Series: 30 - December 2023

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

Ai and the aidols are coming in a couple of days!!! I can’t wait!!! It’ll be so much fun!!!  Sabby’s been on a cleaning kick the past couple of days and we were all roped into it.  The place is pretty spotless.  We found some futons (Japanese futons don’t necessarily have frames) so we set them all out (assuming they won’t want to make piles and I think that’s a pretty safe assumption).  I’m going to drive to Houston myself to pick them up because there won’t be enough room for all of them in the car if anyone else comes along.  But I’m pretty good at driving and fully licensed now so it shouldn’t be a problem.  We don’t have a guest room so they’ll stay in my room but it’ll be fine.  I’ll take the big car with all the seating.

I wonder if someone will say “sharekoube”.  I won’t be able to stop giggling if they do… haha.

So tomorrow other than school we’ll probably have a lot of baking to do and such, because of course we need to make sure they have lots of treats.  Sabby really shines when it comes to having guests.

Otherwise… pretty boring day.  It’s been kind of chilly, aww.  But I keep remembering when it was 105 and how much we wanted days like this, so…  I don’t complain too much.  We’re all brainstorming to figure out things to do with the aidols, but Sabby says they’ll just be happy to be here and see the sights, and… well, she’s probably right.  The biggest challenge will be… they’re not really good at English.  But maybe they can use the time to practice.

Yuki really wants to meet them to.. It should be interesting to see how they all get along.

Gotta go…

Love you all!!! ❤️

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

The aidols are coming tomorrow!!!  They’re already on their way to the airport!!!  They sent me a photo and they’re having the best time, I guess they’re on the train with all their luggage, and it’s pretty heavy, but…  they’ll figure it out.  Actually… I wonder how we’ll fit all their luggage AND them into the car.  Maybe Sabby will need to come with me after all, and take another car.  Hah!

They’ll arrive at about 2 PM but it’ll be like midnight for them, so probably we’ll just take them for lunch/dinner and let them rest for a while.  Jet lag sucks!!!  But it’s part of life I guess.

I need to think of fun stuff to do.  They definitely want to visit a Wal-mart.  Everyone seems to want to visit Wal-Marts.  What’s the big deal about Wal-Mart anyway???  It’s just a store.

Sabby made them a bunch of treats.  That was nice of her.

Anyway, I guess I should get some sleep.  It’ll be a fun couple of weeks!  And I told David if he gets another eyeful I’m not protecting him from their fists!!!

Love you all!!! ❤️

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

Everyone’s here!!!

I went to pick them up from Houston at around 2 PM, and they were pretty much dead on their feet.  We got all their luggage into the car and herded them all in, and they seemed torn between seeing all the sights and sleeping.  Sabby was with me (we had enough room, but barely) and all the girls chatting in the back in Japanese kind of unnerved her a bit.  They were saying things like “the roads are so wide” and “look at the cows!”.  Nothing Sabby really needed to know about.  We got them home, and they were so tired we just gave them some snacks, and then pulled out the futons and let them sleep for a little while.  They woke up a little later and we all just sat around chatting.  Their English isn’t very good so Dave, David, and Sabby were having a heck of a time communicating.  While my Japanese isn’t perfect it’s better than theirs, and my English is better than the girls’, so I ended up translating.  It was kind of fun.

I think they’re overwhelmed.  Poor girls.

They’re kind of wide awake right now because it’s around morning their time, so we’re going to spend a little time chatting and playing games.  As I thought, they’re not huge on the girl piles, so they’re just going to sleep in their futons.  I don’t mind.  It’s all about cuddling, not forcing.  They did say the futons are pretty comfy, and Marie and Cat are insisting on cuddling with them, so there’s a bit of cuddling going on.  I think Marie really likes Mariko.  Maybe she smells like rice?  I don’t know.  I can’t read Marie’s mind.

They kind of cooed over David, which both seemed to make him really happy and really embarrassed all at the same time.  They said something like “He looks like an anime little brother!” and I fell over laughing.  He… kinda does, actually.  He even scratches his head.

I’m going to have them try to get some sleep tonight.  We have a lot planned tomorrow.  The girls are going to come over and we’re going to try to practice.  It’ll be different with an audience.  And Yuki’s going to come over too to meet them.  I told them they get five minutes to fangirl, and then they’d better treat her like anyone else.  They laughed, but I just gave them a death glare, and then they agreed.  I told Yuki that’s what I told them, and she said that’s fine, she’ll even sign an autograph if they ask.

Yuki’s pretty nice, all told.  Being an idol traumatized her but she didn’t really mind being an idol, it was the industry and fans that she got disgusted with.

Beth’s in with us tonight.  The rest of the girls didn’t come over tonight, I told them the aidols would be really jet-lagged and it was best to let them sleep.  They agreed.  We’ll make up for it tomorrow.

Love you all!!! ❤️

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

Today was really fun!!!

We made a nice breakfast for the girls this morning – they’re not used to American breakfasts but they ate up anyway.  American breakfasts do tend to be a bit sweet and carb loaded, but they seemed to enjoy it anyway.  I went for a run, Yuuko came along, she looks little but she’s pretty fit, Mariko volunteered to walk Marie, so Beth went with her to the park to let Marie run around a little, and Minami was still really tired so we let her laze around for a bit.  Ai had been here before, so she just kind of made herself at home and read one of the manga she brought from home for a while while everyone else did their thing.  There’s a bit of jockeying for the shower, but good news is, we have more than one, so it all worked out.

The girls came over around noon and we had a rehearsal.  All the aidols (I’m going to keep calling them that because it’s the only word I have that describes Ai and her friends, and only Ai and her friends) watched us practice.  Afterwards, they politely clapped, and Mariko said “you’re not very good, are you?”

All of us who saw K-On laughed our butts off, and everyone else just looked puzzled and a little offended until someone explained.  And, well, they’re not wrong.

I explained (In my not perfect Japanese) that we just started the band and we’re all still learning our instruments and how to play together, and then they looked impressed, and told us to ganbarimasu (try our best).  Turns out Yuuko plays guitar though!  Not really well, but better than Crystal, and we let her have a go.

Yuki came over at some point in the afternoon and after a significant amount of fangirling (which consisted mostly of bowing and blushing) everything calmed down and they had fun chatting with each other in Japanese.  I followed most of it, but they’re native speakers, and, well, shouganai.  Yuki told them some stories about being an idol, and they told her in turn about some of their school experiences.  Yuki was an idol from a young age so she didn’t get to go to school, she did home study.  I mean, she got an education, but you could see in her eyes the envy when they were telling stories about just normal school life.  It was a little sad, but I guess that’s why you have friends, right?

After that, we all piled into the car and went off to Wal-Mart.

Ai had been before, so she just held back and laughed as the other girls went wild.  At one point, she looked at me and said “Was I that bad?”  Well, she said “waruikatta?” but same difference.  I just giggled.  “un”.  She laughed.  “Gomen”, she said, and I waved her off.  I told her it’s part of the fun to take people to places they haven’t been before and watch them go nuts.  Yuki kind of put her head in her hands and mumbled something about “giving Japanese people a bad name”.  I giggled.

Anyway, after about an hour, they had bags full of stuff, I got some fixins for dinner too, and we made our way back for dinner.  Dave grilled.  And…  I think they want to stay here now.  I’m not the only one who loves Dave’s grilling.

After that, we just had a quiet evening.  They’re still jet-lagged, so they were out of it.  We just stuffed them full of chocolate and when they hit their futons they were out like a light.  I had to carefully step over to them to get to the computer to make this post!  Yuki is staying over but no one else is, tonight.  Kind of a crowd, but we’ll have plenty of time for that over the next couple of weeks.  Everyone’s on winter vacation so no time to be bored!!!

Love you all!!! ❤️

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

The aidols are slooowly getting through their jet lag, but they’re still pretty toasted.  We stayed up too late last night playing games, them, Yuki, and me.  It was lots of fun, but at about 1 AM I said we should probably get to sleep, and we did so.

Someone said “Sharekoube”.

I’m not sure who, but there was a LOT of giggling.

Then I said “Lycopene”.

Sabby waltzed like Sawa-chan-sensei and told us to shut the heck up.

That was hilarious.

We did not hit her with a pillow.

Sawa-chan-sensei is pretty cool.  Sabby is scary.

I’m glad they’re familiar with K-on.  It just makes things that much more hilarious.  Too bad there aren’t any shrines around, I would so run towards one yelling “God please grant the wishes of these fair maidens!”  Just to see what would happen.  I told the girls that and they laughed and said “better not.”  Sigh.  They’re right.  Real life isn’t anime.

Anyway, all that aside, they seem to be adapting alright.  They’d never been to the US before, so they got really confused by the faucets, and all the other basic stuff we take for granted.  But once that was all worked out, they’re having a pretty good time.  I took them to get fast food for lunch, and they gobbled it down like you wouldn’t believe.  Yuuko ate two hamburgers.  How does such a little girl fit that much in her???

But she ran with me, so I guess she burns it off.  Girl is just a bundle of energy.  Minami’s a bit lazier, and Mariko is somewhere in the middle.  But it’s okay to be lazy on a vacation, right?

This is Texas.  We don’t have mountains.  We, ummm… have trees.  Lots of trees.  And some rocks.  So we took them to see the famous Round Rock.  It’s a… rock.  A round rock.  They just stared at it, then looked at me, then looked at the rock again, then looked at me.  I shrugged.  “What did you expect?  It’s a round rock.  It’s exactly as advertised”, I told them.  They giggled, and got photos of them with the rock in the background.

Yeah, it’s a real thing.  The entire city is named after a rock.

This evening we took them all to the shop to get some pastries and see what all the fuss about Sabby’s (maid cafe) bakery is about.  We all went in and they kind of looked around in awe.  “It’s just like in the pictures,” they said.

You know how in some animes the main character just says.. “eh?”  “What pictures?”

“The ones on LINE.”

Ummm…

“Yeah, someone came to see Yuki last month and their pictures went viral.  They especially liked…” and Mariko pointed at cat-girl, who.. just looked confused.  She was saying all this in Japanese, after all…

I giggled.  “Hey, cat-girl, you’re even more famous in Japan!”

She laughed.  “Maybe I should move there”

I cringed.  “Maybe… not.”

She looked thoughtful.  “Yeah, maybe not.”

As we were sitting there eating pastries and Japanese sweets and chatting, a Japanese tourist came in.  His eyes lit up as he saw us… not because of Yuki, surprisingly enough, but just because we were all speaking Japanese.  We made some room for him and he told us he was visiting from Hokkaido and heard that it was like an actual maid cafe, with maids and everything.

I giggled and told him I was part owner.

He jumped up and started bowing.

I laughed and told him to sit the heck down, there’s no need for that.  We all introduced ourselves.  The part-owner of the cafe, a former very famous Japanese idol, and four random high school girls who no one know from anyone.  What a crew!

Anyway… he didn’t know who Yuki was!!!

I couldn’t tell if Yuki was pleased or annoyed, it looked like more of a combination.  He just showed up because he saw all the pictures on LINE.  It was kind of like all the people that make that pilgrimage to a school in Toyosato, when a place becomes famous you just go for the sake of going.  He was doing the Route 66 trip and took a detour to see Dallas, and came down to visit our cafe.

That’s pretty cool.

We set him up with a few pastries for the road.  Dedication like that should be rewarded, I think.

We finished our pastries and just watched the proceedings.  There was nothing scheduled, but some drunk person (they don’t get drunk there but they come there drunk sometimes) went up and tried to do a comedy bit.  It didn’t go well.  But we were laughing hard because it was going so badly, so maybe comedy is one of those things where if it goes really bad it goes right to good?  Haha!!!  We let people use the mic though if they really want to.  Most people are shy so it really doesn’t matter.

Turns out Minami, as lazy as she can be, is not shy though.

She got an instrumental version of her favorite j-pop song, plugged her phone into the amp, and just belted it out.  And damned if she wasn’t good!!!  Yuki actually went on stage and did a duet with her, and everyone there (which wasn’t a lot, it’s a Monday night, after all) clapped.  Turns out she’s in the choir club at school.

Anyway, they had a lot of fun.  Yuki’s “concert” is Saturday night and we’re all going to give her moral support.  Not that she needs it.  Yuki actually is considering teaching Minami some of the moves if she can learn them in time and going up with her.  Don’t tell Minami, though.  She might have a spare idol costume though.  Her parents are coming here to visit her in a couple of days, she called to see if they could bring over another.

It’s not like she’ll have a huge audience, but I think Minami will have fun.

Everyone else is just happy watching.

It’s pretty cool.  That could never happen on a Japanese idol stage with 20,000 fans all waving glowsticks.  In a small live music venue in Texas with about fifty people?  Yeah, that can def happen.

Beth will probably be a little jealous, but she’s still learning.  She’s not as good.  But she’s making some good progress.  And the shop will be here.

Hah, not only that, but we could bill “Takahashi Minami” too.  After all… that is her name.  Haha!!!

Anyway…  I guess I should sleep too.  Tomorrow we’ve got some fun stuff planned.

Love you all!!! ❤️

HI! It’s me! Lily!!!

Today we went Christmas shopping!!! We went to the mall!! All of us!!!

Ummm… there were a lot of us. We ended up taking several cars.  I mean, there was me, Beth, David, Sabby, Dave…  Dave usually doesn’t come along but it’s Christmas shopping.  Then there were the aidols, you know, Ai, Minami, Mariko, and Yuuko…  and then Yuki too.  And Crystal, and Diana…  and a couple of the parents came along too.  We were like this big old glob of people wandering through the mall like, well, something big and amorphous that wanders.  A politician?  Hah!  Oh, and Jack and Grace came along too, how could I forget?

The aidols, of course, were fawning all over Jack.  Well, he is hot.  I told them look but don’t touch, if they want a vacation romance they’ll have to find their own boy.  This one’s mine and I’m keeping him.

I’d tell you what I bought everyone, but… well, I won’t.  We did get the Aidols their own tree ornaments, though.  They all picked something that represented them.  Minami got a snorlax.  Yuuko got a roadrunner (I was surprised she knew what it was, but apparently those cartoons are really cheap to translate).  Mariko got a little dog.  And Yuki got a really sparkly ornament.  Ai didn’t get anything because we got her one last year.  We got Crystal and Diana one too – Crystal got a guitar, and Diana got a anthropomorphic taco (big surprise there for both, huh?)  Then we just went off in our own direction for a while.  The aidols also got some souvenirs for their families along with gifts.

We told them they didn’t have to get gifts, but they said they wanted to, even though they couldn’t afford anything expensive.  We just said it’s the thought that counts, we’ll be happy with whatever.  They looked so happy running around window shopping for everything.

They bought some clothes too.  Because of course they did.  Toss a bunch of girls with too much money in a mall, and what else would they do?  Yuuko’s lucky, though.  She fits into childs’ clothing.  It’s cheaper, and almost as fashionable.  They have such Japanese builds, there’s a lot of cute clothing for them to pick from.

Anyway, you know that term “shop till you drop?”  Well, we all kinda did.  We took a break at the food court and then went home.  The aidols busied themselves shoving their souvenirs in their baggage, and then we let them put up their ornaments.

It seemed to be surprisingly emotional for them.  Not everyone in Japan does trees.  But apparently it made them feel welcome.

That’s why we do it, I guess.

Otherwise, we had a quiet day, we ordered pizza, and everyone just rested.  It was nice.  They really liked American pizza, and Yuuko, well… she almost put an entire one away by herself.  How does she do it?

Minami seems a little depressed though.  I should ask her what’s going on.

Everyone’s camped out in my room tonight.  Some of us are making a girl-pile, the rest are filling the futons.  Dave joked that he might need to rerun the load calculations on my floor…  surprisingly, some of the girls who would usually do the pile chose the futons.  I have a feeling there will be a lot of whispering and muted giggling when the lights go out.  Minami chose the pile though for tonight.  I wonder what’s going on.

Love you all!!! ❤️

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

The dam broke, a little last night.  Aww.  I woke up to someone cuddled up to me and sniffling.  It was Minami.  I didn’t know why and she didn’t want to tell me.  But…  I guess sometimes you don’t really need to know.  Eventually she went back to sleep.

It’s funny.  They tell you that Japanese people aren’t really very emotive.  But, they are.  They just have different ways of expressing it.  But at the end of the day, they cry just like we do.  I asked Ai what that was about, and she said that it’s Minami’s story to tell me, but maybe our family is…  a bit much for her, in some ways.

I don’t know how we can be any different, though.  We just are what we are.  Ai said it’s not our fault and we shouldn’t change, that it’s probably good for Minami.  I hope so.

She spent the morning hugging Marie.  Marie didn’t mind at all.  Marie’s all about the hugs.

This may be one situation where Ai can help more than I can, so I guess all we can do is be there if she needs us.  I did ask her if she’s alright.  She said she is, she’s just a little homesick.  I don’t really believe her, but she tried to smile, and, well, I guess that’s all she wrote, for now.  Ai isn’t really her best friend, but she is a friend, and they do know each other pretty well.  Later on in the day they went out for a walk, and she seemed a little happier when they came back, so that’s good.

Yuki asked her if she wanted to sing on Friday night, and she said yes, but she wants to pick a song.  Yuki agreed, and they’ve been huddled together talking about dance moves and stuff for hours, and even commandeered the garage to practice a little.  That’s good, I guess.  Keeps her busy.  I heard the song Minami chose.  It’s not really a happy song.  But… she is pretty competent.  I think she’ll do well.  Sabby’s really supportive – Yuki’s a pro.  If she thinks Minami’s good, then Minami’s good.

We go to the airport tomorrow to pick up Yuki’s parents.  They’re staying in a hotel, though.  That’s good.  We’re full up.  Really.  We’re full up.  We couldn’t really fit more in if we wanted to.

But, for Christmas, that’s a really good problem to have, don’t you think?

We’ll be there for Minami.  Just like we’re there for all of our sisters.

Yuuko made us Japanese food tonight.  Even Yuki was impressed.  Yuuko really knows her way around food.  Girl should be a chef.  No, seriously.  She’s that good.  Sabby’s actually thinking about asking her to teach Baker some stuff – for a fair price, of course.  Diana’s the taco master, but this girl is the tonkatsu master.  You know those big spreads in anime where there are all these different foods like omurice, rolled omelets, shrimp, etc?  Yeah, we had that.  It was amazing.

I think David’s in love, a bit.  Not just because she’s small and cute, but she can cook up a storm.  That ticks most of the boxes for him.  I just coughed and said “You have a girlfriend” and he looked suitably ashamed.  Didn’t stop him from stealing glances though.

This… might be the last Christmas I spend here.  For a while, anyway.

I…  think I know how houkago tea time felt, in episode 20 where they were sitting up against the wall and it finally hit them that they were graduating and would never be together as houkago tea time again.  Just a little.  It’s coming up fast.  It’s really coming up fast.  And there are lot of… lasts coming up this year.  I won’t lie.  It hurts a little.

Okay.  It hurts a lot.  It seems like I was found just yesterday, and had my first Christmas as a Smith, and… and…

No.  I won’t cry.  Not now.

Love you all!!! ❤️

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

The word of the day is… bittersweet, I think.

Ever since I had that thought last, I see things a little differently.  I’m not depressed, but I’m… I’m a little sad.  Every thing that happens, I think this might be the last time it happens like this.  There are so many girls here right now.  We’re all having so much fun, we always have fun.  We go shopping and play games and eat chocolate and tell stories and giggle and say “sharekoube” and…  and then one day I’m going to go to sleep and I’ll wake up and it’ll all be gone.  If I don’t go to Japan for school, I’ll go to school somewhere, and then that will be gone someday too, and…  everything I have, everything I love… it all goes away, someday.

And it all happens so fast, too.  It seems like just yesterday, I was sitting in this room not even knowing my own name, not knowing anything about who I was and how I got here.  I remember the day I was adopted, it was one of the happiest days of my life.  And I’ve had other happy days too, and I’ll have happy days like that in the future.  But every day of happiness requires a sacrifice, right?  Just like my happiness now required a sacrifice.  It’s…  a lot.  Sometimes the sacrifices are a very high price.  Sometimes they’re just little things too.  But they’re always a sacrifice.

Christmas is in a few days.  Hopefully, it’ll be full of fun and laughter with lots of friends and family.  And then it will be over.  And it will be gone.  Maybe next year I’ll be celebrating Christmas at a KFC with new Japanese friends.  Maybe I’ll fly home for Christmas.  Maybe Jack will come visit me.  Maybe a lot of things.  But Christmas as it is now?  It’ll be over.

As many things are already over, and many things will be over in the future.

I can’t really cry right now.  I can’t.  There are too many people here.  I…  it hurts, though.  It really hurts.

Maybe we just enjoy the time we have.

Liz is over tonight, too.  Minami and Yuki are over at the shop with Sabby and David doing a “dress rehearsal” for tomorrow night.  We picked up Yuki’s parents this afternoon, and they had one of her old idol dresses, and it fits Minami pretty well.  I guess..  they’re doing this.  I’ll go tomorrow and cheer everyone on.

David’s really picked up the sound and light stuff, btw.  He’s really good at it.

Like I said, it’s not a big venue.  But it’s sold out.  Yuki’s happy because she can always use spending money.  She’s got some money saved away from her time as an idol but would rather not use it if she can help it.  Don’t blame her.

Love you all!!!  ❤️

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

So… a lot has happened.

Last night, we all went to the shop so Yuki can do her concert.  Both Yuki and Minami dressed up in identical outfits (she fit into Yuki’s other costume, thank goodness).  We don’t really have a dressing room so they commandeered the back office for a while.  People started coming in pretty early, I was surprised.  There were a few people who came here from Japan just for this concert.  I was…  a little creeped out.  But I guess that kind of dedication is to be admired.

About three quarters of the audience was Japanese.  I mean.. came from Japan Japanese.  The city ought to be thanking us for driving tourism.

Well…  I speak Japanese.  Not well, but at least passably.  I speak Japanese well enough that I had to go up and say a few words and introduce them.  OMG it’s so embarrassing!  I got up on stage, and someone from the back yelled “TRAIN ONEE-CHAN” and everyone stood up and applauded.  I didn’t know what to do!!!  So I just let them sit back down, and I said thank you and got on with the show.  I spoke a little bit about how Yuki and I met and about how she used to be an idol and now she’s a good friend and sister, and then I introduced her and got the heck off the stage.  And she sang and danced her heart out.  She really puts her all into it!  It was nice to see.  If she was faking it, it’s hard to tell.  But I don’t think she was.

Halfway through the concert she introduced Minami, who had been dancing with her through some of her songs.  David turned the lights down to the “solo” setting with just her face lit up, and she sang the most soulful, heartrending song I’d ever heard.  I didn’t even understand all the Japanese and I had tears.  Grown men in the audience were sobbing.  Aww.  That girl can really go places if she wants to.  After she was done, she wiped her face, bowed (to a standing ovation), handed the mic back to Yuki, and went back to the back office.

Ai’s mouth was dropped open, along with Yuuko and Mariko.  I…  went back to the back office.

She was sobbing her heart out.

I just… held her, and the other girls came back too, and we spent pretty much the last half of the show just comforting her.

You know when I said Yuki put her heart into it?  Well, she did.  She sand and danced and the audience was the most important thing to her at that moment.  But Minami…  Yuki put her heart into it.  Minami put everything into it.

Anyway, after she cleaned up, we all came out, just in time for Yuki to pull Minami onto the stage, and both of them bowed.  The audience yelled “ma-ta! ma-ta!” (again! again!) and… damn her.. she pulled me on the stage.  She said that I’d performed concerts with full orchestras and maybe I’d give a short performance for them.

I wasn’t ready for that!!! I wasn’t even dressed for it!  I was just wearing my nice “introduce Yuki” clothes!  If I’d known she’d pull that, I’d have worn my gown, or just not shown up!!!

But I sat down at the keyboard and played a short Chopin prelude, and there was more cheering!!!  Someone yelled “You’re the best onee-chan!”  I… blushed.  Dangit.

Anyway, it was a success.

Today, someone had already put a review up on LINE, and they were really complimentary.  Said that Yuki hadn’t lost any of her charm, that Minami was a star in the making, and that train onee-chan could actually play a decent piano!  And they put videos on X and YouTube!  (I wish they hadn’t, we asked them not to.)  They were also complimentary towards the venue, they said it was a little small, but the pastries were delicious and it felt a lot more intimate than other idol performances.

Anyway…  we were all on kind of a high afterwards (Sabby too, she sold a lot of pastries and other merch) and so we went to an iHOP and had a late night dinner.  Minami seemed a bit withdrawn.  That kind of performance has to come from somewhere, and I imagine it takes a lot out of you.  She ate her food but just didn’t seem very happy.  But we didn’t pry.  She was able to smile a little, so it wasn’t like she was a downer or anything, but you could tell she wasn’t really doing alright. Yuki’s parents came with us and seemed content to eat American comfort food and watch all the banter.  They seem nice but didn’t have too much to say.  I guess that’s to be expected, there was a definite language barrier.  They seem proud of her though.

There was a little more sniffling and hugging last night too.

I’m not upset at her.  Not at all.  None of us are.  But we’re worried about her.

I hope Christmas helps, a little.  It’s always nice to spend time with people who care.

With… people who…  ummm….

I think I need to talk to Ai.

Anyway… today, we just took it easy.  Traffic is nuts, everyone’s on edge, so we just took a quiet day and played games and watched anime and stuff.  Yuuko recommended “Love is war”, so we watched the subbed version.  They were rolling on the floor laughing at episode 7, but some of the jokes didn’t make sense.  They explained it.  It was a lot funnier than it seemed.  Chinchin!!!  Haha!!!

We couldn’t watch the whole thing, but got through seasons 1 and 2.

Ok.  Everyone’s asleep in their futons so I’m going to go to bed too.

Love you all!!! ❤️

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

So…. ummm…  umm.

Today we pretty much holed up.  We went out to get some food for our feast tomorrow, and did a little last minute looking around at all the Christmasey stuff (Wal-Mart was a MESS) and then we came back.  I promised Sabby I’d at least go to church for Christmas Eve – they do a special service and most of it’s with the lights turned down so they won’t know who I am.  The aidols asked me why I was so bent against going to church, so I told them.

They paused for a moment, and then stood up, bowed, and clapped.  I think they would have rung a bell, too, if there’d been one.

“NOT YOU TOO”, I said, a mixture of embarrassed and angry.

“Sumimasen”, Yuuko said, “But we always bow and clap when we’re at a shrine, and from what you just told us, you’re like a walking shrine.”

I deflated.  How can you argue with that logic?  “Well, if you want to toss 500 yen coins at me, I won’t complain…”

They giggled.  Checkmate.  I told them not to do that again because it’s a sore point, but I got what they were trying to say.  And they’d BETTER NOT start hanging prayers from me…

Anyway, they put on one of the cute outfits they’d gotten at the mall, and went to church with us tonight.

It was just the usual Christmas eve celebrations.  You know, with candles, and cheesy music that you’re supposed to sing along to and the pastor talking about how Jesus came to earth and stuff.  I guess it’s pretty enough and it’s a good show but it’s really not all that much.  I looked over at the girls…  Ai, Yuuko, and Mariko were watching the proceedings with interest, but Minami had tears.  She always seems to have tears.

After the service (and I avoided the pastor) we went home to open a few presents.

I won’t go into what everyone bought everyone, because it’s a little boring, but we did put a lot of thought into it, and everyone got a present.  Minami excused herself halfway through though and went up to my room.  I went up after her, and she was sitting up against the wall, sniffling.

“Minami,” I said, “I know it’s private, but you’ve been spending almost this whole trip sobbing.”  I sat down next to her.  “Spill.”

“Spill?”

“You know, tell me what’s wrong.”

She sighed and wiped her eyes.  “You have such a nice family.”

“Well, yes, but..”

Ai walked in and sat on her other side.

“Mine… isn’t nice.”

Oh.

“My father is always out working.  I almost never see him.  My mother spends all her time drinking.  She’s not mean, but she’s useless.  I have to take care of myself, and her, and… ” she sniffled, “yours isn’t like that.  Your parents… they care.”  She pulled her knees up to her and sobbed.  “You don’t have to take care of them.  They take care of you.”

What could I do?  What could I say?  I just rubbed her back and let her cry it out.

“My friends make it better… sometimes,” she said softly.  “But not all the time.”

“What good does it to a man to gain the world, but lose his soul,” I quoted softly.

She nodded.  “I think mine lost his soul a long time ago.”

“I can’t make it better,” I said. “But try to have a little fun, okay?  They’re back in Japan.  We’re your family right now.  Let us be your family.”

She nodded and wiped her eyes.  Ai whispered something in her ear and she nodded.  Then we all went downstairs and finished opening our Christmas eve presents.  We had some good snacks too, and..  it was a warm evening.

And that’s all you really want out of a Christmas eve, right?  A warm evening.

We got something in email today.  I didn’t tell Minami.  But a talent agency in Japan saw the video of her singing, and, well…  she might have a chance to do it professionally.  I’ll wait to tell her until tomorrow.  It’ll be her Christmas present.  You can’t change your parents, but sometimes….  you have to make your own way.  I hope she sees that.

I told Sabby to be extra nice to her from now on.  I didn’t tell her why, but I said she deserves it.

Time for bed.  We open the rest of the presents in the morning.

Love you all!!! ❤️