I did it ! I did it!

One of the things that I struggled in Austin, and that my friends and my coworkers always made fun of me about was.... my terrible skill of parallel parking.  

My best friend Elaine listed some important skills to survive in Austin, and one of them was a parallel parking skill.   Austin is filled with awesome restaurants, events, bars and parks.  Wherever you go, finding a free parking spot and get that spot before all the other desperate drivers is a critical skill.  

My car is tiny.  So usually, if you are good, you can fit in a crazy spot.  For me on the other hand,  I try, (getting pressured by the frustrated drivers behind me who is probably making fun of my horrible parking skill), and I give it up.  

So, my first success on Thursday was a big deal. I will mark my calendar and call it " A day of my first success."  I got some beers at Icenhauer's and cheered with my friends for this special moment. 

I did it ! I am getting closer to be a Austinite.

When I miss yoga

I decided to blog about Austin, but I cannot talk about Austin without going into my routine,  yoga!  I was introduce to yoga here in Austin - one of the most 'Yoga Friendly City in the US"  according to the Yoga Journal.

Now I am inseparable from yoga.
What makes me miss yoga is totally random too.


I found this green creature, and somehow he made me miss yoga.   Creepy? Yes totally.  But just look how happy he is.

When woke up, my dog June was sleeping like this. A peaceful Savasana. Ah I want some yoga.

When I was watching a cute puppy in youtube, I missed yoga. mmm, I know that would feel so good, boy.

Yep,  I cannot live without yoga now.  Even if I break up from it, I would be reminded of yoga everywhere. <3 <3

Text fights

My Grandma and grandpa would have never thought of things called "text fighting".  They would say, " why don't you go talk and knock them out?"  Well, we have more things to worry about these days and text arguments became a part of every relationship.  But then everyone comes to conclusion, "yeah let's not do this. it gets nasty."  Right.  Look how nasty we got one time. 

A polite monster

I like Mellow Mushroom on Guadalupe. They have a Karaoke night every Thursday so I went. Japanese people love Karaoke. I used to stop by at Karaoke rooms all the time when I was a high school student in Tokyo.  But here, I don't get to go so often  because I have to sing in front of strangers.  I respect Americans who are okay with this. I am not. I don't know where to look when I sing.  But anyways, there is a random art on the wall of Mellow Mushroom.  A monster saying "I'd like to purchase America, please." in a very polite way.  Are you trying to scare Americans or being pretty diplomatic ?   Next time you see this, take a look. It doesn't make any sense and I somehow like it.

What guys really like. ..

Japanese exchange students in Austin

Here we were discussing what we should bring to a picnic with Japanese kids.  
         Me: bento-box or rice balls? Matt: A burger and fries. 


A couple of days ago, about 60 kids from Shizuoka, Japan came to stay near University of Texas, as a summer exchange program.  Matt was volunteering to be a tutor and let them practice English, so I joined him to go meet them.  Last Saturday was the first day to meet up with the kids. 
Glad that I did not make any rice balls.  Of course, they had BBQ, totally Texan style.  White bread, potatoes, beef, chicken, cookies... to translate, carb, carb, fat, fat, sugar....These skinny Japanese kids gonna get super-sized during their 3-week stay.  Good. feed them good. 


Japanese kids did not recognize me as a Japanese until I spoke in Japanese.  Apparently I am too tanned as a Japanese mid-20 woman.  All my Japanese friends, or even my mom has whiter skin, thanks to the hard-core whitening cosmetics.  I bought a sunscreen with 100spf, but nah, I get darker and darker every minute, I feel.  


Kids at the age of 14 to 16 are all awkward. No matter where they are from. When they are Japanese, the awkwardness points go up to like 120.  
But they were very cute.  Hope they will love Austin, I think they will.

Too much to forget...

I am a Japanese girl, 26 years old. Moved to the U.S. in 2005.  
I am in Austin, Texas now and loving my life here very much.

The reason why I thought of start a blog is (a.) I have too many awesome & funny people around that I like to share with you , and (b). I like to come back to this and laugh when I get old.  Asians get old, really old. So yes, I will be that advanced, tech savy old Asian lady. Maybe I will be blogging about white kids running around and being loud in the neighborhood when I am 95.  But hey, even if I become an grumpy old lady, I can come back to this, remember this good time and laugh.  A good life.

First of all, I love people around me.  I mean it.  Like many Japanese or Asian people, I am not good at keeping friendships with millions of 'friends' who kind of know me.  It takes time for me to open up to people and be comfortable around them.  But these people, my friends here, co-workers, teachers, my dog, and my boyfriend, really started to make me loosen up.

That is why I like to document how I am getting Japamericanized in Austin Texas. What?  yeah... not just Americanized but Japamericanized.  When I am getting some influence from Americans, I am giving them some influence from me, and maybe they might feel awkward, funny, and weird about how Japanese I am.  So this is a mutual process, Japamericanization.  Let's see how this goes (-_ - )y