I didn’t have a natural place to cover life updates in my last post so I guess I’ll start with that here. In October 2023, we discovered a small dark spot on Speedy’s belly which we had removed and biopsied by the vet. The test results came back as hemangiosarcoma and he was given 3-6 months to live. Naturally, no one tells Speedy what to do so he chose to stick around way beyond that estimate. After we got back from our last trip in March 2025, we discovered that Speedy was covered in small bumps that resembled the concerning dark spot we had removed. Basically overnight he would have new bumps emerge, he started having accidents in the house in the middle of the night, and it got to the point where he stopped eating.

I didn’t want to say goodbye to my friend of 13.5 years but I wanted to make sure that he didn’t go through undue suffering due to my inability to let him go. I accepted the responsibility as his caretaker when I adopted him as a puppy and seeing him to the end was part of that. His final day was really great, we took him to the dog park, he had a pup cup at Culvers, and I cooked him some steak which he ate. I’m thankful for the extra time he had so our friends and family could come by to see him one last time.

It feels a little ironic that I was able to survive cancer but it comes back to take my dog. I’m sad that I had to close this chapter of my life but I’m grateful for a lifetime’s worth of memories together. He was a very lucky dog to have lived in a DINK household who never stopped loving him even after he’s gone. After he was cremated, I buried him in the backyard under a magnolia tree which should hopefully flower every year in the spring as a nice memorial to him. So in a way, I can keep taking care of him.

In 2011, my sister saw this little 3 month old puppy on the Humane Society website and we went to just “take a look”. He ended up being a great companion for me in my 20s and early 30s as he taught me patience and routine because he was so bossy and clear with what he needed from me. Thankfully, he wasn’t very emotionally needy (except for food) so I had the flexibility to be at work from 8am to 4 then go straight to school from 4:45pm to sometimes 10pm for 3 years. He was up for adventure in Colorado or just having a walk around the block. I’m grateful for the lessons I learned from him and the thousands of pictures we have.

Getting to Tokyo went very smoothly except at MSP airport where there were 6 ICE agents stationed after the ticket check in at the gate. I scanned my ticket and one of the agents asked me to step aside to look at my passport saying that they’re “checking to see if people are carrying more than $10k in cash on them”. I said that I only had $20 bucks but I’ll take some if he wants to spot me. He looked at Joanna and said, “Looks like you’re carrying a million bucks with you”. Ick…

Last year when we were in Miyazaki, I broke my Canon M50 camera while taking this photo.

I had the camera on a tripod and weighed it down but a strong wind blew it over and it landed face down on the concrete. The touchscreen was busted and it would have cost more money just to repair it than the camera was worth. I had originally bought this camera for our wedding in 2019 so I had gotten a decent amount of use from it. This was my opportunity to upgrade to a bit more of a robust camera so I went with the Canon R7. I buy all of my camera gear used and found a highly rated ebay seller for 2 lenses I needed RF-S18-150mm F3.5-6.3 and a RF75-300mm F4-5.6 but then found out they had a physical store in Shinjuku, just 10 min down the street from the hotel we were staying at.

My goal for our first day in Tokyo was to go to Kitamura Camera so I had my camera gear figured out as we were just starting out the trip. The store was had used cameras beautifully displayed behind glass cases like a museum. I saved $55 on the tax free incentive and another few hundred because I didn’t have to pay US tariffs *barf*.

After camera shopping, I looked for places to eat and happened upon a duck based ramen shop. This is now on one of my top 5 bowls of ramen ever. The duck breast was so tender and the soup was light and flavorful.

Joanna packed 2 days worth of clothes for this trip and told her sisters to pack as light as possible so they could go shopping and fill their luggage with new clothes. She packed an empty carry on luggage inside of her check in luggage. Camera gear and shoes were on my list so I opted out while they went to Uniqlo for clothes shopping. My cousin Become synced up his Japan trip with ours so I tagged along with him as he went to get a haircut in Harajuku. Joanna and I have been watching a lot of Korean dramas since Kpop Demon Hunters came out in the summer and she wanted me to try out a new hairstyle so I got a Korean perm in November.

Here’s the list of kdramas that we’ve watched so far:

  • Business Proposal
  • A Time Called You
  • Love to Hate You
  • When Life Gives You Tangerines
  • Bon Appetit Your Majesty
  • Hometown Cha Cha Cha
  • Can This Love Be Translated?

I’m still trying to figure out hair product and how to style so I asked the salon if I could just do a wash and style to get an idea on how they would do it. The stylist was very nice and her English was excellent. She asked me where I was from, I said the US. She said “Oh really? My boyfriend is from Minneapolis. I’d like to go someday to see the state fair.” What a small world!