Isn't it exciting!?!

My self-confidence was soaring today.

At Kosode Elementary School, I won two intense games in a row of ping pong!!! (which, by the way, is more commonly known as table tennnis here.)

Nevermind that my opponents were about half my age. I don't care. I WON! Twice! In Japan, no less! I beat competitive 6th grade boys, so that has to count for something.

Let me just bask in this (very rare) victory one more second...Woot WOOT!

Ok, moving on. :)

Although this is old news, it's still very exciting. Liz and I saw the Emperor on his birthday, Dec. 23rd! I bring this up again only because now I have pictures of it to share with you. Liz recently posted the following photos on facebook:

We were towards the front of the very long line to see Emperor Akihito and his wife.

There they are! We were really close, and I promise you that I even made eye contact with the Emperor. :)

A look at just a small portion of the crowd -- fellow flag wavers shouting "bonzai!!" 盆材　(Long live the Emperor!) What a neat memory.

In other news...

You may have noticed that I've made a few changes to the layout of this blog. The biggest change is that there is now an extension of "Konnichiwa Means Hello." It's basically a separate blog I'm starting that will be more serious in subject and tone. You can access it by clicking on the link under "Going Deeper," on the side panel.

I have a blast writing about my day-to-day activities -- fun things like food, ping pong victories, more food, preschool visits, even more food, et cetera, et cetera.

But I also want to write occasionally about things that are under the "surface level." I'll write in the more serious blog, titled "Keep Shining," whenever the spirit moves me, and will link it to this one. The first post is up now. I'm really excited about this new writing project and the possibilities!

There's a lot to be excited about. :)