So, my gracious host had to change servers recently…

This is all fine and dandy except for the fact that when my files made the migration to the new server, all the Japanese text decided to bork.

Ah, such is life.

So, 2008 has genuinely been quite the downer for most of the year.

I feel one of the only good moments was seeing Obama be elected into office. Of course, this is solely my personal opinion and if you do not agree with this, I would hope you would be able to respect my views as I have respected my fellow friends, family and neighbors who supported the opposing party during the 2008 election.

I’ve had a lot of hardships going on this year, mainly with managing and keeping a hold of money while dealing with school and bills after returning from a trip I took in December of last year to go to Mexico. It’s been rough, and with the way the economy has turned, it’s getting even more rough, but I’m trying to manage my best.

Even with these hardships, I’m trying my best to keep my chin held high. I’ve (somewhat) started to get my music creation off the ground, having created a MySpace Music profile for when I actually complete stuff. (I can be extremely lazy, haha!)

I also received an early Christmas gift from my grandparents, a Canon EOS Rebel K2 35mm SLR camera.

It’s pretty nice, since I finally got to give it a whirl at my family’s Thanksgiving get-together. If you’d like to see all the photos, click the photo below:

Which reminds me I also have a flickr set up for my photographic adventures.

But in the end, I just hope and pray that 2009 will be a better year, a MUCH better year.

Over the past weekend, the annual Japanese Festival was held at the Memphis Botanic Garden. The weather was perfect, and everyone had a blast.

Japanese teacher from University of Memphis in yukata and her former student in Lolita.

There were many different little “stations” that allowed kids and adults alike experience different aspects of Japanese culture: from origami, to practicing calligraphy on paper fans, to taiko drum shows, to a kimono fashion show, to even a traditional tea ceremony. Kids were treated to Japanese folk tales, water baloon yo-yos, leaf pressing, and even the MASAJI “The Candyman” Terasawa from Epcot came to provide entertainment. (Which is really cool, because he came to my elementary school when I was in 4th grade.)

The taiko drum show.

A lot of people came out to the festival, many Japanese families with their children came out, most of them dressed in yukata and zori. Some guests decided to show some contemporary Japanese fashion and dressed themselves in Lolita. Needless to say, a lot of the Japanese women were enthralled by their dresses and wanted pictures taken with them. I myself was able to sport a really nice men’s kimono and geta sandals, though after about 5 hours in them, my feet were so sore, I felt like they were going to fall off.

There was overpriced food and drink provided from Sekisui, a local Japanese restaurant here that has a couple of brances throughout the Memphis-Shelby County area, and the very end there a group of fellow students from the University of Memphis and myself did a presentation of Japanese bon-odori, and got a lot of the (remaining) crowd to participate.

Tora explaining Osaka Ondo, with other volunteers giving a demonstration.

I doubt anyone who went will read this, but I wanna express my thanks to all the people who actually came out, you’re the best. 8D

The photos you see here are copyrighted to Kati Finlayson, aka [defective.girl] and are used with permission.

You know, it really sucks when you forget your login credentials to your own blog because you haven’t written in it in over two months.

I should take better care of my baby, and write in it more, haha.

どうやさー

Today is the Fourth of July, and for all Americans, it’s a day to celebrate our independence from Britain a few hundred years ago.

Meanwhile, two people I know have birthdays: my Aunt Sherrye, and my friend Mark Wulfgar. Happy Birthday to both of you, and hope the next year goes well. Even though I won’t be able to see either one of you today.

As for me? I’m leaving for work right now…

Happy 4th!

So here it is. gimmetokyo[dot]net -blogside- is up and running.

Expect some changes and more information to be added later!

Stay tuned!