today.
I immediately read through two books how to deal with customers who clam.
We are trying our best, but sometimes it does not go perfect, unfortunately…
Christmas season is the busiest season at our company since we sell cakes and ingredients for cakes.
However, I did not do overtime today!
Cuz I had a party at home!!
Christmas Eve had been a day to spend with a boyfriend but this year was different.
I spent Christmas Eve with our family, four of us.
We also celebrate my sis’s birthday, which was on December 20th.
I got soooooooo many Christmas presents.
I get excited to see the underneath of Christmas tree every year.
It is so nice to spend the special day with my family.
I talked with my dad today as my dad tonight, and it made me soo happy.
He had been my boss for a long time but not my father, and I thought I did not have my father anymore.
Seriously.
But my father was there!
It was pretty rough day at work, but it was very nice and warm night with my family.
Chose to Work
I was invited to a party in Tokyo from friends whom I went to Macau with.
(I gotta write about Macau trip, but I haven’t… oh well…)
I was going to fly to Tokyo, but decided not to.
I know that I have to enjoy being with my friends but now I feel that I should more concentrate on working.
Also I got tired more than I thought from Tokyo business trip yesterday.
I went to my parents’ to sign for a paper for my dad.
That was to get stocks for my dad’s company.
I feel guilty that I am secretly applying for another company.
What am I doing?
Today was my sis’s birthday.
She became 33 years old.
The more we get old, the better our relationship goes.
We still get in fight quite often, but I am happy to share lots of feelings with her.
Sis, thank you for being next to me all that time!
What A Coincidence!
Today, I woke up and I went to a seminar about Snoopy.
I was late since I misestimate the time.
What bad businesswoman…
The seminar was mainly for designers who arrange snoopy picture to use for their own packages or items.
Therefore, it was lectured by a designer and lectured all about fashion trend in 2009.
It was sooooo boring.
So many technical words for fashion and I had no idea…
I had business lunch, and after that, I had a little meeting at café.
Since that was a casual meeting with my boss, I had parfait, my favorite desert.
Since it was a parfait at a tearoom attached to a fruit store, it was different.
More delicious than any other parfaits I had.
Since the meeting was over quicker than I though, I went to the airport at 4:45.
I supposed to take 6 PM flight, but could change to 5PM flight.
I called my mom soon after I got off the airplane, and got to know that my dad was at the airport too.
So I called my dad and went to restaurant to meet up to my mom.
It was such coincident that my dad took the same flight with me on the same day.
I had not talked with my dad for a long time, so it was a nice conscience.
He was excited to see me and talked a lot about work.
He said, “it was so nice to have you at dinner tonight. Sooo nice to see you tonight.”
I was so surprised to hear that, since he has not said such a thing for years!!
We had Okonomiyaki and icecream.
Oveall, it was a nice day.
I could go home early enough and could get relaxed!
Thinking Many Things
I stayed at my parents’ last night, and could sleep in pretty well.
I had a big breakfast and this is lunch my mom made for me.
My favorite noodle.
A housekeeper, who has come to my parents’ house since I was an elementary school student, told me secret today.
She was like,
“I always can tell if you came for dinner the last night or not every week by looking at dishes. Not because more dishes than usual but there are more nice dishes when I am there for dinner.”
I knew that my mom cooks all my favorite dishes whenever I am there, but I did not know that she cares about the dishes for me too.
I felt appreciated to my mom again.
We went to a department store to get clothes for funeral.
Actually, doctor told my parents that my grandma would die pretty soon.
It could happen this weekend, but seems like she is now better.
I needed clothes for funeral, so my mom took me to the store.
It might sound cruel to prepare for grandma’s death, but I had to.
In Japan, people judge family members at funeral, especially if the person related to a company.
Too complicated to explain here, but in short, people don’t come to pray for the dead people but to see their family.
It would be sad to see my grandma’s death, but at the same time I want to let her go because she is too sick.
I went to Spa today after the shopping.
I have a cold so I shouldn’t, but I wanted to get relaxed.
I talked with a girl who game me a treatment a lot today, which I usually don’t.
She gave me many impressions of me and asked me many questions, which also she does not do usually.
It was interesting to hear how other people see me.
She told me about her own dream too.
Somehow I got encouraged by her today and got relaxed physically and mentally.
Had dinner, did laundry and cleaned my room.
Today was a national holiday in Japan, an extra day-off for me.
I gotta got to work earlier than usual and will work hard tomorrow.
I have already decided what to wear.
I am kind of excited to go to work tomorrow.
Hope it will be a good day tomorrow!
Relaxing But Tiring Sunday
Since I passed out at like 10 last night, I woke up at 6 in this morning.
All the light and TV were on whole night, which happens to me often.
I got freaked out once cuz I thought I had to get ready to go to work, but soon I realized that it was Sunday!
I went back to sleep, but kept being up every 30 minutes, so I decided to get up at 8.
I started working at home with drinking caramel tea.
I got this teapot lately, so I was happy to make good tea.
As I am schedule to give a presentation to my boss, father, today, I had to get ready for it.
It sounds weird to give a presentation to my father on Sunday, but since he has been pretty busy, today was the day.
The presentation I have been working on is something I am very interested in and I am confident with, so it is not that stressful.
Okay, so I gave a presentation.
It went okay, just okay.
He liked it, but it was not perfect, of course.
Recently, I feel that my father is no longer is my father.
He is more like my boss 24/7.
He used to manage being father AND boss, but it seems like getting difficult for him.
I feel that if he won’t be my father but only my boss, I don’t want to work for him…
Anyway, after the presentation, my sister came to our parents’ house, and took me for shopping.
She bought my these pair of CROCS shoes.
These are winter version.
I had never had CROCS, so I am happy to get them.
My sis got the same pair of shoes by herself too.
This is a key chain I made and I got from my sis as my birthday from CROCS store.
Isn’t this cute?
I love it.
My family held my birthday party today at home.
Finally my dad said “Happy Birthday” to me.
Kinda late, but still I was happy.
Thanks, Dad.
Lots Of Napping
I felt guilty in this morning.
I went to bed pretty late last night, and obviously weekend is the only time I can sleep in.
However, this morning, my grandma woke me up really early.
I asked her to let me sleep more, but she got upset and told me that, “You are not by yourself now. You are in community life. I'm afraid you lacks cooperativeness.”
That made me super upset.
I cared about her, and that was my choice to stay there, but I wanted to understand her how much I need sleep.
We talked a bit, and we made up.
Since then, she was super nice to me, and I felt guilty that I made her feel fear at me because of the way I upset to her.
She is my grandma, and I should have known how much she wanted to spend time with me since I don’t visit her enough.
I feel horrible…
And it was true that nowadays, I am so used to be by myself to live my own way.
Anyway, we calmed down and had breakfast peacefully.
I took a shower after that and took a nap till we had lunch.
I requested her to cook my favorite lunch menu she makes.
She used to cook that for my grandma and for me.
Whenever I tried her receipt, I can’t finish the same as she does.
Uncle Koji and I went shopping after lunch by bus.
After we came back, I took another nap.
Okay, then I felt that slept enough.
We had dinner together, my another favorite dish which my grandma cooks.
I think she is the best cook.
She used to be a super housewives, like she was a good mom and a good teacher, artist, cook, wife, and etc, etc.
She showed me an article of a newspaper, which was about 40 years ago.
The article was about how great she was.
I had never seen it and I was really surprised.
Now she is close to 90, but she still does her nails, and makeup.
She is still a perfect lady, I gotta follow how she lives as a lady.
Gourmet with My Loving People
Today I was pretty busy.
I had big guests from yesterday from early in this morning.
I had so many meetings today.
Although I am busy, I have to enjoy my grummet life.
I went out for lunch break with my sis.
My second father took us out.
He has been my dad’s best friend since they were middle school students.
He does not have any daughter but only a son, so he treats us like his real daughter.
Whenever I am lost, he is a good adviser.
He is one of my favorite person whom I really trust.
The young kid in this picture is his real son.
I have taken care of him since he was a baby.
He is 6 years younger than I, but a couple years ago, he had a different feeling to me, and it was such a complicated situation.
I was shocked because he is like my brother at that time, but finally now he is really like my brother.
He is a good adviser about my Mac computer.
We ate really really good Sushi.
It is the world best Sushi, which I have ever eaten.
I had lots of sweets tasting today.
Because of the best Sushi and this sweets tasting, I was pretty much full.
After a couple of afternoon meeting, I left office with my dad.
Today was “family dinner day” with my loving uncle Koji!
I had not seen him since last September when I went to SF.
I was sooo happy to see him.
I was pretty tired from work today and I was very sleepy tonight, but soon after I saw uncle Koji, I got totally fine!
We went to really good Kushikatsu place.
I am very very very full now.
I have to go to Gym tomorrow for sure!
New Year!!
I can’t say “Happy” this year, so “A New Year!!”
This is Japanese culture, but when one of your relative passed away, you don’t suppose to celebrate anything for one year.
So we can’t say “A Happy New Year”, we can’t wear Kimono, we can’t go to shrines or we can’t eat traditional Japanese New Year dishes.
My mom’s dad passed away last February, so we had to follow the culture.
We did not do say “Happy” or we did not wear Kimono, but we had to go to shrines for our company.
Going to shrines is our custom to wish a good luck for our company with my dad.
My mom stayed home at least this year, but I could not understand why it is bad to appreciate god and ask him a good luck again, so I went.
This is “Osechi”, Japanese traditional New Year dishes.
Well this is my mom’s handmade, so they are pretty arranged.
They are really delicious dishes which we only can eat on New Year’s day.
I was disappointed that I would not be able to eat this year, but my mom made a little bit.
It is such a hard work to prepare these dishes but I love this Japanese culture.
I am not good at cooking, but I want to learn how to prepare these dishes and want to pass this my family traditional recipes.
We had mom’s “Osechi” this morning with our maid, who is 95 years old.
She is still fine, but she is so skinny and looks like she just got a bone.
I felt pity for her that she lives by herself, but she kept saying that she is happy with that.
My dad and mom cried a lot this morning because of her.
They felt sorry for her and they thought they would not be able to spend new year’s day with her anymore.
I think they were just too sensitive.
After that, we went to a hospital where my grandma is to greet her.
And we left for Kyoto to visit my other grandma and ate mo grandma’s handmade Osechi, which is a little different from my mom’s.
We played cards afterwards, and I lost $20…
We are now staying at my grandma’s all together and will spend one night.
What?? Party?? Food??
I can’t really write much tonight, cuz it is 2 in the morning and I have to get up early tomorrow…
We had Christmas Party at my parents’ house tonight with everyone’s friends.
We have had this Christmas party every year for a long time.
We have some of same faces every year, so all the people at the party get closer and closer.
Since my mom decided to have this party on Christmas Eve, which is such a big deal for Japanese people, I could not invite many friends, but only Shinsuke.
This is why I had to argue with my mom the other day.
I think it is too silly to throw Christmas party on Christmas Eve, and she did not ask me about it ahead.
We had small numbers of people for our Christmas this year, but at the end, I realize that it is not that bad.
We had such a great time.
I love Christmas.
Japanese Christmas is more for lovers, so a little different from American Christmas, which is more for family time.
I love spending my time with my family on Christmas and love spending my time with someone I love.
I just don’t like to go out on Christmas Eve, because it is not worth it since everywhere on Christmas Eve is too ridiculously crowded with many couples.
Anyway, this year, as every year, food was all my mom’s handmade so they are all good.
All the menus are food I only can eat at our Christmas party.
We had so many dishes and 6 kinds of homemade desert.
Oh, I ate too much.
We opened all Christmas presents underneath of our Christmas tree all together.
This is our family traditional thing to do.
This year, I got an orange color lamp from my sis, and got black bag from my mom and dad, and I got three kinds of necklaces and boots holder from Santa Claus.
Yeah, I still get Christmas presents from Santa although I am 29.
Well, it is our tradition thing.
Anyway, I had such a good time and good food tonight.
Gotta go to bed.
Getting too late…
Am I Mean?
Today was a day I had so many things to do.
Well, it is not unusual anymore that I had so many things to do lately.
I woke up early enough to have breakfast at hotel buffet, and took a flight back to Osaka.
Breakfast was great and such a relaxing time but turned totally opposite after I went back to Osaka.
Since I had an appointment with PR Company at 1PM, after the flight landed, I stopped by at my apt to drop my stuff off and went back to my office.
While I was gone, many things happened and they could not solve them the way I wanted.
I don’t want to be mean, so it is hard for me to be strict on someone.
I can’t always be the one who does all the work; I just want other people to understand.
But always hard to find the way to make it sound nice, or should I even forget to find they way to be nice and strict??
Today was my sister’s birthday party, and I had to leave early, but could not finish as early as I expected because of things happened at office.
My sister called me and told me not to come if I can’t get out of office on time.
I was upset that she could not understand how much I wanted to go for her birthday dinner.
Anyway I was 15min late, but I made it.
We had our family’s traditional birthday dinner, which is the menu on the picture above.
It was kinda weird dinner table since my mom and I are still care about the argument we had the yesterday.
Sometimes arguments between family members are more difficult to e settle down than arguments between friends.
Anyway, but I had a great dinner and got home now.
I think today, it is a good idea to go to bed early to feel refresh.
Aww, I wrote ugly things too much today.
Oh well, I think I gotta admit I have an ugly mind today…
It happens, right?
Love Italian, Love Tokyo
I am still in Tokyo.
I wish I could sleep in today at hotel, but I had to go to our Tokyo branch early in this morning.
When I am in Tokyo, which I come here once a week now though, I get excited.
I work as hard as I do in Osaka, but I get different kind of adrenalin when I am in Tokyo.
Very exciting city, like you are in New York.
I had an appointment at our office in Tokyo, had lunch meeting with my co-workers, and research a couple famous places in Tokyo.
From this evening, I went to Italian restaurant with work-related people, who are all in a high position.
The pizza there was the best ever in my life, seriously.
Four cheese pizza came with black pepper and honey to make Gorgonzola cheese be mild.
Weird combination, but it matched really really well!!
I heard it was the best Italian restaurant in Tokyo.
Wine was great too.
We had a bottle of champagne, a bottle of white wine, two bottle of red wine and a shot of special vodka.
I can’t hold alcohol much, but tonight I tried really really hard.
Since I was very nervous, I did not get drunk tonight.
However, now on a bed at hotel, I can tell that I definitely drunk too much.
This is a plant by my bedside at my hotel room tonight.
This is such a luxury hotel where lots of foreigners stay.
Breakfast here is awesome, but the room fare is quite expensive.
I am so excited about taking a bath and enjoy breakfast buffet tomorrow morning.
This is not a hotel where I always can stay, but only on a special occasion.
By the way, I think it is really good for me to keep this journal everyday lately.
I can keep track of what I have thought.
Today I got angry to my mom on the phone about something she did to me.
I regret that I was hard on her, and thought about what I wrote on this blog the other day.
I wrote that I should not get angry with people.
I tried not to, though, but I did, and I still think what I told her was right, but I feel bad that she might have felt miserable by my words.
I realize that when I know that I am right, I have to find the nicest way to say so.
I should not try to make other person feel they lost obviously.
Well, I talked with my mom later and we did not talk about it anymore, and I was much nicer to my mom.
That was the best I could do for her today.
How come it is always uncomfortable to discuss about something which we had different opinions…?
Everyday I think and realize new things and try them little by little in my life.
I make mistakes a lot in my life, but I won’t give up and want to reach my dreaming life.
I have a headache now.
Gotta go to bed!
Christmas Shopping
I went shopping with my mom today.
Went to downtown in Osaka to find presents for me from my mom.
I want to get a bag dor work, an orange humidifier for my room, big accessories, comforable shoose, and so on.
I had not been to expensive floor for a long time, since I had not been interested in brand stuff.
But today I went to a department store and saw many expensive stuff reminds me of the time I was so rich when I was a teacher.
We found a good light fashonable bag, and saw the price, "$1,200US".
I found a watch I really like, "$5,200US".
What can I say?
We got tired of walking so we went to cafe and had this sandwiches.
It is so nice to go shopping with my mom, because now we don't have much time to hang out together.
I love spending time with my mom because I love my mom so much.
After shopoing, we went home together and went for dinner with my dad.
Three of us had such a nice dinner and enjoyed talking a lot.
However, now I am at my apt by myself and feel pretty sick.
Don't know why, but I should go to bed early tonight.
White Tea
I went straight to Kyoto for work from my apt this morning.
Junior high kids were on a train for a field trip and they were sooooo noisy on a train.
All got so excited and I was not in a good mood since it was early in the morning and I was sleepy.
I glanced them and some boys said, "Look! The lady sitting next to you is upset!!" in loud.
I remember the days that I was excited with my friends on a train when I was much younger.
I felt myself being really old...
I might became regular boring business person...
The company I visited today gave me some of their products, which I really love.
Look all these white tea skin care stuffs on the above.
They are really good stuff!
Once my friend came to stay at my apt, he put his perfume before he goes to bed.
I felt weird about it a bit, but I tried that myself when I went to bed the other day.
Now I can't stop doing it.
I looooove good smell.
I have my aroma next to me when I am working on a computer.
I always use white tea hand cream at work.
Somehow, I feel comfortable by smelling good scent.
I went to Spanish style bar tonight.
It was on TV the other day, and my dad wanted to go there.
We had lots of Spanish dishes, sparkling wine, and red wine.
Actually they were not that good, so we left the restaurant soon,
We wanted to have desert so we went to my favorite cake store and bought a whole chocolate cake.
We brought it to a bar which my dad always goes, and we shared the cake.
I had two topics I wanted to talk with my Dad, and I could.
Somehow I get nervous eating out with my dad one on one.
Having lunch is better, cuz it gets like "lunch meeting" and can talk about work as much as I want.
However, at dinner, I felt bad to talk about serious stuff cuz I care that he must be tired.
Weird dad and daughter.
Since when we became to have this kind of relationship...?
He told me to go to Shanghai for work on the way back on a cab.
Should I go? Well, maybe not...
Christmas Decoration Day
Yay! I took a bath tub today, so I feel really good now.
Of course I take shower everyday, but had not taken a bath for a long time...
Today was a quite realxing day except this morning.
Since I went to bed at 4 in the morning, it was hard for me to get up at 10 this morning.
My student came to my apt at 10, and I got up by the bell he rang.
I am such a bad teacher...
I taught him for 2 hours, and took a shower and went to Spa.
I got Aloma Massage for 80 mins, I felt so good and fell a sleep during the massage.
My stomach got much better, and because of the aloma massage I could relax a lot.
The lady who gave me a massage told me to take a bath everyday for my health.
I stopped by hair salon.
I am wondering if I should get a hair cut again or dye my hair.
I could not decide today, so I just left after I chat with a stylist.
After all, went to eat a good Chinese restaurant with my family.
After dinner, my mon, sis and I started decorate Christmas tree.
It is a little bit earlier than the time we decorate it every year.
We got a new Christmas tree last year and it is huge!!
Each of us got a role, so we finished decorate whole rooms in 2 hours.
I can't believe Christmas is almost there.
I will be so busy to buy presents for many people.
Excited but, I gotta start saving money.
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!
By the way, today I felt I eat for EATING.
Had an orange as snack, and also had an orange jelly on the picture above.
And had dinner, of course.
It was a nice dinner!
This was the last thing I had today.
