a few years ago, someone slap me 10 times i still would not believe that, a few years from 200x, i would be in a completely different place.

i have to admit, things have been good since the first day of 2011. or even a couple days before it. thanks to a certain someone. it maybe all just a matter of “timing”, completely unexpected, again, oh well, is there anything that actually is “expected” 100%?????

anyway, i have no complaints this year, like i mentioned before, it was so good already at the last few days of 2010, since friends here are getting closer with each other, drinking with friends is absolutely one of the best things you can do for yourself and others. そして、2011 so far has been EVEN better … ^^. thank you.

anyhow, people here still not seem ready to go back to work, at least i am not. i so want to just go back to the common area and meet with friends and all, but i have shit load of 翻訳 to do actually.

trust me, if u find these photos no good, the taste is a completely different story. ^^

recently, i just find out, how 幸せ this is. if every day, can be like this, how sweet … back in US, almost not 1 single day i could live like this when i was working.

so does it assume that, if i am fortunate enough be able to work in tokyo, i can continue to live like this for a while?

days that i never dreamed can happen. all because of the bad things in the past, forced me to come here without even given a conscious mind. now, looking back for 1 second already come this far. scary.

again, thanks to a “certain someone”, my life in here has become even more complete. almost 申し分がないほど。

i guess after all, it is all in GOD’s plan … the sadness of the past many many years. wow.

january 16, it was the b-day of my long time ex., who would have thought, many years later, on this very specific day, the person next to me has been changed, and i actually spent the day with a completely different person, having such a good time, almost not realizing, it is already jan 16.

Last year, i went to countdown since i thought i never went to one before in japan while i am still here might as well join one right?

the scenery was good, cause it was a countdown seeing the Tokyo Tower, but geez, the CROWD … i don’t know, i cannot say if it is worthy. unbelievably crowded!!!!

had such a hard time just to wait for everyone! after that, also have a hard time to leave while the thing is over … troublesome.

then, this year, as usual, 精神的に too tired to plan anything. losing interests? oh well.

anyway, me and my good friend here, long time ago we were already invited in person to go to a tiny “soba dinner”, there are not many people going, but since we were invited personally, so we went.

omg, it was SOOOOO good! the SOBA was super smooth and the soup has “duck meat” in it@!

the soup base is DELICIOUS!!!

the noodles SOOOO smooth!!!

the host is a very good cook, and he sometimes host some parties and the food is wonderful!

we finally had the soba on the 3rd floor lounge, later, we went to the 2nd floor to have other gatherings, the entertainment continues till morning like 5am.

very relaxing, and still feel no mood to work …

幸せと思う。if everyday can be like this, having good times with friends, won’t that be nice?

wow, another 信じられないこと、people in the guesthouse are really carefree.

we are here for many different reasons, come from many different places, some of them work full-time, some of them work part-time. of course most of the natives are full-time workers, foreigners are mostly part-time workers.

after Christmas day 25th, our “party” streak did not stop there.

on dec 26, no one feel like working neither of course. 全然 without any type of planning, people just keep bumping with each other in the kitchen or lounge area. whenever someone is cooking, other people will get interested in what is being cooked and looked and asked and ends up the people that was cooking will usually have to say the following …

“would you like to try some?”

and the other party will say “oh really?”

“of course you can…”

sometimes the “host” means it, sometimes he/she does not, but it happens a lot like this.

and 自然に、these people might even ends up eating together and sharing each other’s food.

ok, talk back to the end of 2010. because of the above pattern, we often can hear, “would u like to join?” and some people would, but some very shy people will decline.

that was what happened at the end of 2010, many people without even being invited ahead of time and ends up eating dinner together, and on 26th, 27th, blah blah, i cannot remember 1 single night that i end up NOT being with someone drinking or eating. it was so fun. reason is, cause they are very kind and interesting. and there are so many of them and everyone is so different, entertainment just keep coming. でしょう？！

and i remember one conversation, …

“since when you decided to drink like this?”

”生まれたから〜”

hahaha.

a girl feel no heartbeats from me, so i told her.

“私、心がない〜”

and then, all of a sudden, one of my “drinking” and “always seems not 元気 friend said “僕も心がない”  “生まれたからもなかった”

hahahahahahah.

ごめん、if u find it not funny, but the way he said it and his expression, it really is … priceless.

this is the first time i heard him saying something so meaningful. hahaha, and SO 当たる、something i was to hear, cause it is true and funny.

and then i asked him what we should do, since we do not have a heart.

he said we maybe can buy it in 100¥shop, then added “um, it maybe made in China …”

i said, “oh no! i don’t want a product THAT important to be made in China.”

then the “aimless” conversation continues …

so fast already 2011, so hard to believe.

this year, did not start with anything bad, there are things that happened, out of expectations, but it was not all bad, i sort of feel like, the “bad luck” for the last few years, is going away from me.

and in here, so nice, i do not have to drive. so happy.

in the guesthouse, it was all HAPPY HAPPY, during the Christmas and New Year.

many people here did not have much of a plan, just ただstaying here, but somehow, we end up having dinner and drinking parties together. they are so fun to be with!!!!!

after this Christmas, we get to know each other a little better, もっともっと楽しくなったよ〜。

we end up having like almost 9 people eating together for absolutely no reason. the food is good because we were having fun. but the taste really is not as strong as i want them to be. but it is ok ^^. more than ok!

Yes guys, this is KERORO.

I love Pikachu. But in Spring, Pikachu does not want to show up in the movie theatre, and I really want to see an ANIME movie in Japan because my time is up, …

… Keroro is the only one there that I actually “know” the name of the character.

But crying out loud, I had never even seen ONE single TV episode of Keroro before this.

Fortunately, Keroro is great.

At least good enough to make me have the urge to watch 3-5 TV episodes of him after this movie.

And later during Autumn, I finally was able to see Pikachu.

Pokemon are serious matter. The movie, it is never meant to be funny, but I think PIKACHU is beautiful and one of the most adorable creations on earth out of human brain. His every angle, every move.

And the best of all, is still the friendship of him and the main boy character … the very 1st episode, I watched the English version in America, and … oh goodness, I have to admit the translation was SO good that the 感情 was very much well conveyed. 感動する。

Of course now, they tried to make Pokemon going forever and ever, and if you just go watch any episode nowadays, you probably will not see any friendship thing going on at all. But that is not the fault of the person that created Pikachu.

Anyway, now back to the main point, what I was trying to tell you is, after the Pikachu movie  (gosh so many of them I lost count of what the number and the title is.  um … 10?) …

Pikachu と握手した。

超超超超超嬉しかった！

日本に来て良かったよ！！！！！ (感動しつづき)  (•_•)

P.S. Sorry Keroro, I just cannot feel the same way about you. Even though I 勝手に use your photo here …

Guys, you are not dreaming.

Please do not look down upon this … Yes, this is a pudding.

I love the dessert in Japan. Many people from the Southeast Asia probably do not understand what so special about this.

But if you have been trapped in a place that everyday life, all the common dessert you can see, is a bunch of ARTIFICIAL colored sugar-filled “cake”/”cupcakes”,  and the locals around you kept telling you, “Oh gosh, this tastes GREAT!!!!”
(Well, to be exact, I am implying you are basically eating sugar if you would like to have one of those “cupcakes”, it is suicidal.  You might as well buy a bag of sugar and just swallow it, that is how it tastes.) … THIS pudding is heaven, man!

(Don’t take me wrong, I am not trying to be rude. I just cannot communicate with the locals on the other side of the world over this area that is all.)

Especially this is the “time-limited” 抹茶 flavor! OH GEEZ! How can you resist this!? aaaaaaah …

When I first came to Japan, in the dorm, it might sounds crazy to you, but I was SOOOOO busy with the 自動販売機 every single day.

Why?

Because it has the 杏仁豆腐 flavor of this pudding, OH my GOD, it was SOOOOOOO good. Plus many other very interesting items, shoot!

I was also very busy with the convenience stores every night, I just could not spend a day without trying at least ONE new dessert every day.  How CAN you?

Those days.  懐かしい、そんな気持ち。

Full of adventures. Full of excitements.

人間はやっぱりずっーと満足している気持ちを持ち難いだ。

いつも何でも飽きるの日々がある。

ずっとそんなことを探すのは疲れてしまうものだ。

特にこんな歳、興味がある事も少なくなってしまうな。。

These photos were taken in Mar 30, 2009, at that time I thought I was pretty sort of sad, I thought, I had passed the chance to be with someone I thought I like, and had to bear the possibility of seeing him with someone else on the street again,

… the chill went down through my backbone …, (even though the chill he gave me was only 10% of what I had to go through in 2006 when someone left me) … those days, I tried so hard to like someone else, to like something else …

but turns out, now looking back, at that time, I was … pretty good. (Except at that time my Japanese was even poorer and had shit load of unsettled finance issues.)

… at that time, March 2009, right before I moved in to the first guesthouse, I think, I can still call myself “fortunate”, if someone said this to me at that time, I would probably slap them!

but now ちょっと見返して、… 間違えない。

because, there is another one that I like WAY even more, someone that gives me the feeling of “和やか”, such a warm and 細かい feeling for the first time, almost makes me understand, why there are actually people on earth wants a family, and why some people can have such a 幸せな顔 on their face when a kid is with them.

but once again, I also missed him, ALMOST the same way as how I failed the previous time, … how sarcastic.

I guess I did not learn my lesson well enough, … かな …

Mar 30, I went to see sakura with my friend and her 2 sons. Beautiful Sakura …

Things were never the same after this.

It is almost the end of the year, pretty unbelievable. 2010 …

A lot have happened, just about every day, cannot even remember all sometimes. Good memories, bad memories …

Before I start living here, I really had no intention of making any more new friends, reason is, I have already stayed in Japan for almost 2 years, have seen too many people come and go, 心が疲れてしまう。

At first I only came with a travel visa trying to get away from the routine life of US, then, I registered for some language school so I can have some normal social life, i did meet a lot of interesting people from hong kong and other countries. It was pretty exciting at first since these are the types of people that I could not meet when I was in Houston, a place that seriously lack hong kong natives.

So different, やっぱりAsia, the food, the design, so much more eye-pleasing to me. The hong kong people that came here, also, of course, came here because they, for the least, do not NOT like Japan, right? So we kind of can share something in common. Full of curiosity of this place.

They all from many different backgrounds, but they came with almost the same intention — to study Japanese … I guess that is the only main difference between us.

They were so fun, one of them told me “People did not study well (in Hong Kong) usually because they know how to have fun … ~”

My long-time Japanese friend told me, I only meet them by “coincidence” … but, I somehow cannot agree to a certain extent.

And my first SOFTBANK phone in Japan, and might be also the last.

The star-liked strap was given by a good friend at that time.