http://intmag.org/

I forgot to post this earlier--some of you asked about the Internationalist, the magazine I was working for (I quit a little while ago) and this is a link to its website.

After I worked there w/the communications director, I became a 'staff reporter' and my one and only article (I interviewed James Rumford, a children's book author/illustrator) is posted on the site's main page right now. Who knows if I'll submit another--I'm looking into working for a local arts organization right now--but it's there if anyone is interested!

Paul, Vi, Spills...i'm still thinking about fuji rock! we'll see if I can scrounge the money together... :)

wellington's back...

...and he's brought the whole team.

I missed you, buddy. what a wonderful weekend among the wheatfields...and ultimate frisbee fields--go Bittersweets! :)

chopped it off again...

pre-funking karaoke on bo's birthday (hells yeah!), pre-haircut
post-haircut...duh...showing off our newly-planted herbs (yes mom, legal ones): rosemary, oregano, cilantro, and peppermint

pike place market

and just when it's starting to get too cold...

two weeks of fun in the sun! I was pretty excited to be home in honolulu after being away for a year and a half.
Hawaii Kai snapshot from the car.mom, the girls, and Bach the lovable terror-cat.
My old choir friends and I meet each year to go xmas caroling...super dorky, I know, but sooo much fun! and sometimes we're given cookies. we're all spread out over the world now (seattle, san fran, colombia, ecuador, japan, boston, etc) so it's pretty cool we can still get together over the holidays.
present-opening time in our living room, w/my dad's side of the family on xmas morn.
the cousins (brennan's taking the pic) ditched the fam soon after xmas brunch and hit up kaimana beach.
Then after xmas dinner at my grandma's place (w/mom's side of the family), we always sing carols around the piano. grandma can sightread anything, it's awesome. And cameron and trent are so big now...I feel old. what a year and half away will do to you...!
pretty view of koko head and hawaii kai from grandma's condo.New year's eve day--always brunch at the gilmar's. Here's the family photo that accompanied our new year's letter: mom, yours truly, dad, grandma, jo and her boyfriend josh.

adopt-a-family

liza and I rounded up our soccer team and we adopted two families for christmas through the boys and girls club...and went kind of overboard...but it was fun to wrap it all! (yup, I'm on a soccer team--actually two! both coed, one indoor, one outdoor...and it's awesomely fun. I have you to thank, guch girls, for inspiring me to start playing. having kim as a friend helps too...)

hello, winter

eliza and her niece, tana, putting birdseed in our backyard feeders.


liza, watson, and tana rei
tana in front of our house (it took me a while to put those icicle lights up...and then the huge storm happened here and nearly ripped them off. but having sleepovers in candlelight was fun--we were only out of power for 3 days; my aunt was out for a week!)

goodbye, autumn

to beat the traffic along rainier ave, this is one of my favorite routes home--lake washington blvd. so beautiful in the fall.

highlights from oct. and nov.

Celebrated my 24th at my favorite thai place in seattle; me and my girls, plus paul looking goofy (visiting liza from japan for thanksgiving)
me and my boys
playing DDR, curses, trivial pursuit, and apples-to-apples at the whute house down the street!
Senior editor Nick's birthday (yup, the one in the dress).
bo and trista's housewarming cocktail party. (It's hard to tell here, but we match the kitchen.)
Steve Irwin meets Jem.
DIXIE CHICKS CONCERT!!! (see the shirt? :)

Issue Release Party

I've been interning at the Internationalist magazine since October, working as the Communications Associate, but now since we're going strictly online, I'm still doing communications-type things, but also acting as Assistant Editor to the Ed. of the Society & Culture section. We're not going to launch until about mid-Feb, but I'll let you guys know. This is from our November issue-release party, the last print-edition of the mag for...a long time...maybe ever. It was great to see such a good turnout and to have all my friends come to support me. The after-party wasn't so bad either. :)

Camping at Deception Pass

playing catch-up

I kept meaning to put the photos from the last few months in Japan (when I was slacking on updating) but now I have to play catch-up on Seattle, starting in the fall. Too many of you have facebooked or my-spaced...and I guess it's time to show my parents where I've been living too, haha. Eliza and I have been living in a gorgeous little two-bedroom house in Columbia City since October.eliza & I threw an informal house-warming party. then we washed and waxed our hardwood floors and threatened any indoor shoe-wearers with their lives.
our lovely kitchen, nicely stocked.
view from inside my bedroom, looking out into our big backyard (wasn't that a kids' mag?)
the girls on our deck, loving fall colors, but waiting for warm summer afternoons of barbecues and bocce ball.

view from our deck, looking out toward the backyard.

*JEM!*

Learn English

In honor of the world cup's host country...

Fukuoka Wedding

Sachiko and Daisuke (he's my maternal great-grandfather's grandson...not so distantly related at all!)
My relatives from Kyushu.
Daisuke's university friends (they got up and lip-sang a boy band pop song...it was hilarious)
I met my 2nd? 3rd? cousin (once? twice? removed) on the day of his wedding in Fukuoka.
As my first wedding in Japan (my JTE is getting married in a few weeks), it was definitely the strangest wedding I've ever been to. No religious ties whatsoever, the 5-minute "wedding" was emceed by an energetic Japanese woman who sounded like a game-show host, complete with calls upon the audience for applause at random intervals. After the couple held their hands up to show their rings had been placed upon their fingers, they sat down right where they were and the reception started and we all began to eat. Just cut right to the chase.

SUMO!!!

Moving on thru may (i know it's the end of june...)

enjoying the beauty of Hagi in may