Two days to Tokyo

So, I was supposed to leave on Saturday, but I was sick the weekend I got back from Mexico and that delayed my packing quite a bit.

Now I'll be leaving for Tokyo on Thursday, arriving there Friday afternoon. I'm moving into my new apartment on Saturday, so stay tuned for first impressions of my new digs and new neighborhood.



Me and "baby" Tibbie -she turned 15 in August!

Say hi!

You can now comment without having to register for the site. Drop me a line if you want! :) Yay!

One week til showtime

One week from today I will officially be on my way to Tokyo. I was originally supposed to leave this coming Saturday, but got sick over the weekend which seriously delayed my packing. So, I put it off for a few days to be sure that I've got enough time to get everything taken care of at home.

The big question has been, "What are you going to do in Tokyo?" The answer: I'll let you know as soon as I know. My goal is to avoid teaching English, though that will likely not happen. It's not that I don't like teaching (I do), but I just don't think that teaching is it for me forever and that I need to start focusing more on figuring out what forever might be. So, like I said, I'll let you know when I know. The one thing I can tell you for sure that I will be doing in Tokyo is taking Japanese lessons. My number one goal in going there is to learn the language and more about my culture.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with some images from my recent trip to Cabo San Lucas and the flight back home to L.A.

See you on the other side. (By the way, I intend to make this my catch phrase. You know, like, "Seacrest, Out." Hee hee. )


The weather was beautiful for most of the week.


Before the "like out of a movie," ATV accident...


After the ATV accident... best souvenir of the trip! Woo-hoo!!


The beach in front of our hotel in Cabo before Hurricane John hit. It never really got too bad... here.


But in town, the streets were definitely feeling more of the pain of the storm.


View from the airplane on the flight home. The hurricane actually made the sky up by L.A. really pretty with clouds. Those spots on the ocean are the clouds' shadows.


Home sweet home. (That's Saddleback mountain in the background.)

Pearls of Wisdom

"Life shouldn't be formed on default."
-Me (to myself). June 10, 2007

"Are you serious? Is it blonde o'clock in the morning right now?"
- Me (to Blondashley). I'm hilaaaaaarious!! May 23, 2007

"I've always felt friends should encourage friends to have their heads examined."
- Alan Shore (a.k.a. James Spader), Boston Legal, Season 2, Episode 208.

"Circa is Latin for -ish."
- Miki Noguchi, January 4, 2007, spacious cubicle in random Hollywood movie studio, Los Angeles, California, America, World.

"I live in the future."
- Miki Noguchi, sometime in late November/early December, 2006, spacious (by Japan standards) studio apartment, Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo, Japan, World.

"... if either one of us is unfit for society...yeah, it's probably me."
- A.E.U., January 11, 2007 (PST), aforementioned cubicle, etc, etc, World.

"I am the Pearlmaker."
- Miki Noguchi, right now, aforementioned studio apartment, etc, etc, World.

"I am the Gatekeeper."
- Sigourney Weaver, sometime in the mid-1980s, New York city soundstage probably actually in L.A., Ghostbusters.

"[To dry laundry] I hang clothes around my room and then turn the heat on. I figure I might as well as I'd have the heat on anyway... so I multitask the heat."
- Miki Noguchi, DC-area university graduate in the inside-the-Beltway-enforced rule that multitasking must become an ingrained and un-unlearnable trait, January 18, 2007, aforementioned studio apartment, etc, etc, World.

Doesn't your brain just feel bigger now?

F.A.Q.

These are the answers to questions that no one has really asked me, but, in anticipation of my wild blogging success, I have created this page as an on-going Q & A session. So please feel free to submit questions via the comments section or email me and I'll do my best to answer them. The questions don't have to be limited to things about me. I'm also a self-proclaimed expert on many other things due to my insistence that I know everything, therefore I am. So, ask away.

INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW...

Q: Why did you move to Japan?
A: My absolute, number 1 objective in moving here in September 2006 has been to learn Japanese and get it to a conversational level on par with my French abilities. I am slowly but surely moving closer to this goal with my Monday through Friday Japanese classes (3 days a week - grammar and conversation, 2 days a week - kanji writing). Everyday I recognize more vocabulary and grammar and hopefully I'll get there sooner rather than later.

Q: How long are you planning to stay in Japan?
A: I'm not sure. I've guesstimated about 2 years and will definitely be here for all of 2007, but beyond that I can't really say anything for sure.

Q: What do you plan to do with your life and these language skills you keep moving around the world to attain?
A: Let's just say my usual response when asked what I plan to do with my life and these language skills I keep moving around the world to attain is, "Um, I'll let you know as soon as I know! [Insert nervous laugh.]" So, yeah, I'll let you know as soon as I know! Ha ha ha!

Q: Wow, really, you're half-Japanese?!
A: Yeah, I really am. My father is Japanese and my mother is white - the kind that doesn't really tan and has naturally blond hair. Apparently, when you mix white and Japanese, you get some variation of Mexican or Filipino or Italian or Moroccan or Hawaiian or Native American or ... stop me anytime... Spanish or Persian or Turkish, etc. Yes, these are all the things I've been mistaken for. Oh, gotta go, the CIA is calling - they need a new spy!

Q: How do I continue to enlarge my brain with your and others' wise words?
A: Just click here. By the way, when I say "Doesn't your brain just feel larger now?", I mean it as in, "These words will in no way expand your brain capacity or functioning speed."

Q: Sometimes I'm not sure if you're being serious or sarcastic? Which is it?
A: 9 times out of 10, I'm probably being sarcastic. No joke.

Past entries of "Because Sometimes It Seems Like..."

Due to an overwhelmingly positive response to this series, I've decided to maintain an archive of these pictures and, of course, my super-profound captions. Also, FYI, if there's a location and a date next to the picture, it means it was taken by yours truly. If not, it means that yours truly at least trolled the internet looking for funny pictures. Either way, hope you enjoy the pictures as much as you love the fathomless wisdom that is the captions.



BECAUSE SOMETIMES IT SEEMS LIKE...

The Middle Ages had all the answers.

The 70s had all the answers.








Greek gods had none of the answers - the fools were tricked all the time. But, boy, oh, boy, they sho were purty! Goddesses, on the other hand, are always in the know. (Florence, Italy. July 2004.)












Nature has all the answers. (Cape Conran, Australia. February 2005.)















Once you've seen one seen one bronze, seated Buddha, you've seen them all. (Hong Kong, Lantau Island. March 2005.)














Going into the the desert and not looking back IS the answer. (Somewhere in the Arizona desert, USA. December 2006.)









Flowers make all the difference. (Tokyo, Japan. January 2007.)












Tim Gunn has all the answers... except he doesn't know where Andrei is.















Someone forgot to tell the boys in Tokyo that Grease Lightning isn't real. (Tokyo, Japan. February 2007.)















Table charge - 840 yen. Beer 630 yen. Whiskey 840 yen. Wine 840 yen. 26 hours in the day... priceless. (Tokyo, Japan. March 2007.)








Harajuku is too cool for school. (Tokyo, Japan. April 2007.)











There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. (Tokyo, Japan. April 2007.)

Alcohol in moderation might not be such a bad idea. (Tokyo, Japan. April 2007.)












You just want something beautiful to look at on your blog. (France 2005.)

You've stepped through the Looking Glass. (Val de Loire, Chateau de Clemenceau. France 200X - I can't remember!)

You wonder what's on the other side. (Val de Loire, some chateau. France 200X - I can't remember!)