Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve!

Happy Christmas!

Dear Friends and Family (and Family-Who-Are-Friends and Friends-Who-Are-Family),

Happy Christmas! I've never written a Christmas letter before, only illustrated some of the ones Mum wrote. But it's December and I'm sitting in Starbucks in Tokyo Midtown and there are lovely lighted trees outside and "Carol of the Bells" is playing and writing a Christmas letter seems like the thing to do.

It was a good year! I was busy, which I much prefer to not being busy, and I had great friends and lots of fun! Almost every weekend had some combination of friends, food, karaoke, and drinks.

This was the year of a million Disney trips. I managed to stay away until May (my last visit was at the end of December last year), but couldn't stop going after that! I went to Disneyland in May, July, August, and September, and I went to DisneySea in June, August (twice), October, and November. All were pretty amazing and memorable, for the rides, the shows, the food, the souvenir mugs, and the friends! Especial love to Yoko and Andrew, who both spent five days at Disney with me this year (and only one of those days overlapped, which means that one or the other of them was with me on every Disney trip in 2010)!

I didn't travel as much in Japan as I wanted to this year, but I did manage to get out of Tokyo a few times! Clare and I started the year with a spontaneous trip to Nagano. We ended up spending a homeless night there, but we did visit temples, have snowball fights, and see monkeys in hot springs! January also had a little road trip to Kamakura, and I returned there again in September for zazen. In April, Yokohama was the site of a photoshoot, a Chinese food gorgefest, and really dodgy karaoke. There was an amazing, perfect day at the beach on Sarushima in August. And a couple weeks ago, Andrew and I had an epic Kansai weekend, visiting Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto. I also got out of Japan during Golden Week and had a few days in Americaland. Enjoyed the Mexican food and Target and seeing Mum and friends, but did not enjoy the culture shock!

Nagano, Kamakura, and Yokohama were also all stops on the tour during Tokyo Cousin Extravaganza in August (as well as two Disney days and plenty of hanging about in Tokyo)! Nicole and Erin and Brian came for a week and it was kind of epic. It was amazing to see them, and I was so happy for the opportunity to show them around some of my favorite places and have them meet some of my favorite people. And never forget the karaoke. It was really sad to see them go!

There were a few great nights of dancing and music! I got to see my favorite DJ, Shinichi Osawa, three times this year! Love! In other entertainment news, I went to my local Cirque du Soleil show, ZED, and saw Wicked in Osaka.

2010 also marked my one year Japanniversary, way back in March. I had a super Japanese weekend to celebrate. Karaoke, animation festival, tea ceremony, lacquerware! It was really nice; it'll be hard to beat for the two year Japanniversary this coming March, but I'll try!

I'll be working on Christmas day, but I hope to still have a good Christmas this year! Not sure what I'm doing for New Year's either, but hope that's amazing as well! Really not sure what 2011 will bring, but hope it involves more Disney, more good times with friends, and lots of fun! And, of course, any of you who want to visit are more than welcome!

Happy HO-lidays!

Much love,
Jen

P.S. I don't normally post a lot of pictures of myself on this blog, but I will for Christmas. One from each month! Nagano, Abercrombie, Tokyo International Anime Fair, Yokohama, Howard Amon Park, ZED, Disneyland, DisneySea, Disneyland, Halloween, Ikspiari, and Krispy Kreme. It was difficult to choose for a couple months! In particular, there just weren't a lot of pictures of me from February and April, so it was, like, "Which of these three stupid pictures of me is least stupid?" On the other hand, some months had too many! Anyway. Pictures!

Osaka Odyssey

Last weekend Andrew and I had a Kansai adventure! After work on Saturday night, I met him in Shinjuku and we got some dinner. Sweets Paradise, obviously a brilliant choice for an amount of food to eat before getting on a bus all night. After getting our all-you-can-eat money's worth, we and our cake babies managed to find the spot where we got our bus (totally just on some random sidewalk). We enjoyed the fact that our bus said "Fantastic Story" on the side, but night bus is neither the most luxurious nor the most comfortable way to travel. We enjoyed listening to music, and I enjoyed looking out the window when we were driving through the countryside (so many stars!), but sleeping was not really enjoyed.

Got to Osaka very early on Sunday morning and proceeded to get lost. Eventually found ourselves at that most Japanese of establishments, Starbucks. After breakfast and relaxing (the super comfy chairs were lovely after the bus), we visited Osaka castle where we took pictures and ate pineapple. Then it was about time for Wicked! First order of business on entering the theatre was to stop by the merchandise booth. I kind of wanted to buy everything; they had really good merchandise. I managed to restrain myself a bit and only purchased the souvenir program, an Elphaba phone charm, and a pouch with all the characters on it, super manga style! Then the show, which was totally fantastic! Really interesting to see it in Japanese (didn't understand it all, of course, but easy to follow since, oh, I'm pretty familiar with the show). Obviously some things don't translate well, linguistically or culturally, so it was interesting to notice how they translated some things (for instance, at the beginning of "What Is This Feeling?", where in English Elphaba sums up Galinda by calling her blonde, in Japanese she just flat out called her stupid). After the show, we checked into our super luxurious hotel, then went to the aquarium. After visiting our aquatic acquaintances, we had okonomiyaki, then headed back to our station and went to karaoke. Dessert from the conbini, probably our most bizarre photoshoot ever (recreating the Wicked poster), then sleeping (in a real bed! glorious!).

Planned to get up super early in the morning to go to Nara. Ended up resetting the alarm several times, but still got a good start, although we were pretty zombie-like for a while . It was a beautiful day (lovely weather the whole time, actually, sunny and pleasantly not cold), and it was fantastic visiting Nara. I'd been there before, but Andrew hadn't, so it was really enjoyable for me to get to see his reaction to THE DEER OF DOOM. I'd told him that they were everywhere, but he hadn't quite believed the extent of the craziness. We wandered a little at a temple I hadn't visited last time and then went to Todai-ji, which I had. It was lovely again! On our way back to the station, and for the sake of our documentary (there was a lot of videotaping going on all weekend), I plucked up my courage and fed the deer again. Made the great decision to not do it in the area near Todai-ji where there are a million deer and instead did it in an area where there were, like, two. Neither of them tried to bite me, so much more successful than last time! I was still kind of terrified though.

From Nara to Kyoto (nice nap on the train in between)! We went to Gion where we did some shopping (super luxurious Disney + WA-Qu store!) and found an amaaaaazing vegetarian restaurant. It was delicious and we were the only customers and it was kind of like it existed just for us. I got avocado taco rice , and it was so fantastic. Vegetarianism is in short supply in Japan, so it was a really lucky find! After a stop to sample and purchase yatsuhashi (my favorite Kyoto sweet, and maybe favorite Japanese sweet in general), we went to Kiyomizu-dera. It was my third time to visit, but it was well worth going again. It was almost closing time when we got there, so it wasn't crowded, and the atmosphere was so different in the dark. Really beautiful and a bit spooky and just lovely. We headed back to Kyoto station after and enjoyed Starbucks and karaoke (we weren't sure about the amazingness of it before we eventually discovered a treasure trove of DisneySea songs) before getting the bus back to Tokyo.

It was such an amazing weekend! I was pretty impressed that we managed to do as much as we did in the short time we had, especially as it felt like we were doing things at a pretty leisurely pace. It was lovely to visit Kansai again - both to revisit placed I'd loved before and to see some new things - and see the show and just relax. Happiness!

But the company was kind of the best part.

Wizards and Wishes

Have kind of been eating, sleeping, and breathing Harry Potter recently. Reread all the books (meant to only do the last in preparation for seeing the new movie, but somehow ended up reading the whole series) and had a multi-day moviefest with Clare and Yoko, ending with a journey to the cinema to see the new film (complete with photoshoot). Finished reading today and kind of don't know what to do with myself now. It was good times though! I hadn't seen any of the movies in ages, and hadn't read the books in longer, so it was nice to return to the wizarding world.

Took a break from the Potterness on Tuesday to go to DisneySea (I had a day off since it was a holiday!) for the zillionth time. It was lovely. Holiday overlay! Christmas Wishes! My favorite bit of decor was KING TRITON AS SANTA. With dolphin reindeer. It was crowded, but we still managed a lot of Fastpasses and didn't wait long for anything really. Ate delicious foods! Bought a stupid (but warm) hat! Super enjoyment times! Never forget.

For Thanksgiving on Thursday, continued our tradition from last year and went out for Indian. Nothing says Thanksgiving like sag paneer. Would have been lovely to watch the Macy's Parade and watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (but thanks for the e-card, Mum, even without toast sounds!) and see family-type people, but it was lovely too to enjoy dinner with my Tokyo family. Love!

Merry Christmas!

Okay, so it's super early for Christmas, but Japan has been celebrating it for quite a while now. And I did enjoy some Christmas decor last night. We went to the Tokyo Disney Resort in the evening to enjoy the fireworks (from the ticket queue area of DisneySea) and Sweets Paradise and seasonal merchandise. All lovely! Quite enjoyed the Ikspiari decorations, especially once we figured out that ringing the wishing bell is what made the tree have a light show and play a song (sometimes a Disney song, as in the video, sometimes a Christmas song). Delightful!

Anyway, how much do I love that I live where I can just randomly decide to hang around the Disney resort for the evening? SO MUCH LOVE. Hopefully I'll get to enjoy the actual parks for the Christmas season, but it was pretty nice just hanging out in the general vicinity for a while.

In non-Christmas news, exciting Osaka trip in a couple weeks! To see Wicked! CANNOT WAIT.

Birthmonth Closing Ceremonies

Today is my birthday, but I've been celebrating since Saturday night! After work I went to a favorite Chinese restaurant with a few friends. Delicious food and lychee sours and special birthday treat from the owner! Super good fruity, bean paste-y fried gyoza things!

On Sunday we got up early and went to Harajuku for Hawaiian pancakey breakfast! I had the same thing I had last time (pineapple pancakes and potatoes). So good! After breakfast we spent two hours at karaoke. Beautiful singing and contraband champagne! Lovely!

In the afternoon, we headed to DisneySea and got Starlight passports (admittance after 3). The time disappeared quickly at first, as we got into a 120 minute long line for Journey to the Center of the Earth (it was dark when we got out!), but it slowed down after that. After shooting out of the volcano, we sailed with Sindbad and then got some dinner at the Mexican restaurant in Lost River Delta. Then a quick visit to our favorite bakery before viewing BraviSEAmo! Presented with - and this was a SUPER BIRTHDAY MIRACLE - a non-alternative ending! I'd never seen the full show before, so it was super thrilling. Extra great because this is my last chance to see it as the show is ending next month. After that we had a couple hours left before the park, and we managed to fit in Indy, StormRider, and Aquatopia in that time! Nicely done, us!

It was such a nice day! Breakfast and singing were lovely, and DisneySea is the best place I can imagine to spend a birthday. And PWD got me a birthday sticker at the Sea (they don't have buttons here like I got in California), so all the cast members were wishing me a happy birthday and the cashier at the Mexican place gave me a chef Mickey sticker and it was happiness.

The plans for today (actual birthday overlay) are not so exciting, but still nice. Mexican dinner later and Starbucks and relaxing and maybe a bit of shopping. Lovely lovely lovely!

Anyway, the birthmonth closing ceremonies have made for an amazing weekend of celebration!

Early Halloween!

A couple weeks ago I went to Disneyland to enjoy their Halloween celebration! Super lovely! All their decorations were so fun, and I was so happy to be able to enjoy Haunted Mansion Holiday.

The most amazing part of the day was the pumpkin ice cream they had for the season though. Also, pumpkin churros! But the ice cream was life-changing. We kind of accidentally got two cones. It was just that it was so delicious! And it was right there when we needed to kill a few minutes before our Fastpasses were good!

The weather was a bit bad, which was both fortunate and unfortunate. Fortunate because it meant the park wasn't as crowded as it normally would have been! Unfortunate because the Halloween parade was canceled because of the rain. Their Halloween parades are supposed to be pretty epic, so I was sad not to see it. But it was a lovely day regardless! I love Halloween, and nothing is better than Halloween at Disney!

Let the Birthmonth Festivities Commence!

Due to the happy chance of my friend Andrew's birthday being on September 18 and mine being exactly a month later, the period between our two birthdays is henceforth Super Duper Jendrew Birthmonth Jumpin' Time! The festivities began last night with food and drinks at Ba-tsu in Roppongi. I particularly enjoyed the cheese (so expensive in Japan and a little difficult to find interesting kinds) and garlicky fries and this mango drink and sangria. We then moved on to AgeHa in Shin-Kiba. AgeHa is a ridiculously massive club. My favorite DJ, Shinichi Osawa, happened to be playing, so I got to see him for the third time this year! Always amaaaaazing. We managed to end up near the front during his set, so that was excitement.

I wore some shoes I hadn't worn in, like, a year. At first I was thinking, "Why haven't I worn these in so long? They're so comfortable!" But after two hours of dancing I remembered how they gradually squeeze the toes more and more and make you want to die. Or sit down. I chose the latter option, and experienced Laidback Luke's set from a chair instead of the dance floor.

Had a little nap in the club and a massive rudely-lying-down-on-the-seats nap on the train home. And a million naps at home all day today! Lovely!

Zazen!

On Wednesday there was a typhoon. So much rain!

Wednesday also happened to be when I took a day off to go Kamakura-way and do zazen at Kencho-ji. During Tokyo Cousin Extravaganza, we had visited that temple, and I'd noticed a sign about zazen in English being offered in September. "That sounds cultural and interesting," I thought, and I somehow managed to actually make it work and get there, in spite of it being on a workday.

Zazen is a very important Zen Buddhist practice. The aim of zazen, or seated meditation, is, er, sitting. Like, wholehearted sitting. It is difficult. Sitting without moving is difficult. Sitting without moving and with your eyes half shut is difficult. Sitting without moving, with your eyes half shut, and attempting to clear your mind and not think about how you are definitely thinking too much...yeah, super difficult. But! We did three sessions of about 15 minutes each, and I felt like I sucked way less by the third session than I had at the start.

Anyway, I'm glad I went, even though I got soaked by the downpour. It was something really different for me! It was cultural! It was interesting to actually do something at a temple instead of just visiting them (we were in an area I normally could not have entered)! And it's probably good to do something challenging every once in a while. I'm not good at just sitting, so zazen was definitely a challenge. But I didn't hate it by the end! It was nice even, to sit on a cushion on a tatami floor, with the smell of incense and the sound of rain and a priest wandering around with a giant stick to hit you with (if you asked him to, which I did not) if you felt your concentration was not as focused as it should have been. And afterwards we had a little tea ceremony. Culture!

Enjoy 30 seconds of rain, right before I had to leave the temple to hurry to the station, fearing all the while that the train service would be stopped because of the typhoon (I was lucky and my train just ended up being very very delayed).

Super Adventure Island! And Pancakes!

Yesterday I journeyed to Yokosuka (in Kanagawa prefecture) to visit Sarushima (literally translates as Monkey Island, although there aren't any monkeys there), the only natural island in Tokyo Bay. It was well nice! I was really into part of the journey being by boat, although that bit didn't last too long (the island is 1.7 km away from the shore, so it took about 10 minutes maybe).

We had been informed that sumo wrestlers and their entourage were going to be at the island, and sure enough as we came off the boat we saw them doing exercises along with a radio program or something. Random and amazing! After a moment of gawking, we moved on to rent BBQ equipment and find a spot on the very hot beach. So much burning of the feet! The beach was pretty rocky and absolutely covered with shells, but the water was super refreshing, although full-on swimming never happened due to murkiness and fear of jellyfish. Anyway, it was a lovely time! We ate, we drank, we periodically waded into the water, we briefly joined a random dance party, we played with a big ball I'd picked up from the Daiso. After we returned the rented stuff, we explored the island a bit. It's all jungle-y and awesome. And since it's a strategic location, it has a military history, and you can still see the remains of a lot of old military stuff there. And even older! There's stuff from, like, ancient civilizations that has been discovered there. Pretty epic for a tiny, tiny island in Tokyo Bay!

Super sad times when we had to head back to the boat (last one leaves at 5). I could have stayed there forever. Did enjoy the massive I-was-outdoors-all-day-and-am-exhausted nap I got on the train back to Tokyo though! Did not enjoy all the unexpected sand I discovered on returning home.

Really really want to go back there again. I'm totally meant for a boats-and-island-paradises life.

Today I met up with Yoko in Harajuku for Hawaiian breakfast-at-lunchtime at Eggs 'n Things. It's super popular! We had to wait in a long line. Totally worth it though because it was delicious! I had pineapple pancakes (with guava syrup) and potatoes. After eating not-quite-everything, we wandered around for a long time shopping, got some bubble tea, and then did a couple hours of karaoke. A perfect day!