It has been so long since I have posted... I dont know where to start.
Firstly, Happy New Year to all. I hope this year is a good one for everyone. For Nemo and I, it looks set to be a busy and exciting year. Nemo started at his new job on January 4, and has already been trecking around Korea on a business trip for 4 days in his 3rd week on the job. As for my work front, we welcomed a new general manager for the Japan office the first day back in January, and well... let me just say things are certainly different and interesting, with Gramps on board. I call him Gramps because well, he is... I reckon he must be close to 65 if not more. He is an American but has lived in Japan for 30 years. I think he has a good heart and is a good person deep down, but I have serious doubts about what he can contribute to the company and a small office like ours with only 12 people in it now. Work has been so busy this first month back, and I havent been getting out of the office till rather late, sometimes 10 or 10:30pm. It means that by the time I get home it is 11:30 or so, and it is really getting to me. There have been days when I have seriously considering quitting the job, looking for something less demanding, less hours, and closer to home, or best working from home. But I am not quite ready to go freelance, especially with the wedding on the way, and Nemo just starting out at his new job.
Anyway, enough about work... let me fill you in on the wedding. We have sent out the invitations, and got most of the rsvps back. It looks like we will have about 30 people there, which will be lovely and intimate... just how we planned. We have chosen the flights for our honeymoon, and I will be booking them tomorrow. We are flying Austrian Airlines from Narita to Vienna, Vienna to Prague, before flying back to Vienna and on to Narita. The ticket includes domestic flights as well, and will set us back about AUD 1,800 per person. We will be gone for about 9 nights 10 days, and a honeymoon is about the only time in life when you can get far away and take a long break from work, so we thought lets just do it!!
Other wedding preparations are coming along, and my dress is currently in transit making its way to me. Our wedding rings have also been made and are ready for pick up, and we are set to meet with the chapel and reception venue in 2 weeks time to decide on the finer details of flowers and menu, etc.
We were supposed to do that today, but it snowed like crazy in the Big City today. I think we must have got between 5-7 cms of snow out here. We decided to stay in and postpone it till later in the month. These shots are taking from our 3rd floor balconies.





It is pretty to look out at but it is a pain in the butt to try and get around in. Tokyo isnt used to snow and so when it gets like this, the trains and buses get deleyed or cancels, and there are so many accidents on the roads. Today some 120 people were injured and taken to hospital, because they slipped and fell in the snow. They say that tomorrow will be worse, as the snow starts to melt and turns to slippery ice. Not looking forward to the commute to work tomorrow morning.
Back in early Janaury, I wrote a blog post in email, thinking that I would post it when I had time. This was back in the first week of Janaury and I am just getting to it now. This is what I wrote about my trip back home at Christmas...
My vacation just flew by! I left Japan on the 20th of December, arrived in Brisbane on the 21st and from then it was just non-stop! I went shopping and running errands everyday practically. I picked up my drivers license history so that I can transfer my Aussie license over to a Japanese drivers license, bought shoes, bridal underwear and a handbag for the wedding, bought the material to make the wedding invitations, made the invitations, bought flowergirl dresses for my two neices, braved the Boxing Day sales with my sister, and had many a delicious meal with the family. I also managed to catch up with my Aunt M, an old friend Joey and met her beautiful daughter Alice, and caught up with Cath B on the phone. It was great to hear everyone's news and see the family. But I did miss my Nemo while I was away. He came to pick me up from the airport on the 31st night, and he had sold the old (month old!) BMW coupe for a new BMW 750 series. Very nice car, but I just cant keep up with him when it comes to cars and gadgets!! We ate dinner on the way home and caught up with all the news.
On the 1st, we spent most of the day with Nemo's mum downstairs. She had made her ozoni soup dish, a tradiational soup that Japanese families have at the begining of each year and we nibbled on yummy treats while we sat under the kotatsu and chatted. On the 2nd, we headed over to Aunt and Uncle's place for a New Year meal. Nemo and Oji-san talked about cars, audio and the latest technology, while Oka-san, Oba-san and I served dinner and talked about random things like TV, work, the wedding, and food. It was a nice day, but I was glad to get home. I still hadnt unpacked and I had a lot to do at home. The 3rd was spent at home washing, unpacking and getting organised. Nemo started his new job on the 4th, and his winter work coat was still in a box in the spare room. He ironed his suit pants and packed his new leather work briefcase that I had bought him in Australia. I think he was looking forward to starting the new job, but also feeling a little aprehensive at the same time. It all seemed to go well though on his first day. It was mainly orientation, but they told him he would be heading to Korea at the end of this month for a 4-day work trip. On Friday last week, while Nemo was at work, I posted the wedding invitations, got a new mobile phone, and did some shopping for dinner, cleaned and vacummed the house, and packed away the Christmas tree. It felt good to have a lovely clean home, have dinner ready when Nemo got home, and I thought for a moment that I could quite easily get used to the idea of being a full-time houswife! But then I dont think I would like the idea of not being financially independant and having to ask hubby for grocery money each week. So today I am back at the office and feeling a little blah about being back at work. The holidays flew by way too soon.
So now that we are in early Feb, the schedule doesnt seem to be settling down, and we are still trying to catch up with people we havent seen in the new year yet. LAst month, we managed to catch up with James and Kyal at a bbq Kyal threw at his place, and I had dinner the week before with the fellas. Then last week Nemo and I had dinner with Richard and Haruyo, which was lovely. All these mates are invited to the wedding, and are all good friends of ours in Tokyo. We are yet to see a number of other buddies like Saxon, and Lisa and Momo, and Jun-chan. But we hope to catch up before the wedding sometime. This last weekend, we had Oji-san, Ob-san and Oka-san over for dinner last night. It was the first time for them to havea proper meal at our house, and it was a lovely night. Tonight we went down to Nemo's mum's place aand had dinner there. We took down some of the leftovers from the night before, we jsut had so much food left over it was insane!
All in all, a lovely yet busy weekend. I feel like I need another day at least to relax. Especially after working such long and late hours last week. Lets hope this coming week is a little less crazy, and more balanced.
I hope to be able to posts more regularly. The longer I left not posted the harder it was to try and catch up on all the news. But now it is up here! I finally did it! My first post for 2008, and it is already February 3! That is rather shamefull. So mnay friends have told me about how they check in and still no posts...
I guess with work, the new boss, Nemo's new job, the wedding plans and just being that busy time in the new year, the blog was so easy to let go... Please check back soon, for some more not-so-exciting adventures of Nooh Girl and Nemo in Tokyo!
XXX