You know this blog, called My Parents Were Awesome, where people can post the pictures of their parents and grandparents when they were young, fashionable and dressed like rockers or hippies; it became a collection of images from the old times when people had no digital camera, and no smartphone to shoot themselves all day long. Photos were precious. I like this blog and I wanted them to publish the pictures of my Awesome Parents but they seem to ignore my wish (do they pick up only US portraits, to avoid confilcts about the right of image ? Or are they just blind and do not see how great these pics are ?...). Today, let me show you on this page that my parents were just awesome.

MY FATHER WAS AWESOME
 

 

 
  MY MOTHER WAS AWESOME (far right)

 

 
  MY PARENTS WERE AWESOME

 

Remember : one year ago, I was making my ETP mates work for my mum's birthday video (here it is, for memory). This time, it was special : we were all in France, the age was symbolic and the weather was good around Paris (unbelievable...) ; so we had a surprise-picnic to celebrate the lady of the day. Thank you family, friends, godson and neigbour for coming to the party and for keeping the secret for weeks and weeks !
Me and sis' left our place at 8:00 that morning to prepare the meals in our neighbour's kitchen : we made an olive/ham  cake and a salmon/lemon other one ; ceasar salad ; handmade tzatziki ; a pear clafoutis and a giant bowl of cut fruits. Our guests brought many other cakes and delicious cheese, wine, flowers... Sis' composed a special playlist based on the Beatles, J-J Goldman and other songs made-in Martineland ; and I had the album with pictures and birthday messages from everyone...

先週は母の誕生日で、外で友達と家族とパーティをしました。皆さん、お忙しいところ来てくれて、本当にありがとう！とても楽しかったです。
沢山料理があって、プレゼントも雰囲気もステキでした。も一度ありがとう！

Happy Birthday, Mum !

Not far from Saint Lazare. Sauvignon wine-based strawberry kir. Waiting for the moment to go to the movie theatre next door, and see an Italian movie. Mother, Father, Sister by my side.

That's me
Your servant. The humble author of this blog.

You know me pretty well now. You know that in a former life, I have probably been Japanese, or maybe I was desperately in love with a Japanese (wo)man, I don't know, I can't proove it, but if you have a better explanation, call me.

I just needed, because it's a crossroad again, to do the inventory of my principal resources - and as you know the best resources are always human, so I needed to make some space for the protagonists of my little world. So give a big hand for my people, they are totally awesome !

The sista'
She's the one. She has a big brain, a golden heart and a deep soul. She brings fun, sound and though to my life.

Even when she was just a baby, she was already smart. Ok, she couldn't talk, that didn't mean she couldn't think and feel the right way. I have always been sure of this : she understands ! She really does.

She is still in Tokyo right now, fighting with her homework and drinking the last drops of green tea. Last drops until the next time, of course. I'm waiting for you, sis ! Miss you !

The boyfriend

He's the cherry on the Japanese cake. I didn't expect him, but he appeared.

He's one hundred percent healthy : drinks water, does sports, doesn't like sweet things, hates smoking... I am definitely the most unhealthy thing in his life ! Call me Chou a la creme.

According to his geographical origin, he is supposed to be a Kyushu Danshi, a man of the Southern IsIand of Kyushu; a Japanese girl told me that means he's not shy and very manly...

The gang
My folks ! From the father I received the constance and the integrity (at least I try) ; from the mother, the passion and the faith (for this too, I'm doing my best).

Because of the magic of DNA, I also received a mole's eyes, ultra-delicious skin according to the mosquitos and the slowest legs in the world. Thanks, guys.

The best friend - and her gang

I have known her from kindergarden. I saw her dreaming about her future and then fullfill her dreams one by one. Congrats, girl !

I am the godmother of her baby girl, and obviously she'll be the godmother of my future kid !

The Harry-Potter-style friends

We met at school and we develop this special kind of friendship, this mix between the common points of our destinies and the divergence of our personnalities. We shared the plans of our term research papers, we supported each other through all the decisions we took. One went to New Europe, another to New Africa, the last one to New Asia. We are from modest families, we are not always confident, we'd like to do magic in our life.

The Sex-and-the-City-style friends

They are fashionable and cool. They like shopping, high-tech and cocktails. They want the right carreer an the right boyfriend, the right personnal thing and the right couple thing. They believe in love and high-heels.

The Japanese soulmate

She lives in Hiroshima, she's younger than me, she understands my broken Japanese better than anyone and she's the cutest person in the world. She's the living proof that communication is beyond vocabulary and gramma.She has wide heart and wide intelligence.She welcomed me at her place, she made me feel at home in Japan, she makes me cry when I leave her. Without her, I wouldn't have seen the human face of Japan.

The Japanese Parisiennes

They are living on music. One dreams about ruling the show in prestigious Opera theatre ; the other is a talented pianist. They can speak French perfectly.

The EU dudes you'd like to know better

I met them through my European experiences. They all bring colors to my life, but because life is life, I don't know them as much I would like to.

I already know they are fantastic, I just need to confirm !

The Japanese to discover

The living smiles of my Japan !

Language partner ; volunteer students of Waseda ; friends of friends...I wish I had time to know them better... but it's not over !

You make Japan rock, dudes.

The Family !

They're here, hidden behind the kilometers, life... But sometimes DNA wakes up, and we need to meet again !

I have 15 female cousins, 7 male cousins... most of them already have kids... We are a big tribe, and it's cool like this. We spread our genetic print on the world.

Christmas means gift rapping, Chrismas means chorus songs, and Christmas means EATING.
This year, I had not only once but three different Christmas dinners in Tokyo. Which means, three diets at least to write on the the To-Do-List for 2010, but let's not talk about boring things.

Family first :

MY CHRISTMAS SURPRISE DINNER WITH SISTER

It began with this : the huge Xmas package, full of good French specialities, sent by our darling parents... Chocolates, tapenade, foie-gras, marrons glaces, caramels, calissons...
Look at these chocolates. Isn't it a piece of art ? French cooks, we love you !

And then, for the little "local" touch : we went to the izakaya at Ebisu, and had delicious fried spring rolls and roasted tuna with cheese ! Merry Christmas !

Then, friends :

MY CHRISTMAS PIC-NIC WITH THE ETP FRIENDS

Most of the ETPs went back to their countries to celebrate Christmas with their families, but a few of us were still there and ready to have a toast ! Thank you again to Attila and Melinda for hosting the party, and to Nataly for her fine organization of the Christmas lottery !
Our hosts cooked meat pancakes and we had the most delicious "buche" covered with nuts and almonds.

Let's jump to the boyfriend time :

MY CHRISMAS ROMANTIC RENDEZ-VOUS

At restaurant Temari (Shinjuku), you can sit into nice balls which are supposed to represent the toys the little Japanese girls play with, but from my French point of view it looks like Christmas tree balls... No ?

We had absolutely delicious sushi-balls, meat balls, deep-fried chicken, and other delicious and funny meals.

Boyfriend has a family too. On the 26th, I had the honor to join :

MY CHRISMAS FAMILY MEETING

Hitoshi's cousin is a volunteer for the association Support 21, which helps the refugees' kids to get a good education and the best chances to succeed in the Japanese society. I had the chance to join this meeting where some of these former kids, now high-level students, were presenting their researches and sharing their experiences (in Japanese of course). There were Chinese, Viet-namese, Peruvian, Brazilian students and also a very interesting young woman, born from an English man and a Korean woman, raised in Japan and totally Japanese - she had to struggle a lot to learn another language than Japanese - who made a speech about identity and the difficulty to exist as a human when you don't belong to the classic categories. An during all this time, we had sweets and drinks, whithout speaking of this amazing Christmas chorus where another cousin of Hitoshi was singing (the first on the left).

Chorale de Noel - Tokyo December 2009

 And after that... the first cousin invited us to have a Chrismas nabe (a kind of light fondue, soy-sauce-based, with boiled meat, vegetables and udon in this case). I had the chance to visit her huge appartment with a great view on Tokyo Tower, and to meet her Canadian husband. And she cooked chocolate truffes too !

Thank you gentlemen for cooking the nabe !

And they have a real Chrismas tree, with the authentic smell ! That is the smell of Christmas !

Thank you everyone for this wonderful Christmas. It was delicious, colourful, tasty and funny ! Your smiles made it even more beautiful !

... I quote my mother in the title, she will confirm this state of mind of her...

Chrismas - Noël in French - is important.

I have so deep memories of hapiness linked to this period of the year that I still feel strange to spend it far from Home, even if it's the second time... Noemi phones Home, like ET.
So I couldn't resist and I brought Chrismas inside my little place... I have a Xmas tree adapted to the size of the room (means, small), and I made Greeting Cards for the occasion (talking of that, thanks again to Davide for the painting stuff).
As Noel is written in our DNA now, I am pretty sure that Mogusa will soon publish her own Chrismas posts...

クリスマスは大切なものです。子供の時家事久都本当に楽しかったので、今でもクリスマスの特別な雰囲気が大好きです。それで東京にいても少しクリスマスの準備しました。

Two weeks to wait before whishing you a Merry Chrismas !