Nothing to bring back from Japan??? Nope...it's all here.

The Japanese population in California is growing, about 20% are Japanese (they out populate the Chinese migrates actually), with 13% of that being in the States less then ten years. 

As a result....we have many many dining opitions...Akira rarely misses Japanese food or shopping....or bars...or companies...because they all have branches here.  Makes sense.  This state is known for technology...and well...it's just natural that Japanese companies come here.  Across from my office for instance are the following companies....Sony, Toshiba, Hitichi, Panasonic, Toyota headquaters in the States, Mazda headquaters in the States...and that's just in a few blocks from each other. California has a ton of hot springs, moutains, on the ocean (with constant earthquakes), with the mountain areas having four seasons and it's just very similar...though not the same.  It's not humid here at all, it's very dry in fact...but, I enjoy the break from humidity because 20 years on the Gulf of Mexico in southeast Alabama...with nonstop rain in the late summer and 99% humdity...along with yearly hurricanes and flooding.   I have enjoyed the break.  I miss the smell though... 

Anyhow, as a result, there are areas in California that are so Japanese that no one speaks fluent English.  20 min south of our home, there is such an area, and ironically...it's also has a Persian area.  Akira and I always enjoy beebopping in these areas...

You want a tatami dining room complete with a remote control heated kotatsu?  (like we just started to put together) No problem, just go to your local Japanese market (because they are EVERYWHERE) and order one, while enjoying a tea full of boba (thanks China) and/or mochi treat (I know I look like a fat ass in the market, but I'm a bride to be, so I starve myself daily unless I'm out shopping) ....and usually some back and forth bragging on prices and time set ups.   Akira and I make a pretty damn good team when it comes to bragins.  Two weeks ago we got our engagement pictures half off on top of our coupon because...well...no one expected us to just look at the prints and leave, but that's what we did... ^_~

I'll scan them in later and put them on here, they are pretty cute....ANYWAY...

I'm scared about the soon coming visit and move, but I'm pretty damn happy that I won't be going in completely moronic and stupid.  My j-girls though...since they got mad at me that I wasn't going to go all out with a wedding...have kind of been silent the past few weeks.  I got invited to a kimono fashion show (again within a few blocks from work) but I'm going to be tree camping...so...

Another weird thing is that we have nothing to BRING BACK from Japan, because it's all here.  It truly is all here.  I am, however, bringing a box of shoes and make up to leave there...looool...I'll have Akira hide it in his room because I'm sure his mom would consider that very rude of me to assume she would be okay storing her unwanted new daughter-in-law's make up and shoes.  *sigh* 

Life just keeps getting more and more....entertaining...to put it softly.

Summer time PLEASE!

So life has kind of gotten into a nice and normal routine again....

Vistors came and went...

Court came and destroyed my bank account, but now that's almost recovered...

The move happened...

Engagedment was announced....

Trip planned, and replanned...but back on again...

So...Akira and I have decided that the only way to properly celebrate is going to Elk, CA and go TREE CAMPING THIS WEEKEND...followed by hot springs and fishing at our favorite lake...

*sigh*

Baby gave me back my summer <3 .  Out in the middle of nowhere (hopefully with my new telescope if it comes in on time!!!), in the water, sleeping dangling from a tree...with nothing to hold on to but him.

You know I'll make that tent swing!  Yeah baby!!!  ;-)

Move is complete and trip is back on

So Akira's boss gave Akira the ok for both the move into our beautiful new home and the time needed at the end of sept to go to Japan. My brother however left the business so now I can't do my cram course because I'm the only manager right now so.... That's a little of a set back but okay.


Everything is okay... Lol... Just keeping calm and carrying on ;-)

Akira debating to go into storage or not lol I love him <3

nickle knees

I miss my girls.... :-(  I'm the one in the bad choice pink. 

So I don't know what to write about only that I'm sure I'll feel some kind of relief after I'm done writing.

I don't have any real close girl friends anymore...now that I'm engaged and living with Akira.  It's largely due to the fact that I don't desire to go to clubs anymore, or to gossip about who's hot and who's not.  On top of that...I'm also the last girl any of the girls expected to get married off.  In fact, almost every day I get at least one of the girls asking me if I'm sure I want to marry Akira, that there are other men.

And I always say the same thing, I know there are other men, but there's only one man like Akira.

Sure...I get annoyed by his aloofness...his wondering eye gets to me too...but...that's really it.

Two things...out of the hundreds of things I down right love about him, and not a single thing I hate.  He stopped the strip clubs, the constant ex contacts...he's done a lot for me.  So...I don't have the desire to go dance in a crowded club with some stranger's hard on rubbing up on me.

I just don't find that fun anymore.

Now camping, or beaching it, or having dinner...I'm down.  I still go to dressed up lounges and poetic hookah cafes....but...I flash my ring proudly. 

I also think another thing that gets to them is that when we do go out I get the attention now....it hasn't always been like that, or if it was, I never noticed it....but I think because I have the relief of not being out there anymore...I'm just 100% myself.  I joke, I laugh, I'm not constantly fiddling with hair and make up, because...I got mine.  I can act like I was in my pjs with a can of frosting...when I'm really in heels and a dress and cuddling a drink...but you know what I mean.  I feel free.  And it's because of Akira. 

So...I don't ever want to leave someone who makes me feel more like myself then I could ever do on my own.  He's built me up. 

So...now I'm more into....just solely female get togethers.  Which, since most of my female friends are sex crazed...isn't ideal and therefore I'm boring now.  I'm boring Tiffy.  Still funny...but now not really needed. 

So I feel weird.  I don't know how to act with them, and I'm not the oldest one in the group, a few other girls are even ten years older, but...everyone...just can't swallow that I'm going to be married.  It makes me feel bad....I know I was a massive socialite at one time...but...then I just became a loser who was drunk all the time.  You would think everyone would be happy over the progress instead. 

I do have a few girls that are more like sisters...but everyone is so far away now...*sigh*  The one girl who is near me (down the road actually) is included in the sex crazed and partier group.  I just want to get my nails done and drink at the beach at night and laugh with a few good girls. 

And not worry about them calling over some guy or leaving for a few hours :-/

Yes....no

Sooooo last Friday Akira got a phone call from his parents in Japan. The convo went along the lines of forced light hearted teasing to the serious topic of change of dates of the family gathering. The dates changed one month earlier then expected, leaving Akira unable to go because he already had planned for October by planning his project for work allowing him time to leave. The new dates clash with when he has to do a second opening... So Friday he threw a silent fit with a cuss word thrown here and there.

Not that I have a preferred way people should express anger but with Akira I can never tell what is really bothering him. I even held back my own tears whenever he told me his father requested just the five of them attend (excluding me) and that the October visit was no longer needed. Akira looked at me and held my hand as he was telling me this and told me he couldn't go in sept but that we will be going in October.

So.....these r times when I really need to be fluent in Japanese because I know there r things missing in this ordeal.

Now I'm beyond horrified at moving to Japan. :-(

Exs coming out of the wood work

I've had my share of stalkers...both harmless ones and extremely scary, danergous ones. 

Lately, every man that's ever asked me to marry him has suddenly popped up out of nowhere.  (or maybe the gates of Hell opened...I'm not sure).  Anyhow...it started with my first ex, and fiance...we'll just name everyone by profession...Mr. Doctor.  Mr. Doctor left me when I was 20 because he was convinced I was cheating on him (which I wasn't, I didn't have a social life or any friends at all) but since I got hit on a lot, he was convinced I was looking to cheat.  On top of that, his family wanted two different weddings so my "barbaric" persian family wouldn't be around his very Italian family.  So he left me with a destroyed apartment while I was at work.  Needless to say, I was upset.  My mother flew down from Alaska and she drove my little bug full of my life, across the States to California where I stayed locked up in my room for five months at my father's. 

Anyhow, the ass emails me (he's married btw) telling me how he still loves me and how he misses me, and what a huge mistake it was to leave me....then asked me about my love life and then begged me to respond.  I have to admit, it pissed me off and depressed me because my life completely changed because of that one event...it was a life changing event...but...then I just felt bad for him.  Clearly he wasn't happy and clearly it wasn't my problem.

So I decided that's something he should deal with with his wife and left it as is.

Then my most recent ex...Mr. Saudi Womanbeater....said basically the same thing.  It will be a cold day in hell when I talk to him again.  I went two years with bruises and lies and tears because of him.  When he finally abandoned me at the airport complete with a fake ring and black eye...well...anyhow, after a few months...I realized how nice it was not to live in fear and covering bruises.    So he can go to hell.

Then, I guess, the most decent ex, Mr. UAE Police Capt., actually FLEW OUT all the way from Abu Dhabi and came to my office and asked Dad for my contact information (this was two weeks ago, and I had a great fight with Dad for actually giving him my phone number).  So he's been driving around and texting, but since I have no desire to be one of his wives, I've ignored him like all the rest.  I actually feel a little bad for not saying anything to him, since he came all this way to try to win me back...but...I still find it pretty tasteless because he's not respecting Akira and me, and two because he thinks I would even consider leaving Akira...to be one of his wives.  The guy must not be as bright as I once credited him. 

Then we have the clients who have crushes on me and 'friends' that have crushes on me, all suddenly having the urge to confess their feelings towards me when I'd really be happier if they didn't.

That's how I know Akira is the one.  He can handle it.  He handles people staring, random guys waving in their cars, the comments, the customers, my crazy family moments...he handles them with this calming grace that just makes him so damn elegnant that never in a million years could I ever even look at another man, much less leave him.

The second day we were together we were at an outdoor shopping area where a lot of Saudis vacation at and he was like, why is everyone looking at you?  And I even told him I dated one of the princes for a year (in my defense he was gone most of the year) and so I'm gossiped a lot and that's why I don't hang around people from Saudi Arabia anymore.  And he just laughed and was like, well I can't compete with that.  And I told him that the guy had no heart, which is true, he barely had a heart, he was mean and afraid of everything. 

But man...Akira...Akira beats all of them.  He's just the one...golden heart and all....  I don't know how else to put it. 

Makes all the bad shit in my life worth it since it lead me to him <3.  And he knows, he knows I'm 100% loyal to him and I know he's 100% loyal to me.  That, dear friends, is worth everything. 

Eye rant...then PAPERWORK PREP!

Apparently I'm enrolled in an imaginary masters class.  I got an email from a professor asking where I've been the past 7 days, and I was like, ummmm....I wasn't aware I signed up for any classes....

So I've been calling my advisor who isn't picking up the phone, just to be like, hey....I know I'm on loans, but it would be great to not charge me on this one. 

Anyhow...Akira and I figured out what is weird about circle lens, and it's the fact that they make the wrong part of the eye bigger and that's what makes people look like demons when they wear them.

Big eyes are big because the actual shape of the eye is larger, that means there is a great deal of "white" color in the eye.  This is quite pretty and attractive.  The lens, however; make the center of the eye bigger, which isn't naturally occurring and therefore ends up looking like a demon.  Akira told me that in Japan is started with the more gothic and geek group, the lens wearing, but somehow it turned into this thing that girls in high school and college wear daily.  I asked him what J-men think of this fashion, and he told me that more traditional men and serious men as well as older men do not find the trend tasteful, but that young boys (again in high school- college) sometimes find it attractive just to look at but that most men would rather date a girl who actually had large eyes. 

That makes sense.  SO I've decided to give my hate towards them a rest sense it seems to be a moronic phase like my purple lipstick once was...(eeeee bad choices). 

Now....on to the important stuff.

If you ever happen to find yourself in my ordeal....an American marrying a Japanese man...and you need paperwork on BOTH sides....deal with the Japanese embassey if you are in the States.

Lucky for us, we have one in LA that makes monthly trips to San Diego even.

What has been requested....on my side....

1. Offical copy of Birth certificate
2. Passport
3. Two passport photos
4. Marriage certificate (American one) to Akira

The visa I will be issued is a dependency visa, which only allows 36 hours a week to work (lol...) and that basically I am a dependent of Akira.

But in order to get that visa, we have to have a Japanese marriage certificate...sooooo...what is required of Akira is....

1. Family registry or...Koseki
2. Passport
3. American marriage certificate
4. Letter of Intent (this is where Akira explains why he's marrying me and what he intends our life to be like in Japan)

All of our paperwork, along with letter, is then mailed to the Embassy where we await serval months to get the Japanese marriage registered.

We need it to be registered so I can get the Dependency visa.

So that's the Japanese side....for the American size...we get to deal with ICE, if you are out of the States then you would deal with an Embassy. 

Things they need....

1. Passports
2. Marriage certificate (clearly I'm going to order more then one of these suckers)
3. Basically you stand by to be interviewed at any time, any where, and family is not safe in this one either....to verify that the marriage is real.  Once this is made, you cough up about $3000 and you wait about a year for the greencard.

I look forward to dealing with the US Embassy and avoiding ICE entirely because I've seen and heard awful things about the department (however, I have a feeling it's like the DMV, where the system just pisses everyone off, but when outside the department the people are actually pretty nice and normal).

So......

We will go to Akira's family's honoring of ancestors and stay a week in Japan in which I will take a million notes on things needed, wanted, and to prepare for, as well as I'm hoping to spend a day looking at apartments and houses to rent. 

Then once we come back, we'll get married and then submit our paperwork.  I'm ready!

But first...my cram session of Japanese and working over time all July! SCORE!

Then in August, Akira is going to be working 40 days straight!

I will have.......!!!!!

No life.

But....I'm soon to be a wife!

;-)

AND!!!!!!!

NEW APARTMENT ON JULY 10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We have a view! We are on a hill!!!!!! I have a walk in closet!!!!

You better believe Akira is getting lucky constantly <3  Boy knows how to sweep me off my feet!