The last day in 2008.

In general, Japanese people reflect on the way we have behaved in a year when before the New Year's coming. For me, everything was changing for my life this year. I moved to NY and became a student. They were very excited. I can't imagine my future now. However, I believe in myself. My effort will flourish in my future. I'm going to go to my friend house after finished my work and we'll have a party tonight. How do you think about you have behaved in this year Elaine?

Christmas Day

In Christmas morning, I was awakened by my friend. She said, "it's time to open the gift from Santa Claus." I prepared only her daughter's gift. However, Glenn(my friend husband) gave me a shirt and a hat and my friend, Hiya gave me a DVD. I didn't prepared for them. I bought only Christmas cakes. We opened each gift while we listen to Christmas songs. It was really happy time. After that we went to River Head where Glenn's parents house.We had a wonderful Christmas dinner. I drank a eggnog for the first time. It was little bit too sweet for me.
I got hand made necklace from Glenn's sister. It was a very nice one. I was so happy to get it. My friend daughter, Neda , she is 2 years old. She made her own stage and showed dancing for everybody. We were enjoyed watching her dance.
It was my first Christmas experience in NY. Next year, I have to prepare the Christmas presents for everybody.

Wonderful day!!

I went to piano recital at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan last night.
The pianist is from Japan, but she learned piano technique in England for 2 years.
She played number of Mozart and Liszt.
Before I went to the Carnegie Hall, I had a dinner at The Russian Tea Room.
The restaurant is very old and famous.They serve very expensive meals such as many kind of caviares. I felt as a rich.
And I saw a big Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Center on my way to home.
I had a wonderful time.

Santa Claus

Every year Santa Claus is coming to me. He always sends me good present. I found a baggage which have my name on it. It was a gift from my Santa Claus. I was very happy to see it.
It was from Japan. I 'm glad that Santa Claus doesn't forget about me even though I live far away from him. I'm going to say thank you to him.

My first skiing this season !!

I went skiing at Windham Mountain and stayed 2 nights.

I stayed B&B. They have opened since 1863. They have a very good German restaurant.

I enjoyed to eat German sausage, soup, and beer.

They have individual rooms. Each room has different furniture and bed covers are kilt patchworks. And they have a sulfur hot-spring. It makes me very very happy.

Also, I enjoyed skiing 2 days.

Kiss

I told my friend about culture of wedding ceremony in my class discution. It reminded her the story in Okinawa. When my friend(Hiya) brought her husband(Glenn) to Japan for the first time, they saw a one of the wedding ceremony at the hotel in Okinawa. The bride and groom had a American style ceremony. The minister said, "You may now kiss the bride." The groom kissed bride's cheek. At the time, Glenn screamed, "Oh, no!!" Glenn couldn't understand why the groom kissed bride's cheek. Hiya explain to him that usually Japanese people don't like to kiss(mouth to mouth) in front of their parents and audience.

When Glenn and Hiya had a wedding ceremony in Okinawa, they couldn't kiss in the ceremony because they had a traditional Japanese style ceremony at the Japanese temple. However, Glenn didn't know there is no kiss in the ceremony. He was waiting for kiss time and asked Hiya, "when we can kiss?" during the ceremony.

Now, they have a girl named Neda.(2 years old.) When she plays with friends and leave from them, she kiss friend's mouth. American mother don't say anything but Korean or Chinese mother say,"Don' t kiss his mouth!" It is a culture gap.

Skiing

I will go skiing at Windom mountain on Friday.
May be I will stay a B&B for two nights.
I have been there last February and stayed same B&B. When I stayed there, I was surprised because there was a natural hot-spring. I felt so good when I took the bath.
In general, Japanese people love to go hot-spring in winter season. The bath remained me Japanese culture. I can' t wait to go skiing and to take a hot-spring.
If I brought my snowboard from Japan, I would be able to snowboarding. However, I will enjoy to skiing with my friend family.

Snow Man

I made a Snow man with my friend's daugter. She was very happy when she played in the snow.

My Snow Man was Japanese style which has only two parts; head and body. Friend's husband said American Snow Man has three parts. I didn't know that. I made his face with sells, carrot and banana's skin. I did it very good. Friend's husband asked me "when your last day made Snow Man?" but I didn't remember that. Do you remember?

However, I enjoyed making Snow man.

After that, I went to Thai restaurant where Kay has worked with my friend's family.

We ordered many kind of food such as Thai salad, spicy shrimp soup, beef appetizer, Thai fish cakes, Thai noodle, sauteed shrimp with black beans. These were very delicious. I love spicy food and Thai food. When I ordered Thai noodle, Kay recommended medium spicy. I really wanted to eat very spicy but Kay's advice was right. It was very spicy even I ordered medium spicy.

Because we ordered the food too much, we took out our left over the food.

And I tried to remake a plate which was sauteed vegetable with shrimp and Thai fish cakes.

It was good, too. I had good time all day today.

The end of the year

I cleaned the basement in my house because the freezer which my friend's husband bought coming yesterday. Then I remembered Japanese custom.
In Japan, we have to clean the whole house at end of the year even a company or school, too.
We don't leave any a dust or a grime for the new year.
I didn't like it when I lived in Japan. However, it is very good custom I think.
Cleaning the house is to think about thanks to my happiness life in a year.
Do you have any good customs at end of the year in your country?

Tradition

I saw a movie in class. I remenbered another movie. It named Fiddler on the Roof.
It is very famouse story in the musical. In Japan, many actors play this story on the stage.
The story was that one of Jewish family's life.
Father wanted to keep traditional life with his family but his 4 daughters didn't want to obey their father as today's movie.
The father restricted the daughters with traditional rules. Sometimes it is annoying but it maked me jealous becauseI lost my father when I was 11 years old.
Both of movie gave me to think about family.
Anyway, I really enjoyed to see these movies.

Serious Story

My sister sent me email this morning.
It is very serious situation that is Japanese economy. Many big company are on verge of collapse. In consequence, a lot of people will lose their job.
It is coming soon the New Year Holiday. In Japan, you have to prepare many things for the New Year celebration. You have to spend a lot of money for at the time. Many Japanese people worry about this economy situation.
Who will be able to stop it?