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| AMAZING. |
Why is it that when you look back at your life, everything
seems to fly by, but in certain moments, say a long day at work or a
presentation you are in the middle of giving, time seems to inch by ever so
slowly? The saying “time flies when you’re having fun” is so true. The fact
that Arthur and I have been in Okinawa for more than a year now, and we only
have around 10 months left is c.r.a.z.y.
The thing is, time isn’t going to stop moving, and the moments that
creep by will seem like a snap-of-the-fingers in a month’s time. The best thing
to do right now is just enjoy life. Don’t wait to do that thing you’ve been
dying to do and don’t be scared to learn something new. While buying fancy cars
and extravagant toys for yourself may seem fulfilling now, a study shows that
one of the main things that bring happiness is the community you surround
yourself with and the relationships in which you create and maintain.
I think one of the best things about living in Okinawa has
been the community and friends we have made while we have been here. I think
without that “family”, life here would be completely different. Yes, it may
still be fun but it wouldn’t be as fulfilling as the relationships we’ve
cultivated here.
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| Shark friendzzzz |
We have been pretty busy throughout these holiday months,
between traveling, attending events, hanging out with friends, and some work
visitors for Arthur.
Our first adventure of the holiday season landed us in
Taipei, Taiwan for a long weekend trip. Taiwan is a beautiful place with a
strong Chinese influence. It is also much, much colder than we ever expected.
One of my favorite parts about Taiwan is the extremely easy-to-navigate metro
system. After getting lost in Tokyo one time too many, having a simple yet
effective metro system was perfect. Also, it costs way less than the Tokyo
metro- take notes TOKYO.
We discovered a free walking tour online so we decided to
give it a shot the day we arrived. Besides the cold weather, it was really fun!
It was a small group of people from all over, (Sweden, Switzerland, Australia,
and Arthur and myself) and it was not only cool to learn about Taiwan but to learn
about different cultures from all over the world.
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| One of the friends we made on the tour! |
Taipei has beautiful architecture, some old and some new. One of the most fascinating buildings in Taiwan is the Taipei 101, the 2nd tallest building in the world. We had the choice to go up to the top and get a wonderful view of Taiwan but between the price and the extremely long line to go up, we decided to choose option 2: a gondola ride up in the trees. We had a wonderful view of not only the city but Taipei 101 as well. We chose to wait and get a gondola with a glass bottom, which obviously we had quite fun. :)
A couple takeaways from Taiwan: they have cafés on just
about every corner, most things are much cheaper than Japan, the people aren’t
as friendly as Okinawa (but seriously, who can’t beat Oki..), the night markets are the best and the stinky tofu is the worst, and they have
more electronic stores/districts than I have ever seen before. Man was Arthur
happy. Oh, and there were SO many mopeds... our type of place!
We spent time searching for a hot springs that we could spend a little time at but the only ones we found were completely packed, and full of half naked rather large men and women. We decided to veto the hot springs and search instead for some shops and things were people had more clothing on. Overall, we really enjoyed Taiwan.
Christmas was next, and somehow it was here before we knew
it. I think the warm weather makes it feel like it’s not actually Christmas
time so when the day actually arrives, it’s a little shocking. It was our
second and last Christmas in Japan and it was wonderful. Arthur and I slept in,
opened each other’s gifts and the gifts my family sent (thanks guys J), and then relaxed
again. We went out to dinner for Christmas to our favorite restaurant down the
street (Japanese stores and schools don’t close on Christmas because it’s not a
national holiday. They do celebrate it with KFC fried chicken and Christmas
cakes, but nothing shuts down).
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| Christmas at the Reutov's :) |
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| Just casually fixing cars in suits... |
We’ve been trying to get outside and explore as much as we
can with our 10 months left but it’s been kind of rainy lately… are we back in
Eugene?! Arthur bought a motorcycle, which is so much fun because now we both
can ride around and talk to each other and park anywhere and beat all the
traffic. It’s been so much fun.
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| XOXO |
Our next vacation took us back to Tokyo (I love it there)
where we went to the Tokyo Auto Salon. I bought Arthur tickets for his birthday
so that was our main reason for going but I’m always up to hop on over to
Tokyo. When I bought him tickets to the Auto show, I didn’t realize it was
basically tickets to a porn show too… There were these “car girls” who stand in
front of or near the cars showing them off. However, I honestly couldn’t tell
if people were there for the cars or the women. Each woman had close to 15 men
around them, taking pictures and videos of them—NOT EVEN THE CARS. Very
interesting. Some had dresses on that covered mostly everything while others
had nothing but small spandex and a bra.
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See what I mean?!
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| My favorite car at the car show! |
So after spending more than 5 hours at
the car show (actually looking at cars**), we explored Tokyo, got lost on the
Metro, ate delicious food, and walked A LOT. It’s so much fun to travel
together and I may be biased but I think he’s the best travel companion. Our
flight left around 8AM which meant we needed to leave our hotel room around 4AM
(metro+airport time) and as we left our hotel we walked outside into SNOW! It
was awesome! Although we both had suitcases with us and were a wee bit chilly,
it was so much fun! We didn’t have long in the snow but the time we had was
amazing! You could say I have missed it a little bit ;).
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| SNOW! |
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| My cute husband :) |
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| I love the holiday season in Japan. |
One of the reasons I love Tokyo is all the delicious food... like the pizza below. MMMM
Since being back from Tokyo, we've spent time riding mopeds every chance we get (basically, whenever the sun comes out), and it's cherry blossom season here in Okinawa, which means beautiful trees! We continue to adventure as we can and I still love Okinawa. I think I always will.
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| The view from the top of the hill we climbed to see the Cherry Blossoms. |
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| Cherry blossoms in Nago. |
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| Sunrise on the way to work one morning... Beautiful! |
When looking back on all of these trips and memories, and
all the ones I have had in general—I have found that the small arguments and
troubling times aren’t the memories I remember. I remember the amazing times we
have had or the cool sights we have seen. I remember who I was with and the
cute little cafés we went in. I don’t remember the arguments about where to eat
or how late we will be for something. Life is too short to be spent arguing and
upset and it’s too short to waste time in anger. The people around you may not
act how you want and they may treat you poorly, but I believe that you can
remain joyful through those times. It’s not how people treat you but it’s how
you react to those situations. I heard this quote on a TedTalks I was listening
to and I thought it was great:
“There isn't time -- so brief is life -- for bickerings,
apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. there is only time for loving --
& but an instant, so to speak, for that.” –Mark Twain
(
Link to the Tedtalk here)
Don’t let your joy be circumstantial. The joy that comes
from the Lord is deep within our souls, that we have the opportunity to choose
joy every single time, and in every single moment. That doesn’t mean that we
can’t have sorrow or be upset ever, but the more we look to the Lord for our
joy, the more joyful our lives will be. The more we practice being joyful in
ALL circumstances, the more we will learn to choose joy, every time.
We are coming back to visit Eugene in August for my brother’s
wedding, which his fiancé just asked me to be in it and I can’t wait! We have
other plans of a Thailand trip, Seoul trip, and possibly more, we will just see
where the Lord leads our steps.
Although our lives are full of adventure and travel, some of
my favorite moments are laying on the couch eating dinner and watching
television with my love and friends surrounding. Life’s what you make it,
choose JOY always.
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