Creativity

#reverb12 Day 27:
How will you honour your creativity?

How did you make time for creativity in 2012?
Looking back, is there one creative time or one particular creation that stands out for you?
How will you continue (or start) making time and space for your creative passions in 2013?

My creativity time was on the way to school.
I had a lot of inspirations.

2013.......

I need to create something!! but I have no idea now.....

make TIME

#reverb12 Day 26: How will you make time?

How do you intend to carve out more time for the things that are the most important to you in 2013?
I have a lot of time, so I need to think how to use my time!!

Time is money!!

Vulnerable...

#reverb12 Day 25: How will you be vulnerable?

Next year, how will you tend to your vulnerabilities? How will you build them a shelter from the storm? How will you put them through physical therapy? How will you find a way to make them work to your advantage? 

Thinking too much.

 Next year, I'm going to be optimistic about everything because now I have a great vacation. Just enjoy!!! I have nothing to be afraid of.


Merry Christmas to all of YOU!!!

Habit in 2013

#reverb12 Day 24: Your most important habit?

What is the single most important habit you intend to cultivate in 2013?


Take 30 minutes exercise everyday!!!!!!!

I need to beat gravity.

Let go of.

#reverb12 Day 23: What will you let go of?

Name three excuses -- stories you tell yourself that are holding you back -- that you are going to let go of in 2013.


1. Shyness- I don't need it anymore!!
2. forgetfulness- Sometimes it makes me happier.
3. reverb12- posting blog entries everyday is so hard, but I don't want to give up now!!!!

Gift

#reverb12 Day 22: Your most important gift?

What was the greatest gift you received in 2012? What was the greatest gift you gave?
What do you intend to give yourself in 2013?

Total eclipse and the sun ring!!!! (see the detail here)
These were a greatest gift from DREAMS COME TRUE to me.


Special precious ring from DREAMS COME TRUE.
(photo from here)

 

DREAM LIST

#reverb12 Day 21: What's on the dream list?

What items did you tick off your dream list in 2012?
What other, unexpected, dreams came to fruition?
What are the top three items on your dream list for 2013?


My dream list in 2012: 　                                        ☆:came true    ・did not come true

☆see total eclipse in Tokyo on 05/21
☆see Ichiro (MBL player)
☆go to Disney World again and again


・speak English fluently
・get annual pass in Disney World

FOR 2013

・learn Korean
・go to see Grand canyon
・no illness
・Always Smiling!!

lost and found.

#reverb12 Day 20:
What was lost and what was found?

What was lost in 2012? What do you intend to find in 2013?

I lost my cat....She has not come back yet...(see my 12/12 post)

I lost my wight -4kg( about 9 ｌb ), which was not what I expected.


I do not give up finding my cat in 2013!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I'm thinking whether I should gain weight or not in 2013. 

Nourish myself.

#reverb12 Day 19: How did you nourish yourself?


How did you nourish your beautiful body in 2012?
What self-care practices will you take with you into 2013?

In Japan.

1. Hot spring
      Taking a bath for long time.
      Feel relax and forget everything that bothers me.



(photo from here)

My color 2012

#reverb12 day 18: The colour of you?

What colour best represents the year you had in 2012? And why?
What colour would you like to invite into your life in 2013?



painting by Now Hurray.

Bug's Life

#reverb12 Day 17: How did you make a difference?

Think of one person whose life you made a difference to in 2012
What did you gain from this?
How will you continue to make a difference in 2013?


This is very difficult prompt for me.
I' not sure I made a difference to a person's life in 2012.
I wish I would have made a difference., but I have no confidence.

Hopefully, I might have influenced on one bug.

PEOPLE

#reverb12 Day 16: Who inspired you?

Who inspired you in 2012? And why?
What gifts did they give you? And how will you carry these forward in to 2013?

My answer is all people in this world.

A LOT OF PEOPLE.
in NY.
(photo by Now Hurray)

I cannot imagine what will happen in my life.
The people I've met before have their own opinions and their own life, which 
stimulate my life.
However, I know that even the people I've not met before make my life exciting from TV, newspaper and radio...

Who inspired you?

Special Dishes

#reverb12 Day 15: What tingled your tastebuds?

What was the most extraordinary dish you sampled in 2012? What made it so magical?

Oh, yesterday, I talked about this prompt...
However, I had other extraordinary dishes in 2012.

First.

My friend's wedding party.
in Tokyo Disney Resort.
Can you find Mickey in each dishes??
Sooo cute♡♡

American Food

#reverb12 Day 14: The path that brought you here?

what was the most important thing you learned in 2012?


I learn something new everyday.
The most important thing I learned in 2012 was the American culture.
Especially, American dishes are delicious.

The taste of American foods is too strong for me.
Too salty, too sweet....

I went to New York this summer as I expected that I could eat delicious food
in New York.  Indeed, bagels were delicious, hamburger was good.
Last day,  I went to a famous restaurant, but the taste of every dishes was too salty. I was really disappointed.

Since then,  I had an idea that American food was not delicious.

Getting older

 

#reverb12 Day 13: Some selfie love?


As I get older,  the number of wrinkles are increasing.
As I get older,  my wrinkles are getting deeper and thicker.
As I get older,  my sunspots on my cheek deepen. 
As I get older,  losing weight gets harder.
As I get older,  getting fat is easier.

As I get older,  I become more optimistic.
As I get older,  I can make decisions by myself.
As I get older,  I can study what I want to learn.
As I get older,  I can eat delicious dishes whenever I want.
 As I get older, I have more freedom.
Getting older is not good for my skin and my health, but good for myself.

Japanese Tea Ceremony.
My 2012 started from this majestic event.

Award

#reverb12 Day 12: Your most intense emotions?

What made you dance in 2012? What made you weep?


My most intense emotion is EXCITED!!!
My daily life in 2012 is so exciting.
Everyday,  I learned and found a lot of something new.
Most of them made me happy and laugh, although sometimes it made me
annoying and bothering.
However, such a bad feeling finally made my life exciting.

I started this blog 8 weeks ago.
Blogging also makes my daily life exciting.

TIME TRAVEL

#reverb12 Day 11: What was music to your ears?

What was music to your ears in 2012, literally or metaphorically?

After I came to the US, I always listen to NPR news, so there seems to be
no music in my life....

However, this year had special song. 

 "JIKAN RYOKO" by DREAMS COME TRUE (Japanese music group)
( If I translate this song in English directly,  it might be "TIME TRAVEL")


This song was published in 1990.

In this lyric , she wrote
 "Could you give me a ring?  I"ll be waiting for it until total eclipse in 2012,
so please give me a special and greatest ring. Yes!! It's a ring of the sun"

The ring of the sun
Total eclipse in 05/21/2012 in JAPAN
(photo from here)

I met this song in 1995. At that time, 2012 was the far future for me.
 I often listened and sang this song. And then, more than 20 years passed.
Finally,  this year,  I was on May 21. 2012.

Greatest Risk or Greatest Achievement

#reverb12 Day 10: Your greatest risk?

What was the greatest risk you took in 2012? What was the outcome?


My risks in 2012:

・　Ate Lay's potato chips all by myself
・  Rode roller coasters  (I hate it!!)
・  Fought with a cockroach
・  Drove a RV
・  Sat in the passenger seat  (The driver was practicing for driver's license)
・　Practiced for driving a manual car　(I don't like the clutch!!!Please go forward...)
          
 

In those risks, my greatest risk in 2012 might be several presentations in my English classes.

As I wrote before, I am so shy, so I'm poor at speaking in public.
During presentation, all I could do was holding manuscript tightly and reading it.
Though I practiced a lot at home and tried to do my best, I could not overcome it. I don't know how many times and how much I was disappointed with my presentations.

SAY YES!! TAKE A RISK!!
Rules of my improv class.
 

A few days ago, I had a dream. My dream was I attended a formal party with my friend.
You know the story of dream is sometimes weird.
Suddenly, I had to do Karaoke in front of one hundred people.

Henrietta Lacks

#reverb12 Day 9: Your favourite book?

What was the best book you read in 2012, and why?

After I came the US, 6 months have passed. I read several books: "A Series of Unfortunate Events", "James and the Giant Peech", "BGF",  and "Matilda".
Since these books are for children, it easy to read, so I really enjoyed them.

However, the best book I read in 2012 was "The Immoral Life of Henrietta
Lacks".

(from Amazon.com)

Before I met this book in my reading class, I had not known about her at all.
The first things that came to mind when I heard the title of this book was she
must be witch or something like that. 

It is non-fiction about "HeLa cell" which came from African-American woman,
Henrietta Lacks. In 1951, The doctors took her cells without informed consent
at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and those cells never died. They have brought
enormous great achievements of medicine such as polio vaccine, DNA and 
more and more and a multimillion-dollar industry, but her family knew this
more than twenty years later. In addition, the a lot of researchers use these cells even now.

I have a lot of knowledge because my major is medicine, but I did not know
about  HeLa cells.  Without her cells, we would not get great benefit of present medicine.  On the other hand, her cells, she, and her family were sacrificed for medicine. Her cells brought the ethics of medicine, and race issue. I learned  that what I take for granted was based on what her cells had brought. 

Even if your major is not medicine, I recommend this book for all of you because I'm sure that all of us owe her cells a lot.

What was the best book you read in 2012?

If you have books that  you recommend, please let me know.

I LOVE HIM♡

#reverb12 Day 8: Your most important relationship?

Considering the idea that nothing lasts forever: what was the most important
  relationship that you fostered in 2012?

How will you continue to nurture it in 2013?
 
All of prompts are very nice, but sometimes I needed to think about it
for a long time to find the answer. Though, today's prompt is easy because
I have the only one answer.
 
It's him.
I really love him. He is so fascinating guy. I cannot live without him♡♡♡
You want to see him, don't you??  
 Ummm,      OK!! I'm gonna introduce him to you.

Early Bird is Good ??

#reverb12 Day 7: What will you take with you?

What's the one thing you want to take with you into 2013?

What I want to take with me into 2013 is my habit of getting early
in the morning. I got this habit recently.

"Early in the morning" means not 6:00 but 4 or 5 AM.
The reason is that I had a lot of homework everyday, but I didn't want to do it,
so I went to bed earlier.  Though, my homework was waiting for me as if 
it was a chick waiting for feed. As a result, I had to wake up early....

Does the early bird catch the worm ??
Is it true ??
Can the early bird become famous like BIG BIRD in SESAME STREET ??

My parents got angry when the hens in their neighborhood cackled at 4 AM.

Kind of osushi for Potluck party.
I got up at 4, and made it.
It was not for my party but for my roommate's.
I was just sleepy during classes whole day.

A Magic Spell

#reverb12 Day 6: What did you learn?

Compare the “you” from the beginning of 2012 to the “you” that you are now. What new skills or talents have you learned or discovered this year?


My 2012 is a exciting year compared to other years. A new skill I've discovered this attractive year is how to enjoy my life with little expenses.

Actually, now I'm on long vacation.
Usually, a vacation requires a lot of dollars, yen, euro, won, or pesos.
Staying luxury hotels, gourmet food, beautiful beach and sunset, stylish dresses...

Definitely, these kinds of vacation make me happy.
However, my present vacation is so long that I can't afford to keep such an extravagant lifestyle; in addition, my vacation is, now, almost my daily life. 

Luckily, I got a skill to change my daily life into stimulating vacation, because I found a magic spell dropped on a sidewalk as if I had found one penny there.

Fallen leaves in front of my house.
This scenery is one of my daily life, not special.
However, when I cast a magic spell, 

then...

Missing

#reverb12 Day 5: What was your dream destination?

What was your dream destination in 2012 and why?

My dream destination in 2012 was to get used to American life, because here is quite different place where I used to live. When I read about culture shock in
my English class, most textbooks take Japan and America for example, which
means there are many differences between Japan and the US.  
However, I love here because the US is comfortable to live and I don't need to
care about others.

Anyway, I want to ask this question to some person (??) (No, my cat!?  No, it!!)

MISSING!!!
This cat is my pencil case.
(I call it "she".)
She disappeared two weeks ago.

Celebrate myself Literally

#reverb12 Day 4: How will you celebrate YOU?

How are you going to celebrate your self this festive season?


Celebrate myself.....

I would like to look back my 2012 and I'll be grateful to all those who I met in 2012.

In my 2012, countless and marvelous stimuli has covered me up.
American culture, Culture shock, American food, English class, Traveling,
Pecan pie, Football, Key West, Camper, English, President Election, Homework, Recycling, Thanksgiving, MLB......

All of them were shiny and glittering events.
However, I have only one brain, and my brain cannot absorb and keep all of them. Unfortunately, some of them just passed through me.

For example, everyday,everyday, I meet a lot of new vocabularies.
I look up the meaning in the dictionary to finish reading, but that's it.
Next day, I'll forget everything.

In such a repeated daily life, sometimes miracle happens.
I witness the vocabulary again and again which I learned just a few days ago.
I meet the person again and again whom I met a few days ago for the first
time.
In those cases, my brain can work well (Good job!!❤), and I won't forget them.

Two new vocabularies.
I found these two words in the novel,
just after I had learned them in my blogging class.

You know, miracle seldom happens.

That's why I need to look back my way I came, and I'll keep all of my lucky
chances in my mind which makes my life fun. Gratitude towards them leads to celebrating myself because they are exact my way I came.

How will you celebrate yourself??

Say Good-Bye

#reverb12 Day 3: What do you really wish for?

Imagine a scenario where you only had one year left to live.
What is one thing that you really wish to do that you just haven't had the
chance to accomplish yet?
 what steps could you take (however small) to ensure that you accomplish this thing in 2013?

For me, one thing that I have not accomplish yet ( but I have had the chance)
is to say GOOD-BYE to "shyness"and "to be timidity".

I know I'm so shy and timid.

In my school days, every year, every teachers told me that my voice was
too small, and I should have raised my hand and expressed my opinion.
Even after I got  job, most of my bosses told me, in the meeting, that
my voice was too small, and I should have had more confidence.

I have a lot of chance to make a presentation in my Language Institute now.
However, every time I finish my presentation, I regret my presentation.
It's terrible, because I can't do it well even in my native language, Japanese, 
there is no way of my presenting perfectly in English.

Due to my shyness and timidity, I have never gone to SUBWAY (sandwich) .
SUBWAY requires a lot of conversation to order....

According to my mom, I was having fun by myself when I was little.
That's why I might enjoy my daily life just with my surroundings.

Even if I have few clothes, I can enjoy dressing.   
Even if I have few ingredients, I can enjoy cooking and cook yummy food.
Even if I have no instrument, I can enjoy playing music.

                                                  Jingle Bells by Now Hurray
     
Though I can enjoy my life,
I don't know why it is difficult for me to become extrovert.

To accomplish this problem in 2013, at first step,  I want to say "Hello"
with loud voice to people.

Do you have a good idea to become extrovert??
Could you give me some advice?

Please let me hear your opinion as a Christmas present for me!!

A Banana Story

Now I'm  participating in #Reverb12 , and this is my first time.
Yesterday, I just posted my blog entry just following #Reverb12 without any
 thought. However, this morning, I understood why this project was really
 exciting, why people enjoyed this project. All bloggers have the same prompt
 every day, but there is no same blog entry.  

click here

Today's prompt for #Reverb12 is 'what's your most significant spend?'

My most significant spend this year is tuition for Language institute in the US.
Now I'm studying English to speak fluently.
Actually I don't need English in my work or in my daily life in Japan, but every
 time I went traveling abroad, I was disappointed at my poor English.
That was why I came to the US to study English.

Needless to say, since I came to the US, I have experienced a lot of culture
 shock.
I know these culture differences makes me excited.

I get used to look around carefully to find the hidden excitement in my daily life.


Here is one of my daily life story.

One week ago,when I walked to back my home, I saw a man eating a banana 
sitting in the bench at the station.
I felt something weird in that scenery.

I'll show you two pictures to explain why I felt something weird.

The man's way:
peeling from bottom of a banana. 

"shiwasu"

Now it's December.
Japanese call December "shiwasu (師走)", which literally means "teachers or
priests run". Everyone is toooo busy in December to finish the tasks or work
left, and to prepare for the forthcoming year such as house cleaning.
 
 Before this busy month come, this week was extremely tough for me to do
my assignments. I got up  at 4 AM every morning. After coming back home,
I spent whole day doing my assignments. Of course, it was a disaster
in my house.
 
 However, I feel so refreshed now and I have welcomed my December first, because today is weekend and I have no school.
I could sleep without alarm.
I just finished all of my housework.

 Also, December first is my mother's birthday!! Happy birthday to mom!!





Moon in the morning
on the way to school.
No matter how busy I am, 
something exiting are always waiting for me and you!!
Getting up early is not bad.
(photo by Now Hurray)


"Shiwasu" has just begun.
My December first has just started.
I'm sure today is a great day.

How are you starting this last month of 2012 ??