Here's a little pop culture Japanese lesson for those of you unfamiliar with the second word in my subject line. "Otaku" is a Japanese term brought over to English that is used to describe someone with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga, and video games. Hearing someone referred to as an otaku generally has a negative connotation ( Read more... )

Now that I've fully kicked jet lag's butt, I can sit down and write about our trip the the US for a while without fading in and out of consciousness. We started our trip with a grueling, non-stop 12 hour flight from Tokyo to Washington, D.C.. I was hopeful in thinking that the Washington we were flying to was on the west coast instead of east and ( Read more... )

This past Wednesday, Kevin surprised me by taking the day off (a rare occurrence considering his employer) in order to celebrate our anniversary. No, it's not the anniversary of when we got married. It's the 2 1/2 year anniversary of when we started dating. Gosh, it seems like a long time when I say it, but it's hard not to compare that number to ( Read more... )