Give

Have you ever wondered what's our purpose in life? I think my purpose is to be a good mother and a decent human being to lead my daughters to do the right things when they face certain situations when they grow up.

I can admit, I'm not perfect nor an angel, but I think I stride every day to set a good example for my daughters. I see things differently now, all the things I didn't pay too much attention have more meaning to me than ever before: faith, kindness, respect, integrity, compassion... I've always believed in helping people in need, but I want to teach my chidren to understand why it's so important to open their arms, lend hands and just give.

It's been more than 10 days since the devastation of Haiti shocked the world. Outpouring support and help around the globe are still not enough to save every survivor.. But when horrible event like this happens, when I always feel the world comes crumbling down, I see goodness in people. People don't turn their head away - but they reach out, kids break their piggy bank and give their money to their mom to send in. And I know these are the things we can least offer to the world - GIVE...

If you have not donated to the vicitims of Haiti, visit :
*Shelter Box
*Help Haiti Now
*Unicef

Onsen - My Favorite Time -

One of the things I miss the most living in Japan is bathing in a tub. Unlike here in the U.S., people in Japan grow up bathing every night in the tub after washing our body outside of the tub. When I first time came to this country and saw the bathroom, I couldn't believe my eye because the toilet and the shower tub were in the same room. In Japan, the toilet room and bathroom are located in the different places...

For the past week or so, my daughters finally started to take shower by themselves. I know this sounds weird to you, but I used to take shower with them and wash their hair and body and sing songs together. And that's what I miss being in Japan because taking bath together is part of Japanese culture.

Let's talk about "Onsen"{hot springs} for example: Japan is volacanic islands and there are plenty of hot springs all over the cities and towns. We call it "Onsen" - Students go to "onsen" for school trip or family and friend go on vacation to different "onsen" all over Japan. We even have co-ed onsen where ladies and gentlemen bathe together. We say "hello" and talk about nothing and everything. It's where people meet and socialize. Hot springs come from under ground which contains different types of mineral which is very good for your skin. You can see Tom Cruise dip his body in onsen in the movie "Last Samurai"

Anyways, even still today, I take a bath with my sister or my mom if I go back to Japan or even here in the US although bathing in the tiny/shallow tub is kind of hard to do that. We wash our back and talk about our lives. I simply miss taking the bath where I can sit in the tub and let warm water cover my whole body. It feels so great...

Have you ever been to onsen before??

Enjoy the photos of onsen in Japan - see you want to visit, right????

Friends

At around 9:30pm tonight, my BFF K called me and asked me if my husband was working tonight and if I could come over to her house. She lives across the laske from me and it's only a few minutes away. "What's wrong?" I asked. "I may have to go to the hospital," she said. I could tell from her voice that something was wrong and she said her mom was coming to take her to the ER.

She is a single mom, raising her daughter M who is the same age with my daughter Ju Ju. M and Ju Ju have been best friends since they were not even a year old. Anyways, K wanted me to come over and watch her daughter while K and her mom go to the ER. Thank goodness, JT had the night off, so I was able to come over.

I'm typing this entry via my BlackBerry sitting on her counch in her house. There is no fansy picture to post, but I'm waiting for her to come home. She is fine; she has called me twice to let me know that the docs are running some tests and her mom will be home around 3am.

The thing is I don't have many friends here in Florida. I know a lot of people, but there are only handful that I can call friends. And K is one of my real closest friends. I tend to miss Hawaii because that's where all my good friends are and I get homesick all the time thinking about them. But my life in Florida is better because of my friendship with K; my life here is fun and meaningful because of the way K and I have become as more like sisters and real family. I love her dearly and I'm fortunate to have her in my life.

So, I'm glad that she asked me for help and I'm glad that I could help. Afterall, my husband is watching the girls, so I should enjoy the stillness or the calmness in this house while K's daughter sleeps (Thanks to my husband who didn't hesitate to tell me to go to help K.)

By the way, I have been wanting to visit all of your blog, but because of the situation and I'm on my BB, it'll be later tomorrow. Thanks so much for all of your kind comments and I can't wait to catch up!

xoxo

My Favorite Sweets...

It's no secret that I love chocolate, especially dark chocolate. I have tough time stop eating them once I start - it's really bad. I justify my binge on dark chocolate by telling myself that dark chocolate is good for you. Did you know?

Dark chocolate is known to lower the high blood pressure, unlike milk or white chocolate. Also, dark chocolate contains large amount of antioxidants (one study suggests 8 times more than found in strawberries!!!" The taste is so much richer and deeper (yeah? It's not called "dark" for nothing! LOL) than milk chocolate. It tastes healthy indeed!

Oh dark chocolate, I heart thee..

So, do you like chocolate? Do you like dark, milk or white???


P.S. Thanks so much everyone - I feel 75% better tonight. I almost wanted to ask my daughter to stay home because I was so miserable in the morning to take her to school. Of course I drove her to school, but I went back to bed after coming home. I realized sleep is the best remedy for the cold. Stay warm everybody!

Got Cold?

Today's post is going to be short and sweet.

Okay, I'll cut to the chase - I am sick. But I've commited myself to post every frickin' day, 365 days, so there you have it.

This post is to say that I'm sick and I'm miserable. So I'm going to bed..

Wait, does this count as one post or am I cheaing?

But I can't type any longer....... I hate cold. Hate it.

Night night!

My Pet Peeve

I'm going to be direct: One of my pet peeves is nose hair. I get turn off by it very quickly. It doesn't matter if it's my dream man Christian Bale or Brad Pitt or George Clooney - if I spot some hair saying hello from their nose, that's it - our love affair is over.

Back in college years, I briefly dated this guy who was very attractive. He was also a student and we frequented at a local internet cafe to study (do you remember we used to have these cafes all over the place before?) One night while we're studying, he started complaining that his nose was itchy. I had already spotted his nose hair peeking out a few days prior, but didn't know how to bring it up. I was hoping, "It won't be there tomorrow.." - but it's still there the next day. I was talking to myself in my head while looking at him, "Dude, your nose is itchy because of that hair... Can you please cut them or do something?" Then this happened.

Him: "Damn, this is annoying, I have to check and blow my nose.." (then he stands up and goes to the bathroom)
Me: "Oh, okay.." (YES!! Today is the day. He'll see it - he'll know why it's itchy!)

A few moments later, he comes back. I check, it's still there. Big big sigh... He ended up complaining throughout the night about his nose, I wasn't strong enough to tell him why his nose was itching. I wish I had the nerve to tell him, "Honey, you know, you need to trim that hair -then it wouldn't bother your nose so much.." But I just couldn't. And I stopped seeing him.

And there is reason why I'm afraid of nose hair so much. I grew up watching my dad always trimming his nose hair (excuse me for repeating the words) in front of the mirror and listened to him constantly telling me and my sisiter it's important to check our nose before going out. He used to tell me, "It doesn't matter if you're beautiful or a princess, it's not attractive to see hair peeking out from your nose, so make sure to check every day." It's funny, but it's true.

So, one of the first things I look when meet new people is nose. I know it sounds crazy because it's such a little thing to focus, but it's a huge thing for me... When it comes to my husband, I have no problem telling him about it and he usually tells me to pluck it right then and there using my tiny tweezerman that's always in my makeup bag. It doesn't matter if he's driving, I lean over and do it from the passenger seat.

I just love looking at the clean nose..

So do you have any pet peeve???

My Love for Music

I love listening to music. I'd much rather listen to my favorite tunes than watchin TV. As a matter of fact, I'm listening to music as I type this post. It's been raining since 7pm here in FL and my girls and their friend M are doing sleep over at our house. It's really nice to see the kids running around and laughing and hearing the sound of thunder and rain as BGM. Here are some of the songs that we listened and actually, it's quite relaxing....

I used to go to this restaurant on the North Shore, HI to see him play live - it's long before he became famous... He was really great then, and now? Forget it. I can't believe how awesome he is...

Sarah's voice is very calming and this song is definitely my favorite song to listen to when I'm in such hectic mode...

Sade is my idol. I grew up listening to her voice because my dad played her albums all the time... I wish she writes more songs. I love this tune - so beautiful..

My husband and I have very different taste in music. But we share our passion for Sade and Bob Marley. And some of the stuff he listens to are simply great. Morcheeba is one of them. I had never heard of them until I met my husband 9 years ago - when he played theri CD for the first time, oh my goodness, I couldn't believe it. He totally surprised me...