January in Review

It’s been a month of milestones, celebrations, and achievements!

The 11th—Happy B’day dad!

The 26th—Two years in Japan! And Happy Australia Day!

Today—This post, marks post #4 for January: my highest post tally yet. In view of my New Year’s resolution (to increase my rate of posting) and considering that I’ve never before posted more than twice in a month, this could be viewed as a minor achievement. Admittedly, this post is not much to behold, and of the three other posts for this month one is just a photo. So, one could also argue that there has been no real increase in posting. It is true. But I don’t care.

Speaking of achievements: Maryam and her blog, My Marrakesh, are finalists in the Seventh Annual Weblog Awards (The 2007 Bloggies). Filled with captivating photos and superbly written stories, it certainly is a great blog, and one deserving of all the praise and attention it receives. It is from reading Maryam’s blog that I now have Morocco and Marrakesh at the very top of my travel destination wish list. I encourage any of you who are interested in travel, culture, fashion, design, décor, landscaping, and good old adventure to check out her blog. You can get there by clicking here. If you want to vote for her, you have until February 2nd. So, get cracking! Her blog is in the category for Best African or Middle Eastern Weblog. Good luck, Maryam!

eyechan

PS: I’ll be posting a new story soon.

Lord of the Ling (a.k.a Masa)

Ten Minutes in Tiffany's

You’ll just know is what they often say in the movies. I’ve never been entirely convinced of this, believing myself to be the possessor of a below average emotional IQ. True, I’m sentimental; at times a little sensitive; a bit of an all-round bleeding heart, you might say. But it’s often the case that I’m unable to determine, at least not right away, the cause of my feelings, or even to know exactly what emotion I’m experiencing. This is frustrating to say the least. When I met Tomoki, however, some of the fog lifted, at least where love was concerned, and, for the first time really, I was able to experience it to the full, and to be overcome with a sense that everything is as it should be. It was for this reason that I asked her to marry me.

Now, in the interests of moving the story along, I will resist the temptation to elucidate, at length, all the deep philosophical epiphanies that came to me out of much quiet contemplation, and a great deal of introspection, and that led me to the conclusion that now was the right time to ask Tomoki to marry me. Instead, let me start the story from the night before I proposed—actually, let me go back a couple days more to when I had sought some advice from my good friend, Masa. Though I had a rough idea of when I would propose (at this stage I was thinking New Year’s Eve) I was very much uncertain as to how or where I would propose; and so I went to Masa wanting to know if there were any traditional Japanese customs or rules that I should observe or be aware of when proposing to Tomoki. His advice was this: “A ling! You must have a ling, man. Do you have one?” I told him I did not, but that I did fully intend to get one. “I can help you,” he offered, enthusiastically. “I’m a gonna take you to buy a ling for her.” And so, ringless, planless, and on the whole very much clueless as to how to proceed, I met with Masa two days later in Tenjin outside Mitsukoshi, a very busy department store (or depato as they call them here in Japan) which, incidentally, is Japan’s oldest department store chain (or so I’m told). From there we made our way through the throngs of people to an adjacent building, which, among other stores and businesses, is home to Tiffany’s, the world renowned jewellers hailing from New York. As we strode purposefully towards the entrance Masa asked me, “How much can you spend?”
“I’m not sure. Let’s just see what they have.”
“You should think about it because we have to tell them,” he said, referring to the sales staff. I found it all a bit distasteful to be discussing money on such an occasion; it rather felt like I was being asked to put a price on my love for Tomoki. (Of course, in the end, there is no getting around it, and I am by no means in a position to say that money and cost is of no importance.) As we entered the store, passing a somewhat aged and dignified security guard, Masa turned to me with another question, no less important than the first, “What is her ling size?”
“F**k!” I exclaimed, momentarily forgetting where I was, which, I observed, caused the old and dignified guard to raise his old and dignified eyebrows. The look on Masa’s face went from disbelieving to dispirited, and I suspected he was having thoughts along the lines of ‘You are the dumbest gaijin I know’. It was typical of the kind of small, yet crucial, detail that often seems to escape my attention.
“Baka gaijin,” he said, ruefully shaking his head. Stupid gaijin.
“How am I supposed to know her ring size?” I began my defence. “If I ask her she’ll know what I’m up to!”
“You can steal. Steal one of her lings.”
“Steal one of her rings? I don’t think she wears any.”
“You have to measure, or something like that.”

Well, despite it being quite obvious that I would not be purchasing a ring at this time, and although Masa’s enthusiasm had dropped markedly, we took a few minutes to look around, if for no other reason than to satisfy our curiosity: mine more so than Masa’s. It was a very, very humbling experience. The prices ranged from expensive to exorbitant. I could not help thinking, ‘what would happen if I went and spent a lot of money on a ring which she didn’t even fancy?’ This scenario was not at all unlikely given my history of poor present selection coupled with a near absolute ignorance of jewellery and a very unsophisticated sense of style. In any case, as we went around the store peering into the many glass encasements, I felt very much out of place—judging by the way the security guard kept a watchful eye on me I’d say he was of the same opinion. When Masa spotted a ring priced at 3.5 million Yen (roughly US$35,000) he remarked, with genuine surprise, “This one is more expensive than the one I bought for my wife.” Upon hearing this I decided that it was time to go, and so I left Tiffany’s in much the same condition and frame of mind as I had entered: ringless, planless, and still very much clueless, though somewhat less ignorant of the financial aspects of proposing.

“Okay,” Masa began, as we walked away from Tiffany’s, rejoining the crowds, “I will take you and your girlfriend to dinner, and I’m a gonna find out her ling size.”
“How?” I demanded to know. “You can’t just ask her, it’ll be too obvious.”
“Hey, I’m Masa! Leave it to me; I know how to talk to women.”

Kotoshimo Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu!

(Please treat me favourably again this year)

Well hello everyone! Happy New Year! Welcome to my first post for 2007. I hope you all had a fun and relaxing time with your friends and family over the break.

How are the New Year’s resolutions going? I usually stay away from them, because I once resolved never to make one again having discovered that I was completely incapable of sticking with them for more than twelve hours or so. That being the case, it should come as no surprise, then, that I am now, finally, and predictably, going back on that resolution; this year I will aim to post on this blog with more regularity, and to make each post more reader friendly and shorter in length. To that end I plan to make use of photos wherever possible and appropriate. Already, however, I’ve run into some problems in that my camera is broken, and I’m unable to copy the pictures from Tomoki’s camera—which I took with me on my recent travels—to my computer because the usb cable (I think that’s what it’s called?) which connects the camera to the computer is currently at Tomoki’s place. Anyway, it’s not a big problem, and I’ll soon sort it out.

Now, if you read my last post you might remember that I left off by promising that I would return with some news—some big news—in my first post of this year. So, here goes: on the night of the 21st of last month I proposed to Tomoki—she said YES! We’ve been together almost two years now, and I consider myself very lucky indeed. I will tell you how I proposed, but first I must tell you about the day before the proposal. And in keeping with the aforementioned NYR, both of these stories will appear subsequent to this post, and separate from one another.

Here is a list of possible story titles to give you some idea of what to expect in the next few posts:

Ten Minutes in Tiffany’s
Christmas “Illuminations”, a Standing Wine Bar, and . . .
The Youngest and Skinniest Santa of All-time
A Day in Nagasaki
Kagoshima: reminds me of home
The Alpha Scotsman and The Alpha Twatsman
The Saga Continues (in Saga)
Mt. Aso: the world’s largest caldera
Dinner @ Tomoki’s

Okay, so, I’ll be back (God willing) in a couple of days (Geez that’s optimistic) with a brand spanking new post. Til then, stay beautiful!

eyechan