New Spots

Tess, MT and I ventured out last night to find new little spots. I actually really want to find one bar...it was the first place I ever went to in Koriyama. Ian, Wendy and Valerie took me there as a sort of "Hey! Welcome to Japan! Let's have a beer-eventhough we all work tomorrow!" kind of night. I vaguely remember it, but it was downstairs and had huge tables for such a small place. It would be a great place to play backgammon, or scrabble or cards or the like. We didn't find it last night, but we did find an Irish bar with a great atomosphere if you're in the mood to be classy! I felt a bit underdressed. The bar tenders were dressed to the nines and looked like they had just jumped out of the 1930's. The glasses were elegant. Every drink poured with utmost care. Jazz playing. MT ordered the "Kiss of Fire" which was a lovely red purple, served in a large martini glass with sugarsalt on the rim. Tess and I mistakingly ordered a bottle of champagne, but it was strangely fitting. It was good just the three of us. We've got to do that more often.

Crimas 2006

Christmas this year started with a company party. Cheese fondu, cheese pizza, cheezy jingle bells and cheezy prizes (an autographed framed portrait of each teacher)...lots of cheese for a girl whose swarn off the stuff. I love that Yuske won my picture and he isn't even one of our students. Who let him in anyway???




I had a little shindig at my place on Christmas Eve. Everyone brought great food to share and we had a cozy time complete with my mom's recipe for apple cider. Here's a shot of the early birds. (That's me with the ladel)



One of my heaters is an old style that I got for Y300 (about $2.50) . I had no idea what a gem I had purchased! Kengo showed me about a month ago how to cook right on top of it. I had always seen people place a kettle on top, the steam helps to give a little humidity, it's convenient when you're having/serving some tea and it makes a homey sound. But I never thought about putting oranges in tinfoil on top!! They get charred up and are soooooo yummy!!! So anyway, that's where I cooked the cider and it made the house smell just like Christmas.













The last ones sauntered home around 4am, Wendy and Kengo decided to stay the night and it was great to spend Christmas morning with them. Shortly after, MT and I enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL day at Koffee Kan for my very favorite sandwich in all of Japan. It was a lovely day. We were smiling so big, could barely keep our eyes open. As it should be.

Da' Band

There's a great little jazzy joint here called Monks and sometimes they've got live music. I've had the pleasure of singing with them a few times at Monks and at some other places. It's good to have music again.

Yoko's Dance

Yoko's aunt comes up from Tokyo every once in awhile to teach traditional Japanese dance. She was nice enough to invite me to watch and have tea after. It was great! Sometimes Yoko performes down in Tokyo, the Broadway of Japan!

Kori Ko-workers

Awhile ago, we had our James Fukushima staff dinner and I took a few shots of my new staff!! Introducing.....




Yoko and Maki! Yoko (the one holding the prawn) is our Regional Manager and great at what she does. As with most Japanese people, she works herself ragged. Maki works part time and it always brightens my day to see her. She reminds me of my mom in a good wierd kind of way.



Megumi!!! Megumi is our office manager and is a new addition to James. She's great and we love her!! She's so cute I just want to put her in my pocket.



Ian!!! Ian is originally from Australia, but has 2 boys in the UK. He's a pretty happy go lucky guy in the office and a great conversationalist. Thank god he quit working for Phillip Morris.



Tess!!! Tess and I have been spending lots of time together, learning Japanese, drinking red wine and just enjoying great conversations. I'm so glad she's here. She lived in Montreal for awhile, which I think might be similar to San Francisco as far as cities go. Ahhhh cityfolk.



The Melissas!!! Melissa Tyrrell is from Australia and you probably recognize her from plenty of other pictures up here. We've been close for quite awhile now. Melissa Surena is from Canada and another familiar face. It was a little strange to see both of these lovely women at work, but I think we're getting used to it!

I don't have a picture of Barry...yet...but he's also on the crew. He's from Eastern Canada and works primarily at the University here in Koriyama. Really good guy.



And there's me.



There's a lot of love in that room!

All At Once

It was recently pointed out to me that I'm a "hopeless blogger" and don't post often enough. It's not the first time I've heard that. Now it just seems that people all over the world agree! Yay!! World Peace at last! It just occurred to me that I tend to adopt an "all at once" approach. I don't post for a long time...and then *boom!* There are 3 or 4 updates. When I was younger, I used to spend summers with my dad. When I was 11, I left my best friend with a promise to write to her often over the upcoming months...which I did. But....I sent the letters all at once, and about a week before I returned. Hmmmmm....haven't changed much.

I'm reading a book that MT gave me for Christmas. It's a collection of biographies on people's career paths and the way they eventually end up doing something they love. For some people, they know they want to be a surgeon immediately following their first game of operation. But for lots of us, it hasn't been quite that easy. I've learned a few things from the book, but mostly it's just comforting and motivates me to focus on my own path. As I was reading one of the stories, it dawned on me that the most successful achievements morph over time. Little by little, never all at once and often in a windy fashion. Hmmmm.... I think our spirit somehow knows the lessons our minds need to learn. Then attracts the same message repeatedly and in different forms, until we actually get it. Maybe this one's mine for now. I think we've been told from a very young age that doing things all at once doesn't work, but peppered throughout Western society is this promise of immediate results and gratification. Lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks! Learn Japanese Instantly! Learn Photoshop in 24 hours! There is a real lack of the slow and steady approach.

This goes for relationships too. I have 3 general catagories of friends. The ones who don't want a family. The ones who found themselves pregnant accidentally and are happily enjoying this curveball that life threw them. They were forced to stop their life and make decisions that would impact their future little by little. And the ones who thought they would be married with kids by now, but aren't. Some seem to be frantically dating and getting serious really quickly, looking for that "Insta-Family!!" It just doesn't work that way. We don't seem to plan anymore or give ourselves the chance to explore. We just react to the accidents that are thrown our way and then wonder where the years went.

For once, I've got a new years resolution that actually makes sense to me. I'm not going to promise to write more often, or to learn a particular skill, or to lose weight. This year, I'm going to approach my goals differently ~ little by little. Take steps at a more steady pace.