End of work day

During this time of the year, we are busy at work and home. Today is the end of the work day of this year, and people are busy cleaning up their office. We are going to clean up our office this afternoon. ^^ At work we are busy with party called ‘Bōnenkai 忘年会’ Bōnenkai means "forget the year gathering". This is a Japanese drinking party that takes place at the end of the year, and is generally held among groups of co-workers or friends. The purpose of the party, as its name implies, is to forget the woes and troubles of the past year, usually accomplished by consumption of large amounts of alcohol, and food. A bōnenkai does not take place on any specific day, but they are usually held in December. (quote from wikipedia) So, if you come to Japan around this time of the year, you will see drunk people all over the place, especially in a big city, and they aren't pretty at all. ( I hate it so much.. I hate drunk men.. they are just horrible)

It really depend on who you go to Bonenkai with. If you are going with groups of co-workers and your boss, you just need to drink and eat, and get drunk, and also pretend that you are enjoying and need to keep a coversation going. ( you don’t have to, but you need to be there.) But if you are going with you friend, its really nice to see them and drink with nice food. If you are going with a groups of girls, you might pick a nice restaurant and nice food, and enjoy a bit of luxury.

I don’t mind going to attend this end of the year party with my co-workers.. we just had one last week and it was alright. I and other guy co-worker was in charge of the place and food, and I asked him to choose a nice place and food, so he picked up a really nice hotel and $80/person meal for our Bonenkai. So, there were no crazy drunk people there, because they need to behave a bit formal. Hehe. The food was ok, and we had good time. Of course, some people didn’t like the formal Bonenkai, so they went out for second Bonenkai for more drink.. ^^ hehe. (→the hotel we had Bonenkai. Nice huh? like a reception party)

My husband is out and attending this Bōnenkai for 3 days streight. And he will attend 2 more Bōnenkai this year. ^^. As a wife with no child, I don’t have to cook a big meal during this time of the year. Hehe.

Life ain't always beautiful

"Life ain't always beautiful; Sometimes it's just plain hard.
Life can knock you down, it can break your heart.
Life ain't always beautiful: You think you're on your way.
And it's just a dead end road, at the end of the day.
But the struggles make you stronger, and the changes make you wise.
And happiness has it's own way, of takin' it's sweet time.
No, life aint always beautiful.
Tears will fall sometimes.
Life aint always beautiful, But it's a beautiful ride."

~ Gary Allen

Hey, wanna have some tea with me?
anybody??

Today is my Birthday!!

As MY year begins anew, I must make resolutions. You don’t have to but I always did. But this year I can’t think one. But I always wish my family and my friends to have a good health and wish them the best all the time.. so I will continue to pray for that.. hmmm… I know I am making you really depressed by reading all my blog, so I will stop for now. But happy birth day to me ^^

I thank to my mother and father who brought me to this world. I am having a wonderful time so far. ^^ I lost my father by cancer when I was 7 years old. My mother raised me all by herself. Of course her parents (my grandparents) helped me a lot, and they influenced me in many ways. My mother was busy working all the time, so I had a lot of time to spend my days and time with my grandparents. They were my parents to me. They loved me and support me all the time, and I really feel lucky to have time to live my grandparents in my early childhood. My grandpa passed away 4 years ago, but my grandma is well all the time. She lives with my mother and 4 dogs now. ^^

I also think to my families that I met in US. They were my American parents to me and my friends to me. They have always stood by me, and supported my life in US. They always teach me something, and encourage me. I am really sorry for not keeping in touch as much as I should be, but they are always in my heart.

I also thank to all my friends. My friends who always there for me in any occasion. Sometime, they gives me a hard time, but they always inspirers me in many ways. Their living life is just amazes me, and I always enjoy shearing their stories time to time. They always bring me a passion to my life and day. My good friends are living far away from me now, but I always feel them close. I am so lucky to meet them, and I am happy to have them in my life.

Thank you all.
And I love you all.
I always wish you the happiness and good health.
And I will see you again sometime!! ^^

One more day

Gosh. People are so crazy these days. Or its just me?? No, I don’t think I’m crazy. There are people who have problem, and attacking us. What is wrong with these people!!!

Tomorrow is my birthday, and I will be 30. ^^ But I am not happy at all. Not because I getting old. I am so stressed about everything right now. One of our staff is getting fired with really stupid reason. (Our boss does not want her to work with this office anymore, because she is a super woman) and other co-workers are talking about leaving this office. I love this job, but honestly, it really hard to work with our bosses.(Guess what my boss are doing during a day? All he does is watching TV, play with his cell phone, looking up internet, and talking on a phone with his private matter…..and his salary is paid from our TAX money!!! )
Also, talking about getting divorce or not is really stress for me. I messed up my life and married life and still cannot find the way to solve this problem. I hope I can settle things out by the New Year… humm..

'My day' is just around the corner

Christmas is just around the corner. Most of Japanese are not Christian, but we do celebrate Christmas. People light up their houses, streets. There are beautiful christmas trees are everywhere in the city. It’s more like the day for family and day for lovers. ^^ I never spend my day with my lover when I was called myself as ‘girlfriend’ ^^ Now I don’t celebrate Christmas but we eat KFC together on Christmas. Sounds strange? Hehe. It’s not a special day for us to celebrate Christmas. So, this day is my day to relax and ‘no house wife’ day. ^^ No cooking, no cleaning, no washing… just buy food from shop and eat at home. ^^. No present. But it’s ok. Relaxing time is enough for me.

Before Christmas, my B-day is really just around the corner. I do not know what my 30th year going to be. You got to make things happen, right? Hehe…

OH, one more… My good girl-friend coming back to Japan today from Kenya. She has been there as NGO non-violence group trainee. She was there for a month. ^^ I am looking forward to receiving a phone call from her.

The fist Starbacks coffee shop in my town!!

Yeah, we finally got starbacks coffee shop in my city. I am not the coffee freak, and starbucks fan, but it is nice to have some my favorite flavored coffee anytime I want to. ^^. We had huge shopping mall opened near where I live. So I went to shopping last night. Stores open until 11pm. So I went there around 9pm, because the mall opened this weekend, so I figured there are a lot of people.

So many clothes and goods stores and it was really fun to walk around in the mall. My favorite store was food corner. Wow, they had everything. If you want to buy tomato, and go to vegetable corner, you will see about 15 different tomatoes. I was like ‘Yeahaaahaa’. There was no place like this in my town. I was sooo excited to look around food place. They have good meet, pork, chicken and other stuff. I bought really good pork meat and some vegetables. ^^ Also I got new schedule notebook.

Nintendo Wii+Jiaozi night

Last week, I went to my cousin’s house to play Nintendo Wii, and there is some picture to shear with you. We had so much fun playing. We wished to have more bigger room and more bigger TV ^^, but it was fun. We only had 2 controller, but if you had 4, 4 of us could play at the same time, jumping and swings our arms right and left. ^^. Enjoy my picture. And this was the day we had Orie made Jiaozi, because my cousin love Jiaozi. He can eat Jiaozi for breakfast. ^^

















Also, we had my cousin's 30th birthday. His birthday was Sep 27th. But... I compleatly forgot about his birthday. So, We brought him a nice delicious cake. ^^ His face looks scary, but his is a really sweet guy. ^^



ps. Next day, he called me... 'Orie, I've got Wii!!' Now we only need to bring out controller to play the games!!

MieMie and Honey

See.. New stuff to my blog. Amazing isn't it? I can upload short video to my blog. Wonderful.
Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

In kyoto

I had about 1 hour to spend my time in Kyoto after I finished our trainning program. Kyoto is famous for the beautiful colored leaves. I did not have time to visit famouse temple, but here are some pictures from Kyoto.

Vegetable: Some of them are Sexy??

These are my vegetables. These vegetables grow up in my vegetable field. I have rent the little land in April, and I have grown many vegetables, such as cucumber, eggplant, green pepper, carrot, bitter gourd, (Bitter gourd is a traditional summer vegetable of Okinawa), parsley, okra, celery, tomato, green soybean, strawberry, blueberry and purple sweet potato… here they are.

竹楽

In my home town, we have autumn festival called ‘Chikuraku 竹楽’ Our town is really famous for bamboo tree, so people plan this festival to be a core project in a movement to boost development in our town. (Because my town is small) This project turns out to be a really famous autumn event. More and more people come to visit for this festival each year. ^^ So cloudy but so beautiful.

This festival is starts at night. Place a candle in diagonal cut bamboo and light up the night. The light reflects turned red leaves, and it is just so beautiful. There are a lot of open-air stall everywhere and it is fun to buy food and drinks and hot soup from stall.

I wish that I can take you all!!

Cherries and Berries

I love cherries and berries. And here they are!! Cherry Coke!!! Finally!. We could not buy cherry coke in regular store. If I wanted to drink cherry coke, I needed to visit special store to buy one. BUT, I found this cherry coke at convenience store!! Yeah!!! And I found another berry-flavored soda. Berries and cherries make me so excited. Cranberry pie, raspberry cake, cherry ice cream…

Berry taste Lambike 100% lambic Belgium beer.↑

I am back and Nintendo Wii

I came back to my home last night around 9pm. and went to bed around 2am.

But somebody woke me up early in the morning, because today is the day... Nintendo Wii release date in Japan. There are loong line everywhere in front of the store. I am living in county side, so I do not need to line up for a long time, but In Tokyo, some people lined up in 3am in the morning to get Nintendo Wii. ^^

I've got only one game soft (Wii sport) but having fun so far. ^^ I am going to my cousin's place tonight to play Wii. But I always amaged by the significant improvement of technology... just amazing... ^^

rainbow! i am in a train. im on my way from Shiga tomy home town, Saga.

i will up date some pics later!(o^-')b

~ヽ('ー`)ノ~
(^з^)-☆

My first day at Japan Intercultural Academy of Municipalities

I woke up 5:30am this morning, get ready to catch a train. I took super express train from Hakata to Kyoto, change local train to get to this Japan Intercultural Academy of Municipalities. This JIAM placed near the lake called Biwa-ko, which is known as the largest lake in Japan. And it’s really close to Kyoto. Kyoto is a famous for the beautiful colored leaves. Crowded with tourists Kyoto teems with permanent residents and tourists. It is a beautiful place.

I feel like I am back in College. It is fun. 16 people are in my seminar, and I am going to take classes for another 4 days. It’s going to be hard one, but people are so fun and nice to be around. We had welcome kind of party tonight, and went for a drink after the party. We now decided to go to Kyoto (about 20 minutes by train) tomorrow night for eat. ^-^ I get to meet people from all over Japan, and get to see around this area. (my room→）

I am living here and bushing my skill to become a coordinator. However, I feel like my feeling and my heart are not here. I feel like my feelings are left in the air… strange? I feel something so far away… Selfish me…

Anyway, I have to take a shower now. This facility has time limits.

Wish me luck…

Oh, this is where I am now…
http://www.jiam.jp/english/index.htmlI feel like I am back in College. It is fun. 16 people are in my seminar, and I am going to take classes for another 4 days. It’s going to be hard one, but people are so fun and nice to be around. We had welcome kind of party tonight, and went for a drink after the party. We now decided to go to Kyoto (about 20 minutes by train) tomorrow night for eat. ^-^ I get to meet people from all over Japan, and get to see around this area.

I am living here and bushing my skill to become a coordinator. However, I feel like my feeling and my heart are not here. I feel like my feelings are left in the air… strange? I feel something so far away… Selfish me…

Anyway, I have to take a shower now. This facility has time limits.

Wish me luck… I　am missing something.... i miss ... I miss... NO, I shouldn't be missing anything, because I have all the things already... but why I have this 'missing ' feeling? I know it does not make any sence, but... humm... anyway

Oh, this is where I am now…
http://www.jiam.jp/english/index.html

going on-the-job training

I will be out of town untill Dec 1st. I will be on the job training at Shiga pref. It is near Kyoto. I will be lock into training institute for 5 days. I am going to have closely-packed series of lectures about multiple cultures harmonious coexistence. 多文化共生. I think it is really the culture for US and other countires, but not in Japan. Maybe in Tokyo or in the big city but not local area.
well, i need to get up 5 am to catch a train, so I will go to bed now.

good night.

talk to you later!! (^o^)/

I was drunk last night.

I was drunk. I felt good. I wish I had someone who could keep me accompany. Anyway. I was watching a cooking TV the other day. It was a featured in a TV program about beer in Belgium. The show was how the beer was made in Belgium, and how people enjoy the beer. The beer looked really nice and good. They show us flavored beer. Have you heard flavored beer? They let beer spontaneously fermented about 2 years; they add all kind of fruit (cherries and berries) into the beer. So they have fruit flavored, but still taste like beer.

After I watched TV show, I really want to try some of this flavored beer. So I searched around Internet, and I found one store specialized in Belgium beer. So I made an order for 3 bottle of Belgium beer. The store has all kinds of Belgium beer, but I picked 3 kinds to start with. These 3 bottles of beer was on TV.

I tried Kriek Boon last night. 5% alcohol. They add more than 200g cherries-in-a litters after 2 years of spontaneously fermented lambic beer. It has a slightly sour taste, but fruity flavored lambic beer. I would say sparkling red wine, but it has beer bitter taste as well, and it was really nice. I could not drink a whole bottle of beer, but I drunk last night. More I drink the taste gets better and fruity and good. So, I drunk a whole bottle of beer... I am not an alcohol drinker. I have a low tolerance for alcohol. I never drink a lot of alcohol with my friends and co-workers, because I get really sleepy and I get animated. I am a happy drinker. So I drink in my house or room. I passed out really quick after I drink one bottle of beer last night. Hehe.

I wish I could share this bottle of drink with you. I will try other 2 beers later.. Maybe with my cooking…(Look at me! my face are pink!)

My bedtime buddies

What make you to put you to a good sleep? Blissful slumber, deep comfortable sleep, or things that make you really want to go to bed because of it.

Have a bit Yoga exorcise or stretch before you go to bed? Sleep alongside of your partner or children? Hot milk before you go to bed? Get a good relax massage from your partner? Have a little good night kiss? Holding his/her hand when you go to sleep? Have a little bed time talk, or cuddle with your loved one? Yeah, all the stuff I have listed here was my favorite. But things come to a point where I could not have these things…. So, I found another one to make my bedtime fun. TaLaaaa. Look how cute they are. From the top, I bought it in Seattle when I visit last time. It’s Orca. Second one is a pig. My mother bought it for me. The bottom one is a dog. He is my pillow now. They make my bed time fun and... Oh, you just need to touch my pig. He, she is sooooo soft...　When I go to bed and just hug her… make me feel so nice, and Ahhhhh, just put me into a good sleep.

I wish you could feel this cuty... or hug me with it... ^-^

More story to tell you

Guess what happen at work today? Our main computer has died. All of sudden, computer power went off, and it won’t back up since…. We only have one e-mail address (sounds ridiculous, I know, I think so too, but as I working at the small office, people think we do not need individual e-mail account. Also, cost a lot to get an e-mail address. ($25 per address)), and now, we cannot check our e-mail. We have tried everything to recover our computer, but he is dead now. Hummm… to be continue…

One more story to tell you today. One of our co-worker went to Shanghai and Hong Kong to go to a concert for her favorite Asian singer. (She was actually on Hong Kong entertainment news paper ^^) And she brought us back a lot of Asian snacks. Bee Cheng Hiang… Have you hard of this snack? This is a beef tender grilled with honey sugar flavor, and its sooooo good. This was my first time to have this snack. I only got 2 packs (2 peaces of) of Bee Cheng Hiang, and now I can’t eat the last one. I can not buy this in Japan, but I been looking and surfing around the internet to find where I can have one of these... I will tell you when I find it. And if you have chance to visit Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, you HAVE TO try one of these... soooo gooooood.

ahh, I have to get back to work now... heeeheee...