UPDATES VERY SOON

Hey everyone - sorry to be out of touch....I have been incredibly busy planning for this upcoming season full of amazing projects, developments on my singing career both for U.S. and Japan, and a lot of appearance requests pouring in. Because of my overseas schedule, I may not be able to accommodate everyone, but we are working hard to plan it all out. Sometime during my travels last month, I lost my USB cable to upload photos to my laptop so I couldn't post pictures for awhile. Oddly enough, all the Sony Style stores were out of stock on the USB cable for my camera model. I told them I'm willing to pay double the price if they can locate one for me, because I didn't have the time or the energy of getting one through the manufacturer - why should it be this hard?
Anyway, they found one for me at South Coast Plaza in Orange County - I went there willing to pay $80 for this stupid USB cable, just to find out they were willing to give it to me for FREE (because of the inconvenience). So I tipped him $40 because I was so happy - just to realize that I ended up "buying" the USB cable in a way, because it retailed at $40 originally. Okay, that was seriously pointless. Whatever - I got my USB cable.

I will be posting all the photos, videos and everything from the month of August SOON -
which consists of the Asian charity show I hosted in Minnesota, singing in beautiful St. Thomas, stopping into Washington DC and Atlanta for business meetings, back in LA with my sister winning the 2008 Nisei Week Queen (and also me performing), and a few gigs in Las Vegas. To squeeze that all into one month can be pretty exhausting. When I got back home, all I wanted to do was sleep! So, sorry to my friends if I have been non-responsive with phone calls, emails, etc. I've honestly just been exhausted, and couldn't even get myself to unpack my suitcases for about a week - it just sat there in the hallway.

But now I'm back into the swing of things, and met with the Japan record execs, who were in town. Funny because I will soon see them in Tokyo shortly. My music video is ready to go - and since I am given total control of the release outlets, I think we will release it online via youtube. Afterall, since I've stuck it out this long without signing anything - and waiting for the best overall deal, I figured the youtube exposure couldn't hurt for the meantime. I've learned from industry veterans that it's not always wise to jump at the first offer - you should always choose from a range of options. There's a small bidding war we've started to generate, so I'm excited to see what happens. Yay :)

Had my first session at the chiropractor's today - I've been experiencing neck pains the size of Mt Fuji and I realized I should get this fixed before going to Japan. I thought I was going to faint when I heard the first crack of my neck, just to have it repeat 4 more times!! But, my chiro says this type of pain is pretty typical for someone that travels a lot. Sleeping on airplanes and especially when you fall asleep sitting can be very harmful to your neck. I have to go back again in the morning. I should go to sleep right now, but I had Starbucks later in the evening tonight and I'm wide awake.

Speaking of tonight, me, my sister Jill and Kimi went out for dinner/sushi. Seems like the only time I meet up with Kimi is in Hawaii, so it was a great opportunity to catch up. She hasn't seen my sister since her Nisei Week crowning, (& since Kimi was also a former Nisei queen) it was nice for her to give Jill pointers about what to expect for the upcoming year during her reign. It is always so much fun having girl-talks about life, love, guys, etc. The next time we hang will probably be half way around the world in Tokyo or Hawaii....it always works out that way :)



why do I look so short in this pic? I'm usually taller than you guys....lol





What was even more funny!
This picture has been up on my parents' house refrigerator forever:
(a photo of when Kimi was queen, and Jill was a little ondo dancer, 9 years old)




and now they are all grown up, and Jill is the current queen: