Happy New Year 2014!

It's a shiny new year!

Whew! I've been wanting to write, post photos and stay updated up until the end of the year and then kick off with a timely post about New Year's resolutions, but I've been so busy that I could barely get adjusted to my current time zones.



I was wrapping up work before jetting off to Boracay for a wedding and then London for Christmas festivities. It's been beautiful and wonderful with a dash of stress and confusion (see my recap of Boracay). 10 days went by much too quickly.

Before I knew it, I landed back in Tokyo Monday morning 5:30AM and was back at my desk 4 hours later.  I felt invincible!!  Then I crashed at 2PM.

Wednesday was, of course, New Years Eve and we had a romantic dinner (for 9) at a nearby Italian restaurant before moseying on over to a rooftop lounge called 1967.  We chatted, caught up with friends, popped champagne and conducted our own countdown (thanks to the internets and my iPhone). Overall, it was a very civilized NYE and I didn't suffer much at all the next morning.

Actually, going out and celebrating NYE is a relatively new thing for me because I typically stayed in with family and watched the ball drop from New York while simultaneously celebrating my wonderful mother's birthday.  Yup, January 1st is my hilarious mother's birthday (Happy Birthday for the nth time!)

Tokyo is surprisingly relaxing and calm during the week of New Years and I find this very refreshing.  It's exactly what I need to really enjoy being in the city while purging for the new year.

What I'm also purging: my closet (and apartment).  Things have got to go!  That shirt I keep thinking might look good on me with the right outfit? It's been 2 years, dude, give it up.

I'm also working my way through a mountain of laundry from the past several weeks and on my 5th load to freedom!

I typically have a difficult time throwing thing away in Japan because:

1.  They don't really have the concept of thrift stores you can just donate stuff to
2.  I feel awful throwing away decent clothes in the trash
3.  Japan actually charges you for tossing out larger items (and it's hard to move without your own car)

None the less, I already have a huge suitcase stuffed with clothes to be donated and a bag of heels that I must part with ::sniff::.

But you know, today I have the itch to binge at Forever21 and H&M...awful!

My New Year's resolutions?  Hmm, I have a few goals to accomplish this year (though, they're not really new per say...) but I hesitate to blab them out loud yet.  But let's just say that 2014 is going to be making significant strides towards my added happiness.

Cheers and happy new year!