OK! By popular (5 people) demand, I will return to active blogging!

I will start by moving my California excerpts from Japanese community site mixi, and throwing them all here!

To those who remember, I went to California last winter with 2 of my friends (one who has yet to TALK to me since returning to Japan. Some "friend"...the other still calls and texts) from Nagoya.

The continuation of the Cali adventure!

Fourth day in California short diary!

I woke up at my dad's and headed back home to see my siter, but first I went to my old office AGAIN, and had a small Christmas party with them! It was so much fun, and we laughed a lot! I also got to meet two girls there who BOTH want to go to Japan and teach like I do!

My old boss and friend Eric were soo happy to see me again, that they invited me to their Christmas Eve party at my friend Eric's house and I went there after going home to sleep for a bit.

When I got to the party, it was obvious, everyone had been drinking! They were playing board games and laughing soooo much! I got to eat one of my favorite Mexican foods, tamales, that their mom cooked, and it was so good! They started telling stories about Christ, and Christmas, and after that, began opening presents.

It got late, so everyone got ready to go home, after packing food that their mom/grandma cooked, and I headed home too, to go sleep!

The next day is Christmas, and the return of the girls to California!

Fifth day in California, short diary! Christmas!

So today was the day the girls return from their short trip to Sedona and White Sands national park.

I bought some more alcohol, and picked them up from the airport, and we went to Mitsuwa so they could buy some Japanese food for themselves.

We headed home, they got to unwind, share pictures of their trip, and we began to eat some of the food my mom cooked for us!

We ate soooo much!

Shortly after, my friends Ken and Kazumi (both Japanese, living and working here in Irvine California!), came and our party turned into a kind of Japanese style nomikai! Lot's of drinking and laughing, until it was time for them to go home and us to sleep!

Sixth day in California, short diary! Lunch, El Torito and bowling!

This day we met with my old manager Kelly, and her friends that I used to hang with in Long Beach.

We went to a great restaurant called Yard House and ate some great food, that was, again, too much for us, with our small Japanese sized stomachs! (yeah me too!)

After lunch and catching up with old friends, we headed to Kelly's house and played Wii with her daughter Jillian, who has taught us some great "knock knock" jokes and how to dance like a hip hop video star!

After Wii, we drove to El Torito (mexican food!) to meet a LOT more friends, and drink and eat!

We all ate and drank a lot, and people even told them it was Akiyo's birthday and we had them sing her the song (in Spanish, and English! They called her Akichita!). After a lot of food and drinks, we headed to the bowling alley for 2 hours of...MORE drinking and bowling!

I had some decent scores the 2 games we played (over 100 at least!) and as soon as it all began, it ended... Sad sad Tommy indeed! But it was great to see my friends and everyone all over again!

Seventh day in California, short diary! Akiyo's birthday!

On this day, we celebrated Akiyo's birthday!

I woke up and prepared the room with decorations and ballons (only 2) and laid out her gifts (from my mom and Mutsumi and I) and did it all while they were sleeping!

It was around 4am, at some random time I woke up, and thought it would be perfect. I set up some streamers and everything, but everytime they would move I would jump behind the couch so they wouldn't see me!

When I finished I went to sleep, but they woke up about 2 houtrs later to the surprise, but I was just waking up again, super tired! Haha.

We sang happy birthday, wore masks, cut and ate cake, and chilled a bit at the apartment before beginning our tour of "The OC"!

Akiyo loves the drama The OC, so we did a small tour of some places from the show! We went to Fashion Island, where I let the girls loose on a 2 hour shopping spree, with expensive results! This was after having a great, but way too filling lunch at California Pizza Kitchen!

After the mall, we headed to Balboa Peninsula, to check out a beach I used to be able to go to and no one was around, but on this day, there were SOOO many people there!

We tried touching the water and it was TOO cold, but we enjoyed walking along the beach and enjoying the weather (which has been GREAT everyday so far, besides the FIRST day the girls arrived!).

After the beach we went to another mall to buy Krispy Kreme (which is half the price of the one in Japan! 6 dollars for a dozen! Japan is 1500 yen!). Then we went to the nearby Virgin Megastore to buy some CDs and blu-ray DVDs! Virgin Megastore is going out of business, so everything is 50 - 70% off! Crazy!

After shopping, we got tired, and returned home to get some rest!

Eight day in California, short diary! Let's go to Los Angeles!

Now this day was fun!

We went to LA, and my best friend Mark joined us!

We started by eating at a FAMOUS hot dog stand called Pink's, where we all ate some very delicious, and BIG hot dogs. We drove up Melrose, looking for the Bathing Ape store, and found it, so we parked and went inside. Once done, we did a bit of walking and shopping in the surrounding area, but did the most at a place called Johnny Cupcakes! This store is about to get big soon and we all think it would be perfect in Harajuku! We all bought something from there!

After this, we went to the Beverly Center in Beverly Hills, where the girls went shopping, and us guys, well, drank... Too much!

When it was time to meet the girls, we were TOO drunk, so we wanted to go get some food and walk it off, but we ran into the girls RIGHT when we got out of the bar! CAUGHT! They thought it was funny, and we all went to get some food and drink, before the drive to Irvine to have dinner with friends!

We made it back, picked up Atsuhi from his place in Irvine, and then we went to Pei Wei, to eat some great asian food (they have a fusion of all types of Asian foods!). After everyone came to my place, to talk, eat cake, and hear the story of me meeting Chaki from the Lowbrows, and making Stay Faceless. I showed everyone pictures from different events in Japan, and soon everyone (besides Mark, who was still gone from the alcohol at the bar), went home for the night!

All in all, we had, Atsushi, Phong and his new fiancee Lynda, Mark, Micah, Akiyo, Mutsumi, and I. The ride back to my apartment was sooo hilarious, but I don't want to post it, because it is WAY inappropriate English, haha!

Ninth day in California, short diary! San Diego!

Mark hung out with us again since he was there anyway, so now I had a shopping buddy for when the girls would leave me to go shop.

Our first stop was Carlsbad Outlets, about 30 or so minutes from San Diego. We did a bit of shopping and I got some good deals on some jeans and shirts (2 jeans, 2 shirts, nice brands, 40 bucks!). We waited till we got to San Diego to eat, where we found a nice outdoor area, where we ate at a restaurant on a pier! The view was great!

After eating, we went to Coronado Island, and visited the Hotel Del Coronado. We walked on the beach, visited the inside of the hotel and walked to a nearby coffee stand, and got some coffee.

We made our way back to the car, took some photos of the amazing view, and made our way back to Orange County.

When we got home, we said our final goodbyes to Mark and went upstairs to drink, relax while talking to Ken.

Tenth day in California, short diary! Not too busy!

We woke up and decided to enjoy the great weather and walk to Fat Burger.

We all did it again, and ate way too much food and just sat in a very nice outdoor eating area.

When we were done, we went to do a little shopping at South Coast Plaza, and then headed to Corona, for dinner with my friend Adam's dad!

We ate at a place called Mill Creek, where we had some great BBQ chicken mini sandwiches. We also ate friend zuccini and onion rings!

I started feeling sick though, almost like I had a cold, and when I got home, I took medicine and went to sleep. Mutsumi also had a rough night from eating too much fried food. Akiyo is the only one not sick of us 3, but she is getting tired!

No pictures from me for the day, but the girls did take pictures. When I get them, I will post!

Eleventh day in California, short diary! New Year's Eve PAAAARTY!

What a day!

We woke up sick, and tired from all of these plans we have had, and we didn't want to do ANYTHING!

I called my boss to let her know, her house sounded like the best idea, since it would be real laid back, but then she told me to call her brother, my friend Eric, and see what he is doing. He told me to call Norman, to see what he was doing, then Norm told me there would be a chill rooftop party in downtown LA.

The girls said they wanted to go, so we did!

Eric and his girlfriend Yen, picke dus up and we made it to Los Angeles a bit later than planned, due to traffic. When we got there, there was pizza waiting for us! We drank a bit then headed to a nearby apartment, to enjoy a gorgeous night view of Downtown LA.

Here we drank a LOT until we decided we got too cold to stay, so we headed to the host's apartment to put the alcohol away, then go find a bar, but we ended up staying at the apartment the whole time!

We drank, danced, talked, took pics, and did the countdown all at the same place! So many good people, very international (Had a girl doing a student exchange from Germany, she was really cool!), and we got to listen to some old school hip hop (not the crap you hear in clubs in Nagoya:( )!

I got BEYOOOOND drunk and my friend Eric drove us all home, after scaring the girls that he was about to pass out when driving (god I laugh so hard when I think about this!), but he was just faking it!

Such a great night! I miss parties like this! They make me want to live in California again...

Twelth day in California, shrot diary! A day of rest...

After such a looooong day, we did nothing but relax.

We went to Jamba Juice to buy something to drink We went to pick up some cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory, and came home to some home cooked food from mom!

A veeeeeery eeeeeeeeeasy day!

Thirteenth day in California, short diary! One last day of shopping...

So this is officially our last day in California. So what better way to spend it than to go shopping in LA one last time!

We headed straight to Johnny Cupcakes!

http://www.johnnycupcakes.com/browse/all

This is a really cool clothing company, which is kind of like America's "Bape"! Today was LUCKY, because we got to meet the man himseld, Mr. Johnny Cupcakes! I bought 3 shirts, and 6 pins, and the girls got some more shirts and pins. We got to take pics with him, he took pics of us, and he signed our boxes and pictures!

After this, the girl headed to American Apparel, and I went to some vintage T-Shirt shop to buy some AMAZING shirts to wear out and about in Nagoya (I am now addicted to cool T-Shirts).

After this, we were EXTREMELY hungry, we all only ate a little before leaving and it was about 5 PM! So we went back to Irvine, I got a milkshake from In-N-Out, Akiyo a milkshake from Fatburger, all of us some food from El Pollo Loco, AND 2 large pizzas, and a mini pizza!

We barely ate much of it, and went to sleep sick from the amount we COULD eat!

Ken and Kazumi stayed over a bit (Ken lives there!) and I was talking with them with Mutsumi (sometimes) until around midnight, knowing the alarm would go off at 3AM...

The alarm went off, I woke up and showered, and said my good byes to my mom, grandma, and Ken. Ken helped us down with the luggage, and we were off on a shuttle bus!

Now I sit here in LAX, surrounded by Spanish speakers, trying to see what I can pick up, drinking a coffee, and using some free airport internet! Soon I will need a charger, but for now, I will just browse the internet, should last 2 more hours!

DONE!!!!

View all pics from this trip here!

I will start posting about my life as of recent, so you guys will miss out on pretty much 3 months of my life. Just fill in the holes. It is pretty much the same though. Party, DJ, Party, DJ, and some work thrown in for measure.