Mario Kart

Last Tuesday was my last day of work before a long Christmas vacation. So Reiko commanded me to get Mario Kart Wii so I picked it up on the way back from work.

You control your kart by using the Wii controller. I was surprised how well it works and you forget you are actually using it. It's pretty slick.

Mochi Pounding (Mochi Tsuki)

Reiko's cousin Mariko and her husband Peter arrived in Japan last Tuesday so Reiko and I went with them to pound some Mochi at a nearby event that was taking place.

Mochi is a kind of soft food which is traditionally made from rice which is pounded with a large wooden hammer. The pounding action is much like kneading dough so on person has to knead the mochi while another pounds it.

Sometimes very showy people pound it very fast and as the one kneading has to touch the mochi in between hits it can be a bit dangerous.

Thanksgiving weekend

Today is "Kinrou Kannsha no Hi" or "Work Thankgiving Day". Reiko and I are spending the day at home. I'm working on getting ready for my parents to come to Tokyo and Reiko is studying and watching the OC.


Reiko has been addicted to watching the show for the last week. She's rented all the DVDs from the local rental place and is already on Season 3.

This weekend was pretty fun. My parents are coming to Japan during new years and our and my family and Reiko's family are having a dinner to celebrate our wedding. So on Saturday, we went dress shopping for Reiko and picked out a nice dress for her. It was a bit more expensive than we wanted it to be but she needed to buy a lot since she didn't have any jewelry or shoes. After that we went out for yakiniku for dinner.


Yesterday we watched some of episodes of OC together and I made pea soup that my mom sent from the 'states. All in all it was a pretty good weekend.

Cirque De Soleil

Japan had a rare 5 day long weekend in September this year. It was lucky since it happened to fall the weekend after Reiko and I decided to get married. We spent the weekend mostly getting accustomed to each other and resting.

Reiko brought me home a Wii on Sunday which made my weekend. She also got Wii Sports Resort. We played a fair bit and I settled on ping pong as my favorite game while she likes cycling.

Today we went to see Cirque de Soleil performance "Zed" at their permanent Tokyo theater near Tokyo Disney Resort. The theater is small compared to say, the Las Vegas one but it great to finally see the Circus of the Sun.

Wedding

A lot has happened recently so it's hard to know where to start. The last week has been one of the best weeks of my life.

Last Thursday Reiko and I made it official. We went to the city office and got married. We had gone the previous week to pick up our wedding rings. The rings were hand made from scratch by the same jewelry maker that made Reiko's brother's wedding rings. The are very nice and have our 9/17 anniversary date and our initials inscribed on the inside. Other than size and that Reiko's has a small diamond in it, the rings are identical.



The jewelery maker also made Reiko's engagement ring. All the rings have platinum bands.



After that Reiko and I went out to dinner at the Imperial Hotel near Yuurakuchou Station. It was a very nice dinner so we dressed up.



After dinner the staff presented us with a piece of cake to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

The next day my coworkers took me out to eat to celebrate my wedding. The arranged for a private room for an hour and gave me a pillow with "yes" written on one side and "no" written on the other. You can guess what it means.

Reiko is Moving

Reiko has begun moving her stuff into my our apartment. I'm trying to come to terms with her stuff being here. The fact that we live in Tokyo means that we have limit space for stuff and this apartment will start to get mighty small once all her stuff arrives.



So I've been working on figuring out what I should get rid of and my desktop computer has become a prime target. I have a desktop PC but I have pretty much moved towards using the laptop exclusively since it's much easier to use and is mobile and small. The desktop PC is very tied down to the corner of my apartment whereas I can use my laptop in the bedroom, living room, or on the kitchen table. Whatever suits me at the moment. I feel like I want to keep it as it still works, I use it for some limited tasks, it has dual monitors, and most of all, perhaps, I've invested a lot of time in it. So I hate to see it go, but reality is that I just don't use it much. Reiko has suggested we get another desk for it and put it in the tatami room but I'm kind of on the fence about it since I'd rather use the laptop anyway.

iTunes won't take my money

iTunes refuses to take my credit card information because my credit card is not a Japanese credit card. I suppose it's because I'm using the Japanese localized version? I can't easily make a credit card in Japan because I'm not a permanent resident but I can't buy things using iTunes unless I have a Japanese credit card.

Not being able to have a Japanese credit card in Japan is all kinds of annoying. I have to buy things online COD so that I can pay for them without sending money overseas to my bank account in the 'states so that I can pay my credit card. Totally ridiculous.

Getting Married

Today I officially proposed to my girlfriend Reiko. She and I have been dating for 3 years and it's time we got married. I've been working towards getting married since a little less than a year ago. A number of things happened that delayed. I originally planned to propose last April. But my plan was shot down and I was pretty disappointed and was really not sure what I do. But today it's official. I'm getting married.

I'm not sure how we'll celebrate getting married. I'm almost positive we won't have a wedding in the traditional sense. It will probably be very low key. I'll probably know more in the coming months.