明けましておめでとうございます！

Happy New Year!

I have been on holiday for a few days! It has been lovely! I have had Mexican food and been dancing and enjoyed drinks with friends and made new friends and went for a long walk and visited Tokyo Tower (although we didn't go up it) and a temple and Akihabara. And I've had some lazy relaxing times too! And I bought a humidifier (thrilling, I know)! And I went to DisneySea again (super super crowded but, like, even more amaaaaazing than I remembered)!

Tonight I hope to be at a shrine at midnight, to ring in the new year in Japanese style.

Wishing you a happy and amazing 2010!

And enjoy a picture of Mexican food, three pictures of Tokyo Tower, and three pictures of the American Waterfront area of DisneySea (including Tower of Terror and, in the pic with the Columbia, a tiny view of the real sea beyond the wall). It was night when I was in that area last time I went to DisneySea, so I wasn't able to get any good pictures from it.

メリークリスマス！

Today is Christmas, but I actually celebrated two days ago! Wednesday was a national holiday, so we had the day off; my friend and I took the chance to do Christmas things while we had the time.

10 Ways We Celebrated Christmas

1. Went to a movie (Avatar)
2. Visited temples (near to where I live, but I'd never gone before)
3. Ran into people we know (in Toshimaen and Ikebukuro)
4. Gave to the Salvation Army (outside Ikebukuro station)
5. Went shopping (in Loft)
6. Did Christmas karaoke (an hour and a half of Christmas songs!)
7. Had Christmas dinner and pudding (at an English pub in Meguro)
8. Had a Christmas drink (complimentary bubbly with our dinner)
9. Enjoyed Christmas lights (at Midtown in Roppongi)
10. People-watched (the other people enjoying the Christmas lights in Roppongi)

It was a lovely, magical time! Please enjoy some pictures from our day!

Thinking of you and wishing you a Very Happy Christmas! I'm on my way to work now, but I enjoyed opening presents and listening to Nat King Cole this morning!

Fuji-san!

So even though I've been on Mt. Fuji, I have never actually seen the mountain from a distance. Tragedy!

But a tragedy that was remedied yesterday morning when I was able to see a super snow-covered Fuji-san from my friend's apartment building! すごい！

very merry holidays

I uploaded this for my mother earlier, so I might as well share it with everyone! The last room of It's a Small World, Christmas style!

Christmas Fantasy 2009!

Yesterday I went to Disneyland! This was, of course, exciting. Going to Disneyland is always exciting! But it was even more exciting because it is all decorated for the holidays! Christmas Fantasy 2009! Lovely! As for things that have a Christmas overlay, I particularly enjoyed the Haunted Mansion, since it's all Nightmare Before Christmasy (I've been to this in California before) and It's a Small World Very Merry Holidays (which I'd never seen before). Festive!

As for things that don't have a Christmas overlay and should, here is my top three list:

1. Snow White's Adventures. The Tokyo version of this ride is terrifying. I might have screamed once because the witch suddenly appeared and actually scared me. It doesn't even have a happy ending; she appears to kill you with a giant rock at the end. Festive Christmas cheer would greatly improve this. The skeletons in the dungeon could be wearing Santa hats! There could be holiday music! The witch could offer you a present instead of a poison apple!

2. Space Mountain. You could be in Santa's sleigh, hurtling through space on his journey to deliver toys to all the world's children!

3. Star Tours. Yeah, I just want to see R2-D2 in a Santa hat.

Anyway, Disneyland was also lovely because the weather was nice (at least until it got dark when it got super cold) and I got to eat churros, watch the Electrical Parade, go on all my favorite rides, and enjoy Disneyland with my Disney-crazy friend. Fantastic!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is not particularly my favorite holiday. Like, the Macy's parade is great. But mostly Thanksgiving is just, like, the sign that I can start celebrating Christmas.

This year's was nice though! I mean, I didn't get the day off like I would have in the States, but I had a pretty nice day at work and then got to spend time after work with good friends and good food. We went to one of my favorite restaurants and had delicious Indian food. Nothing says Thanksgiving like sag paneer and garlic naan!

This year I am thankful that I have had the opportunity to meet so many amazing new friends, that I live in the best place in the world, that I found the softest blanket ever in Passport the other day, that I don't have to drive, that delicious Indian food is about a ten-minute walk from home, and that I live close to Disney magic.

Please enjoy some fall colors in Hikarigaoka Park, Christmas art and decorations in Shinjuku, and a picture of my most excellent Thanksgiving dinner!

光が丘 Autumn Colors!

The gingko trees in Hikarigaoka are very pretty right now! The bright red fall colors in Kyoto were lovely, but I like the bright yellow at home too!

Day 4: Kyoto (Daitoku-ji and Arashiyama)

My last day in Kyoto was not quite as templetastic as the day before, but was still pretty great! I first visited Daitoku-ji, which is a huge temple that has lots of subtemples. You could spend a lot more time there than I did (and I was there for quite a while), but I really enjoyed what I saw. I especially liked Daisen-in, which had a really fantastic zen garden, complete with really good explanation of what everything in it and the patterns in the sand meant. Super interesting! But no pictures allowed, sorry!

After that, I headed to the Arashiyama area, which was where we visited the bamboo forest and monkey mountain before. I visited the big temple there, Tenryu-ji, which has a really lovely garden (and which is bordered by the bamboo forest). I also visited Nonomiya-jinja, which is a shrine in the bamboo forest. And then I ate matcha ice cream and bought souvenirs and headed back to Kyoto Station where I ate soup and bought more souvenirs and then got on the shinkansen and came home. It was a lovely, lovely, lovely vacation!

Enjoy five pictures of Tenryu-ji (the first and the last four) and six at Daitoku-ji.







And now, your moment of zen.