Christmas Gift from Japan

My BFF Hiromi sends me Christmas gift every year during this reason. All the goodies from Japan. 

The left one is green tea leaves from Yame, Fukuoka. Yame's green tea is well known for its quality and flavor. Totally different from the ones you find here. I love drinking tea and serving tea whenever we have guests at home. Tea lovers enjoys my tea collections. 

The middle top is a book by a Japanese author Mitsuyo Okada. The book is the Magic in New York series, a compilation of short stories of her daily life in New York and I love what she sees in New York. I see the same things in my life in San Diego. Can't wait to read!

She also sent me a card and other stationery items. US has good looking stationary, and Japan has its own style, more like European-influenced design with high quality. 

I met Hiromi back in 2003 when I just started working in Tourism industry. She was a writer for a free paper called Avanti, and she visited me for coverage after seeing another article on me on the local newspaper. She interviewed me and wrote about my overseas office launching experience as a student. 

Then we found out we have something in common. We are the same age, just graduated from the same university and struggling in the working society. We started to meet up for dinner or tea

Also we found we are totally opposite. I am interested in foreign cultures and languages, but she loves Japanese culture and Japanese languages, never traveled abroad. If I like a president role, then she is more like supporting role. While I take actions intuitively, she is more like plan ahead and follow the plan type. Anyway, I cherish friendship with her very much. 

Anyway, we started to meet up for dinner or tea, talk about work and life.      

I will be visiting Taiwan for the year end in Taiwan this year, and she will fly in too. I am so looking forward to catching up with her.