2014!

First off, Happy New Year! I know I'm a little late, but you know how the holidays are. With the holidays come family obligations. Well, it is no different in Japan. For Christmas it was just the fiance and I, but New Years is when things got crazy!

We adopted 2 stray kittens that had taken to sleeping on our balcony. With the weather becoming colder and since we were feeding them anyway, we thought we would take them in. The above photo is of Sammy. He is the toy destroying, cry at odd hours of the night kitten, whereas his brother, Wiley, is quiet and fairly calm. Our older cat, Monta, likes Wiley, but Sammy and Monta have a love/hate relationship. Wish us luck that things get better between those two.

To ring in the New Year, we went to a shrine that is famous for having about 1,000 fox statues. We went to the Toyokawa Inari shrine/temple. An interesting point about this place is that there is a temple next to a shrine. I'm pretty sure this is highly unusual for a temple and shrine to be on neighboring properties. Anyway, we arrived around 11pm and there were so many people planning to do the same thing as us. Pray at the temple and shrine to start off the New Year on the right foot. I did take some photos. You can find them on my Instagram account (victoriamarie2104) along with many other photos I have been taking recently.

For New Years, relatives that you only see once a year get together. Since my fiance's family and relatives live in the Nagoya area we got together with them. Jan. 1 was with his father's side of the family. There was about 13-14 people and about 6 of them are in one family! Oh man, it is taking me some time to remember their names. It really doesn't help that we meet only once a year.

Jan. 2 is when we meet my fiance's mother's side of the family. There aren't as many people, but since it was the first time for me to participate in the dinner it was a lot of names to, again, remember. Since there are so many people we have to meet at restaurants. Unfortunately, both times it was at Chinese restaurants. The only good news is that they were two different restaurants. The bad news is I saw 4 1kg boxes of MSG at the second restaurant, that can't be good for me. lol Oh well, it tasted fine and I had no adverse reactions to the food.

The down side to all this action was that I caught a cold just 3 days into the New Year. Apparently, it is a cold that everybody (at least in Nagoya) seem to be catching. Luckily, I was able to recover in a week!

So, with all this that happened I didn't have time to make New Year's Resolutions. Honestly, I usually don't, because I feel that if I do then I will never follow through with them. Instead I make goals throughout the year. The beginning of the year is not the only time to start new goals.

To be honest, I think this year will be a great one at least for the fiance and I, mainly because we are getting married this year! We will get married in October in Hawaii. This is the main reason why I haven't been blogging recently. I will be planning our wedding without a wedding coordinator, making some things for the wedding and it will all be out of the country. That is probably my biggest "goal" of the year is to put together our wedding. Luckily, my fiance is willing to help, I have my matron of honor and my mother who will be lending a hand as well. I have the major items on the list checked off and it is the smaller details that I will be working on. I may actually start posting some of the things that I make for the wedding and then show the completed effect at our wedding. For the DIY stuff I am using things I found in Japan, for example washi paper and washi tape! So far, pinterest has been very useful at teaching me some DIY projects for weddings.

Long story short, I will try to keep posting, but my instagram account has been getting more love recently, since it is so much easier to access on the go. Please check out my Instagram account (victoriamarie2104)  and follow me as 2014 progresses! Here's to a great year!

XOXO

Victoria