Cherry Blossom Adventures

After writing a life list at the end of last year I found that having a list like that is good motivation to get out and do stuff which is why when I saw 101 things in 1001 days on a couple of blogs I read, I knew that I wanted to give it ago (Those blogs are here and here). I decided to start this in April because it will be my last full month in Japan and also because it will be almost a year until I get married so I thought having some wedding related things on the list as well as things I want to do in Australia would be a good idea. I have roped my friend Mandy into doing it with me and her little brother Paul is in too! Nay is joining in too!!! So on with the rules and my list!

The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past – frequently simple goals such as New Year’s resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

Start date April 1st, 2008. Finish date December 28th, 2010

Japan/Japanese
1. Pass level 1 of JLPT
2. Read a Japanese newspaper or magazine and understand it
3. Take a Japanese cooking class or classes
4. See Sumo
5. Go to at least two of the following places: Nagasaki, Hakone, Nara or Hokkaido (0/2)
6. Get Japanese drivers license
7. Visit at least five areas I have never been before in Tokyo or surrounding areas (0/5)
8. Complete all of the exercises in `shiken ni deru kanji to goi`
9. Complete all the exercises in `kanzen master` grammar book for level 1 of the JLPT.
10. Find a decent apartment that Shumpei and I are both happy with (once we return to Japan)

Wedding
11. Buy and keep a wedding notebook to keep track of stuff
12. Choose a theme or colour scheme
13. Choose and buy a wedding dress
14. Choose and buy bridesmaids dresses or material
15. Find and book a photographer
16. Write and finalize guest list
17. Choose or make invitations
18. Send all invitations
19. Finalize menus for reception
20. Choose and buy a cake
21. Choose, organize and buy flowers
22. Have a meeting with organizer at wedding and reception venue
23. Make hair and make-up appointments
24. Organize and buy stuff for wedding favors
25. Decide on a honeymoon destination and book
26. Choose and buy wedding rings
27. Get marriage license
28. Get married

Health and Self-improvement
29. Try Pilates or yoga (At least two times)
30. Learn to ski
31. Lose five kilos (0/5)
32. Lose another five kilos (0/5)
33. Maintain the weight loss for at least six months (0/6)
34. Learn how to do self breast exams
35. Do EFT everyday for two weeks
36. Get my teeth whitened
37. Learn 10 new recipes (0/10)
38. Give up coffee for a month
39. Stop biting and picking at my nails
40. Learn how to keep a hoola hoop up for more than 2 minutes
41. Learn how to do at least one cool hoola hoop move!
42. Do a week long detox (No coffee, no alcohol, no meat etc etc)
43. Get back into a proper skin care routine including sunscreen everyday- Keep it up for at least 3 months (0/3)
44. Give up fast food for two consecutive months
45. Try (or learn to like) 5 new fruits or vegetables (0/5)
46. Have another pap smear test

Creativity
47. Knit something other than a scarf successfully
48. Learn to sew (again!)
49. Sew my own handbag
50. Learn how to use Photoshop
51. Learn how to use illustrator
52. Sell something I have made

While in Australia
53. Do some kind of class either in photography, writing, cooking or something completely different.
54. Make at least one trip out into the country with Shun
55. Go to five suburbs I have never visited before (0/5)
56. Visit Melbourne
57. Eat at at least 10 restaurants I have never been to before (0/10)
58. Show Shun what Christmas in Australia is really like
59. Make sure my dad buys a dog
60. Learn something about wine perhaps do a wine tasting
61. Go to a concert
62. Go to a show with Shun
63. Visit a city I have not been to before (maybe Cairns?)
64. Take Shun to at least one major sporting game

Buy
65. A hoola hoop
66. A Polaroid camera
67. A new pair of boots
68. A plane ticket back to Japan
69. A proper DSLR camera!
70. A wireless external hard drive
71. A sewing machine (Or bring my sewing machine in Australia back to Japan)

Blog & Writing
72. Get paid to write something
73. Meet at least five other bloggers in real life (0/5)
74. Add a new section to my blog
75. Introduce some kind of ad system on my blog
76. Do Nabloplomo- Now I can choose any month I wish to do this!
77. Keep my journal going for at least the year (the year will be up this August…but If I stop I will have to start again and complete another full year before the 1001 days are up)
78. Do a monthly update for each month that I do 101 things in 1001 days on my blog. (0/33)
79. Keep track of my blog stats and referrers by checking at least once a week
80. Reach 400 posts on my blog

Personal & Random
81. Sponsor a child
82. Perfect one piano piece
83. Save enough money in Australia to return to Japan and start up life again here
84. Visit with my grandmother
85. Read 100 books in 1 year
86. Be able to skip for at least fifteen minutes
87. Organize my itunes, delete double ups and make at least three new play lists
88. Back-up my computer
89. Organize my photos and put all my photos onto cd`s as a back-up
90. Read the last Harry Potter Book
91. Finish the 888 book challenge
92. Watch the rest of Heroes with Shun
93. Go to the cinema 20 times (0/20)
94. Wake up at 6am everyday for a week
95. Get a credit card
96. Go camping with Shun (hopefully in Australia)
97. Get a new address book and add everyone I know too it (will be good for when it comes time to send out wedding invitations)
98. Clean out my closet and donate or throw away all clothes that no longer fit me or are ratty and old!
99. List 101 things that make me happy
100. Make a budget and stick to it for six months (0/6)
101. Donate 10 dollars to charity for each uncompleted task after 1001 days

Now I have done the easy part, putting it up here on my blog…..Now it is time for the hard part…Actually getting everything done before December 28th 2010!

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In an effort to improve on my writing I have decided to sign up for Encyclopedia of me which started over at Bella Dia (and which I found out about by reading Laura`s blog here...) I am now almost half way through…

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L is for Life list…

I wrote a life list at the end of last year and posted it up on my blog at the beginning of the new year. I haven`t crossed as many things off as I would of liked but I have done some, and after all it is a life list and I have the rest of my life to complete it! I thought it was about time for an update though…..seeing as though even though I have done some of the things on the list I have not always written about them here. Will also show the ones that are in progress…

You can see the complete list here

8. Keep a decent journal for at least a year -In progress

I started journaling again while in China last year so that is since August…So if I make it to August this year then I will be able to cross it off. I write in it on average 4-5 times a week! Sometimes blog post ideas, sometimes I just stick in cool stuff or postcards I have lying around and other times I will go to coffee shops and write about what is happening in my life. I enjoy it, and I hope to keep it up. I used to keep journals when I was in primary and high school and also last time I lived in Japan and while I started again last year in Feb or March I soon gave it away. I always come back to it, even if I have a break!

39. Do all night karaoke with friends at least once a year- Completed for 2008

On my birthday…..well after my birthday party! I don`t have photos unfortunately because I forgot my camera but anybody that has me as a friend on facebook can see photos that friends tagged me in!

41. Learn how to play Mahjong- Completed

Shumpei finally taught me this passed weekend. And I beat him three games in a row! I rock! I don`t understand all the yaku (point system??) yet but I really enjoyed it!

47. Keep a reading journal and read 100 books in one year -In progress

I wasn`t specific enough with this perhaps but I record the books I read each month in my journal…sometimes I write mini comments. I have read over 30 books so far this year so am on target to complete the 100 in one year goal!

55. Get in contact with at least 5 old friends who I am no longer in touch with -Completed

Thanks to facebook I would have to say this one is done! Hope to catch up with a lot of people too when I am back in Australia for a longer period of time this time around!

63. Tell someone I love them everyday- In Progress

This one will obviously never end. But I do it everyday! I think I tell Shun I love him more than once everyday! He would probably say that I say it 10000 times a day though! I tell my kids at school I love them also!

67. Buy new flowers for apartment as often as possible- In Progress

I try to do this each week! And will continue to do it until we have to leave the apartment at the end of April! Then I will cross it off (When I return to Japan I will start again!)

83. Print photos from China and Europe- Completed

Finally! I went to Europe in January 2006! And this is how long it took me! I did China at the same time and have them in photo albums….Might take the China one back to Australia to show mum!

92. Start eating at least three more vegetables- Completed

I ate no vegetables as a child….and gradually as i have gotten older I have added more and more vegetables into the mix of what I eat. The three vegetables that I can now eat are gobou (In English it is call Burdock although I have never hear of it), Green beans and pumpkin! I have also started eating daikon sometimes which is HUGE for me because I used to hate it! I am also starting to eat more cooked carrot instead of picking it out of my food…

109. Revamp blog or start a new one!- Completed

Did this when I moved my blog to wordpress!

110. Complete the two reading challenges I am doing at the moment (Japanese lit and 888 challenge)- In progress

I completed Japanese lit earlier in the year….and wrote about it on my blog somewhere. Still working on 888 challenge but I have til December to finish it off!

168. Find my old journals and read them- Completed

I did this while I was in Australia earlier in the year. They were in a box at my dad`s house….They were funny to read but I couldn`t find the one I kept in my first year of high-school….Only the ones I kept when I was 15-17 and the one from when I was in Japan the first time! When re-reading them it didn`t seem like very long ago that some of that stuff happened yet some of it was more than 8 years ago!

A lot of the things on my life list are to do with traveling and while I wish I could fly off and go to all those places now I can`t!! Hopefully one day I will be able to though! Look forward to crossing more things off!!! It is nice to have some goals. I am a huge list maker also, lists make me happy! I LOVE getting a pen and crossing things off, no scribbling, no ticking or marking with an x, nope just a straight line through each task as it gets done (I write down what we will eat everyday for dinner every sunday night and sometimes put it on the fridge so Shun can know too!)…I also have packing lists, weekly to do lists, monthly lists, lists of stuff to buy, lists of people to email etc etc et…..They go on and on. Anyone else out there a list maker? L is for LISTS too you know!

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I have been working on my life list for a couple of months now…and I wouldn’t`t say it is finished….It will be ever growing and changing I think but for now this is where it is at. It is a list of things I want to do before I die….some of them are big things and some are small! This will be a long post though….the list as over 150 things on it…I have a smaller list of personal goals also that are connected to this life list!

1. Pass Level 1 of Japanese Language Proficiency test.
2. Live in another city other than Brisbane or Tokyo
3. Do a detox
4. Have a baby
5. Learn another language
6. Visit all of the Australian states
7. Become financially independent.
8. Keep a decent journal for at least a year (Have done this before when I was younger)
9. Find an exercise routine that works for me
10. Own/work/or get involved in a bookshop
11. Get back down to a comfortable size 12.
12. Visit Vietnam
13. Visit Korea
14. Visit America
15. Visit Russia
16. Visit Egypt
17. Visit South America- at least one place
18. Go on a cruise
19. Work in a job that i `love`
20. Go off anti-depressants for at least six months
21. Own own home
22. Knit something successfully other than a scarf
23. Learn to sew well enough to make things for my children (and bags for myself)
24. Work on my creativity: Keep up knitting, jewelery and card making etc
25. Go on a road trip
26. Go to the ballet
27. Own a really decent camera
28. Learn to cook Japanese food properly- take lessons
29. Learn how to ski properly
30. Grow a successful vegetable and herb patch
31. Go see sumo
32. Take a hot air balloon ride
33. Climb Mt. Fuji
34. Start playing the piano again (Does not mean just once a year!)
35. Get a dog
36. Visit Ireland
37. Learn how to meditate
38. Have something else published (in paper form)
39. Do all night karaoke with a bunch of friends at least once a year
40. Teach Shun how to go crabbing
41. Learn how to play Mahjong
42. Give a large donation to charity
43. Take a photography class
44. Take a drawing class
45. Take a course in massage
46. Be able to read and understand a Japanese newspaper
47. Keep a reading journal and read at least 100 books in one year!
48. Get better at housework
49. Learn to make soup (and like it!)
50. Start an on on-line etsy shop (With what I don`t know!)
51. Learn how to bake proper cakes/cookies/cheesecakes etc
52. Go to Nagasaki
53. Decorate my whole house with Christmas lights one year
54. Learn how to do pilates or yoga properly…join a class
55. Get in contact with at least 5 old friends who I am no longer in touch with
56. Sponsor a child
57. Wear a kimono and visit a shrine in it
58. Get married
59. Hold a successful dinner party
60. Make pasta from scratch (Like Jamie Oliver!)
61. Reread my favourite childhood books
62. Start collecting books that I want to read to my children
63. Tell someone I love them everyday
64. Start writing letters again in particular to my Grandma.
65. Make jam
66. Learn how to bake bread and get a bread maker
67. Buy new flowers for the apartment/house as often as possible
68. Do some volunteer work
69. Go to Disney sea with Shun
70. Go to Paris with Shun
71. Learn how to use photoshop
72. Get a perm
73. Learn to be able to drink red wine
74. Go skinny dipping
75. Go to a private onsen with Shun
76. Worry less
77. Make a will
78. Learn to save money
79. Stop using so many plastic bags
80. Learn how to play the guitar
81. Be a bridesmaid
82. Improve at been a teacher
83. Print photos from Europe/China and other trips from the last couple of years and make albums
84. Go to the opera
85. Try to see at least one concert or musical a year
86. Make a quilt
87. Stop biting my nails
88. Go on holidays with my mum….and pay for her
89. Take my dad to see the snow
90. Live back in Australia again for a year
91. Invent a recipe and publish it on the net
92. Start eating at least three more vegetables
93. Visit Hokkaido and Shikoku
94. Learn to belly dance, pole dace and hoola hoop
95. Write a book (even if it is short)
96. Let someone read it
97. Spend a day at a day spa…shout a friend
98. Take Shun to meet my Grandma in NZ
99. Learn to fly a plane
100. Enter 50 competitions in one year to see if I win anything
101. Watch the sunrise on the beach with Shun
102. Clean out my closet and give away/throw away 25% of it
103. Go camping on the beach again
104. Meet another 10 more bloggers in RL
105. Write a poem
106. Go snorkeling on Great Barrier Reef
107. Attend my high school reunion
108. Visit Nara
109. Revamp my blog or start a new one
110. Complete the two reading challenges I am doing at the moment (Japanese lit challenge and triple 8 challenge)
111. Join another soccer team
112. Try Ikebana
113. Try Calligraphy
114. Stay in a five star hotel on my own money
115. See the current seven wonders of the world
116. Stop eating fast food for 3 whole months
117. Learn to roll my `r`s
118. Make a New Years Resolution and stick to it
119. Encourage a friend to do something they have never done before
120. Show my mum more of Japan and show my dad Japan in particular take him to Hiroshima
121. Have my portrait painted (maybe a family one)
122. Be more patient
123. Achieve sleeping on airplanes.
124. Knit a pair of socks
125. Beat my mother at Trivia pursuit
126. Start collecting something….maybe something old! Like old Christmas ornaments or something…
127. Visit Prague
128. Visit Berlin
129. Get my Japanese drivers license
130. Find the perfect pair of little black heels
131. Try EFT again
132. Watch less TV
133. Try out coloured contacts
134. Learn how to use illustrator
135. Take lots more purikura
136. Bake an apple pie from scratch
137. Take a make-up class
138. Wear outrageous makeup in the middle of the day and not worry about it
139. Get properly prepared for earthquakes like get an up to date emergency bag
140. Translate something from Japanese to English and get paid for it
141. Track down the game bubble bobble and play it with my brother
142. Crash a party
143. Live back in Kichijoji
144. Get flexible
145. Go to the Olympics
146. Take Shumpei sailing
147. Participate in a yacht race (Done small boats but nothing that could be considered a yacht as such)
148. Learn how to play didgeridoo
149. Have a fruit tree
150. Write a song
151. See Kabuki
152. Review first aid and CPR and get my certificates
153. Go backstage of a concert
154. Attempt to play shamisen
155. Change a tire on a car by myself
156. Try frogs legs
157. Appear on TV for something
158. Run 5km without dying
159. Have a mud-wrap
160. Live to 100 and get a letter from the queen
161. Learn how to do self breast exams
162. Invent something
163. Buy a Polaroid camera
164. Get my teeth whitened
165. Smoke pot with my mum
166. Go back to the Louvre
167. Get up every day at 6am for a week
168. Find my old journals and read them
169. Leave a book somewhere, like book-crossing
170. Go to a concert with my dad
171. Learn to make soap and candles
172. Travel somewhere with my little brother…not fight at all the entire time.
173. Learn to be a light packer
174. Give up coffee for an entire month
175. Complete all the things on my life list

I am going to print this out and keep it in my diary and add to it overtime. I doubt I will add my additions to here everytime but who knows I might. This is my list as of January 7th 2007. Wish me luck!!!!

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Happy New Year to everyone!

2007 was a good year but I am really looking forward to 2008. I have decided not to have resolutions this year as such….I will be focusing on my life list instead which I will be putting up here soon!

I spent the new year with a couple of friends at a small house party….There was wine, music and even some fireworks (Despite the crazy weather in Brisbane they did let off some fireworks) I saw in the New year but was asleep by 1:30am! It was low-key but exactly what I wanted. I spoke to Shun at my midnight and again at his midnight….I think 2008 is going to be a big year for us. We have plans to get engaged and we will also be moving to Australia in July for a little while if all goes according to plan!

I wish everyone the best for 2008, I hope that everything you want, you get.

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• D`Jen wrote a life list while she was traveling back from the bush…it seems like a good idea and I am thinking of writing one myself. There are a lot of things I want to achieve in my life, problem is they are always changing….are life lists able to be changed I wonder. Or once you write one it is stuck like that forever…or is this a personal choice?
• My school where I work is moving…to a bigger place! It is all very exciting. We will still be in Kichijoji but we will be a lot closer to the inokashira park and the area is three times the size of where we are now. November is set to be a very very busy month!!
• As some of you know I have been tossing up with the idea of going back to Australia next year for about six months..with Shumpei. We would then return to Japan after six months. We are thinking next July. My contact with my school is up in December but my boss has kindly offered to sign me on again for six months instead of a year. This is great because I really want to stay in the same job but it would of been hard because usually you must sign year contracts!!! I will be staying on at the school until end of June!
• I have had a headache since Monday. At first I thought it was just a normal headache…gone by the next day but nope. So I thought perhaps it was because I had been using the computer a lot without wearing my glasses….so started wearing them all the time at home…nope not that either. Then I had a scary thought…maybe it was a toothache. I hate going to the dentist…in fact I have never been to one in Japan…I always just got check-ups when I was back in Australia. A friend of a friend is a dentist and he speaks English too (Although we had always spoken in Japanese) so I booked in to see him yesterday and got all my courage together and went to the dentist. Turns out the tooth I thought was a problem isn`t a problem (Basically I have a tooth at the back of my mouth that fell apart when my wisdom teeth pushed on it a couple of years ago so while it didn`t have a cavity I still had some of the tooth missing…about 2 months ago the filling stuff they packed it with to make it normal tooth shape fell out and I didn`t do anything about it so I thought maybe it had turned into a cavity. But apparently it is fine, and if I don`t have to do anything to it), He did find one tooth that has a small hole which is going to fix next week. One hole after 2 years of not going to the dentist isn`t bad now is it? I think it will be my second filling in my adult teeth. But he said it is not causing the headache since when he touched it I couldn`t feel anything so it isn`t very bad. So now back to square one with the headache….BUT I now have a dentist in Japan and he is lovely! Thanks Hide!
• Last weekend I saw the worst movie ever. Shumpei and I went to the night theater and I told him he could choose the movie…sukiyaki western django…WORST MOVIE EVER! I actually fell asleep in the theater… It is basically a Japanese movie where the cast speaks English thought the movie. When I asked why they spoke English and not Japanese shumpei said he thinks it is because they want the movie to become popular overseas. NOT LIKELY! I couldn`t understand the English real well… What is the worse movie you have ever seen?
• Two days ago I started knitting again. I wasn`t even sure I would remember how to do it…I did a couple of rows of practicing…just getting the hang of it again…and then I scrapped that and started knitting a green scarf… so far I am about 1/8 finished…and I can see a couple of mistakes in it but overall it is actually going OK. Perhaps I will start on a knitting craze and learn how to knit something that isn`t a scarf or hat! Any ideas on what I should try to knit? Or where I could get some decent patterns that are easy to read?!
• I also made my first piece of jewelry in about t3 or 4 months. I made a couple of pairs of earrings. They turned out OK too…I think I must be going through a bit of a creative phase. I have always wanted to be creative but am unfortunately lacking in almost all creative skills. When I draw for the kids at school they can hardly ever tell what it is unless it is a tree or a flower or something simple. I drew a kangaroo and they thought it was a dog! I wish to be creative though…..I would love to make things!
• Last night I finished work at about 5:15 and rang shun but he was going to be late and unable to meet for dinner. So I rang Cat and we made plans to meet for Indian food in Shinjuku at 7:30. Kazu ended up coming too. I love the fact that I can ring someone at that time and arrange to meet up so quickly….I had no plans, hadn`t made any but finished work and wanted to do something…and I did! I love my friends!
• Rachael, a Scottish friend living in Korea just tried to do a mini detox and made it to day six (of 10 I think) I doubt I would make it to day 2 but it did get me thinking that maybe a detox would be the best thing to kick start my metabolism. Has anyone ever done one? What did you do? Was it successful? My mum is always telling me about herbal life a supplement drink that you can have two times of day instead of two meals….Maybe I should even give that ago. I keep saying I want to lose weight and while I try to watch what I eat (and drink!) it never ends up doing much….
• No plans really for the rest of the weekend…and I am kind of glad it is a quite one. There is a couple of things I could catch up on at home….Reading, blog checking, watching TV, cleaning, washing, knitting etc etc….Shun and I will go out and have dinner somewhere locally later tonight but until then I am free!!!!!!!!!

10 dot points seems a good place to finish don`t you think?!

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