holiday

Fall in Karuizawa

October 26, 2015 By Chie

It’s officially Fall here in Japan. The color of the leaves are changing and mornings are cold. We went to a place called Karuizawa to enjoy the last of the warm weather a few weeks ago. Karuizawa is in Nagano prefecture, and it is only an hour away from Tokyo station by bullet train. It is easy to get to and this small town is beautiful, filled with restaurants, cute zakka and souvenir shops. It is also close to the mountains so it is very easy access good hiking trails.

We hiked from Kyu-Karu Ginza to Usui Pass. After walking for about 4km, this beautiful mountain view showed itself. It’s right between Nagano and Gunma prefectures. We met a local man who was killing time while waiting for his daughter. We got talking and he ended up giving us a ride back to our cabin because we missed the last bus back to the town (last bus ends at 4:30pm!). This would not have happened in Tokyo. When you step outside of Tokyo, I find people much more willing to talk to you even if you are a stranger.

The rustic cabin we stayed.

The sign warning about bears.

軽井沢に行ってきました。
小さなキャビンに泊まり、チャーチストリートでご飯食べたり旧軽銀座通りから、碓氷峠の方にハイキングに行ったりしてきました。

秋の訪れを感じる旅でした★
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Valentine’s Day Idea | $20 Gift Exchange

February 13, 2015 By Chie

Early Valentine’s day lunch at Bar de ESPANA LIBRA

Andy and I exchange gifts on special occasions that has a limit of $20. It started when we first got married. We were 22, and broke (Andy was still a student) but still wanted to make special days special. So we came up with the $20 gift exchange idea and even after 8 years of marriage we stuck with it.

When I tell my friends that I have a $20 limit on anniversary gifts, birthday gifts, valentine’s day gifts etc, they seem perplexed. But there is a lot you can do with $20! I love that it forces you to be a bit more creative. Here are some gifts I’ve given to Andy in the past:

– Three indoor golf lessons (found on Groupon)

– Handmade grappling dummy. These can cost up to 450 bucks.I used an online tutorial and made it out of PVC pipe, pillow and duct tape.

– Some CDs bought on ebay (you can tell that this is a gift from a while ago)

For this Valentine’s day, I gave him a new backpack which I scored with gift certificate, so it was still under the budget. It wasn’t the most creative gift, but it doesn’t have to be every time, right?

Andy gave me these heatless curlers! I do heatless curls overnight some nights. I usually wet my hair a bit and taking a piece of rag, I roll my hair with it and sleep with that on my hair. The curls usually last all day and I like that fact that it does not damage my hair. He always made fun of me for having rags all twisted up in my hair at bedtime so he bought me these plastic tube curlers. I haven’t tried them yet but they seem more comfortable than having rags in my hair!

Anyway, I always enjoy our gift exchange tradition. It’s fun. Would you try it with your boyfriend/husband? How do you decide on what to get for gifts and how much to spend? I’d love to read about it!

結婚した当時から、何かのイベント（誕生日、記念日、クリスマスなど）に、２０００円リミットでプレゼントを旦那さんとあげっこするのが恒例になっています。
きっかけは、結婚後すぐは旦那さんが学生だったこともあり、自由になるお金が少なかったからなのですが、もう８年目になると、２０００円だけという課題事態を楽しんでいます。
私は今回は貯めておいたギフトカードを使って新しいリュックをプレゼントしました。

旦那さんからは、熱を使わないカーラー！

寝る前に、今まで端切れに髪を巻き付けて寝ていた（翌朝ゆるウェーブになってるんです！）のですが、それを見かねたらしく、ちゃんとしたカーラーを買ってくれました。

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Looking Back on My 2014 New Year Resolution

December 15, 2014 By Chie

Only 10 days left till Christmas and 15 days left for the year 2014. My 2014 resolution was to stay organized, and I am proud to say that I did pretty well with keeping my resolution this year! My sewing room is in order most of the time, and I made sure to put things back in the original spot after I finish sewing. Since we have limited space, every single item needs to have a place of its own.

Staying organized includes being on top of the accounting part of the business so I’m not buried with receipts during tax season. I marked the beginning of the month in calendar to do all the accounting at once for the previous month. At first, it took me about three hours but as the months passed by, I was able to do it in within an hour.

Every morning, I write a list of things I need to do on a sticky note. If it is on a busy day, I write something like “finish shoulder seam of my coat” or “wrap dress for etsy order”, even if I know it takes only five minutes to do. That way, I can get some sense of accomplishment!

I’m mostly done with Christmas cards and New Year cards, which I used to delay till the very last minute. It is so much less stressful to finish it early! I ordered my business New Year cards from Nohana （ノハナ） and personal ones from T print　（Tプリント）. The prices were pretty much the same, but I like the quality at Nohana better. The cards were thicker and glossier. The good thing about T print is that they print the recipient addresses for you without additional cost.

So now I’m done with administrative hassle, I can enjoy some Christmasy stuff. We decorated the Christmas tree on one Saturday morning. We have a rather sad looking fake tree, very much like Charlie Brown’s, but every tree in Japan is like that unless you drive to Ikea to pick up a real tree! We also decorated some cookies. What kind of Holiday things do you like to do?

Also I’m thinking about doing a small giveaway (much like the one I did back in 2012) for the blog readers. Please write in the comments below what you would like as a giveaway gift♡　I would love to know if there is anything you cannot get in your country that is in Japan.

クリスマスまであと１０日、新年まで１５日です！
２０１４年の抱負は整理整頓でした。
今年はけっこう忘れずに整理整頓できたと思います。年賀状も完了したし！
皆様はこの忙しい時期、どうお過ごしですか？