So, it's another night-before-another-family-and-friends-get-together at my place, and my Best-Beloved and I spent the day rushing around doing grocery shopping, house-cleaning, and the like. After a much-needed one hour break (in the pool), we got back to work.

( Why I love this man )

Okay, it's late, I'm tired from wrenching out a battle scene in Mute, and I'm also a little punchy, but I couldn't help sniggering over a Yahoo headline that read ( Read more... )

I am sorry for my online absence (the recent one, not the yearlong ongoing one) and since I timed it badly (right in the middle of a muddle, so to speak), I feel I owe some quick explanations. I’m not mad or sulking or pulling a hissy fit: quite the opposite, in fact. I’m riding wings of writing inspiration, because finally, finally Hidden Paths is ( Read more... )

After having disappeared for so long, I thought I’d raise my hand and wave a bit, and let my friends know that I’m still alive.

In the preceding four weeks, I was away from LJ mostly due to work responsibilities. While battling my usual case of bronchitis (characterized by an annoying honking cough), I was trying to fulfill family interactions ( ( Read more... )

I'm going to bed very soon, but as it happens, I'm a little antsy and so I decided to do that Big Thing I've been putting off for too long.

Yes, that's right: updating my journal and coming back to life, so to speak.

Not that I've been dead...nooooo, no, no, no, no. Been a travelin woman and caught up in several projects that have unfortunately had ( Read more... )

So we just finished Thursday in Tokyo, did a hundred fun things (including visiting the neighborhoods of Shibuya and Roppongi), and further inflated my sense of competence and self-satisfaction at  navigating the Tokyo Metro and private subway lines in addition to the Japan Rail trains. Also successfully found a small Toshikane jewelry shop (tucked ( Read more... )

Okay, as I had promised the readers of the roku_japan journal, here's a recounting of the Typical Odyssey that happens on every family vacation, this one occurring on Saturday, April 7th in Kyoto.

The cast:  the complete Japan Roku-tachi--Mom, Dad, the Sequel, Tasuki, and me.
The task:  Find a restaurant for our last dinner in Kyoto.
The plot twist ( Read more... )

Sooooo, here I am, approximately 4 hours from the time my alarm clock goes off (because the Laws of The Way Things Go say that I can never get on a plane with more than 4 hours sleep under my belt), catching up with the Million and One Things Yet to Do before I leave for Japan.

Number One:  Learn to speak Japanese.
Number Two:  Learn to read Kanji.
( Read more... )

Well, after swearing off air travel for the next 100 years following last summer's trips to Europe, here I am meticulously planning a trip to Japan. This spring, no less.

Yep, crazy I know, but there are very good reasons for me to go, the best reason being Family. Chasing down my heritage and having three generations of the Roku clan together in ( Read more... )

I have nothing clever or amusing to say; merely best wishes to all of my friends and acquaintances for this year ( Read more... )