Habu-chan's Birthday!

Yesterday we went to an Italian restaurant to celebrate Habu-chan's birthday!


Eriko (Habu-chan) & Kazu






Hitomi & Hamid, with their son, Kurosh! This is obviously after Kurosh ate a lot of pasta. His belly is huge!

Wine Bar!!!

There is this restaurant in Kobe that I just love. Its Italian food is great, the price is reasonable and the best thing is the international wine selection!!! We pay 840 yen (about US$8) to drink as much as we'd like in 90 minutes... So, last week, we were there with a group of friends from church!


Here is Mansur and David being silly! If you take a close look, you will notice that Mansur was playing with his mustache, and trying to stretch it out to the sides to look like a cartoon character or an Indian Maharaja! Whatever it is, if I'd known, I'd kindly ask him to fix it!!! Now, we can just laugh! He loves to joke around!


That night, we met Corran, David's friend, who was visiting from Tokyo! Seems like he loved our city so much he might be willing to move down here!


From left to right: David, Corran, Sonja (who you can't see-sorry!), Shintaro (a Japanese guy who is also a graduate student at Kobe University-we have bumped into each other a few times), Benjamin, Frazer,Leah, LeeAnn, and Yoko


Here are 4 ladies, representing 4 different countries!!! LeeAnn from the US, Yoko from Japan, Carina from the Philippines, and Bibian from Brazil! COOL!!! That is what I love about our life in Japan! We have friends from all over the world! That night we also had Sonja from Australia (with Macedonian background) and Frazer from New Zealand!!! And that is nothing!!! There are a lot more friends you will get to meet later on!

University Friends

Last week I went to dinner with 4 Japanese friends who were in my class when I studied Communication at Kobe University! We graduated over 1 year ago and had not met since then! Only the girl in the center, Ayane, has come over a few times since then! She remains a dear friend to me... She was the first one to ever talk to me at school! It was Orientation Day, in March/2001! She came up to me, noticing I was alone and was the only one who did not look Asian! We have been great friends since then! She is the sweetest!!!!!!!!!!!!

Batayan & Nana's Wedding!

Sergio's Visit

I remember when I got the scholarship to come to Japan. Out of so many test takers, only another guy and I were offered to enter the program. When we left Brazil, we were scared, clueless of what was ahead. Sergio and I became close friends, we hung out together, we were the only ones who could share Brazilian culture, language, food... We really supported each other our first year in Japan!
Then, I came to Kobe and he went to a cold area, a prefecture named Niigata. Three years ago his dad came to Japan to work at the Consulate. Now, Sergio is in Tokyo again, finishing his Masters (like me) and living with his dad and his new step-mom and newborn step-sister.
Last week they visited us in Kobe and traveled around this area to see Osaka, Himeji, Kyoto, Nara and Kobe. Below are a few of the pictures we took while they were around!


Here is Karen, Sergio's 8-month old step-sister. She is adorable! So quiet! A blessing! Her mom can be seen on the left side!


Here is Karen again! KAWAII!


On the right is our friend Sergio, on the left is his dad (also called Sergio) and his new baby Karen!

Marriage - What a Blessing!

I was looking at some of our wedding pictures these days. It was so much fun! I wished all of you could have shared that moment with us. It will soon be 4 years... Time flies. I do not have the professional pictures on digital data, but these are some of the shots our friend, LeeAnn, got during the wedding day. She was with me the whole day, so you can see the process of me getting ready!
God has blessed me with a wonderful husband. Like every little girl I had dreams of having a happy family, of being in love with my man, of encouraging and trusting each other at all times, but to tell you the truth, I never thought it would be this good. I am so blessed!!! I want to share our love with all around us, especially in Japan, where couples are not happily ever after and where marriage is seen as a symbol for family, and nothing more. I want to see them understand that you do not get married just to get settled down and look stable, have children and fight about their needs. I pray they can understand what God meant when He created marriage. Two people become one flesh! How powerful that is!!!
All I want is to honor God with our marriage... I want to respect and admire Mansur forever. And I want to be the wife described in Proverbs 31. The following verse is stuck to the kitchen cupboard at home, where I can always see it and remind myself or who I should be: "A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence on her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life."
























Below is the hotel we spent two nights at. Since Mansur's family was in Brazil, we did not go anywhere for honeymoon right after the wedding. Half a year later, we took our first trip abroad as a married couple, we spent a month in India!