A week after celebrating Valentine’s Day, the roses are in full bloom.

Wow, its been a while since I’ve written here. To date there hasn’t been much going on in my life. But just to recap - I quit my job at the hospital, in order to come back working for the State. I’ve done some minor renovations to my house - added an extra 400 square feet, so that’s all done. But I have still been procrastinating on the painting however. I still have some minor things that I want to do with the house but it seems like its a neverending process. Also working on my little farm out in my backyard - check out my mutant squash! Anyway, hope everyone is doing well at NACOS.

I have gone back to the “real” working world again. I miss my old life of working from home, within an extremely flexible working schedule (and being my own boss). Now, my days consists of an 8-5(or sometimes to 6) schedule with over an hour’s worth of commute time everyday. I guess I shouldn’t complain so much. Most people in Hawaii have a similar working schedule, and I know Japan has it even worse (having to work on the weekends). I just hate having to waste over an hour waiting in traffic everyday. I’m currently working as an analyst for a hospital, and since they are going thru major renovations to their hospital units, I fear I have hooked on to this company at one of their busiest periods. I have been working for just over a month but already, I am starting to look again for similar work that is more closer to home. I hope something will turn up.

From time to time when I am at the beach I am always meeting people - probably because of my friendly nature . Last week I met a Japanese couple from Okayama. They were here for a week trying to regain “energy” here in the islands, and they invited me to hang out with them later in the night. “Working in Japan can be very stressful…” , he mentioned to me as he comes to Hawaii “to make all his stress go away”. As we were talking, a Brazilian couple overheard us and joined our conversation since they were sitting next to us. It was nice that everyone was interested in each other’s cultures and exchanging their differences as well. The Brazilian couple was surpised to find out that some of Hawaii’s first immigrants were from Portugal. Also it turned out that one of the Japanese couple’s mother lived in Brazil for a short time. But anyway, for me, it’s always a joy to meet new people, especially people from different countries.

Yesterday I had a joint lesson with a Nacos student (Hiroko) from Japan. Basically we, along with Michiko’s guidance, helped each other in using proper intonation when speaking in the foreign language. We traded stories based on each other hobbies and life. Though there was an apparent Japanese accent, Hiroko’s English was actually quite good and understandable. Unfortunately I was not the same. Even though I hear proper Japanese and when I speak it, to me, it sounds the same. I unconsciously have the tendency to accentuate certain syllables of the words. Sorry Hiroko! I hope your ears weren’t hurting too much!

This past week I started to work again on finishing all the drywalling in my house. I started this project a year ago, and for the most part I finished most of it. But there were sections of my house I still didn’t finish. So after doing a lot of procrastinating I finally finished the section of our hallway that I had put off. After I had finished priming the wall, I had planned to use my wagner sprayer to finish the job. Using a sprayer is a lot faster than doing the painting by hand - for a small area it usually takes under an hour. Unfortunately my sprayer wasn’t working properly - probably because I didn’t clean the sprayer head properly. I ended up using a roller brush so it took an extra hour or two.

Because the abundance of mangos we have in our refridgerator, I decided to make mango bread. I’ve never made it before, but we always have people giving us mango bread from the mangos we give them. This year I decided to replicate that feat. I downloaded the recipe from the internet. It was kind of easy to make - it requires basic ingredients that we already have on hand such as flour, sugar, oil, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, eggs, oh and of course, mango!

mmm…おいしそう

My friend sent me pictures of beautiful Kodai Hasu (Lotus flowers) when she visited a garden in Gyota city, Saitama. These flowers are said to live as long as a 1000 years. I’m not too sure how old these flowers are however. Mite!

The last time I posted pictures there were only flowers, but now the fruits are coming out. It’s always nice to eat mangoes but sometimes it could be a headache too. Having to clean up the rubbish from the fallen spoiled mango that was out of our pickers reach, and there’s always the occasional stranger that will wander into our property. Most of the time they will ask for our permission but other times… Because of this I have been in the habit of closing our sliding metal gate. Its a hassle opening it everytime I drive my car out, but now it keeps any stranger from trespassing.

I have been so busy with my contract work, but as of now I believe I am done with that. They (the state) wanted me to make a few edits to my work, but other than that they haven’t contacted me since. Right now, I guess I am between jobs. Hopefully, something will turn up soon. Other than work, things in my life have been uneventful lately.

Here’s more pictures from my Japan trip back in June:

This is the famous Honnoji Temple in Kyoto where Nobunaga Oda committed suicide because he was betrayed by his vassal Akechi Mitsuhide.

Another picture at Osaka Universal Studios. The Jurassic Park ride was one of my favorites. If you ever ride it make sure to buy a pancho because I guarantee you that you will get wet!

I was so hungry after doing the rides at Universal - I almost forgot to take a picture of famous Osaka Okonomiyaki. This is after taking a couple of slices.

Another Kiyomizu Temple picture.

This is at the Toshimaen Amusement Park. An Ajisai flower up close.

This is the Nonomiya Temple.

Another famous temple in Kyoto - Sanjusangen-do Temple. Famous for its 1001 statues of the Buddhist deity.

A picture of Mount Fuji from the car. A little difficult to see the mountain in the background.

Snow at level 5 of Mount Fuji.