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!