Happy New Year to Everyone and may 2009 bring us lots of love, happiness, success and peace. Although everyone like to spend their new year’s eve in their own special way every year, this year I decided to do something a little different and went to Meiji Shrine with a good friend of mine at about 4am and luckily there was no line up so we walked right up to the front, prayed and walked around this beautiful shrine before we went home. I had always gone to Meiji Shrine during the day so it was first time for me to go there when it’s dark and it looked so nice with the new year decorations and lanterns that have bring so much warmth to the cold evening. I’m happy that I went there this year and started this year in a very spiritual way and prayed for peace. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t tried it yet. Explore yet another beautiful side of Japan!

Last night with a few of my friends we went to a Christmas mass in Roppongi.  It was my first Christmas mass and it was so heart warming even though I wasn’t familiar with most of the readings from the Bible and certain procedures. We sang lots of Christmas carols and a very gentle priest told us about some of his experiences of living in Japan as a priest. He told us how sad he gets when he sees lots of people on the train not communicating with eachother and constantly looking at their cell phones and ignoring one another. He wished that we could greet people around us sometimes and make effort to communicate with eachother more often and open our hearts to the world. His words really warmed my heart. I realized that perhaps we could also apply his wish to our guesthouse where we can have an open communication with eachother with politeness and respect.  May we all have a wonderful Merry Christmas and a new year filled with love and peace!

Everyone gives wine as a hostess gift usually on holidays. Why not take the opportunity to introduce friends and family to some of the more enjoyable fruits of organic agriculture? A growing number of liquor stores carry organic labels such as Bonterra Chardonnay.  Introduce beer fans to a pretty bottle of St. Peter’s Organic English Ale or a local organic brew.Enjoy an ORGANIC holiday that is very healthy for our world!

We are getting closer to the winter holidays at last! It has been a tough year with irregular weather patterns, financial crisis and guesthouse issues. However, after a couple of weeks, we can leave it all behind as the New Year begins. I hope that 2009 would be a peaceful year with lots of happiness and joy to everyone around us! Happy Holidays Everyone!!!

This is just a small note to everyone who’s living in a guesthouse or thinking about living in one. Recently I’ve learned that flexibility and respect for others are some of the most important factors for anyone who lives in a guesthouse. There has been several incidents this year, where there has been disrespectful behaviour, such as racisim or shouting towards other members of the guesthouse or even pulling a knife on your roommate. There are absolutely no excuses for such behaviour and this kind of behaviour brings sorrow to everyone. It would be nice to have monthly meetings in every guesthouse where we could all discuss with our landlord our problems so they won’t build up and become worse over time. I hope we can all live in a peaceful and safe environment no matter where or who we are.

It seems like winter has arrived and it’s time for, as we like to call it in Canada,’Hybernation’ time!! During the winter time, it feels very comfortable to eat a lot, sleep a lot and try to stay warm as much as possible. Recently I discovered a new way to stay warm–ONSEN–the Japanese natural hot spring or the local sento will do the trick! It keeps me warm at least for one week then I can focus at my work and gain energy by eating healthy food..and of course lots of meat!! I hope everyone stay warm and healthy during this winter season:)

As a foreigner living in Japan, naturally I tend to compare certain things and one of those being the way Japanese and Canadians treat the environment that we live in on a daily basis.  Back in the day, electronics were made to last several years- decades, even!  Sure, they’re cheaper now, but they might as well be disposable at the rate you have to replace them.  Natural Resources Canada estimates that Canadians dump more than 272,000 tons of computer equipment, phones, TVs, stereos and small appliances in landfills each and every year.  Between 1992 and 2000, Canadians ditched enough computers to fill 953 Olympic-sized swimming pools, says Environment Canada.  To make matters worse, all those gadgets are teeming with toxic heavy metals and chemicals, such as the nasty endocrine-disturbing fire retardants found in outer plastic casings and circuit boards, the 50 grams of mercury in your flat screen and the 2 to 4 pounds of lead in traditional cathode ray tube TVs.  Environment Canada says computers alone are responsible for about 1.1 tons of mercury, 4.4 tons of cadmium and 4,750 tons of lead in the trash.  Bottom line: it’s time to think twice about kicking your old gear to the curb.

This season seems to be a good time to eat lots of tangerines for a quick boost of vitamin C. However, they seem to be getting more expensive everyday so if anyone knows where to get cheap tangerines please let me know-thanx.

Powering Your Computer with Wind:
Offset those dirty carbon emissions created to run your computer by funding a little wind power. 4000yen will buy enough wind energy to power your desktop for three years, and 1600yen will do the same for your laptop!! (http://pembina.org/wind).

Let’s make it one of our new year’s resolutions this year to keep our environment safe and clean! Let’s make every year a better one!

This year there will be several big parties for Halloween in Tokyo on October 31st.

There will be one in Ageha Night Club in Shin-Kiba and if you have an interesting costume then you would enter for free (Regular price is 3500yen), and there will be another party at Womb in Shibuya.

I hope everyone will have a good Halloween with lots of FUN!!!