Category Archives: photos of me

back in the u.s. of a. (part 1 – birthday weekend)

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This post is waaaay overdue (and mostly my own journal entry), but better late than never. On the second of November, I headed back to the United States for a long visit. As part of my current assignment I get one home-leave trip. And as November 1st marked my halfway point in my current assignment and my friend Susan was getting married on the 3rd and my birthday was on the 4th, it just seemed like the perfect time to visit. So, I got on a plane and went back in time (well, according to clocks and dates) which was pretty awesome. I arrive in Arizona two hours before I’d left Tokyo.

And my first stop after landing in Arizona (while still at the airport)? Paradise Bakery. Mostly for a Diet Coke, but since I was already there…I got a cookie, too. The Japanese do a lot of things really well in the food department, but cookies is not one of them. It turns out that this was a very good decision as I ended up having to wait a while in the rental car line.

While I was waiting in line, and watching a number of things transpire, I came to the conclusion that Americans (I’m generalizing here) are rude, demanding, and incredibly impatient. And I was kind of embarrassed for all of us. The good news was there were no Japanese around to witness it. So, I just sat there pleasantly waiting because clearly the two women waiting for help were having very bad days. Or at least I want to assume that wasn’t their regular behavior.

When I finally got up to the counter, I was as nice as I could be, feeling extremely sorry for the agent who had just been berated. And apparently he appreciated my patience and overall pleasant demeanor (yeah, me) because I was rewarded with an awesome upgrade at no additional charge. Thank you Hertz. I was already excited to drive, but this just made it that much more enjoyable.

And then I headed to my sister’s.

One of the hard things about this trip home versus other trips when I’ve been coming from New York is that I want to see people and play, but I also have to get things done. I’m used to coming into town and just being able to have fun and play with my nieces and nephews and chill. Not the same when you are coming from the other side of the world. I wanted to see as many friends as possible. (Something about being on the other side of the world makes you feel more motivated to see people because I’m not sure when I’ll be back again.) I had my friend’s wedding to go to. I had my birthday to celebrate. And then I had a gazillion errands to run and things to get done.

Friday started with getting my hair chopped and face injected with Botox. (Yes, you read that right. And I am not ashamed to admit it. And for those of you who think I look too young for Botox…that’s the point. I’ve been doing it off and on for a while and it’s working beautifully.)

Just after the cut and injections. Happy birthday to me!

Friday night the family headed to Kona Grill for dinner and we had so much fun! Seriously, I love my family. And my dad was even there as he’d been in town for a board meeting before I got there, so he just stayed. It was great!

And then, after we got home from dinner, came the obligatory muddy buddies. My sister keeps a pantry like my mom, so there are always muddy buddy ingredii (yeah, that’s not a word, but it’s what we say) on hand. These are probably my most favorite treat ever.

Saturday morning started with my niece’s soccer game. One of my favorite things about being an aunt is when I get to be around for my nieces and nephews “stuff”, be it soccer games or choir performances. I just love getting to see them develop and grow and accomplish. And Saturday morning was no different. And my niece was so excited to have me there. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see my other niece and nephew play in their games as I had a wedding to attended.

After heading home and changing, I headed to the LDS temple in Mesa to see my darling friend marry the love of her life. I was so happy to have been able to be there for it. It was this great reminder that waiting for the right person is totally worth it. And, seeing as how I was about to turn “old” the next day and being single makes that a little more depressing every year, getting that reminder was just what I needed.

And then I rushed home for my birthday party with friends. Unfortunately, this is the only photo I got from the party. But it’s an important one. My sweet and thoughtful friend, Jenn, brought me four of my favorite cookies all the way from New York. If you’re ever in New York, you must try Levain.

So, I’m not really one to throw myself a birthday party, but it was such a great reason to get so many of my friends together from various parts of my life. Arizona has my friends from my past life there, my very best friend from my mission, and now a number of really good friends from grad school. It was so fun to see people I hadn’t seen for a while (some, not since I graduated from my MBA program almost two and half years ago).

And then Sunday, my actual birthday, was my big family party including almost everyone in my immediate family (it was a little far for my younger brother and his family to come), my aunt and a number of my cousins, and part of my sister-in-law’s family…who are basically family. It was so fun! My brother-in-law kindly spent his afternoon making my favorite wings in the smoker, my sister made my favorite cake (yellow box and chocolate Betty Crocker frosting…I know, high class) and fruit dip, and I made my famous guacamole (at least famous with my family…I rarely make it for anyone else) and we just had a great time eating and laughing and catching up. It was the best gift my sister (and dad, who funded it) could have given me!

And my sweet aunt and cousins gave me this gift card which was just the right amount to support my DC habit while in the States.

And thus ends my birthday weekend. Up next? My whirlwind trip to Utah.

my birthday – japan style

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I have lots of blogging to catch up on. A trip to the states, lots of birthday celebrating, etc, etc. But this weekend, instead of doing that, I was busy getting my karaoke on and relaxing after a really stressful week at work. So, for now, I’m going to give you this little gem from my first birthday dinner with my friends here in Japan. I have to thank Chelsea for encouraging me to go ahead and let them do the whole singing thing. So. Worth. It.

kyoto – day 1 (the eastern side)

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Sometime after I got back from Okinawa, I decided I needed to go to Kyoto. And since this past weekend was our conference weekend for my church (meaning I didn’t need to lead the music), I decided it would be a perfect weekend to go. I booked a ryokan (a TripAdvisor recommendation) and bought my ticket (or what I thought was my ticket) for the Shinkansen. I decided I’d head down early-ish (not too early, though) Saturday morning and back Sunday night. It was a perfect plan. Except that I got to the train station later than I’d planned and, as it turned out, had only paid for my reserve seat, not the actual ticket. Thankfully, there are trains every 10 minutes, so I was able to get on one about an hour later (I needed a window seat, thus the wait).

And the window seat proved worth the wait…

Instagram shot of Fuji-san…I’m pretty much in love with this photo
nice camera on crappy settings…maybe if I edit it?

So,  I arrived in Kyoto and took a taxi to the very lovely Gion Maifukan to drop off my stuff before heading out to find some food and start touristing. The super nice desk staff gave me maps and directions and I was off.

I had a lovely lunch (I love udon noodles soooo much!) followed by a lovely treat and a Japanese treat shop (recommended by one of the managers I support at work and conveniently close to where I was staying) of this crazy cold noodles that you dip in this black, treacly goodness called kuzukiri. Amazing!

Udon served cold with dipping sauce and amazing tempura

kuzukiri

After eating, I hopped on the bus up to the Silver Temple: Ginkaku-ji. It’s in the northwest corner of the city and there’s a path you can follow that leads back to where I was staying with several templs along the way, so I decided to start there. But, before I got to the temple, I had to snap a shot of these pedi-cabs powered by humans running while wearing ninja shoes. Kind of awesome. Talk about a great way to keep in shape!

Well, the Ginkaku-ji (or Temple of the Silver Pavilion as it’s called in English) was incredible. I knew at once that I had made the right choice by coming to Kyoto and doing it before things got too crowded. The fall (which happens mid-November) is amazing and it draws huge crowds. So, while I would love to see Kyoto in its full autumn splendor, I was happy to not be contending with crowds any bigger than what was there last weekend.

Proof of the craziness that Japanese women inflict upon themselves
The street that leads up to the temple…can you imagine what it would be like more crowded than this?

I then started walking down the Philosopher’s Walk, but found myself quickly at another temple, Honen-in. This one much smaller, but beautiful in a very quiet way.

And then it was back down the path. I understand why philosophers would have walked along this particular way. It’s so quiet and peaceful and the perfect combination of water, trees, views, and light. I could have walked along the path all day and then some.

This moth/bee thing was crazy, so of course I needed a photo.

Just a fish swimming upstream…

My last temple stop of the day was Eikan-do.

And with this, the temples began to shut their gates.

So, still being quite a trek from my little Japanese inn, I found the bus and rode it back to my part of town. At this point, my room was ready and I took a much needed break on my very comfortable futon.

And then I headed out to find dinner, but first I had to capture proof that I can be a cute tourist.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any shots of my lovely dinner. I found this great little teppanyaki place (Japanese style, not American) and had a lovely noodle dishes and a very dry ginger ale. A perfect end to a close to pretty amazing day. Up next…day two!

a little (or a lot really) more okinawa

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So, the main reason I went to Okinawa was to dive. But, as I got there a little earlier than I needed to and you can’t fly within 24 hours of your last dive, I did squeeze in some other activities. And I even managed to put some makeup on…once.

But before I can even get to Okinawa, let’s discuss my little oversight when booking my flight. I went for cheap, and thus ended up on a 6:00 am flight from Narita. Now, in NY, a 6:00 am flight is not a big deal. You can take the subway, or the bus, or hop in a cab for a max of $60. In Tokyo, there is no bus or cab early enough to get you to Narita at 6:00am, let alone by 6:00am. And a cab ride? Around $200. So, upon realizing this two days before my departure, I had to book a hotel by the airport.

Freak rainstorm hit while I enjoyed a little pit stop to visit my friend Chelsea. Note to all: always carry an umbrella in Tokyo if you’re not going to check the weather.

Professing a cheap price and airport shuttle, I booked a two star hotel. Well, two star was probably a little generous. This picture illustrates pretty sell what the rest of the experience was like. On top of which, oh, no airport shuttle before 6:30 am. What the what? But at least it was only a $25 cab ride… But hey, it was a bed for a few hours of sleep and a quick trip to the airport. And the combined cost of the hotel and the cab…less than half what the cab ride would have been. How ridiculous is that?

So, after my flight, I had a few hours to kill in Naha (the “big” city where the airport is) before I needed to hop on the bus to head north, so I decided to go see this castle at the end of the monorail line. It had some amazing views and was a good little excursion. In addition to that, I got to see a little dance performance and just enjoy seeing a new city. It’s so different from Tokyo. Much more Hawaii feeling…but older and a little more Asian (but only a little).

And then it was time to take the bus and head to the American Village to meet Jan, the dive dude. He was much younger than I expected, but super nice (as stated before–not sure why I didn’t take a photo with him) and I was just so happy to be getting back in the ocean with a tank strapped to my back.

We went for two dives over these beautiful soft coral reefs. Visibility was not great, but given that there was a typhoon just four days earlier, that was to be expected. It was still incredible. I’ve never seen that much soft coral before. And so many beautiful fish. I was also reminded how much I don’t love beach entry diving…but also how quick it is. One of my favorite things was that Jan had this new type of BC, at least new to me. They are super stripped down and have a heavy plate on the back so it’s a lot easier to hover and achieve neutral buoyancy. Also, the don’t make you feel quite so think and stay-puffy. Yes, that’s a technical term.

Jan loaded up lots of tanks for all of our dives over the next two days. That’s a lot of air.

After those first two dives, Jan drove me up to the pension (like a cheap B&B) where he’d made me a reservation for two nights. The cutest little house in the world with the nicest woman…who spoke no English. It was fantastic. He also showed me where a couple of restaurants were for dinner just a short walk from the pension.

After Jan dropped me off and I got settled, I headed to the restaurant he called “authentic Okinawan cuisine” which also had live music happening. It was so great. The food was delicious (I was introduced to taco rice) and the music was so fun and the people were so friendly. I was the only white girl in the whole place.

Great light fixtures
Rocks and grass (fake of course) on the ceiling. So funky.
Okinawa is all about the pig…
Including pig ears. Can you see them? Hint, they’re super thin slices.
Super fun singers! See video below. The song is one you hear all over Okinawa.

The next day was all about diving. It started with a very Japanese breakfast (of which I tried a little of everything…pickled plums are something I will never have again, and marinated seaweed I can live without, as well. The pineapple, however, was amazing!

Jan picked me up and we headed to the dock to meet a number of other divers. We were going out for three boat dives. I was so excited. And it was incredible (the photos of the actual dive were already posted in my dive post).

Between dives we got off the boat and had some lunch. I couldn’t resist a wander over to the beach and this Shisa was just calling out to me to take his photo. So cute! (Click the link for the story…it’s pretty cool and they are all over Okinawa and Kyoto (as I found out this weekend).

Shisa

I wish I’d had my own underwater camera to take on the boat because the views were amazing, but it was way to wet for anything that wasn’t water proof. The dives were all great and it was fun to have lots of company on the boat (not that I could understand most of them, except for Jan and the couple that was diving with us). There was a group of underwater photographers and it was cool to see them get all set up under the water for photo shoots of various things. In addition to that, I got to do my first hole and tunnel diving. I don’t think cave diving is in my future…but holes and tunnels are pretty amazing.

I got back to the pension completed exhausted, lightly sun-kissed, and super salty–basically in the best state one can be in. I fell into bed knowing, but only after telling the pension lady (I don’t know what you call her) that I would need to have breakfast at 7am. We had an early start to go diving with the whale sharks.

And that experience is one I will remember for the rest of my life. Swimming with such a huge animal and being able to reach out and pet it. Seriously incredible.

After that, the diving was done so there would be time for the nitrogen build up in my blood to release prior to getting on a plane. It’s one of my favorite things about destination diving. You have to take the last day and relax. And relax I did.

I decided to spend my last night at more of a beach hotel than a budget pension. Granted, it wasn’t super luxurious, but with views like this and a location on the beach, who needs uberluxe? I spent the afternoon laying out and walking along the beach. It was just lovely.

When that was done, I needed to figure out what to do for dinner (the hotel restaurant left a little to be desired) and I was ready to put on real clothes and some makeup. So, I got dressed and headed down the road on a lovely walk during which I got to watch the sunset and stop as often as I wanted.

By the time I finally got to a any kind of civilization, I’d walked about two miles, but it was totally worth it, especially because it was this place we’d driven by four times in the past two days and it was this great touristy place with an awesome shop and several restaurants. Think Dole Plantation in Hawaii..but instead of pineapple, they had all of these purple potato treats (an Okinawan thing). I enjoyed yakiniku (Japanese version of Korean bbq) for dinner and then shopped my little heart out. It was a perfect last night in Okinawa.

Me and a giant tart

Monday morning I took a nice long walk on the beach and saw some fun creatures and collected some shells.

The I packed up and headed to the bus stop to get back down to the airport, stick my bags in a locker, and go do a little more damage in Naha. I was hoping to get a few more things for the nieces and nephews and I still needed to get my bowl. Naha actually has an entire pottery district, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find it in time, so I headed to the main tourist drag and figured I’d find something there. I ended up missing my stop, which put me right in the neighborhood for the pottery district and I found these amazing ramen bowls. (Shown back at my apartment with delicious, homemade tonkatsu.)

I also got to see some awesome t-shirts (among lots of other shopping).

Rad Wimps. Japanese translation for Hipster.

And I ended up getting so much stuff I had to buy a new, awesome bag to get it all home in.

One of my nieces is going to be super excited about this…

I would love to say that the rest of the trip was uneventful, but that would be a lie. Nothing major. Just a piece of luggage stuck on the baggage carousel with no one able to figure out how to get it unstuck and the rest of stuck waiting for baggage for about 30 minutes. But, considering what an amazing vacation it was, small price to pay.

The end. Up next…Kyoto.

underwater

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A lion fish – as dangerous as it is beautiful.

Once upon a time, I had just finished up my sophomore year in college. I was relatively depressed. My mom was dead. My sister was on her mission. We had to sell the house I grew up in. And I was forced to sleep on a love seat. In the family room. With zero privacy. Even though there was a perfectly good bedroom that was being used as an office. (Lots of fodder for therapy…)

I realize that this is a lot better than most of the world has it, but this was a rough adjustment for me. I was struggling with my never ending eating issues. I was slightly obsessed with exercising. I was trying to keep my mom’s swim lesson business going from my dad’s backyard both out of a feeling of duty and because I wanted to earn some spending money for clothes and such, but mostly duty. These were not happy times. Mind you, not the worst of times I’d had up to then, but still, they were pretty crappy.

In the midst of my personal hell, my younger brother, who did have his own bedroom because he was still in high school, which apparently means you need a bed or something, was working on his senior project; a particular form of torture meant to keep seniors at my high school engaged through the end of that fourth year. While I had decided to focus mine on sewing, my younger (and wiser) brother had chosen something much more fun. He decided to focus his on scuba diving which included writing a paper about something related (nitrogen levels in blood?) and then getting certified.

Suddenly, there was a little light glowing in the dark depths of my unhappy existence. Somehow I managed convince my dad to pay for me to get scuba certified. I mean, it’s a two person activity and what was Justin going to do without a dive buddy? (My mother taught us well…and my father has a hard time saying no if tears are involved…) So I signed up and suddenly there was some kind of fun happening in my life. For those of you who know me and/or my family, we are all water babies. I’m pretty sure my mom is teaching her grandkids how to swim before they come to this earth. I don’t remember learning to swim because it happened so early in my life. I was on a swim team at the age of four, helping my mother teach lessons at the age of 12, and spent my summers in a bathing suit (sometimes even falling asleep in one). I have loved the water as long as I have been alive, so diving seemed like a very logical thing to take up.

It was also something that I knew my mom would have loved knowing I was doing. Once upon a time, my mom taught a woman at my church how to swim so that she could get scuba certified. Talk about impressive. I mean, going from not even being able to swim to scuba diving as an adult is kind of amazing. Not that scuba diving requires you to be an incredibly strong swimmer, but it does require you to be extremely comfortable in the water.

Back to the point. One of the things I’ve always loved about being in the water is the quiet. Not that swimming itself is quiet–it’s actually quite loud–but underwater, hearing is not easy. Things get muffled. The world (at least for me) becomes very quiet. And quiet was something I needed.

And then there was the freedom I felt while under the water. No need to surface for breath. Flying through kelp forests. Swimming along with schools of fish. Hovering above the sand. No thoughts of how much weight I needed to lose. No concerns about how cute my bathing suit was (in Monterey, where I got certified, it was covered by 14 mm of neoprene). My only concern was making sure I stuck with my dive buddy. That was it. Not worrying about talking to my buddy. Just making sure I could see him and vice versa.

Maybe diving doesn’t appeal to you, but hopefully you can understand why I fell in love with it. It’s not just the experience and all of the amazing things I’ve been able to see. Diving saved me at a point in my life when I needed saving. So, perhaps you can understand why, after four years of not diving, I was so excited for my trip to Okinawa this past weekend. And it did not disappoint. I found this great dive operation with this super nice German dive master who took me out on six fantastic dives. He also found me this lovely little pension (think somewhere between B&B and hostel) to stay at and drove me to and from it each day.

While I was a little nervous about the whole thing, everything I needed to know came right back into my mind. It was just like riding a bike. And suddenly, I was right back in my happy place. So content to be floating over fields of soft corals, swimming through schools of fish, diving into the dark abyss of a hole formed by coral over thousands of years, peaking under over hangs and through tunnels to see what could be seen, and watching a few not-so-nice creatures float by…hoping they wouldn’t come to close.  (Or, in the case of the reef shark…stalking it. Sharks aren’t so scary, I promise. At least not little reef sharks.)

And then there was the whale shark…which took the whole diving thing to a totally new level. Awe inspiring doesn’t even begin to describe it. It took my breath away in the best way possible.

Note: all photos are from my dives, but were taking by the lovely Jan of Piranha Divers.