Nov 29, 2013

Christmas cards / クリスマスカード

I had a busy day at work and was feeling really tired until I found this. ;)
Can you believe it's Christmas next month?  Time flies so fast!  Even though Christmas is not  a public holiday in Japan, we still enjoy it as a seasonal event.  The streets and shops are all beautifully decorated for Christmas, and they're so gorgeous!!  I bought some Christmas cards for my pals.  Some of the cards look delicious. :D
My mouth is watering! :D 
 
 
 
We don't have a culture of sending cards for Christmas in Japan, so I only send cards to my friends and penpals living overseas.  Have you started sending out your Christmas cards yet?  How many cards do you usually send for Christmas?
 
Have a nice weekend everyone!
 
疲れて帰宅途中の私を素敵なイルミネーションが元気にしてくれました。有楽町駅前はすっかりクリスマスです☆元気出ますね(^^)近くのロフトでクリスマスカードを購入。入口入ってすぐのところにクリスマスコーナーがあって、可愛いカードが沢山ありました。早速ペンパル達に送ろうと思います。みなさんは、クリスマスカード書き進んでますか?
 
良い週末を☆
 
↓いつもありがとうございます。押していただけると励みになります☆

Nov 25, 2013

O Canada! / オーカナダ!

I used to study in the western Canada for 4 years, and Canada is like my second home country.  I always wanted to show my favorite country to my husband, so we decided to visit there for our honeymoon in summer.  We stayed one night with a Canadian family who was my host family while I was there and other nights with my friends.  I was really thankful to have such easy-going husband who didn't mind spending most of our honeymoon with my English-speaking friends when he doesn't speak much English. :)

When you visit a foreign country for the first time, you often experience something that surprises you, and what surprised my husband about Canada the most was “wild animals everywhere.”  Well, I know this “everywhere” is a little too exaggerated, but we saw chipmunk, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, coyote, deer, elk and black bears on the road when we were heading to the Jasper National Park, and I think the word “everywhere” can be used here.  It was also my first time to see the black bears, and they were really cute (of course “in the distance” LOL).  This guy is one of the black bears we saw. 
 
I think we got over excited about bears and ended up buying lots of bear-related souvenirs.  Here is some of my collection of Canadian sense of humor about bears. :)  First two are magnets and the last ones are shot glasses. 
POSITIVE ATTITUDE:
Relax, what's the worst that could happen?
  DO NOT FEED THE BEARS:
Every now and then following the rules is a good idea
  LEFT: Canadian Take-Out / Right: Canadian High Five
Have you traveled any other countries?  If yes, what surprised you the most then?
 
新婚旅行は大学4年間を過ごしたカナダに行きました。6泊全てが私のホストファミリーや友達宅に宿泊という、あまり新婚旅行という感じのしない旅行になりましたが、数年ぶりにみんなに会えてとっても楽しかったです。「英語はノリと勢い」と言い切る夫は、その言葉通り、現地でものすごく楽しくやっていました。別れ際、ホストファザーが夫に「また人生について語り合おう!」と握手していたのにはビックリ(笑)。ものすごくいカタコト英語なのに、そんな深い話をしていたとは。夫曰く、「酒飲みに国境はない」そうです(^^;

カナダは初めての夫が、滞在中一番驚いたことは「野生動物がそこらへんに沢山いる」こと。友人夫婦が3泊4日のキャンピングカー1000キロの旅に連れて行ってくれ、その道中、シマリス、ヤギ(mountain goat)、オオツノヒツジ(bighorn sheep)、コヨーテ、シカ、エルク、熊(black bear)など、沢山見かけました。ジャスパー国立公園内では特に多くの野生動物を見ることができましたよ。調子に乗って熊のポストカードやグッズを沢山お土産に買いました。ユーモアのセンスが好きです☆

カナダ、やっぱり大好きです。冬が長いカナダでは、みんなとにかく夏は一生懸命働いて、一生懸命人生を楽しみます。尚、タイトルのO Canada!は、カナダ国歌のO Canada!です。

↓いつもありがとうございます。押していただけると励みになります☆

Nov 22, 2013

Long time no see! / お久しぶりです

After a super long silence, I’m finally back!  I hope you still remember me. :)  I might be slower with my postings for a while, but I’m very excited to get back to blogging again and to share the joy of letter-writing with letter lovers all over the world.

I haven’t been able to write much letters for the last 6 months, and I feel horrible and sorry for being such a bad penpal.  I was feeling exhausted all the time with all the wedding preparations and moving (I absolutely hate packing and unpacking).  But finally one beautiful Sunday, we had a beautiful wedding ceremony at a shrine and had a nice reception at a lovely Japanese restaurant.  I always wanted my wedding to be very traditional, and it was just like I dreamed. 
 

 
 


 What made my wedding so special was that my Singaporean penpal came all the way from Singapore!  She happened to be in Japan right on the same weekend of our wedding, so I asked her if she could come.  It was REALLY special!  We met once in 2011 when she was in Japan and promised to meet again in the near future, but we didn’t expect that our second meet-up would be on my wedding! :D  The big day passed by just like flash, but it was great to share the special time with the people we love.

Now the moving, wedding and honeymoon are over, and I’ve settled in well.  I’ve been catching up with my letters and have some outgoing letters as well as lovely incoming letters to share with you here.  I will try to keep this blog active, so please visit me again!  Thanks! :)

PS:  Penny from the blog “Hippo Mail”, please email me your current address because my package for your fumi-no-hi prize which was sent to you months ago was returned to me for some reason, and I need to know your correct address.  My previous email address got inactivated so please email me to my new address of snowangel_on_snow@hotmail.co.jp  Thanks!!

Have a nice day everyone!! :)
 
お久しぶりです。引っ越し、結婚式、新婚旅行と大きなイベントに忙殺されて、今に至ります。色々大変でしたが、やっと落ち着いてきました。この半年、ほとんど手紙を書くことができず、ペンパル達を待たせてしまい申し訳なく思っています。少しずつですが、お手紙モードが戻ってきていますので、またこちらのブログでお手紙ライフを綴っていきたいと思います。

結婚式はお天気にも恵まれ、とても素敵なものになりました。そして何よりも嬉しかったのは、シンガポールのペンパルが来てくれたことです!たまたま、結婚式の前後に日本に来るということで、招待しました。美しい民族衣装で参列してくれ、とても華やかでした。当日は驚くほどあっという間に過ぎていきましたが、大切な人達に見守られるなか、家族として新しいスタートをすることができたのは、本当に幸せなことだと思います。

ブログの更新は少しスローペースになるかもしれませんが、ぜひまた遊びにいらしてください。

↓いつもありがとうございます。押していただけると励みになります☆