I'm Back

Well, it's been a while since my last blog. No excuses. I've been busy. Where should I start? Five days after my last blog, Marcia and I went home for Christmas.



Had a wonderful time with our son, Stephen and visited many friends. I'm still recovering from all of the eating and drinking.



Christmas Eve dinner with friends. Notice the silver crown party hats.


The band.
Our band was able to get together in our basement for two great music sessions. I miss playing music with my band mates! A fun time was had by all.
We didn't get any individual pictures of two of our band members so I'll mention them here. The good looking tall guy in the back of the picture is our lead singer, Larry. The good looking woman in the foreground is our backup vocalist and keyboard player, Marcia.
Our drummer, Al.
Our lead guitar and marraca player, Don.

Me. Our bass player, Mark.

You may have noticed a subtle shift in the lighting. Well, this is the lighting that we use when we play. It sets a better mood. The other lighting (bright!) was for the photographs.


After two wonderful weeks in East Aurora, we went to Singapore where the temperature was almost 60 degrees warmer than East Aurora. Quite a shock to the body. Singapore is only about 40 miles from the equator and is VERY tropical.

East Aurora, NY (Our back yard)

Singapore (Our hotel)

View from our hotel window.
Marcia actually had most of the weekend off so we were able to do some sightseeing together. We did quite a bit of walking. Saw some beautiful botanical gardens and took a cable car trip to Sentosa Island. The cable car was really cool. Very high in the air. The cable car ride was quite the experience. To say that Marcia is uncomfortable with heights is an understatement. Six feet off the ground and Marcia begins to sweat. Well, this cable car at times was more than 300 feet off the ground!


This is Marcia putting on her brave face.
Actually, she did fine and enjoyed the ride. There was one point on the ride back when the cars stopped and we hung suspended over the water for a few minutes and Marcia became quieter and quieter. I started to make a few "We could be stuck here for hours jokes" but the look that she gave me convinced me that a little silence might be in order. We started moving again and Marcia regained her "inner peace".

View from the cable car.

Singapore is a very large shipping port.

We finally arrive at Sentosa Island.


This is a Merlion. They are everywhere and have some special significance. I just Googled this so I thought I would throw it in. "Designed by Mr Fraser Brunner, a curator of the Van Kleef Aquarium, the lion head represents the lion spotted by Prince Sang Nila Utama when he re-discovered Singapura in 11 AD, as recorded in the "Malay Annals". The fish tail of the Merlion symbolises the ancient city of Temasek (meaning “sea” in Javanese) by which Singapore was known before the Prince named it “Singapura” (meaning “lion” (singa) “city” (pura) in Sanskrit), and represents Singapore’s humble beginnings as a fishing village." I was going to pretend that I knew this, but I knew no one would believe me.


Sentosa Island had a great aquarium. With many really nice displays. Marcia took this close up photo (no flash, don't want to hurt the fish) of some jelly fish.


There was also a long, circular glass tunnel surrounded by water. When walking through it, I felt like I was walking under the ocean.


Manta or sting rays.


This is as close to a shark as I ever want to get!


Marcia was recently back in Singapore and took these next shots from a restaurant in a very tall building (70th floor).





Since I've been back in Japan I've had two more modeling Jobs (commercials) and have returned to my volunteer work in Tokyo. I've had to miss some of my Japanese lessons because of my schedule, but I study whenever I can. Learning Japanese has been a struggle and a challenge. It's been very enjoyable but, at times, quite frustrating. I keep getting distracted by other things to do in Japan so my progress is slow. It's definitely not easy teaching new tricks to an old dog like me.

We're getting ready to celebrate the Lunar New Year here (early February). There will be many celebrations, especially in Chinatown, and we hope to take in a few of them.

I hope that this whirlwind tour helps to catch everybody up on our ongoing saga of living abroad.

Ja mata,

Gary

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!



Santas unwind after a hard day! (That's me in the middle.)


Santa gets lucky. (Also me in the middle.)
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

These photos are from a Japan MTV music video I was in: "Hurry Xmas" by L' Arc-en-Ciel (a very popular Japanese band). Someday I'll write about my fledgling modeling/acting career.

My New Year's resolution is to find more time to keep my blog updated!

Gary, Where have you been?

I've been doing some intensive training for some volunteer work that I will be doing in Tokyo which is taking a lot of time. For those of you who are in the USA, ask me and I'll tell you what I'm doing. For people in Japan, it has to remain confidential. And I'm still trying to learn Japanese, which is a constant reminder of how difficult it is to learn a language at my advanced age. Anyhow, I've been really busy commuting to Tokyo and studying Japanese. So this blog will be short on my usual patter.

A few weeks ago, our neighbors from upstairs, the Hodges, called and said, "You have to come do karaoke with us and David's sister and her husband." Well, it was pretty late and we were already in our evening lounging clothes (Me in T shirt, underwear and socks. Marcia in elegant color coordinated pajamas.), but we decided to get dressed and give it a shot. Marcia has experienced karaoke in Japan but, I have not. Karaoke is very different in Japan from what I have experienced in the USA. In the USA, everyone is in a great big room and the person performing, sings to a large group. In Japan, you rent a private room for your group. So you don't sing to strangers, only the people in your group. So... you rent a room with a television screen and 2 microphones and a song book. I forgot to mention, included in the rental of the room is an unlimited supply of drinks. There's a phone in the room and when you need more drinks, you call and order. Great system! Well, we had a great time and here's what it looked like.


Kimberly and brother-in-law, David.


Kimberly and David, also known as "the Hodges".



Gary and David get romantic?


David and his wife, Shannon. (The other David's sister.)




And now for a couple of embarrassing pictures.................











Kimberly gets down!


Gary falls asleep?


Anyhow, a fun time was had by all!!!!!

Next blog coming soon......Japan celebrates Halloween.

Ja mata,

Gary

I'm Back

It's been a long time since I blogged, so let's see if I can do a high speed catch up. I was back in the States for most of the month of August and had absolutely no time for blogging. While in East Aurora,Marcia and I visited friends, worked on the house, celebrated my birthday and got to play a gig with the band. Marcia returned to Japan and I flew to California, via Reno, to visit family. I returned to an empty house in Japan as Marcia had already left for a week long meeting in Nagoya. Quite a change from a busy schedule of visiting as many friends as possible in the States, to an empty house in Japan. But within a few days, I was back on track and into my Japanese life. I signed up for a conversational Japanese class that meets three times a week and is very enjoyable. I went on a couple of auditions for my struggling modeling career and have started training for some volunteer work that I will be doing in Tokyo. (The volunteer work is English oriented.) So with that as a backdrop, I'll add some photos to give a slightly more complete picture of the month of August.
One side note: I want to say hi to Ken and Ken and thank them for faithfully reading my blog.

Warning! These pictures will be in no particular order. Just a stream of consciousness of a whirlwind trip.

This is Maggie, our last remaining pet in East Aurora. Stephen says that since the other pets have passed on, she has blossomed and likes not having to share her house. She has become very vocal and enjoys spending time with Stephen and Jeff (Steve's roommate). She was happy to see us and seems to be thriving.


Marcia visited her great aunt and cousin in Niagara Falls.


Marcia's great aunt, Aunty Bea, is amazing! Ninety-seven years old and going strong. Lives at home by herself and leads a very active life.


Marcia's cousin, Duaine, is Aunty Bea's daughter. What a wonderful person. Duaine lives in nearby Lewiston, NY and shares many adventures with her mother.


One of my projects when I was home was to build benches for our deck.


What can I say? It's my idea of a "fun" vacation.


The deck benches in progress and our hard working son coming home from work.


The finished benches.


Wining and dining with our good friends, the Kujawskis.


Our band was able to get together and play a gig while we were home. From left: Marcia,Don,Mark,Larry and me.


Neighbor, friend, and fellow band member, Larry.


Drummer Al. Al may sit in the back behind his drums, but he certainly makes his presence known.

After leaving East Aurora, I flew to the other side of the country to visit my mother and sister in Cedarville, California. What! You've never heard of Cedarville? Don't feel bad, most people haven't. Cedarville is in the very notheastern corner of California. It's a small town in the high plains desert almost on the border of Nevada. The small population includes ranchers, cowboys, and all sorts of interesting people including my mother, sister, brother-in-law, and niece(and her family). Obviously, you can't fly direct to Cedarville, so I flew into Reno, Nevada. Reno is about a 3 hour drive away from Cedarville. My brother, Jim, lives near Reno so he met me at the airport and we enjoyed the nightlife there before driving to Cedarville the next day.

Reno at 5:00 AM in the morning.

Visiting with my family.
In front: my lovely mother, Clare.
From the left: My (fraternal) twin brother, Jim, me, and my brother-in-law Michael


Four generations of my family. My niece, Carmen, her son, Dayton, my sister, Virginia, and my mother, Clare. By the way, today is Dayton's first birthday. Happy birthday!

I have a wonderful family and I was very glad that I was able to visit some of them while I was in the States. My one regret was not being able to visit with my other sister, Joy, while I was there.


All in all, the trip was quite a success with many things accomplished. Now that I'm back in Japan, I'll try to keep everybody a little better informed of our adventures.

Ja mata,

Gary