Dan and I have very exciting news to share today — as some of you may already know (or guessed), we’re going to be parents in the spring! The last couple months have been quite a whirlwind for us, and our first pregnancy has been a very exciting (and — not going to lie — at some moments, terrifying) experience thusfar.
We’d been thinking of having a family for a while now, and we’ve been preparing since the beginning of the year to hopefully have a baby by next spring. Our wish came true, and we’re expecting our first baby in early April!
The first trimester has been really rough for me, primarily because it has been so physically taxing — my morning sickness has been constant and unrelenting since the end of the first month, and I’ve been feeling nauseous for virtually every waking hour of the past two months. Keeping up with a rigorous workload and deadlines at work has only added to the exhaustion, and my lack of energy has been exacerbated by the fact that I can’t keep half of my meals down. Dan has been incredibly supportive during this time, and has been cooking all the meals (even packing my lunches!) and handling all the household chores, from dish-washing to laundry to cleaning the chinchilla cage, while I have been incapacitated. (Can we say best husband ever? ♥)
Although the first few months of pregnancy have not been a walk in the park for me, it has definitely been punctuated by some breathtaking moments, such as when we saw the heartbeat on the first ultrasound, and later when we finally got to see little hands and feet!
Here is a a picture from an NT ultrasound I took last Thursday…
Ultrasound at 13 weeks
Closeup of a hand. I was relieved to confirm that it had five fingers - no more, no less.
We have so much to be thankful for in our lives, and we feel really blessed to be welcoming a new addition to our family in half a year! We are especially grateful for all the support and encouragement from our family and friends. Thank you so much for celebrating this new chapter in our lives with us! 🙂
Last Tuesday, on September 28th, I had the pleasure of seeing X Japan in concert at the Fox Theater in Oakland. I actually did not start listening to X Japan’s music until after they had disbanded back in 1997, but I’ve always liked their music, especially their powerful ballads, and have respected them as one of the most revolutionary rock bands in Japan. They reunited in 2007, albeit without their guitarist hide who passed away in 1998, and when I heard they were doing a North American tour this fall and that their second stop was Oakland, I had to go! X Japan is a legend in Japan, and their popularity is so huge that it would be impossible to see them in such an intimate venue back in their home country, where they constantly sell out their stadium tours — many of their Japanese fans have flown across the Pacific just so they can see them up close during their tour here in North America.
The concert was opened by a thrash band called Vampires Everywhere whom I neither knew about nor cared about, and X Japan didn’t take the stage until well into an hour after the concert had started, but they put on a performance that was worth the wait!
A huge thank you to Mariko, who got the tickets — we had pretty good seats: front row of the loge area, so we had a great view of the stage from above, so we could still sit and enjoy the concert without getting pushed and shoved by the hardcore fans.
Yoshiki takes the stage.X Japan's first performance was "Jade."Yoshiki on drums with vocalist Toshi.Yoshiki's piano performanceYoshiki on piano and Sugizo (formerly of Luna Sea) on violin.X Japan at the end of the concert - Pata, Heath, Yoshiki, Toshi, Sugizo. Yoshiki said that hide was performing with them that night, too.End to an awesome concert.
The set list was mostly made up of their harder, metal rock songs, punctuated by piano and violin solo interludes by Yoshiki and Sugizo. I was impressed that even though it’s been over a decade since their prime in the ’90s and all the band members are now significantly older, Toshi’s voice was still the same, and the band as a whole put on solid performances. Since I’m partial to their softer ballads, the highlight of the show (for me personally) was towards the end of the concert, when they performed “Endless Rain,” and stopped playing/singing repeatedly to let the audience sing back to them. It was really beautiful.
Here is a personal video I took of the end of the concert, when X Japan was taking photos against the crowd, and then exited the stage (throwing multiple water bottles into the audience in the process). I was a little disappointed that they didn’t actually sing “Forever Love,” and only ran the recording of it at the end, but it was still a great concert!
This morning, I learned that my friend Kayoko Ishizuka had passed away over the weekend. Kayoko, known affectionately, as “Kay” by her friends, had transferred to Virginia Tech my freshman year, and although we only spent one year together at the university, I can recall many fond memories with her. She had since gone on to pursue a doctorate degree at the Medical College of Wisconsin and was a postdoctoral student at USF College of Medicine. We had lost touch for years, but had recently reconnected on Facebook a few months ago. Kayo was one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever known, and I’ve always been certain that she was going to accomplish great things for not only herself but also for the world of science, for which she was so passionate.
Kayo was bicycling home from another late night of research at the USF laboratory in Tampa, when she fell victim to a fatal hit-and-run accident at 1:40am Saturday morning. The SUV that hit her was discovered abandoned over the weekend, but the driver is yet to be found and arrested. Kayo’s name was not made public until this morning, when one of our mutual friends who is now interning at USF happened to see her on the local morning news.
I found myself struggling to get a grasp on the whole tragedy today… and have been confronted with a host of emotions — of course, the sadness and heartbreak over Kayo’s death, as well as anger towards the hit-and-run driver — but initially, more than anything, I was stunned at how such a bright mind and spirit could be so quickly snuffed out from this world. I’ve faced a number of situations before in my life where I’ve lost loved ones suddenly and unexpectedly, but every time, it’s a shock that takes weeks and months to come to terms with. Every time, the pain and grief is fresh, raw, and leaves me feeling irreparable and helpless. Every time, I’m confronted by and reminded of the brevity of life, and I still have trouble accepting it.
For now, I want to celebrate Kayo’s life and all the ways she touched people’s lives, including my own. I want to remember her for her brilliant mind, her love of food and cooking, and her quirky, offbeat sense of humor. Reading her blog and her Twitter shows her colorful personality, her appetite for life, and her love of tinkering with and riding bicycles. In the end, I want to remember her for everything that made her uniquely her and how much of a gift it was to have her in our lives, rather than how she was taken away from us.
For Labor Day weekend, Dan and I flew to Gilbert, Arizona to spend a couple days with my cousin Yuko, her husband Devin, and their lovely family!
To be technical, Yuko is not exactly my cousin… she’s actually my grandfather’s uncle’s adopted son’s daughter, or something complicated like that (we always talk about it when we see each other, but we’re never quite sure), so we are not even related by blood! Â Still, she’s the closest in age to me out of all of my relatives in Japan, and we used to always play together when I’d visit Japan as a child, so we always called each other cousins and I feel so much closer to her than any of my real cousins (who are all significantly older than me by at least ten years). It’s funny because people always tell us that we look alike (we’re both pretty dark in complexion), even though we’re supposedly not blood relations! I agree that I look more like her than any of my actual cousins.
Three years older than me, Yuko has always been like the older sister I’ve always wanted. Whenever we’d visit Hiroshima, she would take me around to fun places, show me new things, and tell me such interesting stories. She was the one who taught me how to put on nail polish and shave my legs, and would give me some of the cutest clothes that she’d outgrown. We used to write to each other pretty regularly, even though we only got to see each other every few years.
Imagine my surprise when Yuko married her long-time boyfriend Devin (whom she’d met in Hiroshima) six years ago, and announced that she would be moving from Japan to Arizona! I was so excited to have her in the same country as me, and Dan and I visited her and Devin back in July of 2005, when we went on a road trip. We had a lot of fun with them, and it remains one of my fondest memories! Unfortunately, we didn’t get another chance to visit until this past weekend — I couldn’t believe that I’d let five years go by without seeing my favorite “cousin”! Since we last saw them, Devin and Yuko have had two adorable additions to their family, and I was psyched to finally get to meet their beautiful daughters!
This is adorable Miss Beni, who just turned three in June!
This is Sakura-chan, who is 10 months old. Look at those eyes!
Sakura loves getting lifted high!
Upon arriving in Phoenix, Yuko brought us to her house and served us a delicious homemade Japanese lunch! She then took us to the Arizona Museum for Youth in Mesa, which happened to have a “Jump to Japan!” exhibit going on. We were excited to find that they had Totoro there!
Me with Yuko and Beni.
Dan and I with Totoro, Satsuki, and Mei. This was my favorite childhood movie!
Beni and I posing with Totoro aprons.
猫ãƒã‚¹ï¼ï¼ï¼ They even had the Cat Bus there!
Beni sitting on the Cat Bus's tail.
Afterwards, Yuko took us to Taliesin West in Scottsdale. Taliesin West was architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home and school in the desert from 1937 until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. It had a very unique look to it!
With Yuko and her beautiful girls at Taliesin West.
Dan and Beni became fast friends!
Dan and I with Beni at Taliesin West.
In the evening, Beni’s friend was having a birthday party in Scottsdale, so we tagged along and cooled down by the pool.
The next day, Devin was able to join us for the whole day, and we went to the Phoenix Zoo in the morning, hoping to go in the cooler hours to avoid the heat.
The Elliott family at the zoo (with Sakura sleeping in the stroller).
The Phoenix Zoo was unlike any zoo I've been to. Much of it was very open, almost like a safari. It was nicer than the usual caged look of most zoos.
A Komodo Dragon!
Me sitting on a statue of the Komodo Dragon.
Beni getting a kiss!
Beni and Devin are inseparable! She truly is Daddy's little girl. 🙂
During the weekdays, Yuko runs a preschool called "Ameripan Kids" which teaches children Japanese culture and language. When she calls roll, she sings each child's name, and they answer with "Ha~i!" Sakura already knows how to respond to her own name, raising her hand high! 「ã¯ãƒ¼ã„ï¼ï¼ï¼ã€ It is the cutest thing, I wish I got it on video!
Beni and Sakura in the seashell.
Super cute sisters! It was sweltering hot, but Beni still manages a smile.
Devin and Beni in a turtle shell.
After the zoo, Devin and Yuko treated us to some delicious local Arizona BBQ! In the evening, we went to Devin’s parents’ home and had a great time catching up with them and getting to know them better — we had met them when we visited five years ago, and they are really the most genuine and hospitable people. 🙂 We can’t wait to visit again!
It was delightful seeing Yuko and Devin again, and I loved meeting their little girls! Yuko had a lot of advice and wisdom to share, and I was really grateful for all the time we could spend together catching up and talking about all kinds of things, just like when we were kids. Hopefully we won’t let another five years pass before we see each other again! I miss her and her family already!
Yuko seeing us off at the airport in Phoenix. Thank you for a wonderful weekend! 😀
