Christmas from Home!

A couple of days after Christmas I was chilling in the apartment watching...something on my computer when the camera intercom when off. Apparently someone was paying a visit. So, I checked and he said he was from the delivery service. I let him up, to discover that he was carrying a HUGE package for me (LOL! Don't make the joke; it's too easy). So I did my sign thing and went straight to opening it. It was a package from my mom!!! I was too happy and just ripped it all open to find gifts! Man, my mom LOVES me!
Lovin' my new jacket. It will keep me warm while I'm at school...at least while I'm walking through the non-heated halls. Wait, there's more!
I GOT A SNUGGIE!!! How awesome is that?! I mean, Japan doesn't do the whole central heating and air here plus their homes are not insulated well, so to heat the whole place up at once will cost you at least an arm! So this will come in handy big time!

There was more in the box including drugs that won't make me loopy (I hope) and super fabulous jewelry stand I have named Diva and a lovely trinket clay holder. I just LOVE everything. The pic of my mom and my 2 brothers (1 blood and 1 might as be related) was just the icing on the cake. Thank you so much mom! LOVE YOU OODLES AND OODLES!

Christmas 2010

Christmas has come and gone, but I have to say that it was one of the best I've had here in Japan! My mom got me into the Christmas spirit right in time and I was able to enjoy that blessed day. I started my day off with a Christmas breakfast and a viewing of A Christmas Story.

Later, after cleaning the place up, and finished wrapping presents, I got dressed and made my way over to the Hilton hotel were my friends and I were to have Christmas dinner. It was amazing! It was buffet style, slightly expensive, and WELL WORTH EVERY YEN!


The night was a complete success! We all have a very lovely grown-up style Christmas; and that's saying a lot considering how much we like to goof off :p
I was glad to have been here to spend this time with all of my friends. The only 2 missing were Margaret and Linda, but they were there in spirit! I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! I know I did ❤

Christmas Eve 2010

Christmas eve has come and gone. It was a pretty good day. I finally got into the Christmas spirit and it was just in time! Thanks mom! So, I woke up and decided that it was finally time to go Christmas shopping for my friends. I went up to Sakae and went nuts! I'm not going to even divulge how much I spent, but let's just say, my wallet was begging me for a break by the end of the day. In fact, I think I might have to buy a new one :p But that will just have to wait until next time.
While shopping, I say that there is a small ice-skating rink in Oasis 21. It was uber cute and when I say small, I mean small. But it looked as if the kids were having a good time. All of Oasis was decorated nicely. I spent a lot of time there going back and forth between shops and deciding what to buy. I ❤ Oasis 21!

After a day of shopping, I got together with my good friend Simone. That night, I bought us tickets to see The Nutcracker. I can't believe how many people who have NEVER seen this ballet!! Simone was one of them! SHOCKING! Thanks mom for getting us out and properly educated in the arts :-) Anyways, we were SO excited about seeing the show. When we got there we discovered how small the venue was. I mean the building is HUGE, but I guess they were using one of the smaller stages. That worked out for us because we ended up being even closer to the front. To be honest, that had to be THE WORST version of the Nutcracker I have EVER seen! And I used to see the show every year as a child. I have deemed it the "Japanese "International" ghetto ballet performed to the music of the nutcracker". For starters, the audience was actually clapping throughout the performance. Simone said it was like watching figure skating; whenever a dancer did a spin (didn't even have to be a special move), the audience would clap and 1 random guy in the back would shout "BRAVO!". Seriously! CLAPPING DURING THE PERFORMANCE! Moreover, there were kids running up and down the isles or going to the bathroom DURING the performance. I even saw a woman drinking! Plus they took WAY too many liberties with the story. The child in the beginning, Clair, was ON POINT and wasn't A CHILD. She isn't supposed to perform on point, NOT YET! And, they switched dancers at the wrong moment. The story was just WRONG! The best performance that was actually correct was the Pas de Deux at the end...kinda. Ok, I'm going on and on, I'm going to stop now. I just love The Nutcracker; that's all :-( At least Simone enjoyed it and that was all that mattered since it was her Christmas present from me. But when we get home, I'm going to have to treat her to a proper performance.
Now to update my culture list in Japan; I have seen 1 symphony performance (Beethoven I believe), 1 musical (Jesus Christ Superstar), 1 opera (オペラ座の怪人ーPhantom of the Opera), and 1 ballet (くるみ割り人形-The Nutcracker).

After the show, we decided that we needed something to drink, so we went to a pub. We ordered the cutest classes of champagne called Rudolph. It has a little red sugar cube at the bottom to give it the red nose appearance.

Finally as we journeyed home, we were stopped by one of Simmy's co-workers and bought more drinks. This time we kept it J-style and went with the ume-shu (Japanese plum flavored saki on the rocks) and ume-chuhai (kinda the same as before but fizzy). As I said earlier, it was a pretty good day :-)

Thanksgiving in Japan '10

Thanksgiving this year was pretty...uh...special. Special meaning...something...different. Nevertheless, I wouldn't have traded that day for anything else! I spent it with friends and good times were had. Linda, Simone, Joseph, and I gathered at my place and we had a veritable Thanksgiving feast provided to up by the lovely people at Pizza Hut :p

The gathering; oh how happy they are to have their pic taken. In truth, we were just waiting for our food to arrive.

Additionally, Linda made cookies which were fabulous! On top of all of that (I know, there's more!), we laugh and almost cried with awesome holiday movies: The Polar Express and Nightmare Before Christmas. There were "tender lumpy-kins" everywhere!

Our "feast"!

Uber delicious pecan sugar cookies (courtesy of Linda)

The gang! I'm behind the camera :-)

VAMPS`

Last month, Linda, Simone, and I went to see our favorite Japanese rock band VAMPS live. I must say, MONEY WELL SPENT! The tix were only about $70 a piece, but SO worth it. We rocked the hell out that night. The venue is perfect for them. Zepp Nagoya isn't that big so there is no need for any big screens and no matter where you stand, you will have a good view of the performance. We decided to stand on the first level near the back because it was slightly elevated and we could easily look down the middle to the stage. To make things better, Hyde came to the back and down the balcony to perform just to us!! Then, he noticed us; well me (kinda hard to miss the 1 black chick in a crowd of Japanese) threw his guitar pick (I would have caught it but the masses of tiny J-girls flying for it made me think against even trying. Then he yelled "ONE MORE TIME!" It was pretty awesome! Afterward, we hit the stands and bought bought bought! It was a WONDERFUL concert and it was even better with friends :-)

Cheesecake!

Hi! I know that it's been awhile...again. But what can I say, I'm just not good at this blogging stuff. I mean, I have lots of stuff to share, but just too lazy to actually type it all out. I guess you just have to be here. Well, I'm going to try now. I'm going to take today and do some needed updating. So, here goes.

Ever since my best-est friend Margaret left Japan, I have had NO ONE to bake with. She was always here to make sure that I didn't burn the place down. Well, she isn't here anymore so I decided to test the waters and bake by myself. My first adventure was with chocolate chip cookies. It wasn't my first time baking cookies, but for some reason, NOTHING turned out right. They were the WORSE cookies I have EVER made here. It's pretty pathetic when the chocolate chips are the thickest part of the cookie. I mean they were FLAT and not really tasty either. It took a couple of weeks for me to get over the cookie catastrophe and venture on to bigger and better projects.

My next project was a marble cheesecake. I know, big project, but hey, you gotta go for the gusto right?? I got the idea to try it after my friend Linda dropped a cheese-flavored Kit-Kat on my desk. Yes, you read right CHEESE kit-kat! Here, I have proof:

I had to try it, and yes, it really DOES taste like cheese-flavored chocolate. It wasn't bad, but I don't think I would buy it for myself. Anyways, after that, I thought: "self, let's try making a cheesecake." And that's what I did. This is what came of that impulse:

I have to say; YUMMY!! I made quite the mess in the kitchen and just getting the ingredients for this mammoth here put a dent in my wallet, but the end result was deliciousness! I think the next time I try this, I will half the recipe.

I think my next under-taking will be cinnamon rolls...maybe.