Life By Lindsey Rae

I talked to my Japanese sister, Yuri, a couple of days ago and found out that they are coming to see me in October! I'm very excited!!! It's been 3 years since we've been together. The last time I saw them was when they came to Canada for our wedding. The only thing better would be if it were me going to Japan to see them!

I lived with Yuri and her husband, Hideaki, when I was living in Japan. (This picture is of us at the beach in Okinawa in July 2002...back before they had any kids and when I still had blonde hair.)

Watching this makes me wish I was here again...
Then again, I always wish to be in Osaka!



I love my home in Tennessee, but I also love Osaka.

Have you seen this rabbit anywhere?



This is probably the most famous picture of Oolong the rabbit; It's made it's way around the internet quite a bit.
I discovered Oolong a few years ago, when I was living in Japan, and spent quite awhile one night going through his website checking out the many many pictures of Oolong with random things on his bunny head.
You will not believe the number of pictures this guy has with things on the rabbit's head. Here's a little sample:






I have a link to Oolong's website in the sidebar, but you can also view it here.
This is in Japanese, but you don't need to understand it....just click on the links. No explanation needed...just see the pictures!
Unfortunately, Oolong has now passed away. However, I thought I would share this site, even though it's a little older. I think a bunny with random things on it's head never quite looses it's appeal!
Haha.

Yesterday I went up to our apartment Christmas party to get myself some free food. I always appreciate anything free. I guess that's why we pay the big bucks to live here. So we can get "free" food once a year. While I was there, I did see my neighbor, George, who is the elderly guy that lives in my building whom I mentioned a few weeks ago. Last time I saw him he was being carried away in an ambulance, and I hadn't seen him since, so I wasn't sure if he made it or not. But, I saw him yesterday and he told me that he had just spent nine days in the hospital from a staph infection. He didn't looks so good. He also seemed to have his speech slightly slurred, so I was wondering if maybe there was something else wrong with him. I didn't talk to him very much though because he said he had to get going so he could "talk to all the other pretty girls." And then he ran over my foot with his wheel chair.
As it turns out, tonight there was once again an ambulance, fire truck and two police cars that were by our building, I think come to take George back to the hospital. It's too bad.

Tonight was another free supper with Jerrod's work party. It was at the Opryland hotel once again this year. They did have a thing where they had a photographer taking pictures of everyone to give as a memento and you could pick up the printed picture after a few minutes. After much persuasion I was able to convince Jerrod to take a picture with me. Unfortunately, we both didn't think we looked good in it and now I am afraid I will never have any hope of getting Jerrod to take a picture again. Seriously, it's a concern. I don't know why it has to be so difficult, but it is.
When we were leaving the party, I saw my friend, Manami, working at the front desk of the hotel. I hadn't seen her in awhile and so I was really happy to run into her. I know she has been working there a lot, but hopefully when she has a day off I can get together with her again soon.
(Manami is from Japan and has done translations for my Japanese songs for me.)

Speaking of food, we also bought our fridge today. This is the one we got, excpet in black.It's an expensive little purchase, but it seems to be a necessary one. We got a Samsung with french doors.We were going to get the side-by-side originally, but decided on this one because there is more room for bigger things with French doors. Like, you can't really fit a large pizza box in the side-by-side. Although, I do prefer the side-by-side because it has the water dispenser on the outside of the door (along with lots of blue glowing lights). Ours does have the water filter/dispenser, but it's inside. Not as convenient for someone who drinks water all day like me, but I guess unless you have endless funds and can get your own custom made refrigerator, none will be absolutely perfect. You just have to balance the pros and cons with these sort of things.

Why does Sunday always come so quickly? It seems like as soon as we get home from church one week, it is almost time to go back again the next day; like the week always disappears somewhere in between.
We went over to Providence for a few hours this weekend and had a little lunch. (Cracker Barrel!! My favorite!) And then we also spend a few minutes window shopping. I went to TJMaxx/homegoods store and Jerrod ran over to Best Buy. While I was there I saw a Japanese family and heard them speaking Japanese. I decided to get brave and asked them if they spoke English, "eigo hanashimasuka?" And the Mother replied, "yes." So we ended up talking for awhile about then and me. I told her that I am a singer and she suggested she might like me help her daughter with some singing lessons. I told her that I'd also like to help her with English if she'd just speak Japanese with me. I need native speaker friends to practice with.
So, I gave her my card and will hope that she calls. It would be fun to meet to new Japanese people around here again!

Here's the all wonderful house pictures....kitchen is getting to look quite a bit like a kitchen. I really love the counter tops. They are almost my favorite thing! Kinda dirty right now, not too much to see, but anyway...

In my appartment complex, I had 4 people there used to talk to around here and it seems they are all disappearing.
First there was Mari; who was my good friend. She is Japanese and lived here until May before she moved back to Japan. We used to hang out quite often and she made me lunch and I liked that a lot because she was a good cook. I really miss having not having a Japanese friend near me.
The other three people I just talked to. One I don't even know her name, but I know she had a pug dog named Coach...I guess mostly I just liked to see Coach. But now Coach moved away.
The other was a girl who lived next door to me and has now moved also. I liked her because she liked my art and always came over to me when I was working on projects to tell me she was jealous of my creativity and that I inspired her to make a scrapbook, so that was nice. And finally, I talk to George, who is an elderly guy who seems to not be in good health. He has a motorized wheelchair and he zooms and I mean zooms around on that thing; driving up and down the street several times a day. For exercise he says. (I find that so funny because, obviously, it's the chair, not him, that's doing the moving.) He carries an oxygen tank with him as he zooms around. Funny thing was that I always saw him so often. Even when I was going over Vanderbilt, on the other side of town. As it turned out, we had the same physical therapist. Anyway, tonight a firetruck and ambulance came and took George away. So, I hope he will be ok. They weren't moving too fast though, so I was a little worried that maybe he had passed away after they got there. But, we saw they hook an IV up through the ambulance window and Jerrod said that was a good sign. So, hopefully he will come back and I will see him zooming around again. I'm a little worried about him now.

Last week, I had a special day where I was able to meet up with one of my friends that I knew from living in Osaka. My friend Wakana and her husband are living in the US right now, while he goes to grad school in Indiana and so they came for an overnight trip to Nashville and also brought her parents, who were visting from Japan.
We went to a coffee shop in the hotel they were staying at and were able to sit and chat for about 2 and a half hours. It was so fun to be able to see someone from Japan here in Nashville. We hadn't seen each other for about 5 years, so it was a nice little reunion and so nice to be able to talk about so many different things that have happened in life since we last met.

It amazes me sometimes how small the world really is and how you can unexpectedly end up meeting people from so far away, so close to home.

(First picture: Wakana and I at the live house in Osaka, 2002. Second Picture: Wakana and I in Nashville, 2007.)