明けましておめでとうございます！新年快樂! Happy New Year!

(Sorry this is so text heavy. Will see about adding photos later. Apparently I can't put them where I want if I upload on my phone?)

Happy 2013, everyone!!
I'm trying to post from my iPhone. I wonder if this will work. I once tried on my HTC Evo 4G, but that userface wasn't very good. I recently upgraded to a iPhone 5 and this seems much better ^_^

How was everyone's holiday? Does anyone still follow me? Haha. I've neglected this blog soooo much and for that I am really sorry. ごめんなさい！！

As customary, I should write about 2012 as a review. In short, had some of the best and worst times of my life.

Last New Years I spent with the bf at home. Low key, but fun. That winter brought financial and personal relationship problems up to the brim. I became very upset and depressed. I also was dieting and doing well, but it got to the point where I couldn't see the good in what I was doing. I was starving myself of happiness for the sake of a diet.

I have put on a lot of the weight I lost, and that is something I plan to work on in 2013. But I won't let a diet come in the way of enjoying my life.

In the summer, my boyfriend and I had a lot of conversations about us and where our relationship was going. We moved in together at the end of July. I know people say moving in together can ruin a relationship, but for us, it was the opposite. I think we are more close and more understanding of each other.

Since I moved, that also means I had to switch jobs. I now work as a barista at Starbucks. I love it there. It's a kind of stress that I think is good. You get all tired out and then you go home and you're free. I prefer this environment over my previous job which was all drama drama drama.

I also made some new friends and lost contact with a few others. But overall my personal relationships are moving in a positive way.

This New Year's Eve, we came to the Inner Harbor and stayed at a hotel. We went out for sushi and then saw the laser show. It was really cool! The lasers projected on the buildings!!

Then we walked to Starbucks and got lattes and walked back. I then got the most painful cramps I've ever had so we stayed inside. I was literally in tears at one point. Soo horrible.

But, they soon went away and my bf and I rang in the New Year with NBC and Times Square!

At Midnight, we did a toast for our dreams of 2013:
Get engaged, have a small civil ceremony, move to New York City, get my Real Estate Salesperson license, the bf move more into fashion photography, and enjoy life more!

That's a lot to accomplish in one year, but it all kind of works together.

Some other personal goals are definitely to work out more, to start taking better care of my health, and to visit Japan again.

And with that, Happy New Year to everyone!!
What are your New Year's resolutions? How did you spend the holiday?

That one time in Japan I served food at a festival....

Finally another update in the "That one time in Japan" series!

This time is when I served food at Kashima Elementary's festival. I believe is was a fundraising festival, but to be honest, it was in December and I didn't speak much Japanese then.

I was woken up one Sunday morning and my host mom said she was going to a festival ( for Japanese learners, 祭り=まつり= matsuri) at the local elementary school and asked if I wanted to go. I said sure, figuring it'd be a quick trip and definitely not realizing what an interesting day it would prove to be.

Once we arrived, I took a look at the stalls, which were filled with your typical festival foods and some activities for the kids. After the typical gaijin in a small town-craze, I was roped into helping sell food with random people my host mom knew. I was helping sell two dishes - some kind of mochi ball-thing and soup. The food, as yummy as it was, was not the reason this day was so much fun.... it was the four ojiisan's I got to work with!

When people would come to buy food, they would obviously ask who this crazy blonde gaijin-san was, why I was there, where I was from, etc. One of the guys spoke decent English, so he would help translate for me. Their answers were either I was their daughter, their mistress, sister-in-law, wife, cousin, twin, and very rarely, an exchange student. Sometimes they would say things in English which caused some confused faces of customers, but everyone working at the booth knew the game and would laugh together.

It was one the funnest days I had in Japan, and definitely one I will not forget!

I only managed to get one photo that day, but it was definitely the most important - a photo with my host mom and the ojiisans! (click for larger image!)

It was during this festival that I apparently said I would do the Japanese Speech Contest (I don't remember this) but regardless, that story is for another time.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

So... I have moved yet again!!! Now I am living with my boyfriend (and his family) just outside of Baltimore. I moved in at the end of July after hashing and re-hashing out the details and I do not regret it!

To say I disliked my last job was a severe understatement. BS Call-center work is so not for moi. BUT!! Since moving in, my boyfriend and I have gotten a lot closer and our relationship has improved 150%! I think couples often worry that moving in together can ruin a relationship because some couples are better apart than together. Luckily we are not shaping up that way.

We've started cleaning his room and making room for me, which is a huge step forward I think. I don't have all of my clothes, etc. because we still are shopping for some storage options. But I have a lot of ideas so I'm hoping it should be taken care of soon.

And speaking of ideas, I've been on this cooking binge lately. We've been dieting and exercising together and have just about stopped eating like crap (like we used to) but all I've been wanting to do it cook, cook, cook!

So tomorrow, I am going to cook for my boyfriend. I haven't decided what, so I'm going to look through The Food Network's recipes on their iPad app on the bf's iPad and through a couple of my cookbooks. My boyfriend said he also wanted to get red velvet cake mix, so we're going to make cupcakes.

I have a couple reviews to do of sushi/Japanese restaurants we've been to. I also want to do a "Japanese Food Lover's Guide to NYC" with reviews of restaurants, bakeries, cool stores, etc. that my boyfriend and I have found on our travels.

For anyone interested, I do have instagram - @stacywahh . And hello nippon!! 's Facebook fan page (that I created and haven't really updated) can be found here.

I'm doing a design overhaul so I will hopefully be simplifying the design to make it more user-friendly. But for the mean-time, who doesn't love that Pop Sister (RIP) scan? :]