Rest and Relaxation with a little golfing....

November 15th marks my one year anniversary in Japan! Michael arrived 2 weeks before me. It's amazing how fast the time goes by sometimes. The weather in Utsunomiya is turning cold and quickly, the sun goes down around 4:30pm now, which makes for a long evening. This past weekend we were planning to go to the Ashikaga Wine Festival, but it rained on Saturday so it become a day or rest and relaxation. I have been feeling a little under the weather too so it was nice to cozy up at home. On Sunday, Michael and I went to play golf with his Assistant CE, Nishimura-san and old TE, Hayashi-san. We went to a golf course in Nasu which was nice. We had a schedule tee time of 7:37am, yes, quite early I know, but it was a beautiful atmosphere. The leaves on the trees were shades of red, orange, yellow and green. As the day progressed it became warmer and warmer. The only downfall was Michael and I played the worse game of our lives! I think partly because we haven't been on a course in 1.5 years or maybe because each hole is much more narrower than the states or maybe I was too fascinated with the remote control golf cart. Regardless of factor, our scores were horrible. Despite a bad score, it was a worthwhile experience and I hope we can get some more time to play in the spring. That about sums up the weekend. Unfortunately we did not take pictures while golfing. Have a great day!

Hong Kong...Japan...Motegi...

Michael and I took a vacation to Hong Kong. This was probably one of the most important vacations to me because I was born in Hong Kong and most of my mom’s side of the family still lives there, so it would be Michael’s first time meeting the other half of the family. We started off the trip with some sightseeing on Hong Kong Island. We went to the observation deck of the 2IFC building, took a stroll through Hong Kong Park, wandered our way to Stanley Street and ate lots of yummy delicious food. The second night we met up with my cousins, Ivan and Yoyo, in Tuen Mun and did a little shopping. We eventually met up with the rest of the family for dinner. Since we were a sizable group, we ordered lots of food and that meant we could eat everything we have been craving and more. Yum! My aunts and uncles were very generous and some decided to take us out on Saturday to some of the more local areas that we were not planning to go. It was a fun filled day and lots of shopping. I am amazed at how much shopping there is in Hong Kong. We then met up with the rest of the family at night and had hot pot. We do hot pot in the states, but I would say half the stuff we ate I have never tried nor would I care to know what it was. At the end of the evening, we all went to Temple Street night market to walk around. It was your typical night market that you could find in most Asian countries that sold souvenirs, faux designer bags, knick knacks, etc. There were also lots of food vendors, but we were absolutely stuffed. Half way through our trip my cousin Mandy and her bf, Tony came. We saved some of the touristy attractions to share with them. The first thing we did was go to Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island. It overlooks Hong Kong Island, the harbor and Kowloon. It was probably one of the most beautiful places I have been. We spent quite some time up there admiring the lovely view that Hong Kong has to offer. At night, we went to Tsim Sha Tsui to view Hong Kong Island’s famous skyline. It was so wonderful. I could probably stare at the skyline all day. The remainder of the trip we spent in Macau and Lantau Island. Macau was an old, historical place with lots of churches and lots of casinos. We spent the morning sightseeing and then hit up the casinos at night. The Grand Lisboa was one of the most uniquely structured hotels and overwhelming big. The other casinos from Vegas were smaller in scale, but had all the luxury stores just like Vegas. Hong Kong was a wonderful trip, hopefully we can go back again soon.
After Hong Kong, Mandy and Tony came back to Japan with us for a week. We went to Nikko to see the mountains and shrines. While in Nikko, the leaves were in the middle of changing colors, so there was a big array of red, orange, yellow, and green everywhere. I really enjoy the mountains! We spent the weekend in Tokyo and ran around to some of the tourist’s sights as well as shopping. Tokyo is such an amazing place with so many people. It’s definitely fun to go every once in awhile, but it’s a big hectic for me. We came back to Utsunomiya for the remainder of their visit and took them around our city, mostly grocery stores and shopping. Good times!
After Hong Kong and Mandy and Tony visiting Japan we decided to spend the next weekend resting. This weekend though we decided to go to the Super GT Race at Twin Ring Motegi. Apparently, it’s the last year that this body style NSX will be racing so we decided to support them. Going to the race was fun, we sat in the Honda Fan section and received a free small towel to wave around to show our support to the drivers.