Big news, and a long break from writing

For the last four months I've taken a break from writing. Many due to the fact that I have had to focus all my attention on other matters, namely work and something very important. By now all my friends and family should know the big news that I had been holding back from everyone for a while, but in case there is someone out there who knows me that doesn't know what I'm talking about, heres the big news. I'm getting married!

Last summer I proposed to my girlfriend Yuuki, and after months and months of keeping this a secret we were finally able to tell everyone last month. It was a wonderful moment for us both and we are very excited about the future. The good news is our wedding is now set for Christmas day in Kofu! I'm hoping that many of my friends and family can attend this wedding. However it will be hard since it will be in Japan and many of my American and other friends from abroad may not be able to make it. Still it will be an exciting day for us.

Of course with all the preparations for this event occuring now, I have less time and money to spend outside of Kofu these days. But I am still enjoying myself and having fun whenever I can. Recently I got a nice little vacation thanks to the golden week holidays here in Japan. But honestly I did very little other than going out to dinner a lot and watching plenty of movies. Simple yes, but I don't mind. Im very happy though as in a few weeks I'll be going to visit the city of Nara. Ill have a chance to see some more historic Japanese places then.

Other than that not much happening, just enjoying this wonderful weather and wonderful time!

A new year, a long vacation

Well 2010 is now a few days old and its been an enjoyable start to the new decade. Mainly thanks to the fact that I was off for two straight weeks, and sixteen out of seventeen days. It was a mostly relaxing time for me, with a few hiccups along the way. I went traveling a bit during the vacation. I went once again to Shosenkyo to take an American friend of mine from Sophia to see the falls. It was nice since it wasn't as crowded as last time. I also went to Matsumoto to see a famous old Japanese castle. I took a lot of pictures and I'll post some soon.

The rest of the vacation I spent with my girlfriend Yuuki, which was the best part of the entire vacation. I had a wonderful Christmas dinner with her family, and we saw many great movies at home and the theater. At the theater we saw the new "Nodame Cantibile" film that just opened here. Since we are both fans of the manga and drama, and love classical music, it was a fun movie for us. We also watched a lot of funny Japanese TV, which is in abundance at this time of the year with all the New Years specials. And of course I especially spent a lot of free time, especially when I was alone, playing Final Fantasy XIII. For those that care, the game looks amazing and has been fun for me. Although not perfect. Still it was nice to have that to go to whenever things got boring at home.

There were a few frustrating things that happened this year. On Christmas day I found out my big Christmas package from my family had been sent back home to the states because two pieces of beef jerky were in the package. Thats a big no no here in Japan since US beef is highly regulated due to a mad cow scare a few years ago. That made me pretty upset and a little mad. Thankfully my package is being re-mailed today I'm told, so I still have a ton of Christmas goodies to look forward too. I also sadly caught a nasty little stomach bug. I was in a lot of pain this past week, but thankfully its starting to disappear.

Overall my vacation was a wonderful time for me, and I was able to do everything I had wanted. The only regret I have is that I don't feel that all my stress has been relieved, which is something I really wanted to work on these past few weeks. With work about to get extremely busy over the next couple of weeks, I'm worried that my stress level will rise high again. Thankfully I have some plans to help relieve those things in the coming weeks.

Looking back at last years goals, I did achieve some of them. I got to go to one concert, I met new friends, and I did study my Japanese a little (but didn't take the JLPT). I didn't climb Mt. Fuji or go skiing, thanks to my knee issues. I also didn't go to Kyoto or Osaka last year, but I will this year. So overall while I didn't achieve them all I did well. I plan on making new goals shortly for 2010.

I will post pictures of my vacation in the coming few days.