Reunion

Before Japanese summer vacation called "Bon-yasumi", I met my friend the first time after graduation.
15 years ago??
We were same band during collage time in Osaka, we copied Marylin Manson's songs.
After graduation, she went back to Portugal, moved to Monaco, then Paris now.

On Instagram, I got know she visited Osaka.
Texted, she says "Are you in Osaka now?!"
She thought I'm in US(￣▽￣;)
Somehow, many friends think I'm in NY now....yes, I will....someday soon.
So that's kinda sudden, we decided to meet.

Actually, she was planning to have her birthday party next day, I was invited.
I didn't know who comes, anyway I went.

Maybe 12 people gathered?
More than half were "Nice to meet you." (mostly Japanese)
A few were from same music circle.

We could catch up, thanks to social media, we could have a nice chance to reunite.
When I moved to NY, Paris is much closer than from Japan, maybe we can visit each other??
I'm pretty sure that we can meet anywhere.
 

August 15th

Today is the anniversary of end of World War Ⅱ.
From the view of Japanese.
It's the day to pray for victims, pray for peace, swear we never bring a war again.

Just out of curiosity, I asked my fiancé if US has special meaning for today.
He hasn't heard much about that.
Japan takes August 15th as a special day, Emperor comments, so does Prime Minister at ceremony.

I looked up on internet, on Wikipedia,  September 2nd is regarded as the final day of WWⅡ in US．

He says Civil War or Battle with British, last day becomes important.
Japan's attitude is learning from past and American, mostly boast independence.(America first?)

Japan is single race country, monoculture, island and US is completely opposite.
America is shaped by different histories originating from different places, different religions.

When I talked to his dad, he said he enjoyed bowling when he was young.
Sounds like right after War ended.
As you know, Japan surrendered and after war, everybody was poor, worked very hard to survive, no entertainment.
I felt something.
That's the difference between winner and loser.

At the same point in the world, our countries had totally different life style.
And still same situation now in the world.

We study history always from OUR perspective.
We believe "We Are Right".
That's the beginning of conflict.

Fact is only one.
How to see it shapes you.





 

Yoshida brothers

I went to Yoshida brothers' concert on Aug 1st.

 

Last time at Osaka was including other instruments like drums.
This time "only shamisen", no other sounds.

Shamisen has 3 strings, that means 2 shamisens have 6 strings equal one guitar.
It was very rich sound. (I don't know how to describe)

 

Stage set is like this.
Moon and clouds are made of Sekishu-Washi, which is Japanese traditional paper.
This concert is one of Japan Value Project, Sekishu-Washi is very durable paper, they promote this.
Cloud part, paper includes shamisen strings that brothers consumed for 35 years.

Needless to say their playing, light effect, screen were also awesome.

Honestly, I'm not big fun of Japanese traditional music at all.
What fascinates me is Tsugaru-shamisen powerful sound, and Yoshida Brothers attitude or action.
They are still young (around 40) as a shamisen player, but keep trying to explore.
Collaboration with current rock band, Spanish sound, animation music etc.
(Younger brother often goes to Spain, teaches shamisen at collage)
Their appearances are also not like orthodox style.  

I guess, in classic field, starting new thing is difficult to be accepted.
Sometimes people who stick to authentic way refuse and criticize.

They keep challenging.
That motivates and encourages me a lot.





 

Sudden message

A few days ago, I got message from my old friend from collage.
It was the first contact after 8 years.
We were in same music circle, much closer than classmate.
Just we didn't have any chance to talk.

Her message sounded a bit serious.
At the time I couldn't call her so texted.
I wondered what she wants to talk to me...

Finally we could talk today.

That was about kind of business plan.
Not plan, idea. Everything is still up in the air.
Recently she got friend from Saudi Arabia.
She remembered I'm making jewelry using Arabic letter.
In meantime, her friend and she talked about new business, something like English lesson, making jewelry workshop etc.

Her call is if they can make that idea possible, whether they can involve me or not.

Actually they don't imagine anything clearly, just they have the idea.
Though, sounds interesting.
I told her my situation that I'm going to move to US maybe next year but curious about starting something new.

Maybe we'll meet soon and catch up.
Starting new thing makes us nervous but as long as we can enjoy, it's worth it.

 

How are you?

I really left this page for long time...

Last post was 'questionnaire' , now current situation is...
we submitted our petition to USCIS last month! Finally!

We prepared lots of documents, filed them to the mutual folder of both of our lawyer and us, we waited, waited, waited for the farm prepare to send to USCIS for a month.
We guessed they are busy, maybe taking care of us too...
but almost 4 weeks, it was enough time to reach the last straw to me.
I sent message not to assistant but lawyer herself directly.

Probably it worked.
Suddenly they moved on our case.
From my previous work, I'm used to send claim mail...

Anyway we got case number, what we can do now is just waiting for NOA2.

In meantime, I had a pop-up store at Hanshin Department store in Osaka for a week in early July.
For me, it was a great experience and compared to daily sales, it ended up great.
I could meet some old friends, coworkers, and new customers.
Attending exhibition is not the first time but selling MY products by myself is very excited thing.

I try to upload this blog more often!
Have a nice weekend!
 

Questionnaire

For my fiancé visa, so called K-1 visa,
we decided to hire lawyer, after looking up some and asking,
came to one attorney.

My fiancé in New York met in person once at their office, sending email each other,
finally we started to prepare for petition.

First thing first is submit the questionnaire.
Each personal basic info, address history, employment history at least 5 years,
education info, family member, stay in US history etc...

Some words are unfamiliar to me because it looks very serious format.
Maybe just avoiding vague expression.

Filling out the questionnaire took 1 week already.
I had to check my passport again and again, look up my college information.

This document is only a tip of iceberg.
I feel really need to study English more...
   

Day trip to Kyoto

Today I got day off so decided to go to Kyoto with my mom.
Destination is Nijo castle area.

Last night I checked lunch place on internet.

il pozzo

 

They renovated very old traditional house into restaurant.

They have interesting antipasto and nice house made pasta.

 

White in center is daikon something, I have no idea how they cooked daikon like this.

First bite, I thought kind of cheese because it's very creamy, no fiber, second I noticed radish scent.

Like Italian restaurant, tripe is tender, salami is great.

Maybe we should come back for dinner.

 

After lunch, stopped by Mikane shrine.

This is located in residential area and small but famous for their benefit.

It is believed visitors can earn money!

Mikane is written 御金, that means money.

Many foreigners also visit here.

 

Then we went to interesting store.

 

Can you believe this was really house?

Now first floor is creators' store and workshop space however designer of this building lives second floor!

Store is creative studio & shop ooo, owner is curating interesting stuff from all over the world.

It's small shop but very unique goods are displayed.

Current pop up shop is Don Fisher, who is making cute fish pouch.

But today, honestly, owner's baby is the cutest!

 

We headed to next goal where is Japanese sake distiller.

My mom was wanting to visit there.

 

Sasaki Shuzo

 

This distiller got very famous because their family has a famous actor Kuranosuke Sasaki.

Of course their sake quality is great but the more popular the actor becomes, the more famous here is.

Even today is weekday, customers keep coming.

We bought 2 of small sake.

I'm looking forward to drinking(*´艸`)

 

We passed Nijo castle.

Actually it was closed already.

No problem, we are not so interested in castle, but this area.

 

We walked a lot and enjoyed Kyoto!