Dancing Party It was a fabulous night! After work, I was incited to a party as a dancer. I danced Hula at a bar for unknown people. I am not a real dancer, so not sure if we were good, but it seems like they enjoyed our dance. We danced the one we are now practicing for a stage in March. These are members!
After we danced, everyone danced. There was a professional social dancer at the party. Somehow, I danced with the dancer. I always wanted to learn social dance so I was so happy to dance with him.
During we danced, I shouted to my friend, “I got it!” and dancer guy was laughed. I guess I did not get it, but I thought I got it. Well, but enjoying dancing was the best no matter how I dance, right?
After the social dance, Brazilian girls came to the bar to dance! Samba!! Oh my, look at her costume!! Wow... We all danced Samba with them. They were there for like 20 minutes, but I wonder how much they get to paid. They were good by the way of course. It was my first experience to watch samba right in front of me!
What a night! It was so much fun. Now I am ready to learn social dance!
Wow… I did a lot today. Today was a Japanese holiday so I did not have to go to work. However, I woke up at 7 in this morning, took a shower, put make-up on, and wore suit. Because I had an interview. It was on-line interview. It supposed to be on skype with mike and camera. So I cleaned my room and made myself look neat. However, their camera did not work so it was just with sound. There were two interviewer, one was from main corporate and the other was from Chicago office who was interested in me.
It was my second interview and I was pretty excited but when I heard that the office who would hire me was in Chicago, and which made me get shocked… So I am not sure if I did well on that interview or not. They just liked the fact that I take Hula lesson somehow. I will know the result in a few weeks. We’ll see.
After the interview, I went to lunch with my best friend from elementary school. We see each other once a year now, and we report how we have been and also we discuss what we would do till the next time we see each other. She is a good listener and analyzer so I made myself really clear after I talk with her. By the way, I felt a little guilty to eat steak for lunch. But it was soooo damn good!!
After I say bye to my friend, Sakura, I went to down town and did some shopping for holiday gifts. It is a lot of work to find gifts but I kinda like it. I got so many bags from shopping. I also got presents for my Hula friend as Santa! Oh, I did so many walking…
After shopping, I went to Hula lesson one hour before the lesson starts. We practice for an event we will attend in January for my friend's favor. We supposed to practice but we just chat and fooled around. At lesson I danced pretty hard. I felt really good. I love Hula dance. I will be Hula Instructor when I turn to 70 years old for sure!!
Not Feeling Like Talking Yes, I am talkative. However, I sometimes don’t wanna talk. I had so much to think today, Biiiiiig Topic. I was thinking what made me happy…
Anyway, I did not talk much at office and everybody got freaked out. It seems like my assistants thought that someone made mistakes and I was mad. I went to a lunch to research for food and sweets made by Chinese herbs with one of my assistants. She said that she was asked by everybody that to whom I was mad at after we got back when I was not there. Oh boy, I have a day that I don’t feel like talking much…
It was a gourmet day with my Hula friends. We went to have this Korean pot. It was spicy and tasty. I will smell pretty bad because of lots of garlic, but should be good for my skin! We talked about happiness. One of them worked for a company which related to Toyota. She lost her job because of this world situtaion. Obama!! Change this world!! Please!!
After dinner we walked to Ritz Carlton and we enjoy their Christmas decoration. And we had a cup of coffee and chat again.
I did not feel like talking today, but I talked a lot at night. Well, I am talkative, so what can I say?
I slept non-stop till this morning. Since I got up too late, I had to take a cab to work…
Had lunch with my sis who just broke up with her boyfriend. Poor my sis who got a childish and selfish boy. I think it was good for her that they broke up. I really wish she would find much better one soon.
I went to Hula lesson only for 30 min since I could not finish working earlier… This is what we are practicing for Hula stage in March. This is someone’s dancing which was on youtube. I am confident that I can dance better than them. Haha.
Had junk food for dinner and now ready to go to bed. Nothing much happened today, just an ordinal day but nice.
Fun Last Day of A Week I got up at 6 am and left my hotel soon after without putting on makeup. I just needed to catch the first flight to go back to Osaka. After arriving at Osaka, I went back to my apt and took shower and got ready. And went to Umeda to meet up with my sis and had lunch with her. This is a place where my sis had lunch all the time when she was a high school student. Memorable place foe her, but the food was just okay.
Since I went to work after lunch, there were tons of stuff to do. However, I did not finish everything and left work early to have dinner with my friends from Hula lesson. This is my dessert plate, banana with FIRE!! Cool, huh?
It was such a fun dinner with them. We were not that close last year, but gradually we are getting good friends. All of us have different work, different life and different dream, so it is nice to get together and talk about many things. I took a train so we all got drunk and had such a good time. I feel that I am so lucky to be able to hang out with so many kinds of friends!
Love Indian Food Had Indian food for lunch with my sis today. A restaurant which is owned by Indian people. I love to go to Indian restaurant in Japan. It is not too spicy but just right for me. Lunch time is faorite time for me in a day. Recently, I love talking with my sis at lunch time We have so much to talk with.
I could go to take a Hula lesson today. I feel really really good now.
No Hula Day I get frustrated when I can’t attend Hula lesson. I will be on a stage in March, so I have to attend the lesson every time and practice a lot. I was ready to leave office at 7, but many things happened. Now Hula dance is my favorite thing in my daily life. Ahhhhhhh.
This is new sweets I make at work now. Very simple and all organic. We just started selling from yesterday on website.
Ah, somehow I got really really tired today. I don’t wanna go on a business trip to Tokyo tomorrow…
Bought a small condo in France I was promoted today. There was a ceremony and I received an official announcement this morning. Now I am vice director of R&D department. Everyone started calling me with a different name from today, “Ikada Jicho”. I don’t like this name, because it sounds like a name for old man. It maybe because not so many young women get this position but old men do. Now I have so many responsibilities. I have to take care of about 15 people below me. My memory is not that good, so this is hard work for me to remember what I told to them, and what they supposed to do. I have to be smarter.
Today we discussed about new items of our three different projects. It is always fun to think what we want to make. However, once we started thinking about details of the items, it becomes such a hard work, especially when we only got short time to think about it. Today we started thinking about Christmas cake, which we have to do a presentation this coming June. It would be Snoopy cake. I am thinking to make cupcakes for Christmas, which would look like a picture above. The donut on the picture above is called, “Sally”. We have to make products which suit the image of Peanuts Character.
I went to Hula lesson tonight. I will be on stage in May. I practiced for the stage today. Hula dance is a hobby, which give me energy.
By the way, the title of this entry is a lie. Of course I am not rich enough to by a condo in France. Today is “April Fool”. I tried to lie today, but could not find a good lie. So it is a boring lie, but I lied anyway for a day.
Missed My Step I went to Kyoto to visit one company from this morning. After I got off from the train, I was talking on the phone about my work, and I did not pay attention to the exit I took. Once I got out from the station, I realized that I took a wrong exit. I looked forward while I was talking on the phone then I fell off from my knees. It was so painful, but I kept talking on the phone, and I bet he did not realized that I fell. I looked back and saw there was a big step, and realized that I missed my step. There were so many notes said, “Watch out your step!”, but I did not pay attention at all. I hung up on the phone and before I made another call, I looked my knees and saw there was a big hole on my pants. I was shocked and my knee was bleeding so badly. The worst thing was that I had to go visit a company with my pants suits which had a big hole. Soon after I greeted people at the company, I excused that I fell on the way to come to the company. I felt horrible… Also after I went back to my office, everyone mentioned that my pants had a hole. Each time I had to tell the story. I am so embarrassed to tell them how careless I was…
After work, I went to Thai restaurant with my friends from Hula lesson. I was late for 30 mins but when I got there, they even did not drink at all. I can’t believe that they did not order for 30 minutes. They said the Thai waitress got mad at them because there were people who waited to be seated just before I got in. Anyway, the Thai restaurant was good, but very spicy. This week I had hot Korean, Italian, and this hot Thai. Quite variety of food I am eating. Getting fat. Can’t stop eating lately…
After we had dinner, we went to café, and talked for a long time, and I got home midnight tonight. I am soooo sleepy. We had such a fun time by talking so many things. All girls’ talk which we can’t let any other people to listen. I hope other customers there did not listed to us. Sometimes girls’ talk is fun, although I usually don’t do much. Since I have not know the girls from the Hula lesson much yet, it was interesting to listen to their lives. I am happy that this week has gone now. Well, I still have to go to my office tomorrow a bit, though. Anyway, I just need to sleep now cuz I am soooo crazy and hopefully I can sleep till 10 or something tomorrow.
No Exercise But Junk Food I left my office early enough to go to Hula lesson today. When I got there, the floor was no lights on. I did not know that we did not have lesson today since I was absent from the last two lessons this month. I called my Hula mates, and she said she sent text to me... I did not realized. Damn it... So I went home early to do something for myself. I was kinda hungry. In a car, I was thinking if I should get rice balls from a convenience store or get junk food from Mac Donald's. Since I am lazy, I decided to do drive through, so that I did not have to get out from a car and walk. It was funny that nobody said anything at the place I suppose to order for drive through. So I decided to drive down to the window, where I suppose to get my food, and ordered there and waited in a car. I wonder why they did not realize my car for 3 minutes while I was waiting. Anyway I got fried chicken and french fries so that I did not have to wait that long. Ah, I should cook, but there are only chocolates and beer in my refrigerator now... Felt guilty so I was thinking to do something at home to burn calories. However, I think I am going to bed now, although it is only 9 PM now. I can sleep a lot lately. What a lazy life.
This Is What I Ate For Dinner This is all I ate today for dinner. I had so much stuff to eat at work in this afternoon, and I got full. I went to Hula lesson tonight, it has been a month since the last time I took the lesson. This was the first time since I danced Hula in Hawaii. So today’s lesson was such a good one. I love dancing!
I have to get up at 5 to get a flight to go to Tokyo for work tomorrow morning. I can’t write much tonight. It was kinda hard day at work today with emotional workers…
Hula Girls On A Stage I started washer for my laundry last night, and before it got done, I fell a sleep. I was so tired, but I got up at 4AM and took all my laundries out from the washer and dried them, and checked all e-mails. After the mess, I went back to sleep and got up at 9AM. I packed my suitcase for Hawaii and left to have lunch with my sister. I hung out with her for a while and left to the airport. I was not excited about this Hawaii trip much, because I was not interested in traveling all the people from work. However, after busy days from convention, I was getting so excited and was looking forward to going to Hawaii with them.
I had to take Northwest airline which is the last airline I choose. I don’t like their service and I think their airplane is cheap. All of us sat in a group, and I sat next to a huge guy who smelled like sweat. I feel bad that I don’t know his name, but I talked with him nicely for a while. Since our flight was only for 6 and half hours, I was rushed to get a sleep. Because we were going to get to Hawaii at 8:30 AM, I thought I would get a bad jetlag. So I was sleeping but the guy split a glass of water ON me. I asked a stewardess to give me a new blanket, but she blamed on me saying that I overreact with water. She goes, “It’s just water. Let it go”. Her behavior pissed me off. I told her, “I am not a kid, so I know it is just a water and it would get dry. But it is wet now, and I feel uncomfortable. Do you have a new blanket?” I argued with her a while and decided to write a comment card.
I can’t believe people who are in a hospitality business do such a bad behavior!! Anyway, we arrived at Hawaii and of course, I was stopped at the immigration. It happens a lot lately because I have so many stamps on my passport. It is such a hassle all the time. After we left the airport, we took a sightseeing bus and did sightseeing and shopping. It was fun to see all my colleagues’ private style. Most of their fashion is out of the day. They wear suits all the time, so they don’t have good taste for their private clothes. Kinda funny. We had 100 year anniversary party for our company at Hyatt in Waikiki outside. 8 of us danced Hula with Ukulele players and singers. Everyone wanted to take a picture with us, and we were like famous star. People praised my dance since I was the only one who has practiced Hula for 2 years, and other practiced only 2 days. I could talk with a lot of my bosses and colleagues and had such such a good time. My dad and mom were there too.
After the party, my roommate and I went out to town. All the stores open till 10or 11PM, unbelievable! We shopped a lot and had ice cream at Cold Stone! I missed all this American life! It is soooo fun. I think I can getaway from work for these 3 nights! Yeahhhhhhh!!!
Hula Girls Today, a guest from last night came to our office. I was too busy, so I just greeted them and went back to my desk. I had a couple appointments with designer for the convention we are going to exhibit out products. Soon after the appointment, I left my office to see a man. He is a son of he owner of a distributor in Japan, who does import organic stuff. He knows a lot about importing organic stuff, so I went to see him to learn for the first time. It was interesting because I learned lots of stuff which I had not known at all. It seems like it would be difficult to import stuff by myself, but I have to ask a couple more people to know the fact. This picture is what I ate after the appointment, by the way.
Later, I went back my office and tried to clean up what I had to do. However, I could not. I did a few meeting with girls who works for me about their project. And at 4, we held a big meeting with all people who will help us for the coming convention. At 5, I had a meeting with Board of Directors of our company. At 6, I had another meeting for our department/ And from ‘ o’clock, I started teaching Hula dance to girls/ We are going to dance Hula at a party in Hawaii the end of this month. My dream is to be a Hula teacher when I turn to 70, but my dream has already came true. Well, I wasn’t good enough, of course. Teaching dance was very difficult. Moreover, it is impossible mission to make all girls dance well by teaching only one day for two hours. We’ll see how it goes at the party…
Can't Wait To Sleep I have a headache, my left part of my head, today… Did I eat too many chocolates?? Do I have too much stress?? I don’t know… However, I went to Hula lesson today. I was hard, but good exercise again. I was going to take one more class, which is one more level up than the one I take now. I love Hula, and I was excited to take it, but I decided not to. I have already been absent from the lesson twice this month because of work. When I think about February and March, I don’t think I can attend whole classes per month. Very unfortunate, but I am going to take just one class like last year. Currently in my life, the first thing I have to do is “WORK”. Good to have hobby, but I can’t put my priority to hobby now. I have a dream, so I just need to walk towards it.
Ahhh, I hope I would not have this headache tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a busy day. Recently I spray this thing on my bed and my pillows. So that I can sleep really well. Can’t wait to go to bed now.
Entrails Dinner I got recover from food poisoning after I threw up everything. So I went to work and I was quite energetic today. I can’t believe how much work I have to do after my absence. Because I was so busy today, I was almost throwing up… But it is true that when you are so busy, you can get a lot of things done very quickly. I was quite satisfied about my work today although there are still things to do left. After work I went to Hula lesson. I would not tell my mom about it, cuz she is gonna piss me off since I just got recover from food poisoning. I thought I should not, but I promised to do dinner party with my friends from Hula lesson, so I could not make the girl, who made a reservation, gets disappointed. We went to a restaurant which is famous for entrails pot. There is much garlic in it, so I will be so stinky tomorrow for sure... It was soooooo good though.
We all got to know each other through Hula lesson. We work in different field, have different experience, are different age, and have different stories. We take lessons for two years and now we are good friends, but it was the first dinner with all of us together. Although the Hula lesson finishes 8:30 at night, we went to dinner from 9PM. We could get together for dinner to do “Forgetting Year Party”. Of course we don’t talk about year 2007, but we talk about work, boys, and Hula. We got our own small room for dinner, so we talk and laugh really loud. We talked till 11:30 so I took cab home. I was afraid of getting sick again, but seems like I feel good now. I drunk and ate a lot, though. We will have another party in the beginning of 2008. Everyone teased me about food poisoning so they said we are going to oyster bar for the next party. If so, I would not go for sure. I am scared so I would not eat oysters for at least one year. Anyway, we had such a good party tonight. It was a good day!
Hula Dancer Every Tuesday is my Hula lesson day. I was late for the class since I could not finish working on time today. My hula lesson is getting harder and harder, but I finally made up my mind to go up to the next level. It will be three-hour-long class, but I will try. My dream is to be a hula dance teacher when I turn to 70 years old, so I should learn Hula more now.
Today was a busy day as usual. I went to work earlier this morning and tried to finish my work on time, but couldn't. I am in the middle of our production team and our sales team right now. To make pancakes become big in Japan, I am doing R&D, Production, and Sales now for a certain item. Now I understand the reason each department cannot get along at our company. Each department is pretty selfish and they try to make other departmet is guilty when they make a mistake. Today I got a call from the boss at Sales department, and I was scold about production team. After I was scold by him, I called a boss of Production team, and I was scold again about Sales department. I understand both of them, but I also think both were wrong. Being in the middle is always difficult in any situation.
Gotta go on a business trip to Tokyo for three days from tomorrow. Gotta catch an early flight, so gotta go to bed now.
Hula Dancer I was thinking about my grandma today. I went to see her last weekend to her nursing home. She looked totally different person, can't eat, can't say anything, can't remember anything, and can't walk. She opened her eyes when I was telling her that I saw my cousin in Shanghai last month. But other than that, she seemed like she was sleeping. What happened to her?? She was such an active person before she got stroke. Is she happy now? Does she still wanna live? I am not sure... I wish I could let her die, although it is sad and might sound pitty. But to see her living without doing anything is even harder for us. Living is hard.
Well, now about my Hula lesson. I went to Hula lesson tonight after a month. I could not finish working early enough so I took a cab on the way to the lesson. It was so funny that the driver was the same guy as the driver the last time I took a cab. He remembered me too, and we talked about the same topic we talked the last time.
Anyway, hula lesson was fun as always. My teacher went to SF for Hula contest last month and got second prize there. I had never known that there are many hula dancers in SF! Today after the lesson, my teacher talked to me if I am interested in going up to the next level. If so, I have to take 2 classes. I am not sure if I can afford two lessons, and also not sure if I have enough energy to take 3-hour-long lesson. But I wanna be hula instructor in the future when I turn to 70s, so maybe I should. I can't make up my mind right now...Hummm.
By the way, today at work, one of my bosses gave me a hard time. I don't know why the only thing he does is "rejecting". When I gave him a report, the first thing he said to me is "NO. I reject it" Damn it!! He should behave better. I should learn how to treat people below me from his attitude. I won't be mean like him for sure. He had never motivated me!!! Haaaaa, I am so glad that I could go to Hula lesson and refresh a bit...
This picture is Darch who was taking a nap, by the way. I love taking nap next to her!
Under a Pressure Last night, I felt chilly so bad so I had dinner in my bed, although I knew it was such a bad manner. Soon after I ate, I passed out... I woke up a couple times during the night since my stamache hurt. This morning, I decided to go to see my doctor where is close to my apt. I could not stop going to the bathroom, and I burped a lot this morning so I started being worried about my health. My doctor checked me, and asked me, "Are you under a lot of pressure now?" I wanted to shout, "Hell yeah!!" (Of course I didn't)
This picutre is a part of the reason of my pressure, by the way. I am not stressed out actually, but I feel pressure that I can't get some of my work done quickly enough. I don't want my bosses to feel disappointed with me, and of course i am working hard because I wanna get the best result from what I am working on right now. After I went to the hospital, I went to work and got many things done. I figured that I would feel better if I can get rid of everything which made me nervous.
Unfortunately, I had to be absent from my Hula lesson tonight, because I should get some more rest to keep my energy. Speaking of "energy", this time, I feel weird that I don't feel sick at all but I am full of vigor. I feel totally fine, and probably people around me may wonder why I went to the hospital. My co-workers kept telling me to calm down since I am looked too energetic. I hope this is not becuase I am too high from this sickness. Oh well, I will feel much better tomorrow for sure, gotta be.
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!
I was born in Kyoto, Japan. I always wanted to be in the US. After I graduated from Japanese college, finally I went to Denver to get another BA. I moved to SF to work at hotel afterwards. Now I came back to Japan and work for a company in food industry. I do Internet business selling special sweets. I wish I can go back to the US soon.
This blog is my journal, so I keep writing about small stuff happened to me on that day.
After we danced, everyone danced.
During we danced, I shouted to my friend, “I got it!” and dancer guy was laughed.
After the social dance, Brazilian girls came to the bar to dance!
