ChanomiTalk

I was very fortunate to have run the Honolulu marathon on December 9th. There were some 31,000 runners signed up to run so I knew it would be very crowded. I live about a 20 minute walk from the starting line so I walked to the start as I usually do and slowly made my way into the crowd to a point that I wanted to start from. When I got myself set to where I wanted to start at I at the runner standing next to me and couldn’t believe that he was an old friend of mine that I hadn’t seen in about two years! Once the race started I had another unlikely meeting with a friend who just happened to be running next to me! As I was heading down Kalanianole highway someone yelled my name from a group of runners going in the opposite direction and once again an old friend of mine. Finally, when I went to pick up my shirt at the pick up booth, the person standing in front of me was a friend that I hadn’t seen in about 3 years. So even though there were so many runners I ended up seeing about 5 or 6 people that I haven’t seen in a very long time.

For the last few months I’ve been in Australia, just south of a famous spot called the G0ld Coast. Lots of Japanese people are drawn to the Gold Coast as it has lovely long white sandy beaches, a great sub tropical climate, internationally acclaimed restaurants, and shopping and a nice mixed community of people from everywhere.

My partner, Michael and I have temporarily relocated here from Hawaii with Jaya and Bali,  for the short term future. We are working reestablishing Massage Masters School see http://www.mmsschool.com. Australia is in the summer right now, so with Christmas approaching we will have a summer time Christmas. This will be a first for Michael, being from California, and living in Hawaii. Everyone here is busy preparing for Christmas, people are throwing parties, and beginning their holidays this week, and busily shopping for the big day.

Merry Christmas!

One of the essential items that I had to have while living here in Chicago was an electronic keyboard. I’ve been playing the piano for about 9 years now and it’s something that I definitely wanted to keep up. For me, playing has always been a type of therapy. While I play, I can forget about all of worries and troubles in my life and just get lost in the music. Even though it may only be for 5 minutes, it is 5 minutes doing something I truly enjoy.

Currently I am learning Moonlight Sonata. To me, the song has a lot of emotion with a sort of melancholy feel. I am very excited to learn the whole song. More to come…

A few weeks ago my car was stolen. The police found it the next day however it would not start. Instead of fixing the car or buying a new one, I bought a scooter.

So far the scooter is great. I get prime parking everywhere I go and it uses very little gas. The only bad thing is when it rains the scooter won’t start. But that’s ok because riding in the rain is very dangerous.