What did you do to celebrate Tanabata this year? I’m American, not Japanese, but since I was in the country and didn’t have another easy way to celebrate in a “Fourth of July”ish way, I went to the big Tanabata festival in Hiratsuka to eat food and enjoy the atmosphere. The American Fourth of July and the Japanese Tanabata are completely different holidays with different meanings behind them, of course, but to me the way people celebrate “feels” the same: food, friends, fireworks! For a summer celebration you can’t ask for much more.

あのトンカツ店行く途中、コレを見た。キレイでしょう。。。

さすか副都心線。

店の中の lighting … sorry, the photo was take not side way.

as you can tell, this is PORK.

and as you can tell, this is CABBAGE …

close-up of なす。

茶碗 。。。超小さかったけど 。。。

behind all these seemingly nice photos of food, it actually represents a friend that had to go back to her home country and this meal, was probably, our last meal together in japan for 2012.

トンカツ is the least of my fav. food, but she liked it, so i was like, ok …

i have seen SOOOO many people comes and goes.

it makes me so tired i already have no more words for this.

i hope that i do not have to end this by leaving here.

i still LOVE 五目麺、every time i go to a new restaurant, and if they have this type of noodles, even though they have other noodles or dishes that seem extraordinary delicious, i still cannot get my hands off this BOWL of NOODLES and just had to order this ><.

oh geez.

and i do not see how i will stop this “once in a while habit” anytime soon.

close-up of the 五目麺,  doesn’t it look delicious? ★

ok, this is probably the VERY FIRST STAR STAR necklace i ever have in my life so far. when you want to get yourself out of sadness, you want to defer your attention to something else, things that makes you feel (at least a little) “interests” or “excitement” or “passion” about.

well, honestly, i do not feel much about anything except human relationships of any kind. yes, it is down to this point. long time ago i already had no interests of “physical” things.

however, no choice, what else can i do, right? because not many people can play with me. so i had to find something else.

as interesting as the look it may seem, i never even had 1 chance to wear this …

this one, on the contrast,  i had the chance to wear, however, not enough to call it my favorite.

how to make your own life better?
as a foreigner in a foreign country, i was always asked, dont you feel bored? are you satisfied now?

well, it really depends on what you do. sometimes, i feel like having a sense of unbelievable achievement, but 30% of the time, i also feel like, why not?

i do admit, for the least, this time, NOW, is a few times better than the life i used to be in USA, even though the person that i miss the most not around me, i still get satisfaction with the envirnoment, the people, the style here. so much fit me.

when my american friends, not the “open” one, but the ones that has a more closed mind, they might have a hard time understand my preferences. and i also have a hard time telling them how much i am not interested in white boys, crying out loud they all knew i dated white boys before, right? but what they really did not know is, i really had no choice.

but for the clever clever ones like frances, or the ones that also have interests in Asian countries, without my saying anything, they do not have any questions about this. they understand why i had to leave and choose this path.

recently i was told of the difference. IQ high, and smart, they are actually completely different things. ~.~ so i guess frances belong to the ones that are “smart”, haha. so because of this, even though with her at this age, she is still so sharp and does not allow herself to have a closed mind. ^^

When I moved to Tokyo I picked my neighborhood based on the train line it was on. Only after arriving did I find out I was within walking distance of Sugamo, the “Old Ladies’ Harajuku” of Tokyo. It’s been almost a year since I moved here, but I explored Sugamo for the first time just a few weekends ago. Not being an old lady, myself, I wasn’t exactly the target clientele… but I found a little shopping street with all kinds of traditional Japanese sweet shops (my favorite! something the old ladies and I have in common), and clothing shops, some of which sold “lucky red underwear” (not my thing…).

Of course we all know the famous spots in Tokyo, and the places that people our age hang out. But I’m glad I went to Sugamo, otherwise I wouldn’t have found this quirky little part of the city that, even if it wasn’t aimed at me, still had interesting stuff.

At the end of June, I spent one day and one night in Hakone. My room was spacious but a little run down, and the meals were plentiful and delicious. Unfortunately, the weather was horrible, and I couldn’t see Mt Fuji anywhere.

Last week, I went to the Daibutsu in Kamakura. The weather was beautiful and I spent about four hours walking through Kamakura and Yokohama.

The Machida Bikram Yoga studio is the NICEST, CLEANEST, MOST-BESTEST Bikram Yoga studio I’ve ever been to, and I’ve been to many. I’ve also practice at the Ginza studio where Lady Gaga has been spotted several times. Both studios have friendly staff, who can speak English, some better than others, the studio is clean and the overall environment is welcoming for someone who wants to continue their yoga practice in Tokyo or give yoga a try.

So please allow me to give you five reasons why YOU should practice Bikram Yoga in Tokyo:

Reason #1: Yukari sensei! The 2011 Female Winner of the International Yoga Asana Competition. She teaches at the Ginza studio!

Reason #2: The dressing rooms are a-m-a-z-i-n-g! Lockers with keys. Showers. Hair Dryers. Free mats and towels!

Reason #3: Although Bikram Yoga follows the same sequence of poses, most studios offer at least one English class per week

Reason #4: Classes start ON TIME and you must check in 10 minutes before the class in order to take the class.

Reason #5: The instructors consistently check the temperature and humidity throughout the class to make sure the room settings are correct: 40C degrees (104F) and 55% humidity.

The benefits of Bikram Yoga are plentiful, and there are hundreds of well written articles about them. Instead of writing another, I give you a collage of my experiences and thoughts about Bikram Yoga. Enjoy!

I have already written about Anki and Lang 8, but now I will write about using these two programs plus Dropbox to study Japanese.

1. Write a post on Lang 8.

2. After the post has been corrected, re-write the post using the suggested corrections and vocabulary.

3. Save the post as a PDF in Dropbox. (This was actually the first post I wrote on Lang-8!)

4. Choose a few of your corrected sentences and add them to Anki.

5. Study Anki flashcards until you are able to fluently speak the sentences.

6. Even better, print out the PDF (or save it to your iPhone, iPod, tablet, etc.) and take it to your next Japanese class!

Voila!!

Last month, I checked off ‘one thing I have to do in Tokyo!’ by going to Tokyo Tower. The view was nice, nothing I hadn’t experienced before, but an enjoyable and worthwhile visit.

After my visit to Tokyo Tower, I had the pleasure of meeting an old friend whom I met in LA in 2006. She introduced me to Toraya Cafe and their delicious traditional Japanese sweets, like anmitsu and shaved ice.