Nippon Style NSV

So as most of my fellow OH friends know - I have recently moved from Belgium to Japan! 

And one of the things I have been secretly wanting to do, but never dared, was to under go complete body hair removal.  So today I had my very first consult with a specialist dermatologist and begin my treatments next week!  Goodbye bikini razors, never again waxing strips of death!  Hello bare and beautiful!

I would have never dared to do this kind of thing at my heaviest.  But I am counting this as the very best of my many NSV's.  

Have Missed you Ashley, was wondering about Japan! Nice! Stepping out of your comfort zone....that is many NSVs in a nutshell...

I've missed being here!  

Japan is a very major change of pace for me, but so far so good and I have a list of things that I would never have dared to try or do before that I am determined to do now that I have the time and means and confidence.  

I hope you are 100% healed and enjoying life to the fullest!  Maybe Japan will be on your adventure list and we can have an OH international Asia meet up!

My nephew lives in Japan. He is amazing fluent, talking on the phone people don't even know he is not Japanese. He and his Japanese wife just built their first home outside Tokyo and just had baby #2. I didn't go to their wedding because of being MO and the plane ride. 2 seats or first class were out of the picture financially...

It is mind boggling when I meet Westerners who are fluent in Japanese.  My husband took 150 hours of classes leading up to our move and even though he has worked for a Japanese company for over 20 years and has an ear for it he still feels out of his depth.  I am content with being bilingual in French and English.  I have zero hope of speaking more than the basics here...  Reading Kanji is completely out of the question for me, though I hate being illiterate here.  

But now that you are skinny, if still tall, you are due for a visit!  What a wonderful thing to have family here! It is a ridiculously long flight but if you can do an over night flight it's not too bad. 

Welcome back, Ashley!  We've missed you!  

I think Japanese would the the hardest language to learn.  You will pick the language up better than you might think because you are totally immersed in their society.  Totally different from sitting in a classroom trying to learn a language.

That is true.  I am seriously bad at reading anything graphical or that uses visual aides and pictograms.  I am lucky when I figure out which restroom to use based on the stick figure on the door!  I have begun language classes, but even the teacher can see that it is hopeless when it comes to reading or writing for me.  

So far I am able to use English and surprisingly French for 90% of what I do but I hope it rubs off on me eventually!  Im kinda jealous of Cynthia's nephew now....

My Nephew always had a fascination with Japan from growing up on the west coast, video games and anime. He knew he wanted to move there when he was in high school. He visited 5 times, and spent a semester there before he even graduated college. He had a job offer from Nameco a video game company and moved like 2 weeks after graduation. He was the first American they had ever hired. He now works for another video game company, writes software and translates to English for their games, He is also very involved in that whole Bitcoin thing which I totally don't understand. He totally sticks out as he is 6'2" very pale almost albino pale and because he was going bald at 18 (hereditary from his Dad) shaves his head... But he loves it. He was there during the whole Tsunami a few years ago, and had quite some stories to tell...

That's awesome, Ashley!  What a fabulous fun thing to do to celebrate that doesn't include the scale.    I hear it's uncomfortable, you'll have to give us the full tale afterwards.

Oh I will for sure Kim. 

The dermatologist was amazing.  I think he was a little bit excited to get to work on a patient who had lost so much weight and has lousy skin tone and elasticity.  Despite my Plastic Surgery, I still have to pull things out of the way!  

I assume it will feel a bit like getting a tattoo?  They did a few test patches, but I didn't find it too uncomfortable.  We shall see as the genital area is very sensitive and no doubt I will be singing a different tune next week.

Still - I am all for celebrating the NSV that it was  just going to the actual appointment!