A Japanese Wedding...

Earlier this month I was fortunate enough to attend not only my first wedding in Japan but also my first traditional Japanese wedding.  It was a beautiful and emotional event in which many a tear were shed (even from yours truly).

Here's a run down of how it went.

First was the meet & greet:

There ceremony itself was so quiet.  The priest (?) orated the ceremony.  There was sake drinking and exchanging of rings.

Then there were pictures:

(Lots of pictures.)

Then there was the reception which consisted of songs, speeches, and so much delicious food:

(Not all the food is pictured here.)

The party lasted well into the evening.  I think we finished after 9PM (11AM start time).

I have a lovely time and it was a wonderful and heartwarming ceremony.

I wish you two all the best, a long life together full of love and joy.

おめでとうございます！

Tales from The LG 12th Floor Garden...

Tokyo has been experiencing a heat wave this October.  Temperatures are reminiscent of summer.  While this is miserable to live through, it's good for my plants which are flourishing.

Here's an update.

I harvested some small beets.  (Small because of the container.)

Yellow tomatoes have started to come in:

Green peppers have come in (which is awesome because these plants were near death):

The other peppers have flowered so I expect red and yellow peppers soon:

New habaneros have come in:

Despite vowing not to buy any new plants because to the expectant winter, I couldn't help myself and bought this:

It's pineapple mint!  Who even knew that was a thing!  I didn't.  It smells lovely.

Everything else is fine.  My regular  mint outgrew its container and I also replanted a couple other things.  I had some caterpillar problems.  They destroyed 2 lettuce plants and a couple other plants are just hanging on.  I have no idea how they get to the 12th floor.  The conspiracy theorist in me thinks they put them in the soil to test how good of a gardener you are.

Anyway that's all the news from the garden front.  Happy gardening!

A vegetarian foodie in Japan...

Hi all!  I've been eating but I haven't had time to blog about it.

I made this Mexican Bean Salad:

It was delicious!

I made this tofu curry:

I couldn't find swiss chard so I just put it over rice.  It was okay.  Not the best curry ever.

I made this zucchini salad:

It was pretty much the best thing ever.

I made some chili:

I just omitted the meat in that recipe.

In Adventures in Dining I went to the New York Grill for my birthday:

 I tried truffles for the first time:

They made me a birthday sundae:

I had an awesome meal at a wedding (more about that later):

That's all the food news.  Happy eating!

Backlogged: Clothes...

October marks the busiest month of my entire calendar apparently.  I have been unbelievably busy and a quiet day at home seems like a distant dream.  This is my first quiet day in since September.  Geez.

Anyway, I am so backlogged on certain features of this blog including clothes, food and the garden.  I'm just going to post the clothes today minus the description.

August 27th:

August 30th:

September 8th:

September 13th:

September 18th:

September 24th:

September 27th:

September 28th:

September 30th:

October 2nd:

October 3rd:

October 4th:

October 5th:

October 13th:

Whew!  I promise not to get so backlogged next time!

A hug and a friend...

Well, I'm frustrated about learning Japanese...yet again.  Big surprise there.  I didn't mean to knock you out of your chair.

But seriously, cheerleaders really do help you learn.  You know what I mean:

"Good job!"

"You can do this!"

"Keep trying!"

"Don't give up!"

"You did it!"

"I'm proud of you!"

Just FYI if you're thinking of learning Japanese (I can't speak for other languages) but there is none of that here.  I don't know how people do it.  I don't know how people learn languages without going home and bursting into tears every night.  It's so unbelievably frustrating.  Maybe they had an early start, maybe they have "a knack for learning languages."  (I'm really envious of those people.)

But wait, you say!  "You have a Japanese boyfriend!  It should be EASY for you to learn Japanese!"  If this myth hasn't been debunked for you, here it is!  Having a Japanese S/O does NOT make it easier to learn Japanese.  Seriously, hit the internet for this one and read stories from people with the same experiences.  We speak English together.  He does it for me because he's super chivalrous and he wants to make things easier for me.  I love that he does this.  Believe me I'm not complaining.  But it doesn't help with learning Japanese.

I now no longer know the point of this blog.  Just to vent I guess.  Sometimes all I need is a hug and a friend to tell me "you can do this."  I am seriously lacking that right now.