2010 in review

新年明けましておめでとうございます！今年も宜しくお願い致します！

and for those of you that can’t read that, uh, it says happy new years and stuff.

well, 2010 has come and gone, and around this time i like to try and put everything in perspective for you all. and by you all, i mean myself. if you want to read, you’re more than welcome to come along for this retrospective. seems like 2010 had it all: from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, but somehow or another i’m still here, sitting in front of the same keyboard on the same desk, just in a different decade.

turned 27 back in january with some of my bestest buds out in ktown, and did it up even bigger with the methodology crew soon after. during those two celebrations i managed to get my riced out honda civic stolen for the third time. no more ヤン車 for me!

spring was my super busy conference season. it actually started in february for the “negotiating the global with the local: translating christianity in modern east asia” conference at claremont mckenna college, then the american academy of religion/western region conference at arizona state university in march. coincidentally, the conference was during the first weekend of my spring break. and coincidentally, was smack dab in the middle of the cactus league! after my conference, my dad flew out to phoenix and we accomplished one of our lifelong dreams of cheering on our san francisco giants at spring training!!

by april, i was off to austin, texas for the annual association of asian american studies conference. i organized a panel on very early japanese american history (pre-1890 primarily), which turned out pretty well, imho. as always, was awesome to spend a lot of time with my colleagues from around the country who keep pushing me to be a better scholar, and also help validate my existence. can’t wait to see everyone this coming may in nola!!

as much as i’ve hated on living in claremont for the past couple years, it finally became a home to me during 2010. i coordinated a transdisciplinary conference for graduate students pursuing asian american studies-related topics from around the state, with much help from the CGU asian american studies transdisciplinary studies group.

spring and summer seemed to just fly by as i finished up the prereqs for my degree. some highlights include the renaissance faire, a trip to sd, a couple trips to vegas, more than a couple trips to the bay area, birthday parties, weddings, babies, and finally my relocation back to norcal. it’s crazy to think that three years ago, i applied to three phd programs with the idea of just testing the waters before applying to many more the following year. turns out i ended up attending claremont graduate university, completed my coursework in two years, and am now studying to officially become a phd candidate.

ryan turned 27 too, although we celebrate like he keeps turning 21 year after year:

jen and red officially became jen and red:

as did monica and johnny:

and brina and alycia:

also, it was great to spend so many thursday nights with colleagues from my history department. thanks for always being there to listen, challenge, imbibe, advise, and everything in between!

since moving home at the end of september, life has been a whirlwind, to say the least. all i remember about october was giants baseball!! i’m absolutely positive that my attendance at spring training has a direct correlations with the giants’ world series success! from torture to ecstasy, giants playoff baseball was worth every minute of it, and even worth the late nights of studying i had to do to makeup for all the lost time! not only did my dad singlehandedly purchase every article of the giants’ playoff, pennant, and world series catalog, but i also won an 18-1 bet i placed in vegas back in may!! above all, it was amazing to see the smiles on faces like my dad’s, of folks who have put up with heartache after heartache for as long as the giants have been in san francisco. there is a God, and this year he was definitely looking favorably upon the orange and black :D

although these aren’t winning any of my annual awards, two of the most memorable jams of the year are ashkon’s “don’t stop believin” and bailey’s “black and orange”

made a couple trips down to socal, as well as a couple trips to tokyo in just a couple months. while my november trip to tokyo was planned, unfortunately the december trip was an emergency trip due to my grandmother’s critically declining health. while very sad, i was glad to be able to be with my family during this time. my grandmother passed away on december 22nd, and we held her funeral services over the christmas weekend. admittedly, it was difficult to have a constant relationship with my grandmother due to this massive thing called the pacific ocean. however, i’ll always remember how she opened up her doors to me every summer i visited and even during the years i lived there. even when she could barely walk, she would make me the noodles that i loved to eat for lunch. and of course i made sure to use my chopsticks properly, since she trained me so long ago by picking up grains of uncooked rice!

tokyo definitely seems much more distant now, perhaps because my direct lineage to asakusa is gone with my mom and i here in california. sure i still have plenty of relatives there (including far too many that i don’t even know – the funeral was a packed house of strangers with the same ancestors), but i guess everything just seems so much more lonely without that constant that i’ve depended on for my entire life. she will definitely be missed. in other news, i sincerely hope that none of you ever have to attend a japanese funeral. it was by far the most depressing thing i’ve EVER experienced. chopsticks were made for picking up delicious food, not your grandmother’s bones directly from the oven, mere minutes after you closed her casket and carried her out of the hall.

sadly, 2010 also claimed the lives of other amazing individuals. it was quite a shock that some people that i knew had their lives cut way too short. while it’s good to see communities come together to remember such positive individuals, it’s such a shame that we couldn’t see them continue to make our world a better place. i wish i could’ve spent more time with all of you, you’ll never be forgotten!

john delloro
joannie chang
krystal nakamura
dennis djan

anyways, let’s move on to my 2010 superlatives!

favorite eating experiences:

iron works bbq in texas. had some baby back ribs with a shiner bock black right in the heart of austin. and yes, it was very messy. for those that are wondering, i thought it was better than salt lick.
foie gras sushi at sushi samba in vegas. complete with specks of gold!
aji at magurobito. eating a live fish, just second after filleting.
my first boiling crab experience.

favorite drink:

sorry no picture, but it was one of those $4.50 bud lights that i got at zeke’s on 3rd and brannan, just blocks from at&t park during game 1 of the world series. i’m not sure what heaven tastes like, but i’m sure this was close. also really enjoyed the lone stars in texas, the fujizakuras at popeye in tokyo, the temeculan wines, and even a hand-carried guinness from ireland…but sorry, the odds were very much stacked against them this year.

favorite book:

mary paik lee’s a quiet odyssey. just like last year’s choice (weglyn’s years of infamy), i’m mad that i haven’t read it until now.

favorite film:

おくりびと/departures. perhaps watching this movie back in january was a prelude to the year, but i loved it nonetheless.

favorite song:

far east movement’s “like a g6.” come on, asian brothers taking mainstream america by storm? now get me two more bottles cuz you know it don’t stop.

favorite album:

drake – thank me later. and seriously everything else he spit, dude was on fire.

favorite toy:

i still can’t believe the ipad is real. it’s the stuff dreams were (and still are) made of. being the apple fanboy that i am, i’ve also been pleasantly pleased by the appletv, but i can’t even consider something that will come out in the next 2-3 years that will surpass my amazement the first time i used the ipad.

favorite image:

sky tree construction from asakusa, visible because of shin-nakamise construction. you probably haven’t seen the movie always 3-chome no yuuhi, but it’s a movie from a few years ago about 1958 tokyo life in the shadow of a growing tokyo tower. during this funny time of my life full of trials and tribulations, there’s something very promising about seeing the sky-tree grow taller and taller each day and serving as a beacon of hope for what’s ahead.

favorite experience:

over the last couple years that i’ve been doing these new years posts, i tried to come up with some of my favorite overall experiences from the year. with so many options ranging from spring training to a world championship, or even successful conferences to successfully completed examinations, there are plenty of options that come to mind. however, this year, at the risk of being way too melodramatic and sharing much more than i usually would, i truly enjoyed spending almost the entire year with a special someone. although things didn’t work out as we may have hoped, thank you caren for your companionship throughout the year. i especially wish you the best of luck in 2011, and may all your dreams come true.

2011 is well under way, and my life at the moment has finally achieved some level of normalcy. my phd qualifying exams are in march, and i’m studying full-time until then. if you’re ever in the mountain view/sunnyvale/los altos area, please holler at a scholar and let’s grab a cold beverage (iced coffee included), because seriously all i do during the week is cram for these damn exams and/or question my career choice.

my 2010 resolution was to try and watch more women’s sports, and this mostly failed, with the one saving grace being the massive amounts of MMA that i’ve been watching, some of which included women’s fights. as for 2011, my resolution is to drop down to welterweight, and keep progressing on that bucket list. best wishes to each and every one of you for a blessed year of the rabbit. go giants.