Busy Busy...

Its been a busy week this week, but a good week. Yesterday, it was my birthday and despite having to be locked up in a full-day meeting at a client in Roppongi Hills, the evening was spent at a lovely dinner in Kinshi-cho with the Mr. followed by a nice drive and desert on the way home. Mr. Nemo gave me a lovely beige cashmere scarf, and my day was filled with birthday wishes from near and far.
My birthday work day wasnt all that bad, as the weather was gorgeous that day and the view from the client's office was so lovely I took a snapshot on my mobile. This is what we could see, and if you look really closely you can see Mt. Fuji in the distance. (the tiny white speck over the mountains!!)

The day before was Mr. Nemo's birthday and as I was working from home that day, I cooked a lovely nabe dish and we had a nice intimate dinner in that night. On Tuesday a good friend of mine mailed from Hiroshima with birthday wishes and announced that he and his wife were expecting their first baby in the spring next year.
The week continues to look busy. I am working from home today and tomorrow, but on Saturday I have a full-day conference and workshop for the Japan Translators Association. The conference is all about the pros and cons of freelance vs in-house translation, how to set yourself up as a freelancer, the finances behind it all and what you need to know, visas for freelancers (not that that applies to me as I can always apply for a spouse visa), and also how to go about marketing yourself directly to clients without being reliant on agents. I am so excited about this conference and workshops as the timing couldnt be better considering my plan to go freelance early next year. As I have quite a few connections through my current work, I am not worried about finding clients so much, but it sure wont hurt to network and also hear others experiences and tips.
It is a long weekend coming up in Japan, so I am also excited about spending some family time at home with the Mr. and hopefully cleaning up and doing some organising in the spare room, which is starting to look like a storage room for all our bits and peices!! I think there might be some Martha-ing in store for us this weekend!
During the week, while at work, some random Japanese fella came up to me who works in our sister agency next door on the same floor. I had seen him around and about, but never spoken to him, and he asked me "are you XXX-san?" and I said yes... wondering why on earth he asked me that. He introduced himself and explained that he had heard that I went to Griffith Uni in Brisbane and said that he also studied there for 4 years, and spent 6 years in Brisbane. We actually graduated from the same faculty, and he was a few years behind me. After graduating he got a job at Dentsu, the leading Japanese ad agency, but quit and came to work for our sister agency a few months back. It was so weird and cool to talk "brissie" talk with him. We knew all the same places, had lived close by, and had hung out at the same joints just a few years apart. He also studied at the university where I got my Masters degree, so we had so much to talk about, and the whole experience was very sureal and a lot of fun! I never thought I would meet a Japanese person in my building that studied in the same faculty as me, and knew the ins and outs of Brisbane city!!!
This week, I also learnt a new word in Japanese. It is Mooko-hida, which refers to the epicanthic fold in the upper eyelid. I also learnt that Karaoke, actually comes from the words Kara meaning empty and orchestra! Does everyone know that or was I just a little slow? I love learning new words! I guess it is the linguist otaku (geek) in me!
I also got some pics from my sister during the week of my neices picking out their new puppy. These pics are of the girls with the 10-day old Wymerana pups. Their new pup will arrive on Christmas eve, which is all too exciting! The girls look so excited in these pics too, which makes me wish I was going home to share this special Christmas with them!