Part 2, Las Vegas and its beauty

I got off the plane and found my father waiting with the limo driver. I foolishly expected it to be cool in the evenings, but it felt like a sauna even at night.
He always stays at Sam's Club because they treat him so well and remember his name when he shows up at the tables. And his personal casino host gave him an enormous suite free of charge! I was impressed by the bidet, jacuzzi in the bedroom, and the bar.
Since I'd come alone and hadn't made any hotel reservations, I expected to sleep on the sofa in the living room, but my dad had reserved a room for me at another hotel. We checked in and discovered they'd upgraded to a suite, free of charge! The room was way too big for just me and it felt like a waste not to share it with someone, but where do singles hang out in Vegas? I ended up not spending much time in the room anyway - there was too much excitement in the Las Vegas air to get any sleep!
The next day my dad, Yve, and I went downtown to register their marriage at the courthouse before the crowds arrived for the 7-7-7 weekend. It's a good thing we did! Over 40,000 couples got married that Saturday and everywhere wedding related was completely booked. Apparently there was a shortage of ministers and a lot of people had to decide whether to get married on 7-6-7 or 7-8-7. Luckily my dad had everything planned out 6 months in advance!
After getting their marriage license we waited at the bus stop to take us back to the Hotel Strip. The bus comes every 10 minutes, but we waited for over an hour in the 45 degree heat (113 F) and man you should have seen the grumpy, sweaty faces of everyone at the bus stop. And when the buses finally did start coming, they filled up with angry passengers and after the first few stops no one else could fit. They had to pass up everyone waiting at other stops, and you can bet those guys were even more peeved to see buses coming only to drive them by.

My dad was invited to play in a tournament so we headed to the New York New York hotel to get him registered, and in the few minutes it took for him to get things together, Yve hit a $4441 jackpot! Bells started ringing and the machine shut down while we waited for an attendant to pay Yve her stack of bills (the attendant who counted the bills out got a tip - I didn't know you had to tip the attendants who count out the money!).
The Strip was absolutely gorgeous. The hotels were enormous and it was like having whole cities indoors. One of the hotels even had a lion habitat next to the slot machines.

New York New York
Later that night while I was watching the news, I discovered that there was a shooting in the New York New York Hotel casino just a little before I was there. Too bad I missed it!

Caesar's Palace


Luxor
The inside was so cool! The building was a pyramid with rooms lined on the tilted walls, so the elevators went diagonally!

The Mirage
After the Siegfried and Roy White Lions and Tigers Show got cancelled because one of them got eaten, the hotel opened their habitat for the public to enter. It's amazing how many albino wild cats they'd collected over the years.

The Venetian
By far my favorite hotel. All of these photos were taken inside the hotel! People were lining up to take a boatride around the hotel, but I had fun watching free shows scattered throughout the different courtyards.

The Wynn
The newest hotel on The Strip and half of it is still under construction. It seemed to be for high rollers only... the craps table had a $100 minimum bet and there was a guy throwing around $5000 chips. I had no idea they even made chips in that denomination!

The Fashion Show Mall where I found a Lucky Jeans shop! I'd always seen Lucky ads in magazines and have wanted a pair for years but never knew where to find them. And lucky me, they were having a 75% off sale on the 7-7-7 weekend, so my new brown jeans with faded thighs were a mere 30 bucks!

Bellagio
After seeing the Bellagio in person I feel like watching Ocean's 11 again just to see if I recognize anything from the movie. The enormous glass flowers justting from the ceiling of the lobby were gorgeous. I caught several wedding couples trying to take photos but were having a hard time because of the crowds.


MGM
It doesn't look so big in the pictures, but I took a closer one near the lion where you can barely see some people near the base. It was enormous! This is the one with a lion habitat in the center of the casino.

I was looking forward to seeing a Cirque de Soleil show and my dad made reservations for KA, which is reputed to be the best of their shows to date. It totally lived up to my expectations. The show expertly incorporated acrobatics, martial arts, shadow puppetry, and even fireworks while developing a story, and the vibrant colors and use of light were simply stunning. The theater itself was equally impressive (it took 18 months to refurbish for the show) and completely lacked a stage. There was a gaping hole where the stage should have been, and the actors performed on a gigantic platform that swiveled in all directions to change your perspective. At times the actors were strung on cords and bounced off the vertical stage as if we were looking at them from above (excellent in portraying my favorite scene of the battle against the Fire Fairies). Words just can't express how beautiful it was. I'd have seen it again, if it didn't cost $150 a ticket. But it was well worth the price. (first two photos borrowed from a website)

I found a clip of KA that has one of my favorite songs from the play. If you find yourself in Vegas, definitely check it out.

Part 1, Hawaii

Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes! I even got a comment from an anonymous! I'd pretty much assumed no one except for J & C & T were reading anything here. As promised here are some pictures of my trip with a little of how it went...

The morning of my flight I woke up early to finish packing and took a taxi to the Highway Bus stop. In the rush of getting everything together I completely forgot to make a reservation for the bus, but figured there'd be a few extra seats available. I was right, there were a few extra seats, but not enough for me. I was slowest getting onto the bus because of my two heavy suitcases, and everyone else got on before me. I was left on the curb all by myself.

The next bus came an hour later which meant that I'd get to the airport an hour before my flight. It seemed like enough time. It would have been enough time, except the bus stopped at the international terminal and my first connection was heading for Osaka from the domestic terminal. I bet it was funny seeing me rush with my two suitcases to the domestic terminal shuttle bus. But it wasn't funny for me. I was sweating like a pig and about to pass out from the heat.

I made it to the counter 20 minutes before the flight took off, and the nice woman rushed to get me processed in time. I made it! I got on the plane and let my muscles relax. Little did I know, in all the rush the nice woman took my return tickets instead of my departure ones, causing another worrisome episode two weeks later.

I'd forgotten how beautiful Hawaii is. The skies are so blue, the mountains so green. The constant breeze keeps it from getting too hot. As soon as I got off the plane I could feel Hawaii relaxing me. Even the drive on the freeway was wonderful.

As soon as I got home my sister wanted to go to the Taste of Honolulu event downtown. Top class restaurants set up stands where you could buy samples of their food, and it gave us a chance to try food from restaurants we'd never be able to afford. The small dishes were presented really well and looked so good you almost didn't mind spending $4 for a few spoonfuls of curry or a couple bites of pizza. Almost. Our 30 bucks didn't last very long.

I spent some time talking with this photographer who specialized in taking photos of Hawaiian beaches and waves. The colors were so vibrant and clear and I bought a small one for $12. When I got back to Japan I couldn't find it in my suitcase. Did I leave it behind? Did it fall out of my suitcase when I had to repack at the airport? Darn weight restrictions.
I love Hawaiian trees. They're so big and branchy and easy to climb. This one was next to the parking lot where we parked downtown near city hall.
The next day we drove out to the countryside somewhere past Haleiwa for a family picnic. I think it's the first family picnic I'd ever been to with my dad's family. They started having reunions a couple years ago because my grandfather was lonely and wanted to see his kids. I hadn't seen any of them since I was little and couldn't remember who was an aunt or uncle or cousin, let alone their names, but that's okay because they didn't remember me, either. The last time I saw my sister's kids, the youngest was a super fat sumo baby.

One thing I noticed was that EVERYONE has tatoos. You rarely see them in Japan because of the bad image associated with them, and it was weird being the only one who didn't have one.

I'd heard that my grandfather remarried a few years ago and his wife is much younger than he is. I was in for a shock when I actually met her, and found that she's even younger than me. Yup, I'm older than my grandmother. She's really nice and always smiling, and if I lived in Hawaii I could imagine us being friends. But there's no way I'd call her "grandma".

The next day my brother arrived and we visited the grave where my mother and grandparents are entombed. We did our usual ritual of giving beer to grandpa, coffee with cream and sugar to grandma, and gin to mom.
And the next day I was off to Las Vegas! More pictures to come...

All work and no play

I finally have time to breathe! After getting back from Hawaii and Las Vegas I suddenly realized I had to prepare for a 2-week English seminar for Middle School Students. I thought the seminar was in late August, but I got a call saying it started in late July (I went into panic-mode for a little bit). I didn't have time to rearrange my normal lessons to make room for the seminar, so I did the seminar in the day, my normal lessons at night, and did makeup lessons whenever I could fit them. For 16 days I worked from 10am-10pm and thank goodness we have Obon holidays this week (3 days off to worship your dead ancestors) or I would be dead myself.

Incidentally the Japanese have a word specifically to describe death from working too hard (karoshi), which nicely demonstrates the Japanese ideal that work should always come first. It seems to be a given that work even comes before your own health and the school that held the seminar is a perfect example... the entire seminar was planned beforehand and each teacher had their own classes, and there was no room for getting sick because no one could replace you.

By the way the school offered me a full-time job starting in September and I decided to take it because my VISA expires in October, and they'll sponsor me for a new one. I debated on whether or not it was the best way to get a VISA but decided to take it in the end. Mainly I was worried that we don't get any national holidays or sick days or paid vacation, but they make up for that in the four weeks per year that the school is closed and there aren't any classes.

It's an English cram school and my work hours would be 4pm-10pm on weekdays. I'll have to keep working my part-time day job at the high school until the contract finishes, and I may renew that one in April if my health isn't suffering. I like those classes. I've also been letting my night classes know that I won't be able to teach them on weeknights anymore and have been looking for teachers to replace me. Unfortunately several of them don't want to switch teachers and I've foolishly begun to offer Saturday classes to students that seem most bothered by the change. Truthfully I love my students and don't want to let any of them go, but there just won't be enough time in the week to continue them all.

So starting September I'll be working roughly 55 hours a week. Holy smokes just seeing that number is making me worry. It's been easy filling up my schedule because I'm not working it yet, but we'll see how I feel when it actually starts. Working so much is pretty normal for most Japanese people, and now I'm truly becoming Japanese.

P.S. - photos from my trip in the next entry, I promise.

P.P.S. - Oh, I just remembered it's my birthday today! Happy Birthday to me!

Pitstop in Hawaii

Sorry for not posting in a while... things got busy and I was stressing out trying to get everything together before I left for Las Vegas. On top of it all my car started having problems and in the end it totally broke down. I had to borrow a friend's car to get to all my lessons.

The wedding was great and Las Vegas was super fun. Just popping in so you don't worry that I was swallowed up by earthquakes! When I get back to Japan I'll fill in the details and post some photos.