This week I finally finished watching the DVDs, 24. It took almost 3 years to watch only the first season!! LOL  It was good and I like the idea of 24. But I don't think it's a good idea to watch suspence shows by myself (maybe just for me) and don't like the shows killing people with no reason. I don't feel good about that. 

I still have Season 2 to watch. (I have borrowed them from my friend for 3 years.) Now I'm wondering if I should watch it or not. I am afraid it would take another 3 years. :P

I started thinking about money from last weekend. Probably this is because of Shell. Recently she told me about financial things a lot. Then the stock price fell down, the yen became stronger. I was interested in investments, so I thought it was time to do something!

Wednesday was our company's holiday (because of Nada festival), so I went to Kobe to open a new bank account. I already applied for an account at another bank, but it was a net-bank, it would take time to send me a bank card. And I didn't know about investment well, so I needed to talk face-to-face with a specialist first. I told an bank staff that I was intrested in investments, then she took me upstairs. The second floor was so wide. There were some booths to talk with bankers and some comfy chairs for waiting. A yong banker called my name and took me to his booth. There were stylish desktop on a wide desk. As I sat down a chair, he gave me a bottled tea and a cup. I hadn't bought any their financial product, just I asked them about that. They treated me well. He taught me about some economic stuff. I already read some book, but he told me extra usefull knowledge and information. And it was free. I left there without buying anything (coz I can buy online at home), but I felt good. I liked it.

After the bank, I went shopping, of course!! I know I can save my money if I don't buy anything, but I can't!! I got lovely boots and a nice top. I was so happy! (I sound like Rebecca in Confessions of a Shopaholic. hahaha)

Now I'm checking financial news and exchange rates all the time. I feel like I'm stepping into a new world.

♪Po～nyo Po～nyo Ponyo, I watched Ponyo (Ponyo on the cliff by the sea). It is the cutest movie ever!!!

I thought the movie was for children because I heard Hayao Miyazaki, the directer of Ponyo, said he made this for children expecting it would be the first movie for them because there were too many scary and violence films recently. But it is also enjoyable for adults. The screen is so colorful, it's always cheerful and sometimes bright. And the animation is just amazing. The movement of jelly fishes and waves is so big, quickly and unique. I couldn't believe they didn't use any CG and it was all hand written!!

The story is also cute and simple. 5-year-old boy met a cute golden fish girl and he named her Ponyo. Their expressions are so cute and straight. They repeat their words each other, run and jump around and suddenly fall asleep. I like that they are saying 'すき！' each other :) Other characters are also attractive. I like Sosuke's, 5-year-old boy's, mum and her way to drive a car. She is so cool.

I laughed and smiled a lot. I looked around the people in the theater right after the ending roll finished, all of them were smiling. The movie makes us happy. I went to see it by myself because I thought my gaijin friends were not interested in Japanese movie without subtitles. But I should have brought them. The story is easy to understand, I was seeing it trying to translate into English and I could do 90% of them. (Childish words might be difficult to understand, but it's not a big problem, I think.) So I recommend seeing Ponyo in a theater, it's worth it. :)

I was on TV and a magazine last weekend. It was so unusual!

It was a local TV news, they showed about the Moon viewing festival last weekend, and I was on TV just for 3 seconds!! haahaa It was strange to see me on TV. I laughed at me at the first time. Then I felt guilty. There were only I and a womam sitteng next to me who were zoomed in, we are neither a concert master nor a part leader. We were just sitting in the middle of the front row. Sorry!!! The TV news repeated 3 times a day and it lasted for 1 week. So I watched it 3 times, then I thought it was enough. hahaha

On Sunday I got a message from Steff and she told me our magazine was out! I didn't write about my trip to Singapore here, but acctually I got a photo shoot in Singapore with Steff during GW.  Steff's friend Pam is a stylist and has her pages on a local magazine. She needed models who had different body shapes for jeans, then I became a model for small size (No wonder. I'm small even in Singapore.) and Steff was for medium size.  We had hair and make-up done and were taken pictures by a proffessional cameraman. I got tense there, so I didn't think I did well. I am not used to hold a pose and smile in front of a camera. So when Steff sent me a picture of our page this week, I saw it nervousely. Then I was surprised that I was on the one third of the page. So big!!! The picture of me is... OK! Pam chose the best one. Thanks! Steff was next to me. The size of her picture is same as me. We look totally different because of the make-up. She will send the magazine to me, can't wait to see us in a real magazine next :)

I had heard about the moon viewing festival in front of the castle, but I didn't know it was so big and fun! I played the mandolin on the stage at the festival last weekend.

We played at the festival after 2 days practice in Yamasaki. That practice was for our next concert in November, not for the festival. I don't usually practice so much, so I got tired and my fingers hurt. We also practiced the songs for the festival, then I realized our part had only 2 people to play for the festival. And we heard there would be two microphones for each parts, that meant I was gonna have a microphone! I was getting nerves.

At the festival a microphone was set close to the sound hole of my mandolin. I was thinking 'Oh, I can't make mistakes. It's gonna be announced to the whole festival!' Luckly I coudn't hear the sound from speakers because they faced to the audience. That made me feel better. There were thousands of people in front of us. That was big! I was excited to play for a lot of people outside and it was so good. One of our songs was Ponyo. It's popular among children, so some children were singing there. And after we finished playing it, one kid said to us 'もういっかい！(one more!)'. That was so cute!

After that I joined a big gaijin group for drinking. There were more than 10 different kinds of sake, I got a sake cup for 500 yen, then 'all you can drink!'. I had 3 cups of sake, that was a lot for me, especially after 2 days practice and a small (but big) concert. So I got really drunk and couldn't walk properly. hahaha (Shell had 6. さすが) Sake was good, the moon was round and beautiful and there were many funny drunk people. (It was like Hanami!) I regret that I missed this fun festival over the past 25 years. (I couldn't drink sake 25 yeas ago tho. haha)

I'm taking Chinese class. I started going to Chinese school 2 weeks ago. I studied Chinese for a year when I was a university student, I already knew some Chinese words, but it's difficult to listen and speak in class. At the first class I couldn't even say yes or no in Chinese. I don't know how to answer a question!! Then I asked about it to Steff. She explained the differences between shi(yes) and dui(correct) well..... of course in English. So now I'm taking Chinese from a Chinese teacher (She can speak Japanese very well), asking questions to a Singaporian, and getting the answers in English. Great way to lean other languages. :)

There are 4 people in the class, all of us has different reasons for studying Chinese. My reason is that I need it at work and I want to talk with my Chinese friends in China. One guy has almost same reason as mine, and he started talking about his Tiwanese friend in class. So our teacher asked him 'Ni xihuan Zhongguo ma? (Do you like China?)' He paused, then said 'Should I be honest?' (The answer was NO.) HAHAHA I think the situation people learn Chinese is different from English.

I had been waiting for the movie for months, and finally I could see it. It was Sex and the City. I knew it already finished showing in other countries and my friend had the DVD. But I needed Japanese subtitles!! I went to a cinema theater with Shell. When the opening music started, I got goose bumps. This is it! I felt like I met my old friends. The story was great and the dresses were fantastic! I like the movie, so I hope this is not the end of the story.

The other day Steff, Shell and I were talking about going to see Batman movie online, and I managed to spell 'BaDman'. Then they started laughing at my mistake so hard! OMG! embarrassed! But my mistake was not only that. I was thinking 'dark knight' was 'dark Night'. So here is a new title. 'Badman The Dark Night'. ....sounds like a scary or funny movie.

I want to see Ponyo (Ponyo on the cliff by the sea) next! Anyone who want to watch it with me?

It has been really nice this summer. We had Jo and Steff here. It was a reunion!

Our fun time started with a party. Shell and I were planning to have a welcome back party for Jo and Steff. Shell set a date and invited people, and I was ready for that. But actually the party was for ME! At the begining of the party people let off crackers and said "Happy Birthday!" Surprised!!! :D It was really nice, and I was supposed to be happy. But I had been believing that the party was for Jo and Steff for a month, so I couldn't change my thinking quickly. During the party I was so confused and still believed people came there to see Jo and my birthday party was just an additional thing even though there were some people who didn't know about Jo and I got a bunch of presents and a birthday cake. After the party Jo asked me if I was surprised, then finally I understood everything. I was the only one who didn't know anything. There were 12 people and all of them came there for me! I wanted to say thanks to everyone, but the party was already over, it was too late. Dumn! I really enjoyed my first surprise party, and now I know that it's not easy to be the center of a surprise party. hehe

I had more fun from Tottori trip, Firewords festival, Olympic watching party, Summer sonic and watching movies. And my recent favorite summer fun is having a night picnic in front of the castle! It's just great! We can have drinks seeing pretty scenery. The castle is lit-up, the moon comes up and there is nice warm night breeze. It feels good. We also can hear some noise from a zoo. (ok, this one is a bit strange. haha) I had a night picnic 3 times so far, and I want to do it again! Love it.

I was very busy in this autumn. I went to my friend's weddings 3 months in a row. They were held in different places, Kobe, Shizuoka and Himeji. Good trips and I could see my friends from high school, uni and my company. It was like my history of making friends.

Last weekend I went to the wedding for my friend from high school. At the second party we played bingo and I got a big prize for the first time in my life. It was a portable DVD player! YAY I showed off it to Shell at starbucks. Then I went home and turned on the player. I was surprised it was easier than what I thought. I pressed the button and it was ready. I was thinking about my PC. I press the button, have to wait for starting up, put a DVD on, click icons and wait again... It will take a long time to just watch DVDs! When I saw some video cassetts on the floor at Shell's (coz her PC was broken and the only way she could enjoy movies was watching with video cassettes!), I laughed at that. But now I don't think it's a bad thing. It saves our time and doesn't annoy us! I totally forgot about that way. :D

Kelly had a party of her first photo exhibition on the 21st in Fukusaki. It was at a local cafe place that was small but nice. There were more than 10 pictures that she took. It was so nice. I knew she liked taking pictures and wanted to be a photographer, but I didn't know she is so good. I like her works, especially nature photograghs. It was really really good, and I understood why she was so good when I visited her place. Her fatehr is a professional nature photogragher. She had many his works in her room. His photos were so good and she leaned special skills from him. So I think she will be a good photographer. :)

The party was also her goodby party. We can meet again when she is back from her trip, so I was not so sad, but I don't want to think she is leaving. That night I went to another goodby party. It was Mac's at Tiger. I didn't know he was leaving so soon. He was the first gaijin who I talked with outside of my English school. It was a long time ago, but I still remember it clearly. I feel I say goodby every month, still I can't get used to do it.

On July 16 Shell organized a party for me. It was my birthday! I had no idea who was coming and where we would go. (I knew only one person because Brandon sent me a mail saying 'See you on Monday.' haha) I met with Shell, Miki and Kazuyo in front of a station and they took me somewhere. On our way there I could guess. It was Okinawa bar. I had been to the place, but it was always full and I couldn't have drinks, so I really wanted to go. Good choice Shell. When we got to the place, Reza, Brandon and Kyosuke was already there, soon Makoto also came. The place was so nice. We could have nomihoudai drinks and a lot of food. I love Okinawan food. And the BGM was The Boom, my favorite group! It was perfect for me. I LOVE that place.:)

One hour later one peoson was still late. I had no idea who was coming, and when I heard the name, I was really surprised. It was Igor. He came all the way from Kyoto. Unfortunately JR was late because of the earthquake and some train accident, and it was national holiday so he had to go back earlier. He apologized for being late, but he didn't need to worry. It was good to see him there. Thank you for coming, Igor.

The party was great. I got many many nice presents! Shell made a brithday cake for me! She made it by herself at Reza's place. Thank you! And we got a botlte of sparkling wine from the people of the bar. I hadn't opened a bottle of wine with a cork, but a birthday girl had to open it. I tried and did it, and at the same time Kazuyo said 'ahhhh!'. I didn't know why but I realized the cork hit her after hitting the ceiling. Sorry! I wanted to eat and drink more, but I was too drank, so I couldn't eat Shell's cake. (Reza ate my cake instead of me. haha)

It was a wonderful night. Thank you for coming. Love you all!!

Here is another fun trip. I went to Hiroshima with Jennifer, Kanako and Brandon July 1st. I was worring something happened during this trip, and it happened from the very begining. I got to Reza's place to pick them up at 9 am, just on time for our meeting time. I rang the bell but no one answered. I opened the door, there was onlyTsuyoshi at the entrance, Brandon had just woke up because of the door bell, Kanako had not arrived there, and Jenny was missing! Her sandals were there but Tsuyoshi said he couldn't find her in the house. Few minites later she appeared, she had been taking a shower, so Tsuyoshi couldn't had checked it. haha I drove all the way for Hiroshima. Jenny and Brandon slept in the back sheet. Kanako and I was excited to talk about gossip, then we noticed the sign that said Miyajima. Miyajima is to the west of Hiroshima. Ohh, we passed through Hiroshima! No one noticed. We lost one hour. Sorry.

In Hiroshima we checked in the hotel first. It was a nice Japanese room which had a small garden, far better than Tokyo one that I booked. Well done Kanako. After we had a rest for a short time, we walked to Peace Memorial Museum. It was the 3rd time to go there for me, so I thought I knew many things about the museum, but acctually I could'nt answer the questions from Jennifer. She asked me about Sino-Japanese war, Russian-Japanese war or many other stuff that weren't explained on the notice. I don't know anything about my own country. Ashamed! As you know the place was depressing, so we didn't talk anything after we left there., and we had another reason why we didn't talk. We were starving!! So we went to Okonomiyaki restrant. It was nice. We got full and recovered from the sadness.

After taking a nap at the hotel, we went out for drinking. That night was so fun. We went to 3 bars and got drank. I tryed Irish wisky at an Irish pub, it was nice, of course with water for me tho. I tryed straight just one sip, the taste was much better than the one with water. I was so drank and really needed to sleep because I had to drive next day. But the song "one more drink!" started, then Kanako and Jenny went to another bar. They didn't come back until 4:30 am. It was a heavy rain with lightning and thundering. I was getting worried, but I didn't need to worry. When they came back, they were laughing and saying 'I don't know what I am doing!' They were totally FINE.

Next day it was rainig, Jennifer had a hunover and Brandon had a bit too. They slept in the back sheet on my car on our way to Miyajima. But Kanako was so genki. I had no idea how she could deal with alcohol. We got to Miyajima and took a boat to Miyajima Irand. When we got there, it stopped raining. It was already 1 hour late for the highest tide time, but the gate was still floating on the sea. Phew! 4 hangover people went to Itsukushima shrine, prayed there and then went into the sea and walked to the gate!! haha I had been there 3 times but never had done like that. We maneged to jumped into other tourist's pictures. We would be introduced as crazy people. haha

It was a fun and nice trip, thanks guys. It was also the last trip with Jennifer. She flew for London 3 days later. I wanted to talk about this trip with her but didn't have enough time. It was sad, but still good we went there togather. Take care Jennifer and see you soon.

Tiger had Jennifer's leaving party on last Friday. It was the last time to say good by to her for most our friends, because the leaving party that we had been planning for her on Saturday secretly was canceled. We knew she didn't like being the center of a party. It was her decision, so we should agree with her, but we just wanted to do something for her! (or for US??) Anyway we gathered at Tiger and had a nice time. I couldn't believe she was leaving here soon.

At that night Reza invited us to go to a beer garden next day, so shell and I went there after seeing Japanese arts at a museum on Saturday. We thought Jen was working, but she was at a beer garden with Reza and Tsuyoshi. Reza convinced her to have drinks at a beer garden instead of working on her last weekend in Japan. Kanako and I tried to convince her to have her leaving party many times, but not conpleted. Well done Reza!! Kyosuke and Branden was also there. (Poor Kanako didn't know the plan. Sorry!) Drinks and foods were nice, and we talked about many fun stuff like a polar bear, a penguin and a crocodile. haahaa It was a really nice time. I wanted to go for another drinks with them, but I gave up because I was going to Hiroshima with Jen, Kanako and Brandon next day by car, so I should sleep well. I decided to go there in that week. I knew it was gonna be 3 years in a row. I went to Hiroshima too often, but still like it. So next my blog is about Hiroshima. :)

I went to Osaka with Shell and Miki chan for having a fun night at Pure. Last time I went there I just followed my friends, so I had no idea where I went. It was near Doutonbori, just behind the yellow big ferris wheel. We met up Ben, Ben's Kasai friend and Joji near there. We didn't drink and take pictures so much, but we danced and had fun. I went to beside Dotonbori river accidentally, it was a nice place for chilling out. We should go there next time. 

We drank, danced and chatted until 5 am, then headed to MacDonald as usual, then caught the first train to go home. I slept at Shell's place in the morning (sounds funny!) and spent lazy day there. We didn't have a hungover but were so tired. Are we too old for clubing? Oh, I don't wanna hear that.

My mandolin orchestra had a concert, it was more casual than last time, we played classical music and film music. This time I didn't have a seat in a first row on a stage, so I couldn't see whole audience. I tried to find my friends, but I couldn't find anybody on the first stage. On the next stage I tried again and I found Jennifer, Kanako and brandon sitting next to each other behind the podium. It was easy because of Jen's RED hair! I smiled at them, but they didn't notice me, Jen looked getting worried, then suddenly she stood up, looked around the stage and waved her hand at me with a big smile. OMG! I waved my hand back to her, but I was embarrassed that people were laughing at us! I was really glad that she tried to find me on the stage tho. Last time Jo and Shell planed to wave a hand at me, but they didn't. This time Jen did by herself, brave girl, haahaa

After the play I met my friends at the lobby, then headed to starbucks with Shell, Ben Miki chan, Jon and Kazuko chan. I was so tired and couldn't wait to have drinks. Coffee couldn't make me refreshed. Yes, I really wanted ALCHOLE! haha So I enjoyed drinks at the after party. I like playing at the concert and drinking after that.:)

May 30th was our Shell's birthday, we had her birthday party on that weekend. Usually she organized parties for us, but this time she was a birthday girl, so it was my job. It was so hard to do that, people sent mails a lot and changed their plans a lot. So I got confused and called and went to the restrant which I booked many times. I can't believe Shell did that for every single party. Funny thing was people asked me if the party was secret for her or not. Everyone thought about that, so we can't plan a party secretly any more. haha

 We went to the restrant to celebrate her. The restrant was so nice. We drank, ate, gave her presents and had fun there. And I made a cake for her. When a waitress served it to her, she got surprised because I made it the day before that day and I brought it to the restrant in advance. She didn't know about that at all. hehe The only thing that I was worring about was its taste, but it was not so bad. phew!

After the restrant we went to Tiger and met up othrer friends. She got a beer mug of wine from Mike and Tomas, and of course she got drank. We went to a new bar called B's bar afterward, it was also a nice place, but she couldn't drink any more. I hadn't seen such drank shell. haha It was a good time. Happy birthday Shell. :)

I like going to Okayama villa. This time I went to Ushimado, same place as last time, with Shell, Miki, Sakane-san, Ben, Makoto, Ryuji, Jon, Mike and Stfan. We went to see the world's second best view and had a jelati on the hill. After checking in the villa, we went out to find the place for playing frisbee. We went up and down the hill and finally found a nice place. 10 of us played togather, it was nice.

At the villa Miki and I could have the best room that had the best view from the window because I knew it. hehe  Sorry people.  We cooked tacos. (yummy!!) I didn't know tacos had 2 styles, hard one and soft one, I tried both, now I prefer hard one. After dinner I was impressed that BOYS cleaned it and did dishes!! I haven't seen that kind of fabulous scene in Japan. I loved it! We played with fireworks, saw a strange animal like a racoon (what was that??) and played Ben's plain plane game and UNO. I also showed them my pictures in Doha. They looked interested in that.

Next morning we cooked pan cakes for breakfast. I liked Shell's banana caramel sauce. Then boys did dishes again so that we got ready to leave before 10 am. Last time we couldn't do that. Well done people! After that we went to a nice small beach, Hinase festival and Akashi Kaihin Park for playing frisbee and hacky sac. I played a lot and took a nap under the sun. It was really nice time.

Shell has already set next villa trip, can't wait!!

Almost a month ago Ling Li, my Chinese colleague, came to Japan for a business trip for one week and I took her around the city on Friday. We went to Shosha mountain, a restrant (Mongolian chop), then we went shopping and saw Aboshi lantern festival at Otemae park. She had been so busy in China. She is a manager of a big section, works 6 days a week and had just got married last month. So she enjoyed hiking, soaking fresh air and having fun in a city. She complained about Chinese life. Most Chinese people gets married at young age, so they don't have a time to have fun with their friends. She liked Japanese life.   

She enjoyed so much but had one dissapointing thing. She wanted to buy a pair of Japanese watch, and we found SEIKO's one in a shop. But it was MADE IN CHINA. They also had SEIKO's watches which is made in Japan, but it cost over 50,000 yen. She said it would be cheaper to get the watch made in China after going back to China. It's true. It's difficult to find the stuff made in Japan here today, especially electric appliances. :(