It‘s RWC!

It's rugby world cup time.
Touch! Pause... Engage!

Little Ones

The new member is my cousin's kid, aka Happiest Child in the World. All three are playing nice.

TGIF

I like this cave of a wine bar in Yurakucho.  It really helps me unwind!

LOVIN THAT BREEZE!

Double take

Tadaima

Anyone home?

Tsubaki

From a friendly gardener.

We are ok
Big quake

Mini-vase, again

The last and hopefully final visit to the mister's jeweler, and they had this darling arrangement, so cute! And so doable. I just need tumblers like this and I think I can DIY.

Meanwhile the hyacinths are counting down to full-bloom.

Pansies

Kudos if you can guess what I'm doing with these!

Chapel

The plum/peach flowers are blossoming! One month to go!

Winter Wonderland

Tokyo style!

(Don't worry, the hyacinths are fine!)

Oyster dinner

A day trip to Matsushima yields a feast of steamed oysters for the second straight night. We couldn't eat them all in one sitting!

Chapel

This is the exterior of the chapel we will perform the marriage ceremony at. We are so lucky to have been able to find a venue that wasn't a marriage factory, pumping out one couple after the next. This is a real chapel of a real Jesuit order, at his alma mater no less! Through them we are taking wedding classes and talking regularly to the Father. We might even go to mass soon!! I am the baptized one, but the mister seems pretty into it too.

Last but not least, they are even taking care of the chapel flowers for us. Hallelujah!

I ...Owe You?!

I ordered his wedding band the other day and my card didn't go through!! I almost had to use his card and change the inscription to the post title ;)

(Luckily they let me go with a deposit!)

This was the beautiful arrangement the jeweler had at the waiting table. Hyacinths and calla lilies--yeah!!

Hyacinths

I *might* have done something crazy...

Our wedding will very much be a DIY wedding--well, at least as far as Japanese ones go, and after being confronted with the mega-estimate from several venues on their flower arrangements, I decided to give growing my own flowers a shot. Hyacinths are co-favorite flowers of mine (the other is peonies) and are perfectly spring-like and have a wonderful perfume. So I bought 60 bulbs in November and planted them all on our rooftop garden. They are growing fine so far, but my most pressing worry is that I planted them too late. So I bought a store-bought hyacinth (estimated time of blooming, in 3-4 weeks) the other day to gauge how much faster I need to have my own grow to make it in time for the big day. (And yes, you can force bulbs--you pour warm water on them! Or, likewise, you pour cold water on them to keep them from blooming too fast.)

Fingers crossed. And it might also be time to start calling up back up florists in case this (brilliant/ridiculous) plan fails...

2011

Things are looking up!!

Work is great, marriage classes are now running smoothly after a bumpy start (not bumpy with us, but bumpy with getting the details sorted with the priests...)

Two more days of work and then, weekend!!!

China: http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/movie/feature201101112011.html
US: http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/movie/feature201101122136.html
ASEAN: http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/movie/feature201101131518.html
EU: http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/movie/feature201101141511.html

Report

Here are some recent reports

http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/movie/feature201012281618.html
http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/movie/feature201101041616.html

Happy New Year!!!