Hap-gratulations!

Carrie was gracious enough to be our camerwoman at our wedding

Happy 2008 everyone!

I hope you all have a fantastic year that brings great health, fun and prosperity (however you wish to interpret that- mentally, financially).

I was contemplating changing up the look of the blog a bit, but I might let it stick for another year. I really like the colors in the template I used and even my profile picture is just too good to change. Sometimes no change is the best move, I think.

I actually spent most of today re-reading all my posts from last year, trying to pick my faves to make a top 10 list. I finished reading them all (and man it took some time!) and have a short list- but it's time to sleep- so I'll try to get it up tomorrow or the next day.

I stumbled across some news when I logged into Facebook the other day. My friend from the Whistler days- Carrie is engaged! Congratulations Carrie. I know that since she has started to date Carl there has been a very positive vibe and she has been so very happy- so I am really happy for her! I know they just came back from a holiday in Australia, so probably he popped the question out there. That's great!

After all was said and done...

After all was said and done, I actually had a pretty nice last few days.
Going back a few days I finally managed to get in touch with my old buddy Alex. I was glad I finally got about to doing that and I am reminded that I should definitely take some more time and call some more of my old friends!
Last year in November I went to visit Alex and take part in his wedding celebration in Chihuahua Mexico. I managed to sandwich the Mexico trip with a couple of brief stints in Vancouver, so I was able to visit everyone but it was quite a tight schedule. The day I took off to Mexico, I got up at 6 am and took a bus to Seattle where I caught a plane to Dallas Fort Worth Airport then I waited a bit and flew to "Dog town" as I like to call it. It was a total of 12 hours travel time. But the times there were really fun and well worth all the traveling.
A few other guys came out to celebrate with us, so it was cool to have some familiar faces to chat with. Pictured here are Me, Alex, Mike Ko and Jesse. Our pal Raf and his wife Yvonne also came. Jesse and I capped the night by walking to Denny's about 20 minutes away. Good idea walking in the middle of night in Mexico on your own! Naturally, we survived to talk about it so there is no harm done! It was all a fun time considering this was the location of the wedding...
Actually, not really- I just wanted to throw that picture in there. Alex's new wife is living with him in Vancouver (Richmond) now and they are struggling through the waiting game of getting her Permanent Residence. Gosh, that reminds me of 3.5 years ago (can you believe it's been 3.5 years already?) when we had to do the same for Ritsy's permanent residence- it's a tough time to wait it out, but it sounds like there has been no complications, so that is a good sign! Anyway it was great to chat with Al and I felt bad I had to cut the conversation short because the Skype connection was crappy. Next time I won't be so cheap and I will use a real phone!
My birthday actually was pretty good. I was surprised to find the Mailman at my door when I came home from my class. I had received a birthday gift from my sister- good timing! I got all sorts of little goodies for me and Ritsy- so I was very pleasantly surprised. When I came home from another class, there was another delivery person leaving, we had received a response to my application for Permanent Residence in Japan. They had rejected my application- with the reason that I my reason wasn't good enough. Later Ritsy researched and we basically have to be married for 3 years before it becomes easy to get the PR. Yes, we have been married for 3 years- but I remembered I made a mistake when filling out the application ( I said it was 2 years) - what a dunderhead I am! I have a 3 year Visa right now anyway, so might as well let that ride out before applying again. When we have the baby it should be easier, too, I think. The day before, Chris and Hisano and Akemi had chipped in to buy us some Hokkaido fresh crab. So that night when my classes were done, we had a nice Crab hotpot. It was delicious! In the end it was a productive and fun day! (except for the immigration thing....)
In the end it was all Lifetime Happy Everyday Thank you!

Pete and Mari's Wedding

Took a day off yesterday, had to rest my aching head!

On Saturday Chris and Aki, Miyuki, Ritsy and I went to Peters wedding held at the local Grand Tiara (a place made exclusively for weddings). Look at these attractive people...

The event kicked off with a little wait where we could enjoy a spot of wine. Afterwards, the ceremony started right on time. Both Pete and Mari looked great...

The reception was held in the 'Rose room', any guess as to why it had that name?
There were a lot of good pictures from this day(So I threw together another video and uploaded it to Youtube Here) , but I can't really post them all, here is a good one with the bride and groom
Chris and I sang Shima Uta to rave reviews. The only hitch was that the MD we had was too quiet so they had to abort the song and fire up the karaoke machine- then they proceeded to pick the wrong song some old Japanese Enka song...
The initial party concluded with the happy couple coming down the steps, Mari sporting a new dress, unfortunately all my pictures are a little dark, sorry!
At that point the camera's battery ran out of power. After that we all went home and changed and came out for the nijikai (or second party) which was quite fun- especially with Peter's crazy surfing friend getting much delight in making me gulp back entire glasses of beer at one time ( a Japanese party tradition). We later found ourselves off to a sanjikai (third party) at an izakaya (I don't know it's name) and Chris and I caught the $50 (5000 yen) taxi ride home around 3:40. All in a very fun ceremony and a good time! My heart went out to Pete, Mari and their family as they woke up at 8 am to go and see Kyoto!

Baths, Bikes and beyond...

In last night's class I was talking with my students about Yamaha Living Tech, Yamaha's line of nice looking and well- built household components. This industry is really large in Japan, the kitchen set or bathroom set is usually sold together as a package when you are building a new house. Unfortunately, my home doesn't have one of these nice looking kitchens or bathrooms, and I wish I could change that. My student that works there, Harry, was inviting us to visit the showroom in Hamamatsu. One interesting thing, if you make a reservation, you can actually take one of their baths for a test drive- that's right you can take a bath in the showroom! Don't worry the bath would be totally private and closed to prying eyes! Very interesting idea. I heard they also have a cooking class- but it is for women only! Well if you are in Hamamatsu, check it out!

My mission for the bike ride 2 days ago also was a failure. I wanted to get some serious distance in to burn a few calories, but my tire decided to get punctured only about 4 kms from my home! So I ended up sitting at an Eneos gas station for an hour waiting for them to fix my tire for me. That cost me 2100 yen ($20.00) so I had no money and I lost my energy while sitting and waiting, so I just went home. Oh well, there is always next week! I think the next mission might be to take the bike out to Hamamatsu central to check the job board- I need to get some work for my mornings!(Edit: Just after posting this I received an e-mail from Satomi offering a new morning class! Thanks Satomi!!!)

Pete's wedding party is this weekend, so I have to start working hard on practicing Shima Uta as Chris and I will be performing it during the reception. Could be a disaster!