christmas 2009

Once again, Christmas has come and gone in a blink of an eye. Sure it's just a day out of the year but it's always special to me. No, I'm not a Christian and it has no religious meaning to me. For most Japanese anyway, Christmas is just a day and everyone works so it really is no big deal in my part of the world.

This year as always, we reserved a special premium Christmas cake. This year we chose to go with Sadaharu Aoki, the famous patissier that went to France and came back famous! He still lives in Paris, but he now has a couple of shops here in Tokyo. His cakes are truly to die for and this year, his cake was just amazing! It's a cake made especially for the Christmas season. The cake is truly special as it isn't simple round or square. It's squarish but upon closer inspection, it looks as like a piece of objet d'art. It was well worth the expense and I especially enjoyed it. I think my partner perferred last year's cake from Pierre Herme. So anyway, choosing the cake is one of our traditions during the holidays and something I really look forward to.

Now, I have to say, my partner got me truly upset the weekend before Christmas. He's been quite busy lately with not only work, but drinking with his colleagues as well as friends. Sure it's ok and I don't mind but when it's 3 days a week every week, it gets a bit lonely. He even took a day off for golf! This is all during the holiday season. I always try to look at things positive and I told myself that all this will give me time to work on my designs so it's in fact, a good thing. No worries. Sunday arrived and we were plannning on going to Roppongi to see the Christmas Market from Germany. We planned to have lunch there. 11am came around and he started looking annoyed so I asked him what was wrong. He said that he was looking for a certain software and he was sure it was somewhere in the office. Ok, our office is tiny, but the thing is, we have tons of nick nacks and unless you are organized, it is almost impossible to find things. Still, it's tiny and not impossible. I ended up helping him look for this elusive software....he doesnt even know what it looks like (strange), but I just couldnt stand around watching looking for it in vain with utter irritation on his face. After a couple of hours well past lunchtime, he came hopping into the office with some news saying that the software was in his other laptop in the bedroom! Ok, I was happy with that. I dont know why but I actually said to him that I was sorry he had to go through that. He did NOT apologize for making me go through that. He just sort of breathed out sigh of irritation and fatigue and said to me that we should just leave before it gets dark. Well, of course I was starving to the point of weakness and felt extremely sad. It felt like I did something wrong and was being punished for it. All of a sudden I realized he didn't even have the courtesy to apologize for what he put me through. Sure, it's no big thing but hey, I was looking forward to a nice Sunday with him after being home alone most of the past 3 weeks. I finally felt drained and didn't even feel hungry anymore. I tried my positive incantations but nope, didnt work. Words just started to tumble out of my mouth. I'm so tired......yadadadada....I wished you just said sorry......i'm not hungry anymore....let's just go get your sweater you needed for that company thing......yadadadada......I was just mumbling to myself I think.

In the end, we went to the market and had some Chinese food for dinner. I was in a good mood by then and thanked him for taking me. But then I started to feel really weak and fell asleep early.

I woke up the next day with a terrible headache and for the next 3 days, I was in bed. Now, I dont know if this was due to my stress level being so high or what, but I actually felt depressed during these three days! I mean really, I hardly ever get like this. I was actually having a hard time thinking straight. All I could feel was emptiness and could not remember the meaning of my life. What a terrible feeling. It actually took effort to get me out of that slump. On the third day of my bedridden days, I forced myself to go rent a coupld of DVDs so I could make myself not think. It actually worked and I felt better when Friday came around.

Wednesday was my partner and I's Xmas dinner at home. I didnt have much appetite since I was still sick, but still I was happy. Just depressed and happy. Strange. Friday came around and I had dinner with friends at Nobu. Christmas dinner with my friends at Nobu was actually really great and we all decided that we should go have dinner at a uber fab overpriced restarant once every 3 months! They all agreed and so we will go to New York Grill the next time. Sure i've been there many times, but my friends never have. I love that place!

I got an iPhone for Christmas! I already have a cell phone mind you. However he though i would like to play with all the applications on it. You know I actually like it and he's paying for the bill for 2 years so that's cool. He also treated me to a lovely dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Saturday the day after Christmas. That was nice too. Love that hotel. I got him a really nice tote bag for men. Handmade by a japanese craftsman. It's something he wanted and the bag is one that I almost bought for myself but was too expensive in my opinion. Perfect Christmas present though. He likes it and I like it so much I want to take it away from him. Just kidding. hehehe. It's that nice!

I received a nice gift box from my sister! That was a nice surprise! I got some decaf coffee from my mom. I sent my mother some dried persimmons and sweet potatoes. I had a hard time deciding for my sister and so decided to save it for New years. We don't exchange gifts in Japan during Christmas anyway and celebrate New Year's Day more. I will get her something nice then.

So all in all, I did have a nice Christmas albeit with a few bumps along the way. Sounds like life doesnt it?

Early day

Yesterday, I was working on a pair of jeans and it was harder than I expected. The textures on jeans were hard to duplicate and I wanted to create something special. Anyway, the end result was fabulous and I would definitely wear them in real life.

So, after designing all day in front of my PC, I really had no energy left for cooking. My partner called to say he would be coming home early, which is around 7pm. So I decided we should eat out in our neighborhood. I met him at the station and we went to this popular neighborhood hangout. They mostly serve grilled meats and vegetables on a stick. Very basic stuff. Always crowded even on the weekdays. We had some grilled meat and veggies and complemented by cold beer. After 15 minutes or so, I was relaxed and my tension melted away. We then went to a Chinese restaurant nearby and had some fried rice followed by some Haagen Daaz ice cream from Seven Eleven. Very nice and relaxing evening. We went to bed at 11pm and now I find myself awake at 6:30am the next morning.

I have a lot to do today so I might as well stay up and work. It's rainy and really cold today. The forcast calls for rain all day and night. Tonight my friends and I will go see a movie and then afterwards, we have dinner. Looking forward to it actually. I probably need to take a short nap sometime during the day....but we'll see. Once the day starts, I never find time to take naps anyway.

Now, what should I have for breakfast?

Dramatic me

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.

Sister's trip to Japan. Part 6. Final

We took my sister to Odaiba. She loves to play those slots and stuff resembling Las Vegas gambling machines. We ended up staying there for hours and I myself, got hooked on those things! ARrraaagggh!!! They are dangerous!

Donut Planet donuts!!!! Yum!!!

So my sister stayed for 2 weeks and as you can see, there are very few pictures. My sister took tons of photos, however it seems that she lost those pictures due to her camera breaking or something. I swear there were more!

This trip was more or less, a relaxing trip. Of course it's never totally relaxing in Tokyo if you step out of your apartment. We did stay in a lot and just watched DVDs. She got me hooked on Grey's Anatomy, which is just rediculous for me! What's worse is that after she left, I went to rent season 2 and someone has rented out for the entire week! How rude!

She also tried Nepalese for the first time. She loves it just as I thought she would! She also tried Indian food once again. She really enjoyed it and hopefully she has a better impression of Indian/Nepalese food. I did forget to take her to the macrobiotic restaurant in Ikebukuro. I also meant to take her to this other restaurtant but it seems we didn't have time. Well, she just has to come back doesnt she? I'm hoping that I could take her to Hong Kong on her next trip. We would just have a blast!

I learned a lot more about my sister's eating habits. She doesn't care for sweets like me. She has no preference for alcohol. Anything goes with her. She also loves loves loves dried squid. She loves her Japanese rice crackers and snack things. She loves good soba and root vegetables such as gobo and lotus root. I can go on and on, but it was fun learning what she likes.

I do want to introduce her to a wider variety of cuisines though. I love traveling with my sister. She's fun and we get to talk about lots of stuff we can only talk to each other with.

I'm hoping my sister comes again next year and hopefully though, during a different season. Spring perhaps or winter? I'll let her choose. As long as it's not summer or during rainy season. I love my sister. She's the greateast sister a guy could have!

Sister's trip to Japan. Part 5. Odawara

Odawara must be one of my mother's fav places in the world. I decided to take my sister there this year. They have a huge spa with wonderful facilities. We left the house around 9:30am and ended up eating at this pretty horrible place on the highway. We shared an omu-rice and it was as stale and bland as they come. I definitely make better ones than that!

We got to Odawara town around 1pm or so. Decided to show her the Odawara Castle. After that, we checked into the Odawara Hilton and went immediately to the pool facilities. It was really nice and I think my sister was able to relax. Afterwards we had dinner at the hotel restaurant. My sister loves oysters and she had quite a lot of them. I tried one and you know what? It wasn't that bad! I'm still not a fan though. I had some meat and it was extremely tasty, probably because I hardly ever eat meat anymore!

At night, we ended up playing two round of darts and a round of bowling! fun fun fun!

Next morning, we had a huge breakfast and then went to Niji-no-sato,which is like a theme park with no rides. Just food, flowers and trees. It was nice though. I really enjoyed it!

The ride back was long as ever. The highways in Japan are always crowded during the weekends and there is just no way around them. Sigh....

All in all though, a great trip to Odawara!

Sister's trip to Japan. Part 4. Kawagoe

Kawagoe is a place I've taken my mother a few times. It's one of my favorite places to visit. It's quite near from where I live and it's a historical part of modern Japan.
My sister boarding the express train.

Coffe float

Sweet Potato Pudding. YUM!

In case you ever get to visit Kawagoe, be sure to have some delicious soba noodles here! My sister thought it was awesome! Never knew she loves noodles so much!

Takoyaki from GinDako, my favorite takoyaki place in Tokyo!

Sister's trip to Japan. Part 3. Disney Sea

Merry-go-round. Wheeeee!!!!

Nightfall has arrived at TDS.

The most fun i've ever had on a merry-go-round since I was a kid! I sure felt like a kid again!

My partner never goes on this with just me.

Sister's trip to Japan. Part 2. Disney Sea

Last year when my sister came, our last day was reserved for a visit to Disney Sea. However she had become ill so this time, we decided to take her earlier during her trip.
Halloween was in full swing at the park and it was really cool! To see the Halloween show, we had to play the lottery. The last time I came here with my partner, we weren't able to score tickets. This time however, my sister must have been our lucky charm! We won seats! yay!

This time I played cameraman. Here is a picture of my sister and my partner.

The two people I love in Cape Cod.

Once again, the pair in Venice.

I decided not to ride Raging Spirits. I've had a really bad panic attack the last time. What is wrong with me, I swear? I will make it my goal to ride. :(

My lunch. Tempura!

My sister's lunch was chirashi zushi. She said is was just ok.

It has was raining all day, but the weather was kind to us. They stopped the rain just in time for our show at night. I did have more pictures, but I can't seem to find them. Hmmm.......