Okaaaasan, Obaaaachan!!! (Mooom, Grandmaaa!!!)

around my house in Japan

i love you guys!!!

special lunch :D

oishiiiiiii :D (delicious)

I just called my mom. She was with my grandma so we talked almost 2 hours!!! Wow....I feel a lot better about everything :) We just talked about my school stuff, my life here and Japanese economy.. haha It's been a long time to talk with them and I realized I miss my family especially my mom and grandma a lot. We always hung out together..going to the shopping center and eating lunch and drinking coffee at starbucks :) They were at shopping center as usual when I called them. I felt like I wanted to be there!!! I'm so glad to know that they are doing ok, though.
I just looked at pictures when I took at grandma's house. I was with mom, grandma, aunts and uncle. It's really natural picture and I like it :D If I think about me going to grandma's, it always reminds me of "grandma and aunt's special lunch". haha I've grown with it and I've always loved it. My aunt's onigiri (rice ball) is the best in the world. All of my family knows about it. haha Of course I ate it in the morning on the day I left Japan. I really miss her onigiri. Their special lunch comes with onigiri, yudetamago (boiled egg), toumorokoshi (boiled corn) and cold green tea. Ito family's classic! hehe ughhhhh, I wanna eat it!!!!
I really can't wait that they are coming to Vancouver!!! I've looked for some of Japanese restaurants for my grandma and searched for the buildings have washroom for my mom. haha My mom is easy to get stomachache if she feels there is no washrooms in the place we go. hmmm, I guess I'll dream about them tonight. haha
Oyasumi my family in Japan☆

Pumpkin!!!

hahaha!!! nice shot :)

first step : draw the shape

second step : carving!!!

third step : put the candle inside

final step : turn off the light.......GREAT!!!

Yaaaay :D Another new experience!!! Halloween is coming this Friday so my host family and I carved pumpkins tonight!!! The pumpkin was much bigger than I expected actually...haha I was thinking what kinda shape I made. Andy asked me to draw something about Japan so I carved as "ドラえもん" (doraemon, Japanese kids character)!!! Actually.....it's a lot like a cat :( haha We put a candle inside a pumpkin and turned of the light...............CUUUUUUTE :D :D :D I really can't wait Halloween!!!!!
Tomorrow we are gonna have a big fight with "HIM"....., but we can say "good bye" to him tomorrow finally!!! Yaaaaay :) After that, maybe we are gonna spend some hard time with, this time, "HER". haha She is really tough too. I sometimes can't understand what she explains to us.... right, Lily, KyungMi, Shirley, and Betty? hahaha Well, I'll just do my best ;) With me luck!
I just downloaded new south park! yaaaay!!! I can watch it tomorrow night :) Hope I can see Butters there!!! hahaha
If you catch a cold and have a fever, keep warm and drink a lot of water!!! You'll be ok soon :)
Good night!

PNE!!!

yaaaay :) three sisters!

witch and .... another witch?!?

entrance at PNE!

they were coming suddenly...

good picture☆

Hi everyone! I'm sorry about late post. I had kinda hard time past a few weeks. Well, if we pass this Thursday, we can forget about "HIM". haha
My friends and I got warm colorful hats at american eagle!!! We are like three sisters!!! haha On the skytrain, woman asked us to take a picture of us! hahaha It's getting really cold out here so I'm glad to get this nice blue hat :)
Now everyone is excited about Halloween :D My friends and I went to PNE (amusement park). During Halloween season, it opens untill late at night. Actually PIE says "Mon-Sat. 6 p.m. to untill late. haha There were so many people there, but we tried a lot of rides!!! It was so funny to go to a haunted house!!! One of my friend (sorry Lily!) was really refused to try that, but haha we just held her and didn't let her go! haha Actually inside the haunted house it was so scary!!! Monsters were following us and we were just screaming and running away! I wanna try it again! haha Well, I can't ride roller coasters, but I tried it!!! Mom, you gotta proud of me!!! haha It fell down twice and went up side down twice..... FUN :D Of course I'm still scared of falling down, but it was fun :) Nice try Aoi!!!!
I can't wait to come Halloween!!! And then, Gabriella's first birthday :D Yaaaaaay!!! I'll help Ippo (host mom) to decorate our house!!! November is gonna be busy month! I gotta resister classes for next semester and pay for it. I gotta talk to my academic advisor too! Hope everything goes well :)
If you feel cold, drink some hot chocolate infront of the fire! That's Anna's and my favorite time at night :) Andy is good at making fire!!!
Have a good night everyone! Smile in your dream :D

Thanks Giving

good candles☆

lots of yummy foods!

pumpkin pie, yaaaay

light up!!!

Another new experience today! October 13th is Thanks Giving day in Canada and we had a party today. About 15 people gathered and ate BIG turkey with wine :D It was SO good!!! We ate and talked with listening to the music. Sometimes we danced! hehe After turkey, it was sweets time!!! Everything was homemade and it was just wonderful. We made coffee and enjoyed them a lot :D Nick, George and I made rum coke too!!! haha Since I came here, I haven't drunk at all so I was so happy to drink it! hehehe I felt a lot tonight how much I enjoy my life here. Nick asked me if I miss Japan or not.....I was like "not at all" hahaha This is what I've wanted to do for a loooong time so I'm glad I'm here now. People around me are really nice and they always listen to what I say. If I speak English, I can communicate with people. It's really cool feeling. haha I wanna communicate with people from all over the world. It's one of my reasons why I study English I think :D
It's midnight and my brain doesn't work anymore. The bed are saying "Aoi chaaaan, time to go to bed!!!" haha Have a good night!!!

Daisooooooo!!!!! :D

Daisooooooooooo!!!

cheap and usuful items☆

always here♪

love starbucks!

Today, my friends and I went to Richmond! There are a lot of Chinese people live there so we called it China city. When I got on the bus, I could see only Asian and I didn't feel like I was in Vancouver! hahaha After we ate lunch, we went to the shopping mall. I found a "Daiso" there!!! It's a Japanese version of "one dollar store"!!! I was so happy because everything was from Japan and I could listent to Japanese songs there. I spent about $30 there actually.....haha I never spent that much when I was in Japan, but you know.....I sometimes need Japanese stuff too :) I could find a sigh which says "笑う門には福来たる" (third pic). It means that if you laugh, lots of happiness comes to your life. It really represents my life I guess. I always laugh, I mean mostly, and I can be happy all the time. hahaha :D
After we went to Daiso, we went to starbucks which we always went at the end of the day. I drank "cafe mist" and got "banana loaf" YUM :D We always talk a lot at starbucks! It's really good to have friends who have same kinda goal, which is studying English. And also we talked about how cool to have freedom! hehe I can't wait to have lots of memories with them from now!!!
We've been starting to decorate halloween stuff at house!!! It's so FUN and they are so CUTE!!! I'm not gonna put pictures of them yet though! hehe I'm thinking what I'm gonna be!!! Anna will be a sleepy and beauty so..... maybe a witch??? I'll go to a store and think about it!!!
Ok, I just got hot cocoa with my family infront of the fire! It was a really good time :) It also makes me sleepy...☆
Hope everyone is having a good dream!!! Good night :)

Kimono, Yukata and Hakama :D

kimono!! red is the most popular color!!!

yukata at summer festival :)

graduation day with hakama!!!

Almost all of my friends here are confused if I tell them we have three kinds of kimono in my country, Japan. haha I'll put my pictures of them and then, you can understand it!!!
First picture is kimono which everyone thinks about if they talk about kimono. It's really beautiful and has lots of colors :D Usually girls wear it at ceremony when they turn to be 20 years old. The problem is...... it's really REALLY hard to walk!!! hahaha And it's really TIGHT around our chest :(
Second picture is yukata! It's a komono for summer :) It's much lighter than kimono and easy to wear!!! Girls wear it when they go to summer festivals :D I don't know why but it's really common to wear colorful one like pink or light blue or yellow for young childrens. As we grow up, dark colors such as black,navy blue or purple are popular. I guess it's kinda sexy to wear dark yukata.....maybe hahaha :D :D :D
Last one is hakama!!! It's for university graduation :) It's really easy to wear and easy to walk! haha There are two clothes together and one is kinda skirt from our chest. Our graduation is in March so it's really cold outside to walk with hakama...haha

I love to wear these traditional clothes even though it's hard to walk or anything!!! :D I think it's really beautiful and I want a lot of people from all over the world to try to wear them!!!
I hope everyone could understand the differences among these clothes :)
Again, these are REALLY beautiful!!!! hahaha

Our weekend started!!!.... but I can't eat anymore...

Chinese hot pot

one of my class

freindly girl, Laula

Photographer Anna

One of my favorite times at school......it is when we just finish our class in the afternoon on Thursday. When my cool blue watch showed me it was at 4:15 today, I looked at my friend and we said "5 more minutes untill we get 4 days off!!!" hahaha Everyone seemed SO happy even though we got much homework for long holiday.
I went to Crystal Mall in Metrotown to eat Chinese "hot pot" tonight. We really enjoyed good dinner there :D That restaurant had "All You Can Eat" style and we ordered a LOT. I couldn't believe that, but it was WAY too much. We totally forgot that if we can't eat everthing, we have to pay extra money. BUT...it was too late. Even other customers looked our table because of many foods... We started to laugh...well, we couldn't do anything except laughing :( What we learned today is..... do not order way to much even though its "all you can eat" style. hehe After we ate, we couldn't move... and it was hard to breath... hahaha It was a really time though and I was so happy that I could hang out with my friends here :D

Now I'm thinking what I'm gonna do tomorrow. Of course I have to finish my homework, but I think I can finish earlier and I'll watch some of my favorite movies!!! I gotta be close to them again untill I go to Denver in December :) Right, JD??? hahaha (Finally!!!!)
It's still at 10:30, but I'm so sleepy.... I'll take a shower and go to bed.
Have a good night everyone!!! If you have an important interview or something, keep having your smile and everthing is gonna be OK :D
Oyasumiiiiiii☆ (Good night)

Today is ...... Yaaaay!!! Thursday :D

my fav, blue sky pic!!

nice place to walk

Queens Park

Good morning everyone! I woke up kinda early and am eating an apple now :) Yum!!! You know today is Thursday!!! Yaaaaay :D End of the week and we have 4 days offffff!!! It's really good feeling to wait for weekend coming! Today, my friends and I are going to eat hot pot as dinner!!! It's kinda early to eat hot pot, but it should be good to eat it with lots of people :D I'll take pictures and put them here tonight!
Have a good day everyone :D

Stars, Ramen and Kids!!!

pajamas girls

wiiiitch

takoyaki, karaage and okonomiyaki

Raaaaaaamens!!!

Yaaay, I just finished my writing assignment :) It's getting easier to write a paragraph or summary ! ii ne :D
I think a lot about my academic courses recently even though I still don't know if I can pass 300 or not. haha When I talked with my academic advisor, Gail, it was so fun to think about me studying Internatinal Studies here. In 1st year, I have to take general studies so next semester, I'm gonna take Astronomy! This course is at night 7-10 p.m to watch stars or the moon!! It's so exciting to me :) I LOVE stars especially in winter!!! I don't know what they are called in English so I'm gonna study a little bit during my winter vacation. I'm gonna take third language as Chinese too! I already have second language as English so I don't have to take Mordern Language, but it's fun to learn language!!! I already studied a little little little Chinese in Japan and my Chinese friends were kinda surprised when they heard my Chinese! They are gonna be my teachers! and I'll be happy to teach them Japanese if they want to! That's my one of dream that teaching Japanese to people from different countries. I don't decide what I want to be, but I guess I'm starting to have kinda outline for my life after studying at Douglas :)
It's still on Monday, but I already think about this weekend. haha Because next Monday is Thanks Giving, we have 4 days off !!!! yaaaaaaay :D On Thursday, my friends and I are going out for dinner at nabe( hot pot) restaurant!!! Maybe Friday is for my homework day and...Saturday is kinda event on every Saturday that my Korean and Chinese freind and me going out for lunch at each countries restaurant! Thia week is Chinese food! Yaaaay :) On Sunday, my host family and I are going to "pumpkin pauch". I don't know exactly what it is, but it's about Halloween anyway! haha And on Monday, we are having Thanks Giving party!!! Wow, when should I finish my homework...? haha We'll see :P I'm sure I'll take bunch of pictures on this weekend and I'll update here :) Otanoshiminiiiii (please wait for cute pictures from me!)
Last Saturday my friends and I went to T&T market to buy raaaaamen (noodles)!!! T&T is Chinese super market, but they have Japanese and Korean stuff too! We recommended to each other our favorite ramens! hahaha I don't eat it yet....hmmmm, itsu tabeyou kana?(when am I gonna eat?) I'll show it to my host family and we can eat together!!!
Last night, Anna couldn't sleep so we played a little bit in my room with Ippo(host mom). I love this picture that me and Anna are in. On weekdays, I have a lot of homework so I can't play with her much...gomenne!(sorry!). But, we can play a lot on weekend!!! Now her favorite is Ariel (From Little Mermaid) so I downloaded "Little Mermaid" for her! haha Maybe we're gonna watch it together on this weekend! We always dance together if we hear the music from TV :)
Ok, it's about midnight so I'm gonna get some sleep! I have school tomorrow from noon so i can sleep a lot :D :D :D Have a nice dream everyone! Have a good afternoon my friends in Japan!!! Waratte ne :) (Smile~!)