Happy New Year!
Married. 30. Settling down. This is about where I stand at the beginning of 2005…and it’s good. Might I gush for a minute? I am as happy as I could be with married life – every day I realize more and more how I choose the perfect man for me. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination – neither am I, of course – but perfect for me.
The holidays were quiet but nice. Christmas Eve was a romantic French dinner with my husband where he presented me with my engagement ring – it is breathtaking. Christmas I spent running about picking up gifts for him (last min – of course!) and returned home with a hacking cough and feeling terrible. I managed to put together a Christmas-spirited display for his arrival home from work and we opened our gifts for each other, along with all the cards I’d received in the mail and saved till that day! Thank you! My Christmas spirits were nixed from then until New Years Eve while I nursed myself better. In the meantime I set up the apt. with our new furniture and was a terrible, sickly hostess to my good friend Yumiko who came from Nagoya to visit me – gomen – but it was fantastic to see her. New Years Eve was a movie marathon at home with champagne toast at midnight. On the 1st we headed to Isseki’s parent’s home. We ate, drank, dressed in kimono, prayed for the new year (and for my frozen toes) at Nagata shrine, ate, drank, played UNO for cash, slept, ate, drank, watched more movies, and headed home late on the 2nd. The trip to the shrine was comical – here Mio, Akiko, and I were – the belles of the shrine – 3 of the 5 people in kimono that evening. Being a foreigner, I attracted a good bit of the attention – and even more when the bottom of my geta sandal came off 3/4 of the way! It was FREEZING and I give props to the Japanese women who survived all winter long in Japan wearing nothing on their poor paws but tabi socks – it’s brutal! Thankfully an obaasan (older lady) at one of the vender booths offered us here entire case of push-pins to repair it. Unfortunately, this only held out so long before i was hobbling again. She was waiting for us on our return though with another idea – twist tying the entire shoe back together! What a sweet lady. What a laugh. It was just what the New Year holiday should be in Japan!
Many challenges lie ahead of me in the New Year but I can’t help but think how trivial they all are in comparison to those whose lives were tragically altered by the tsunami. We who weren’t affected are all so lucky no matter what state our lives are in currently – that we didn’t lose loved ones, our homes, or the means of our lively hood. No matter how much we prepare and plan there are just some things that will never be in our hands – I pray for the swiftest recovery possible!
Now to my trivial objectives… Learning: I will begin a 10-week Intensive Japanese Language course at the local YWCA tomorrow. M-Thurs 9:30-3:30 Fri 9:30-1. Did I mention it was intensive? Armed with my new language marketability (I hope!)…next is: Jobs: the school year ends in March here so I will stop teaching at the kindergarten where I currently am teaching and only take on evening lessons in order to focus on my job search elsewhere. I would feel terrible to be offered a job opportunity that I want to take and have to leave my previous employer with not enough notice. Wedding: before June 12th I have to figure out all the details of that. Social Life: I have yet to find a close circle or even one friend with whom I connect with like I do my close friends at home or in Tokyo – it makes life lonely at times but sometimes I think I’m more lazy about it here because I have such a wonderful home life I don’t make a concerted effort to go out and find connections elsewhere! Otherwise my New Year resolutions are the lifelong commitments to bettering myself that I periodically lose sight of: exercise, quieting my monkey mind, etc.
For those inquiring minds…no, I haven’t yet changed my last name. I plan on doing that after the wedding in June!
For my inquiring mind (if you haven’t already told me)…what are your New Year resolutions? How did you spend the New Year? (remember if it’s private info don’t post it here – send me an email!)