thank you to everyone who commented on my delurking post! it's nice to hear from those who read your blog. i even got a couple of questions!

first from L.:

"Questions......do you see yourself living in Japan for the rest of your life, or perhaps living somewhere else for a while?"

well. (i think you have asked me this before!) i don't see myself living in japan for the rest of my life. but the thing is...i'm not doing anything about not living here (for the rest of my life). i know for sure one of my foreign friends here in japan is working hard towards her retirement. she even sees herself in a third country (not japan and not her home country). she is lucky in that her occupation could serve her well almost anywhere in the world, and she could 'work' past retirement age. but she also has several saving plans, retirement funds and the like. there is some difficulty with her husband's family, i think, plus she doesn't want to be a burden on her children. i am not doing that (right now), though. i am still working at the SAHM thing and not earning anything. :/ this is actually kinda scary, and one of the reasons why i'm looking forward to going 'back to work'. after i figure out what i'm going to be (ha), then i think i will know what i want to do and live for the rest of my life.

next, from T in Tokyo:

"Anyway, would like to ask where in the states you are from and how often you get back there?"

well. i'm not really from anywhere in the states. my father was in the navy and i was born overseas. then we moved when i was five months old, to the SE united states. then we moved again (maybe six months later) to florida, then south carolina, and then finally to western washington (talk about culture shock!) i lived there for about fifteen years (before coming to japan). i spent a year of elementary school, then junior high, high school, community college and university there, my parents still live there and even my brother (and sometimes my sister) live there. SO, i usually just tell people i'm from washington, near seattle or just plain seattle. have i confused anyone?

i used to average one trip home a year until i got pregnant with sasha. i haven't been home since then (christmas 2005). five years, yo.

also, some of you commented on crafting and such. i do have a post coming up (that is, if i get the pictures done *sigh*) mainly about knitting. yay!