日本に行きます!

I am totally psyched to announce that we're going back to Japan. After careful deliberation and lots of soul searching (at least for me, for my wife it was no contest), I decided $550 including all taxes was too cheap to pass up.

I estimate that we're going to pay $1100 for the plane and about $1500 for a cheap hotel or apartment for three weeks. At one point when gas was at its most expensive, I thought tickets might cost that much. I think we can eat pretty cheap, maybe splurging only a couple times on meals. I am most worried about how much we will spend on clothes (Rhonda) and tech and anime crap (me).

This may seem foolhardy in a recession. Rhonda already has her pink slip, and after dodging layoffs just a couple months ago, the IBM acquisition rumors don't exactly spell job security. Trust me, that is why I took almost the full 44 hours the seats were on hold to pull the trigger.

But this is a pretty important and symbolic trip for us, for reasons I don't want to explain. It has taken on added meaning over the last two years. When you have pretty dire financial and health situations over which you have no control, and you keep having to put off your dreams, it's incredibly disheartening. I know we are not the only people in this boat. But this opportunity presented itself at a time when we were in position to take advantage, and sometimes you need to make your own luck.

Also, scoff if you will, I feel this was divine intervention. I wasn't shopping for Tokyo tickets. I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact we might never go to Japan again or, at least, not in 2009. But a system of coincidences put itself into alignment Tuesday night. I had the "1000+" article count in Google Reader, yet I decided to read from a feed that is probably not in my 25 favorites. I decided to click on a link in that article to a website I'd never heard of, on a whim. That page happened to have a story on United fares specifically from SFO (and only SFO) to Narita for $400. The fare was only available on a handful of dates but some of those dates worked for our schedule. The sale only lasts until tomorrow, and the flights have basically all sold out. We were extremely fortunate, at a time when it seems like it's been a while since we've had some good fortune.

And you can see how I felt like we had to do this.

I didn't mean to write so long about this. Initially, it was just going to be a brief "woohoo!" kind of update. But it's nice to be excited about something again. We've had some news that made us feel relieved lately, and/or grateful, but not excited. Pumped. Alive.

Chinese New Year Resolutions

Gung Hay Fat Choy, interwebs! The Year of the Ox is upon us.

I am running quite a bit behind, mostly due to mad stress and uncertainty over Sun's huge layoff. I basically tabled any life decisions until after January, and now that the immediate future is secure, it's time to get things in gear.

I wanted to make some New Year's resolutions, but I was too preoccupied. But I gave it a bit of thought, and ladies and gentlemen, I give you my Chinese New Year's Resolutions, better late than never:

• Get healthy. - yes, I know I could not be more vague. I don't want to just say "lose weight" - what if I gain muscle? Essentially, these are the things I need to do: lower cholesterol. Eat better and avoid fast food. Make an exercise plan that I can stick to. Get my remaining nerve issues with my leg and foot resolved.
  
• Retire to bedroom by 10:30 - I know what you're thinking. It's almost midnight. FAIL. No, I said bedroom, not bed. Currently Rhonda spends the first hour or so sleeping on the couch because I stubbornly refuse to go to bed. This isn't altogether fair. So the plan is to get some exercises and stretches down before bed, possibly get to sleep a little earlier, and ...
  
• Read more - and not just comics and manga. Actual books with words. I have a lot of books I started and never finished, and quite a few more I have wanted to read but are just collecting dust on a shelf. and I have a library card.
  
• Improve my Japanese - 2008 was a failure of epic proportions when it comes to my foreign language skills. I need to at least get to where I was two years ago. Goal is to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) this winter. Improved Japanese skills will come in handy when I ...
  
• Get my ass to Japan - It's been five (!) years since our honeymoon in Japan. We have been planning to return for quite a while now, but our plans have been scuttled by the economy, looming layoffs, etcetera etcetera. I think this summer it can finally happen.
  

There it is; that's the list. I will be posting updates, at least partially as a motivational tool for myself. And since (C)NYR's are, well, pretty arbitrary, I reserve the right to add to the list as the year goes on.

Ganbarimasu!