Luna Parpados 3rd Year Anniversary Party~!

先週、“Luna Parpados”という苦楽園(兵庫県西宮市）のスペインバールの3周年記念Partyに行ってきた！知り合いが招待してくれて、初めていったんだけど、超よかった☆本場スペインのようにカウンターにビッシリTapasが並んでおり、この日はワインも飲み放題で、おいしかった♪店内そんなに広くないのに、人がいっぱいで、このお店の人気っぷりが伝わってきました。 スペインバールはやっぱいぃ！気軽に食べれるし、おいしいし、（やっぱイベリコハムとワインでしょう）気軽に人と話せるし。最近あんまり人との出会いがなかったけど、この日はいろんな人がいて、楽しかった♪外国のバーで好きなのは、いろんな人と気軽に話せるところ。みんなfriendlyだし、すぐに知り合いになれる。私は特に人との出会いを大切にするので、こういう雰囲気は大好き☆ 6時半くらいから店に入って、帰ったのが1時半くらい・・・。ずっとワイン飲んでました。おかげで次のは月曜で仕事だったのですが、二日酔い。。朝起きて、やばいのは感じていたのだが、とりあえず支度して出勤。案の定、電車で酔って、途中下車。30分くらい駅のホームで休憩し、よしっと思って再び電車に乗ったのだがやはりダメで、大阪駅寸前で二度目の下車。通常より1時間以上時間がかかってようやく会社に着きました。あぁ～飲みすぎた。仕事がある前の日に調子のって飲んではいけませんね。でも本当に楽しかったから、たまには良いでしょう♪ 会社も遅れたし、ペナルティあるのかと思いきや、上司がやさしく目をつぶってくれました。さすが！持つべきものは良い上司ですね。（もちろん二日酔いで電車に酔ったというのは内緒です）

My friend invited me to this restaurant's 3rd Anniversary Party last week. It was my first visit here, and I really loved it! Good food, many people, nice atmosphere etc... It had many tapas like the real Spanish Bar, and this day was free wine so I drank a lot. I mean A LOT. I went in around 6:30 pm and I went home around 1:30 am. I was drinking wine all day. I really like foreign type of bar cause everyone is friendly and you get to meet people a lot. I havent't gone out recently so I really enjoyed it. There were many interesting people from different fields. As you can imangine, I was hung over the next day..... and i had work. I didn't feel good but i got ready the next morning off to work. Then, I got so sick that I was gonna through up in the train, I got off and took a rest on the platform for about half an hour till I feel better. After a while, I went on a train again to go to work but again, I got sick.... I mean, hung over...:( so I got out the second time, rest for a while and went to work finally. Oh man, I felt so bad the whole day. You shouldn't get drunk the day before work. Since I was late for work, I thought i would get penaly or something but my boss said I don't have to worry about anything. I just had to correct the time sheet, pretend like I was never late. What you need is a good boss, right? (of course it's a secret that I was sick because of hung over.)

Restaurant: "Luna Parpados"

5 Star☆

I met up my friends from high school yesterday. We all live close but haven't met for a long long time. probably about an year. It's so nice to see friends from old school days. Talking about how much fun we had together and laughing at the crazy things we did, make you return to your youth. Remembering the pure heart we used to have. (I still have though! i hope...)

We are 5 member group and surprisingly, we are totally different in every way. Personallity, how we dress, looks, interests, work etc. Everything's different. Walking down the street, some people might wonder why we are together. Probably the only common thing is the fact that we went to the same high school, same class.

We're like a 5 star☆ We are all facing different directions but somehow stay connected. Funny but that's how we are. Usually, somone brings up the topic, "hey, we haven't seen each other recently. let's meet up!"(this time it was me) and we schedule for the next meeting. One is living in Chicago, so it was only 4 of us. We miss you, Aki! We'll definately meet when you come back:)

Picture taken at "diner's eve" in Osaka.

日本で一番古いワインバー The oldest wine bar in Japan

My good friend who used to study in Paris and loves wine and cheese took me to Japan's oldest wine bar which was in Ginza, Tokyo. Ginza is one of the most expensive places in Japan. The bar was downstairs and had very nice atmosphere. Antique-ish red sofa and lamps, bar counter, and petit old japanese man. We had a nice bottle of wine (I forgot to take picture) with ham and cheese. I love wine and cheese but don't know much about it. On the other hand, my friend loves wine and cheese and do know about them so she chose everything. Good choise, girl! It reminded of our days in Paris, that was so much fun.
it has been a long time since we met last time so we had many many things to catch up. You know, *girls talk* is endless.

Drinking nice wine or eating nice dinner is of course good, but the most important thing is, who you drink&eat with. Who you're with makes a lot difference. If you are eating with someone you don't like, then the food doesn't taste good either even if it was the best food.
"Good food with good people" That's one of the happiest time, right?

Picture taken at "Wine Bar GINZA"

Free Hug Campaign Video

check this out! this really made me happy:)
Lots and lots of hugs to you all!!!!!

Free Hug Campaign
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1203357539

Random pics part Ⅱ

Guess where these are!

Random pics

If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it.
If you don't ask, the answer is always no.
If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place.
-Nora Roberts

Above is from my friend, Astri's blog which encouraged me recently.
Believe in yourself.

結婚式。Wedding

今週初めて友達の結婚式へ行ってきました！

親戚のは行ったことあるけど、友達は初めてだったから「もうそんな歳のなったんだなぁ～。」ってしみじみ思います。。すごく素晴らしい結婚式でした☆神戸の結構式場で、もう超ゴージャス＆ラブリー☆
その友達はディズニー好きなので、曲や映像とかDisneyで揃えてたり、演出もシンデレラ♪ 驚いたのは最後のデザートビュッフェ。すごい種類のケーキやデザートが並んでて、どれも超おいしそうだし、シェフはどんどんお皿にのせていくし。もうおなかが破裂しそうだった。あと、感動したのは最後に新婦が歌った歌。彼女はオペラをやってて、ジャズクラブとかで歌ってるほど上手やねんけど、一番好きな歌の歌詞を自作の母に向けた感謝の気持ちに替えて歌って・・思わず目が潤んでしまった。感動ました。ありがとう。

結婚。
私は早く結婚したいっていうよりは、この人と一生一緒にいたい！と思った人が出来たときに結婚したい。だから今すぐでもいいし、10年後でもいい。If there's the right person. 私だけの王子様が現れればね☆ でもその王子様が今、どこで何してるのかは気になる。もう出会ってるのかなぁとか。年頃の女の子なら誰もが気になるところよね？

っていっても、やっぱ結婚式に出席すると、「いいなぁ、私も結婚したいなぁ」って気分になる。永遠の愛の誓いに華やかな衣装と披露宴。私そういうの大好きだから、早くしたくなっちゃう。
チャペルや教会で真っ白のウエディングドレスもいいけど和装もいいかもと思った。それまでは絶対ドレスと思ってたけど、日本人だし英語で話す牧師さんにちょっと違和感を感じたから。日本人しかいないのに、何故に英語！？と思わずつっこんでしまったもん。でも牧師が日本人でも変だしね。う～ん。。まぁ実際結婚するときに考えたらいいか。

でも華やかな衣装の裏には厳しい現実や問題があるのも事実。結婚式2日前に友達に会っていろいろ話聞いたけど、人生ってうまくいかないなぁとしみじみ。その日どんだけのろけられるのだろうと思ってたら、実際はいろいろ大変そうで。。家族やお金も絡んでくるしね。あと、もう一つ思ったのは、人生何が起こるか本当にわからないということ。結婚しないと思っていても、いつどこで出会って、いつ結婚するかわからないよ。その友達も超意外だったしね。うん、びっくり。

とまぁいろんな感情がごちゃごちゃ渦巻いた一週間でした。でも結婚式は本当に本当に良かった！！
Congratulations, Rie♪　お幸せにね♡

I went to my friend's wedding for the first time!!

I've been to my family's wedding but never friend's. It was a beautiful beautiful wedding.
It was held at a gorgeous wedding hall, Christian style. It's very popular to have a christian wedding in Japan. Yes, even though you're not christian. Priest, chapel, carol, white wedding dress... etc. My friend is a big fan of Disney so all the music and entertainment was Disney♪and at the end, the bride sang an Opera. She sings opera at jazz bar sometimes so she's very good but this time she made her song to her mom, putting her appreciation into her own words. wow, her song moved me into tears. It was just beautiful.

Marrige.
A lot of women when they get into their late 20s, they feel in a rush. (I'm still 23, btw) Especially in Japan, I think.　There's a famous ironic phrase for 25 yld women, I forgot though... :(
Anyway, I don't care what age I get married. I want to get married when found a guy that I want to get married. If I felt I want to be with him forever, that's the time. So it can be right now or 10 years later. If there's my prince:) But I do wanna know where's my prince right now?? Have I already met? What's he like? I'm sure all the girls are wondering about this.

But if you attend a wedding, it makes you feel you wanna get married, you know? vow for the eternal love, gorgeous wedding dress and party...etc. I love all those lovely, sweet things. I kinda felt "Japanese traditional style" wedding is good too. with white, gorgeous kimono and hakama for the groom, sake, shrine etc. I felt a little wired at the chapel cause priest was speaking English even we were all Japanese, singing and saying "amen" even though we're not Christian. Isn't this wired? But you know, we're Japanese. Japanese love fancy things. same for Christmas.
Anyway, one thing I thought is that even people look very happy, you never know what's underneath that fancy dress. I met the bride 2 days before wedding. I was prepared to hear this all love-love story but...there was the reality. She had problems and was not 100% happy about the marrige. Life doen't go that well, I guess. One more thing I thought is that you never know when you meet your partner, when you get married. Anything can happen in your life! My friend was the example. I was so surprised of her marrige and of him too. He was totally different from her type.

Ok, I wrote enough. well, I had many feeling going through my mind this week.
But I just wanna say that it was a wonderful wedding!!

Congratulations Rie and may you be happy forever!!!

Thoughts

Recently I've been thinking a lot about my future. Work, love, dream... Life.

Probably because I'm not satisfied with my work. I went into the business world this year with lots of ambition. I really wanted to work, I had my dream. However, I was put into totally different position I wanted to be in. I was so shocked and upset when I knew the fact but I thought I should at least give it a try cause I might like it. So I was doing Accounting this past few month. My job is a great place to learn about how money works, see the company as a whole, and about Japanese organization. I think Accounting is very important in business world so I don't mind learning it. Actually, I'm appreciating for giving me a chance to study Accounting.

Also, there are advantages (and of course disadvantages) working for big company. You have a secure life and salary, have long vacation 3 times a year (which is impossible if you work in Japan and I love that cause I love to travel) But, but....

Anyway, what I want to say is, this is not what I want to do.
I'm not sad but not happy either. I am not using my advantages at all. I know my strength and I want to make the most of it but what I'm doing right now, it doesn't have to be me. I think other people can do it better than me. I don't know why I was put in this position, what my company wants from me, but above all, company's convinience comes first in a big organization. So even I hope and wait till I can change position, there's no guarantee you can do what you want to do, and worse is that you might be transfered to countryside office where you never wanna go. Now I am willing to work hard but don't have the motivation to continue my current job...

I talked to some people about this recently. Some say "mottainai", which means it's too good to quit this job. Maybe they're right but what's the meaning if you're not enjoying your life? I also talked to people who are doing what they want to do. It might be tough but they were having their life. If you like it and that's what you want to do, then you can do it no matter how hard it is. I was also talking to a friend who started a cafe resturant last year which was his dream. He advised me, "List up everything what I want to do, your future dreams to even very very small things. Then, think ways to achieve all those goals. This will give you hints to your next step." So I did. and to think of it, my current job was too far from my goal. Off the track.

I just remembered when I was in Spain, one said "this is life!" on a boat, enjoying the sunshine, surrounded by people who you love. "yes, it sure is." I said.

You only live once. Live life.

My 2006 Summer Memories

Where do you think this is...?
I was in Spain~!!!!

Muchas gracias por todo, Luis familia.
I had the best summer ever.