Maya's Adventures!!

This year for Golden Week (the wonderful week when 4 national holidays fall within 5 days of eachother), Taro and I took a trip to Okinawa, the southern most island of Japan.

It was Taro's first time, and my second (I went a few years back with Yoko and Hiroe.) This time was quite different from the last though, as Taro and I decided to rent a motorcycle and bike around the island.


It was incredibly fun! We arrived on Fri eve, and just went out for a nice dinner of Okinawan food (delicious). Sat morning, we headed to the shop to pickup the motorcycle. We hpped on and headed for our pension up north (along the beach) and of course stopping to eat along the way....at A&W! They don't have these on the main island, so I was ecstatic to eat curly fries and drink rootbeer


Our hotel was right along the beautiful beach. We headed straight for the ocean once we arrived. I forgot how great it is to spend the days in a swimsuit and flip flops. I certainly don't get to spend my summers like that in Tokyo and it was definately a welcome change. However, since we rode the motorcycle with our flipflops on, we both got awesome flip flop tans on our feet...

We spent the entire vacation with days at the beach or on the motorcycle, and nights at Okinawan restaurants. While biking, we'd stop at random places for ice cream and treats. This is in the middle of no-where, but we found some delicious ice cream at the grocery store


One evening, we went to a famous pizza restaurant. The pizza wasn't that great...but the view was spectacular!

It was about an hour wait, but since we could sit outside and enjoy the view while we waited it was no hassle at all. The incredible part of this restaurant, is they have a huge variety of drinks (guava juice, mango juice, etc.) but the only food on the menu is salad and pizza (small or large). Nope. no variety of pizza either. Thank goodness it wasn't mushroom pizza, or I would've been quite bummed.

Anyway, the trip was absolutely incredible. Since I hadn't gone on vaca in a long while, I was reminded of how fun traveling is. Now....where do I go next. Perhaps, Seoul?

Oh, and this is what we looked like during the vaca

I'm sure most if not all of you know about Facebook. If you don't, um...ask someone. (even my dad's on it!)

Anyway, thanks to facebook, I had a great reunion with a good friend from HS this past week. My friend Rishi came to Tokyo with his mom, so I got to meet up with him. We hadn't seen eachother since graduation, so it was really fun getting to spend time with him!

I took him to a regular izakaya (jpn restuarant/bar) and he absolutely loved it!

Another great thing about having friends visit from overseas (esp those who have never been to Japan before) is the fact that they remind me of the things that I love about Japan. Rishi said to me several times "You know Maya, this is a really cool city (country) I completely understand why you want to live here."
No matter where you live, (even if you choose to live there) the grass can look greener on the otherside. But how great to be reminded of how lucky you are!

Now...who's going to come next to remind me of how fabulous Tokyo is?

It's been literally months since my last update...
I'll update on the most recent holidays. Valentine's Day and White Day!

For valentine's day this year, I was planning on taking Taro to an Indian restaurant, but he got sick. So I made cream soup (stew) and we ate at his house instead. The day before, Erika and I got together to make chocolate mousse. All of the stores here sell chocolate mixes so that you can make various chocolate items without much effort. We chose the chocolate mousse cause it was easy, and they included cute heart shaped containers.

It was fun making the chocolates with Erika too. One of the bonuses of having a roommate, for sure!

On white day, Taro and I went to a French restaurant. The place was delicious! but since neither of us are used to eating so much butter, we both felt ill afterwards...haha
Check out the humongous raw oysters!


I've finally gotten used to the fact that valentine's day is for girl's to plan. But the good thing is that there's White Day. Where we don't have to do anything at all :-)

In other news, life here is good. I've slowly but surely gotten used to city life. Sometime's it's still a bit overwhelming. The other day, I realized that unelss I make an effort, I can live weeks or maybe even months without any contact with nature. Scary thought, considering I grew up in Hokkaido and Minnesota.

Living in one of the biggest cities in the world, though, there are several perks. Taro and I went to go see "ZED" (click the ZED word for the link) a performance by Cirque De Sole (sp?) for his birthday. It was fantastic! and now we're thinking about going to go see CORTEO. another performance by the same Circus group that's in Tokyo until beginning of May.
Opportunities are endless in this city! Any and all visitors are welcome!!

Today is my last day of winter vacation and it's been an extremely relaxing vaca so far.

Firstly, Christmas was fabulous. I celebrated several times!! As many of you are probably aware after reading my blog, Christmas is not an official holiday here so I've gotten quite used to going into work both Christmas even and Christmas day. Unfortunately this year, Taro would have to work late Christmas (eve and day) so we decided to celebrate the weekend before by going to....China town!

It was a lot of fun, but I couldn't help but have the final scene in the movie "A Christmas Story" running through my head. When they end up at a Chinese restaurant for Christmas dinner and the staff sings "Farararara!" to them.

The second celebration was on the 23rd. December 23rd is a holiday here because it's the emperor's bday. (Yay emperor for being born right near Christmas!) This year, Erika and I decided to have Taro and Josh over for Christmas dinner. We all made chicken legs, mashed potatos, and corn. It was delicious!

↑The hostesses with the mostest!
My good friend Hiroe from Sendai (she now lives in Osaka, but anyway) and her boyfriend happened to be staying at a hotel right near our house too so they came over for dinner. When I came back to the house after picking them up from the station, I was overwhelmed with the delicious smell of food and the warmth of the house. It is definately the first Christmas here where I actually felt like I celebrated it!


Oh, and let's not forget the fact that we had AWESOME Christmas Cake!

Erika and I made it, pretty impressive, eh?

The following day (Christmas Eve), I went to church after work with Hiroe and her boyfriend. Then the three of us went out for Korean food. (My church is located in a complete Korean community, so I smell Kimchi on my way to church every Sunday!) I forgot to take pics there, but...

Christmas Day, Taro ended up getting done with work earlier than expected so we went out to an Izakaya (Japanese food) for dinner.

*The above pic is a really stupid pic, but it was the only pic that showed the Japanese-y feel.

So....to sum everything up, this year I celebrated Christmas 4 times! First: with Chinese food, Second with home-cooked "American" food, Third, with Korean food, and finally with Japanese.
Considering the fact that Christmas isn't exactly a "holiday" here, I think I did a good job of celebrating, don't you think?

I went to the 100yen store with my roomie today to purchase Christmas decorations.

What did we find? A tree!!! Granted it's small, but it was only 500yen (5 bucks) woohoo!

I'm in charge of the work Christmas party this year with a couple other first year workers. It's a bit of work, but we're getting together at my place on Friday to go over the games together and practice and make sure they work alright

As many of you are probably aware by now, Japan celebrates Christmas in a very different way from how we do back "home" in the states. Firstly, it's all about couples. Secondly, it's all about Santa. (well, not all about Santa, but Jesus certainly doesn't come into the pciture! though I suppose that can be said true of many people in the states as well)
The strange thing is though, you'll often hear religious songs in restaurants and out on the streets, like "Away in a Manger" or other obviously religious songs. I suppose it's becuase most people even if they understand English don't pay attention to the meaning.

Anyway, to make this long blog entry short (somewhat), I'm doing my best to bring Christmas cheer in my life.
I started with decorations and inputting Christmas songs onto my ipod today On Sunday, Taro and I are going to see a Christmas concert at Tokyo Baptist Church. It's apparently a huge concert, and this year it's held at a unjiversity. I am not really sure what to expect, but I'm excited for Christmas music!

It's been over a month since my last update and firstly, YAY for Obama's win! My celebration was quite tame, in that I work in a Japanese office with only one other American who often works out of her home, but I went out for champagne to celebrate with a good friend of mine who's European and was quite excited. In fact, she said something along the lines of "Honestly, I didn't think you guys would vote for him. You've surprised me, and now I have (some) faith in Americans!" - which honestly could be what a lot of people around the world were thinking that day.

Anyways, in other news, I'm slowly but surely getting used to the fact that I live in one of the biggest cities in the world. The famous crowded trains of Tokyo are a bit stressful to deal with on a daily basis, but thankfully I live so close to work that I only have to ride the rain for 13 minutes Though I'm seriously considering buying a bicycle to take to work, but I'm scared of the traffic. Regulations officially require bicycles to travel on the roads (not sidewalks) and the traffic here can be pretty crazy!

My weekends often consist of walks to various parts of Tokyo and shopping. Living in Sendai I did a lot of traveling by car (esp with Taro) but here it's all walking and trains! Of course, that's natural when you live in a big city. But on weekends, I try to walk more than I take the train. It's awesome living somewhere that's not so cold yet either

Today is a Monday, but we have the day off for "Labor and Thanksgiving Day." Well, the celebration was actually yesterday (Sunday) but we get today off in lieu. It was a much needed vacation, and I spent quite a bit of time going out with friends. Last night was Josh's birthday party, and with Alan back in town it really felt like we're back in study abroad days Today has been a relaxing day with Taro, and now I gotta go eat curried rice! And hopefully, I'll be better at updating my blog in the future!

This is a quick update to let you all know:
1) I am loving life
2) I am loving my job
3) I am loving Tokyo
4) I am loving my apartment
5) I am loving Obama

I've had several friends and family email me to be sure I vote.

I just mailed it in. so if Obama doesn't win (oh my gosh, I think my heart just stopped at the thought) you all know it wasnt my fault!

I'm not sure I should be publishing who I voted for on my blog but...well, this election is possibly the only election where I have no reserves whatsoever as to who to vote for. As in, no, I never thought Bush would be a good president, but was I completely certain about Kerry? I'm not sure. Now Obama? no doubts whatsoever.

Part of it could be my Aunt who is over 60 and now insanely interested in and somewhat crazy about the election. (sorry AB for saying your age!) but as my mother said, it's admirous to be able to get so involved at (dare I say it) such an age.

Mostly though, it's the fact that I'm fed up with the state that America is in.

Anyway, what's a post from me without somehow tying it into what's going on in my life here in Japan?
I'm not sure how many of you are aware, but in September, Prime Minister Fukuda resigned. This resignation was less than a year from Prime Minister Abe's resignation.
Abe's resignation reason: health problems
Fukuda's resignation reason: ....uh.... good question.

I am still very unsure as to why the heck 2 prime ministers would resign within a year. I mean, it's not like either of them did something insanely corruptious that other PMs hadn't done. Neither had gone to the point Clinton had when he had his...shall we say... "incident". (which was such a big deal at the time.)

So, we have a future leader in America (finally).
I just wish that Japan would find one that we can all put our hopes in too. When I spoke of this with Taro, he had an interesting comment "Japan's education system doesn't make leaders. Fukuda just didn't want to be a leader from the start."
This comment is interesting and very true. As many of you may know, Japanese are taught to work as a community, don't make disruptions. Therefore, it's the oddballs in Jpn community who end up making good leaders, and successful leaders. Koizumi is a prime example. (former PM) he is definately an oddball. He may not have changed Japan in any extraordinary way, but he lead Japan for a considerable amount of time. (8 years?...i cant remember)


Lastly, as much as I have faith and hope in Obama as a leader, I fear for what will happen once he becomes president.
The amount of hope and faith people have put in him is astounding. The expectations are incredible. Fact is, he's not going to be able to live up to all of these expectations. No human could live up to all of the expectations. So, what's going to happen when he disappoints the supporters?

last wknd was a long one bc of ゛respect for da aged day"gotta love the random holidays!

my friend and former dancer Miyu and my bible study mate Xiao came down to visit.they didnt know eachothr til here but now they certainly do!

we went to clubs to see dance shows, shopping, girl talk, shopping, dance shows and more shopping!
it was a great weekend!

I am continually amazed at how blessed I am.

I have been at my new job for 2 weeks, and I couldn't be happier !! Every one of my coworkers is unbelievably friendly. I've been fortunate to become friends with one of my coworkers, and we went and saw the preview of Sex and the City last night. (I know, it's long over in the states....but it's still previews here!)
Most of them are Japanese, and have lived abroad for a while. (everyone is bilingual -- or more -- ) So the stories that they have about living abroad is really interesting. I look forward to getting to know more of them so that I can hear all the interesting stories!

I'm continually learning new things every day, and even tho some of the work is somewhat similar to what I did in Sendai (answering foreigner's questions in Japan), the clientel is completely different. So, the questions are often different, and it's a lot harder to answer about a location that is humongous and I don't know much about. (re: Tokyo)
My supervisors say that it usually takes an entire year to really learn everything you need to know, and I am having fun thus far learning, so I hope it cotinues for the rest of the year!

Yay for new exciting things! As my cousin Emily said, "change is good. hard, but good."

So here's to exciting and new change!

I took a day off from packing on Wednesday to hang out with my favorite dance teacher Miyu-sensei. She was down from Sendai to audition to be a backup dancer for a concert. (She got it by the way! One of 20 people to get it out of the 150 who auditioned. Go Miyu!)

Anyway, we met up to go to Odaiba, and our original plan was to play Odaiba Boken-ou (Odaiba Exploration King), but once we got there, and ate lunch at the buffet (delicious!) we ended up just going shopping all day long.

It was a great way to relieve the stress that moving brings, and it was so fun getting to know Miyu! The sales were a bit crazy, and while shopping all day long, we even ended up getting maching shoes!

And what did we do after shopping? None other than.... Cinnabon! I felt like I was back in Edina at high school! How fun!!
The view from Odaiba was beautiful at night. Since it's right along the ocean, there were tons of boats lining the bay, and the lights on the boats were beautiful.


Anyway, the move has been going great. I've gotta get home now to work on putting together my new bookcase so that I can finally get everything put away.
As the rapper Pitbull says.... Go Girl, Go Girl!

Oh, and Erika moves in today. Yay! I'm so excited!!