It has been long time since I haven't written...

I wish you had spent a good holiday season and get used to your daily life.
I have not written my diary for a long time, so I want to write about my memories for the summer vacation, thanksgiving and Christmas.

At first, about my summer trip to Japan.
I went to Japan from July 31st to August 23rd. There was the Buddhist memorial service for 7Th year of my father's death and 23rd year of my grand mother's. It was held in Nara where my parents were born. They left there before I was born, so for me Nara is a hometown of my parents. But my family often visited there to see my grandparents and our relatives, so there are a lot of memories there for us. After the memorial service, my mother and I cleaned up my grandfather's house where no one had lived since he died. It has been kept as it was. It is an old Japanese traditional house and had lots of spaces for storage and huge amounts of things were stuffed there. We threw away almost everything, but we have to separate garbage according to the type. It was wired but it makes us mad but it was necessary for the environment. Anyway we managed to make it thanks to our relative's help.
Nara is very famous because there are many historic places and many tourists visit there. Horyuji Temple is one of the world heritage site and the oldest wooden building in the world. Actually it is very beautiful.

Natalie

One of my friends left from Indianapolis yesterday.
She is from Martinique. It is the Island in the eastern Caribbean Sea and it is an overseas department of France. She took the internship program at the company my husband works with. We met each other 5 month ago. Her first language is of course French, but she can speak English fluently because she taught English in Martinique. She had worked weekdays, so we sometimes spent the weekend talking and drinking.
Actually she is a young beautiful girl, especially the color of her eyes is attractive. I did not know any people from the Caribbean Islands when I was in Japan, so I learned many things about the Caribbean from her. I learned the word 'Creole' when I was a junior high school student, but it was just a word and I had forgotten the meaning of it. She explained me what 'Creole' is and showed me some Creole cuisine recipes. They often use fish, bananas and coconuts and lime. She also said there are many kinds of tasty rum in Martinique. hm mm... I have to try them! I did not understand French words of the recipes, so she will send me one of her favorite recipes by email.

She went back to France where her mother lives. I think she had good experiences and learned a lot here. I wish her happiness and believe we will meet some day. I miss you so much, Natalie!

Trip to Santa Fe Vol.2

I felt much during this trip to Santa Fe, especially about the Native American.
I visited some "pueblos", the Native American reservations, and some feelings did not leave from my head.
I did not know much about the Native American culture and history, so I read some articles about them after I came back home. I learned each tribe had had many tragic stories in different ways after the settlers arrived. They had many battles to keep their lives from outsiders, but they lost their families, lands and ways of life.

It was interesting for us to see and know their traditional cultures and practices when I visited their pueblos. On the other hand, I felt it was like a museum. I mean they were not lively. The pueblos are actual villages they live in now, so they are always watched by the tourists curiously. They get the admission fee and sell their handwork to tourists everyday. Is that their natural life? It is OK they are happy under the present situations, but anyway I hope they live naturally outside of tourists' sight. I am just worried that they rely on their incomes from tourists and the government and keep the museum life I imagine. People tend to choose the easy way.

I know in this world everything keeps changing. We keep improving, destroying or repeating over history. The changes are very natural.

My point is I believe they have their unique power given by the unbelievable huge nature of America over centuries. I feel the power from their paints and arts. I just do not want them to lose this precious sense.
This trip was meaningful for me.

Trip to Santa Fe

Hiro and I went to Santa Fe and the suburbs during the Memorial Day weekend.
On Friday night we took the 8 p.m. flight to Albuquerque, and rented a car there. We stayed at a hotel near the airport at night. Next morning we enjoyed seeing many hot air balloons in the sky. They were very colorful and pretty against the clear blue sky. I had never known Albuqurque is famous for the balloons.

We visited many places and the weather was pretty good during this trip. On the way driving to destinations, we enjoyed the spectacular landscape. It was indescribable, and I felt the power of mother earth.

Next time I am going to write about my feelings for Native American reservations.

golf

I went to play golf with my husband last Sunday. It was the first time for me to play the 18-hole course. It was a nice day and the green grass was beautiful.

There is a 9- hole course behind our apartment, so we sometimes practice at the driving range and play the 9-hole course. He began to play golf here and I began to go with him. He looks absorbed in golf, but I can not understand the fun yet.

When we go to the half-course, he always says "Don't be depressed when your hit is not good, OK?" I always answer "Yes, OK!" But I always go mad during playing. I hate myself doing like that but I can't stop it. Every time I think it is going to be better next time, but so far it is not.

Anyway last Sunday I tried to play 18-hole course. He asked the same question as usual and I answered yes. His condition was very good, but mine was getting lower from the 7th hole. Though I was depressed as usual, I could change my mood from the 10th hole and could enjoy playing. My score was awful, you can imagine, but I enjoyed very much.

It looked easy to play golf before, but now I understood how difficult to cup in with a few hits and to keep concentration during the whole holes. I hope I can understand the fun someday.

Ole!

I went to The Children's Museum to see the performances of my flamenco class on April 29. I did not perform this time, because I could not do some of the dances. I should practice more!

At the museum there was the event of "El Dia de los Ninos". It means "The day of Children". It was crowded with many families and I could hear Spanish everywhere. There was no admission fee for the event, and we could see many Latin performances there. My flamenca members had performed 3 stages. I saw the last one, and they were great! I felt everyone enjoyed seeing it.

Music and dances are very interesting. Every culture has their own music and dances, and people live with the rhythm which has run through the culture for a long time. They have changed little by little but the roots still remain.

I was happy to feel their pride of the culture, and I was impressed with their energetic spirits.

Surprise!

My husband, Hiro, gave a surprise birthday party for me last Saturday. I was totally surprised because I did not think he was that type of a guy, and I knew he was going to be busy for the next week. I felt very happy with his sweet plan and very thankful to our friends who came together with us.

I am going to show you his lovely plan here.

He had invited some friends and told them about the party. A week before the day, he told me he had made a promise to go to play golf with his friends on Saturday and have dinner together. Actually he did not play golf. He asked Koji for his help and prepared for the party. Yuri called me before the day and she took me out for shopping while they prepared it. Hiro and Koji prepared everything at our apartment and some friends came together. When Yuri and I came back home, 6 people were waiting for us and said "Happy Birthday!" to me. I could not understand what happened at first, and his plan succeeded!

Fabrice made lasagna for the party. It was very nice! Hiro cooked homemade chili by himself. He searched the recipe on a website and managed to cook it. Yuri had baked and brought a sponge cake, and Hiro decorated it before it was served. Hi did good job! He also cleaned up perfectly after all of our friends left.

It might be one of the happiest days in my life.

Thank you for Koji, Yuri, Fabrice, Natalie, Chiao, Megumi, Dan and of course my sweetheart Hiro!

roll the cake...

and finish! (Koji & Hiro)