Hiromi Usagi!

Sayaka and Rob’s wedding was yesterday: the ceremony was at Tsurugaoka hachimangu (shinto shrine) and the reception was at Kamakura Prince Hotel. It was a nice and small, very intimate wedding, which I think, great. The location was very nice, and the ocean view was breathtaking for sure. Too bad that it started rainning in the night, luckly after the wedding reception.

I met Sayaka’s friend who used to live in Chicago and came back here several months ago. We stayed in the same room with Aki who went to Cornell College for one year at my junior year. We chatted until 2 a.m. We talked about so many different things–we didn’t talk about boys!!! haha…weird, huh? Aki works at NPO organization which helps foreigners living in Japan. There are so many problems around them, and their basic human rights are barely protected…I have to say—inhumaine… One illegal foreign worker lost his fingers while working at a factory, but couldn’t complain to anyone because he was afraid of losing the job and being deported. He got arrested due to his over-stay and told that he had to go back home and couldn’t come back to Japan for good…so he decided to complain about his finger accident… this is just one of thousands and thousand of stories…How horrible is that? Aki is helping many foreigners who cannot afford lawyers or health insurance or whatever basic neccessity as human beings. very sad… Once I was a foreigner who struggled with not only cultural differences, but also strict immigration laws, so I am very sympathetic…It was very nice to see Aki again! I will hang out with her again for sure.

Aya, Sayaka’s friend, and I shared so much thoughts last night, about being a foreigner, grad student, and Japanese woman. Many people from Japan who studied at Cornell had a hard time adjusting a new life after coming back to Japan. Sayaka’s mom who is a psychiatrist kindly suggested that I should take a long rest and not worry about a job or anything. She even said that it is ok to spend a few years to find a job, because I already worked a lot. oh…that was very very nice… no wonder why Sayaka is so great.

At the wedding reception, I sat with Cornell friends, Chiaki, Kayo, Yumiko, Toshiko, Aki, and Sayaka’s close friends—-so many pretty ladies!! They are all amazing as you can imagine. It was a reunion for us, and we all had a great time.

After this trip, I came home and checked email, Kumi, a good friend of mine from highschool told me about a cool restaurant/ gallery space in Tokyo. I think we are going to go there together some time soon! pretty exciting! I checked their website, which looked pretty cool and they do many workshop-like get together—watching movies, knitting together, sharing creative thoughts and business ideas, and writer’s workshops!

I am very excited!!! Harper said he might? come visit me soon!! Yey