I woke up today with my dog, Justin looking up at me. It is the second time Justin slept in my bed and it's so nice. At first I was worried that he might pee on the bed or something. Never happened. In fact, he stays asleep for the entire night. My partner doesn't allow that of course, but last weekend, he had to work overnight and because I was lonely, I had Justing sleep with me. This morning after my partner left for work at 6am, I went to the living room where he usually sleeps and carried him to my bedroom where we napped for a couple of hours. He just puts a smile on my face!!! :)
So these days, my life has been all about what's important to me. The things that I believe in and what I enjoy. The older I get, I feel as if it's a sin not to enjoy life. In fact, this year went by so quickly that November actually took me by surprise.
In summary this is what I did during 2009. I was in Hawaii visiting family in January and May. My mother came for a visit during the summer, my sister in fall. I was hospitalized for internal bleeding during spring. My design lable in Second Life has achieved some unexpected success this year. I've participated in quite a few major fashion shows in Second Life and I've never been busier than ever!!!
I do want to talk about my designing career in Second Life first. I need to because I feel I must try and take it all in. I remember my partner telling me about this thing called Second Life back in the day. In spring 2008, I launched my line called SHIKI(means seasons in Japanese) with a small men's wear line. I started to design women's clothes as well in summer of that same year. I had to move to a larger store due to inventory and so, I went ahead and purchased an entire island. 2009 started with my spring collection and summer continued with some hawaiiana designs. For fall/winter, I was invited to join two major fashion shows inworld. One was a fashion day that was even blogged by a real life fashion blogger. The other was fashion week by this established agency called Modavia. This did force me to create an entire collection within a 2 months span. During that time, I never left my apartment and was practically living fashion. This was a good thing because this experiece took my designs to another level.
Once this happened, I was intervied by a few magazines and invited to 5 more shows until the end of the year. Finally I took the leap, made the investment and went all out to do a special Shiki show. I then got invited to have my designs appear on tweet.tv, which is a television studio in Second Life. Finally I did a finale show on my own island called the Shiki Winter Extravaganza.
I have just started to work on my spring/summer 2010 collection for fashion week of next year, which I am already a part of. My sales have doubled and I am ecstatic to say the least.
Second life is a virtual world with a real working economy in which millions of US dollars are traded everyday between residents of the world. This in itself is quite unbelievable to me. However me, being a part of that is just amazing!
Next, my family. ;) What can I say except the fact that I truly love them! It seems the more time I spend time with them, the more I find out how wonderful they are. I am getting to know my sister more and this is a good thing. We've been apart for a long time since we live in differernt countries. It sometimes feels like we are kids again.....except the fact that we talk about guys and sex now. Well, come to think of it, we did talk about guys back then, but not sex.
My mother is getting older and I really want her to start thinking about getting interested in things other than just waiting a couple of years until it's her time to go. I will have to force her to come visit again in the spring. In fact, I think that's the perfect time for you as she absolutely hated summer! Frankly it wasn't that bad this year, however she just found the heat intolerable.
I've been having super vivid dreams these past couple of months. I always remember them when I wake up. There are times where I wake up crying....other times I find myself smiling at the fading memory of it. However they are always vivid. Now because they are dreams they are very unrealistic. It's just very movie-like you know. It seems like I just came out of a theater and have to think about the entire story and of what it all means.
Let me tell you a little bit about my dream this morning. My friend Michael, my partner and I were on some kind of mission. I don't exactly know what kind of mission we were on, but I know we were doing something dangerous. We sneaked into this hotel room ( I have no idea how we got the keys) and the room seemed messy like the maids forgot to come and clean it. This other guy, who I have no idea who it was, was part of our "team". He told us that he checked to make sure this room was vacant for the night so we will be using it for the night. I was afraid that someone might come in so I told everyone that we must talk in a soft voice so as not to raise suspicions. We all agreed and because we were all hungry, we went into the kitchen? ( why is there a kitchen in a hotel room) to see what was available. There was wonder bread(why?) and peanut butter. There were dirty dishes in the sink and everything was just really terrible. Anyway, I decided to just stick with eating some bread as it seemed fresh enough. I didn't trust the peanut butter.
For some reason we decided we needed to leave the room so we jumped out of the room window(6 stories high) and we all landed safely on the ground. At that time, I heard a ruckus behind me and saw the authorities coming out of the hotel entrance doors. We quickly found a van and got into it. We ducked and hid ourselved in it so that they wouldn't see. After we felt it was safe enough, we started to drive. Now my partner was the driver and for some reason he kept driving off the main road, into the grass and bushes...it was extremely annoying. We were up in the mountains and it seems Michael was getting tired of "country". I think that's the way he put it. After getting off the mountain, we were on a freeway which lead straight to the beach. Once again, my partner kept driving on the sand instead of the road. It was all so strange and I just wanted to yell at him. I was afraid that by driving illegally on the beach, we would call attention to the police. Right after the beach, we were now in the city of Singapore. But this Singapore looked more like Waikiki and Hong Kong put together. Very exotic really and a place I would love to visit again. I decided we should find a nice Chinese restaurant to eat tonight. I felt like dim sum. Then my dream ended. It was all really strange, but not as bad as some other dreams I have.
So anyway, like I said, i've been having vivid dreams almost daily. My sister thinks it's some kind of sign, but i really don't know. I would like to sleep without dreams though. I mean sometimes it's fun but other times, the dreams are so intense it's traumatic.
Last month, my friend Robert's father died. I will meet up with him this week and I'm afraid to ask him how he died because I think he committed suicide. I remember Robert telling me his father has depression and is always talking about wanting to die. Should I ask him about this? What should I do, I still don't know. On the same day, another friend is going through a bad breakup and I'm sure he wants to talk about all that. Which would become the hot topic of the evening I have no idea. I just hope it turns out well for everyone involved in the dinner.
Winter is here in Tokyo. It's a strange winter though. Bitter cold on some days followed by unusual warmth. The weather report must be consulted before leaving the house to help decide which coat will be worn. The leaves are still the colors of fall....red, orange and yellow. The weather leans mostly towards winter. The leaves will fall within a day or two I'm sure. All trees will be bare in the city. Christmas lights are up in full swing as if to compensate for the lack of leaves. It's all very beautiful in a furturistic sort of way.
This past month, I go through various emotions and moods. Tokyo is a vast and huge metropolis teeming with countless stores, theaters, parks, shopping centers, restaurants a you name it. Is there a city with so much activity going on? It almost seems as if every inch of space is taken up by someone of something. However, I sometimes start to feel suffocated especially when the sky is grey and it seems as if the sky is closing in on you. Other times, I feel elated and excited to be in a city where you can get your hands on almost anything you want. I mean I can get the best prosciutto from Milan, the famous croissants from France and everything from Kuaaina burgers, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Coldstone, Harrods, Hediard....etc. etc.etc....I mean what can't we get here? In fact, I was telling my partner the other day that in our hands, we have a bag of ham from a famous deli in Italy, bread from Le Bihan(famed bakery in France), some cake from Wittamer(Belgium), cheese(Holland), and some local vegetables. This in itself is amazing when you think about it, especially when this is a daily thing and we take all this for granted. In fact, Michelin awarded our city with the most 3 star restarants in the world....more than Paris! That is great but will it be possible to sample all those 3 star restaurants in this city? It sometimes get all so overwhelming that I long for simpler days.
Now, does that mean I want to live in the countryside with the fresh air, chicken and cows and grow my own vegetables? Probably not.
