February Update

I've been pretty absent around here, haven't I? It's not just the blog though, I've been pulling back from other forms of social media as well. I've given it a good bit of thought, trying to really understand what's behind it. It's still hard to say. In some ways I think social media makes me feel more isolated than connected - I'm definitely happier since deleting the facebook app from my phone.

But my blog is different. As I've slowed down, I've found myself wondering if I'm running out of things to say. If this blog is coming to an end? But I don't really think it's time This has been such a fun/therapeutic/helpful space. I still love ever comment I get, whether it's someone thanking me for advice about gluten free food in japan, or just my mom saying that my pictures are cute. And having this space to think and write has really helped me process all the aspects of life here, especially in the early days when there was so much change. Often when I was struggling with writer's block I found that I could "warm up" by posting here on my blog, and then get into working on my book. Truth be told, my writing there lately has been pretty slow too. So maybe it's a problem of discipline.

I'm going to commit to a month of regular posting, and see what happens. Hopefully it will me good for me, and for my other writing as well.

In the meantime, here's what I've been up to.

Yet another birthday cake - German Chocolate this time

Dear Starbucks, this is a gross idea!

Godfather (the non-scary kind)

Valentine's Dinner - plus wine and chocolate!

Starbucks Coffee Jelly Frappuccino

I spend a lot of time at Starbucks. It's one of the few places you can reliably get free wifi, there's always enough space that I can stay and work all afternoon without feeling guilty, and it keeps me away from all the distractions inside my house while providing just enough distraction when I need a short break from writing.  

I've become so familiar with their menu that sometimes it seems like I mark the passing of time by their seasonal offerings. I usually stick to unsweetened tea because it's healthier (and it costs less) but every once in a while I splurge on a fun seasonal drink (and let's be honest, I drank Cool Lime Refreshers every day last summer, but those only had 50 calories anyways so who's counting?)

I hadn't been interested in the past few seasonal drinks, but at the beginning of June they introduced the Coffee Jelly Frappuccino. Jelly is just what they call jello over here.  It sounds weird, right? Except I was immediately intrigued. With the super intensive week of editing Raku and I have been having we decided to treat ourselves this afternoon to keep our spirits and our energy up, and OMG they are delicious! It's really cubes of black coffee jello with a frappuccino on top, almost like a milkshake with gummy bears in the bottom or maybe more like bubble tea. Yum! They're certainly a splurge, and the tall size was plenty, but if you have the chance to try one you won't regret it.

Week of Fun

For the past several months Raku and I have been thinking of fun things we've wanted to do here and there, but instead of indulging we've been really good about putting them off in order to focus on our writing and finish our first drafts.  To reward ourselves we scheduled a week of all the fun things back to back to create a celebration extravaganza.  And now our week has finally arrived!

So far this week we've had lunch at cafe/florist shop with food far more delicious than I expected for such a lovely setting, visited Meiji Jingu - one of my favorite places in the city - that Raku had never been to!, and gone to afternoon tea followed by cocktails at the Park Hyatt in Shinjuku.  The rest of the week will include wonderful events like checking out a bunny cafe, doing afternoon karaoke, going to Disney Land, and having a picnic of tiny foods!  Ridiculous I know, but we've got something huge to celebrate!

Because so much fun is going to be crammed into just one week, I'll try to break out the highlights and blog about them individually so that they get their due.  For the record, afternoon tea at the Park Hyatt was amazing and I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Cherry Blossoms and A Book Update

I looked outside this morning and discovered the cherry blossoms have burst into life. John says it happened yesterday and he didn't even think to tell me! You might be wondering why I wouldn't also be aware of the sakura, well that cold I mentioned I was fighting in my last post, let's just say it won.

Despite how bad I've felt the whole time, it's actually been a really great week. It started off with my mom buying her plane ticket out here, and now I'm already trying to plan out the perfect itinerary for each day she's here. And then, somehow despite all of the naps I've been taking, TV I've been watching, and cold medicine I've been guzzling I finished the first draft of my book! It doesn't mean I'm finished, there's still a lot of work that needs to be done before anyone gets to see it (and I start looking for an agent) but wow. I wrote a book! It's not a good book yet, but I think by the time I'm done it might be.

And it's finally spring! The weather is warm and flowers are everywhere. I celebrated by making raspberry swirl chocolate chip pancakes this morning - that's right, I'm a pretty awesome cook even when I'm sick. (Ok, I took an hour and a half nap afterwards) And then I convinced John to go on a walk with me to see some of the sakura. I love all the different varieties that there are. Some are dark pink with fluttery petals, and some are almost white with just the faintest blush of pink. Some bloom in clumps on the branches that look like snowballs,  other are spread out all over, and then there are the weeping cherry trees drifting in the breeze. It's absolutely heaven.