Another Ideal Reader?

I couldn't decide on who I wanted to write to for this post, so I decided to do both :)

Dear Shailene Woodley,

You are such an incredible human being, and I look up to you immensely. I have watched many of your interviews, and everything you say is so inspiring. I don't know you personally but you come across as such a kind, down to Earth person. I love your simple sense of style, and how you care so much for our planet.

I am not an actress myself, but I believe that you are so talented. Your performance in all the films I have seen you in are amazing. Your talks about self love and self respect are so inspiring, and I truly look up to you. You are such an awesome person, and of course actress, and I aspire to meet you someday.

You performance in films is amazing but from watching your interviews, you seem like such a down to Earth person. Now, that term can be used as someone who is kind, caring, and open to everyone but you are both that and earthy. I thought it was incredible that you didn't even have you own cell phone and only one for work. It's 2016, and most teens are so consumed in their electronics that people can't even seem to have a normal conversation. I admire your love for nature, and have been doing my best to not be on my phone as much. I personally love film and making videos which usually ends up in a lot of screen time, but I am working at being more present. These days, the amount of screen time teens use is scary. Many times I walk into coffee shops, or restaurants and you don't even see two people having a conversation anymore. They will usually just sit on their phones in silence. I admit, I have and am one of those people but if I am with someone I always make sure to turn off my phone so that I can be present with that person.

                                                                                                      Image Courtesy: cosmopolitan
I watched your Ellen interview when it came out, and I was very impressed. You can fit all of your belongs in one single carry on suit case. To have the mentality of not being attached to very few materialistic items was incredible. I am not the type of person who is super attached to the things I own and go through my clothes, books, and other random stuff multiple times a year. But I don't know how I could fit everything I ever wanted in one carry on suitcase!

Last but not least, I wanted to thank you. Thank you for being such a role model. I am sure you have millions of fans, and I am one in that huge number, but I cannot express my gratitude and respect for you.

If you were to read my blog it would be the biggest honor, and would honestly be speechless. I admire your lifestyle, and am ecstatic for what projects you have in the future.

Thanks again,
~ Marea

My Ideal Reader?

Dear Neil Burger,

You are such a talented director, and your movie Divergent is amazing. I have so much respect for you some day hope to create a film as incredible as yours. Divergent has been my favorite books series for quite some time now, and when I watched this movie I was amazed. I admit, as much as I loved the Insurgent movie, I preferred the style of the Divergent one. I noticed that you did not direct the second film and could see a difference. I have seen the Divergent movie so many times, and I aspire to create a film like that some day. One that keeps people on the edge of their seat, waiting to see what happens next.

I love film, and you inspire me to take my time and put my best effort into my videos.  Not to mention you got to work with an incredibly talented group of actors, and the cast seemed to get along so well. Working on a movie set seems like such an incredible experience, and hope that some day I can create my own films.

Even though the film Divergent, came out in 2014 I still continue to watch it and it will always be my favorite. Being able to work on a set like the one you worked on, looked like such an incredible experience.                                    
                                                                                    Image Courtesy of: Popsugar   
                                                                           
I know that you, Neil Burger, will probably not see this blog post but if you were to read these words I would be so honored. Your work inspires me, and I cannot wait to learn more about the creative process that goes into making films. If I could meet you, I would love to learn more about the process. Although, I do make Youtube videos, it is minimal and is much different than working on a movie set. Your works of art are amazing, and I hope to see more of your works in the near future.

Thank you for inspiring me to continue to do my best always, your film Divergent is truly amazing.

~ Marea

2015 ⇨ 2016

2015 was definitely a challenging year for me personally, but it also had its highlights.

In this post I am mostly going to be talking about the highlights because I would much rather focus on the good things.

To start, I got to be reunited with my childhood friends in California 3 times last year. It was so awesome, and I grew a lot closer to them than ever before. Once in the summer, once for camping, and the 3rd time was Tahoe. All epic trips that I will not forgot.

Another highlight was growing close to one of my best friends, Alyssa. (I cringe typing her real name, she knows why;) In the past I never truly felt like I had one single person that I could always go to, I've had a number of friends I have been really close to but it was never just one person. Last year, and the year before, was the year that I felt like I had one really close friend. I am constantly laughing with Alyssa, we know all of each others secrets, and know everything about each other. We love and obsess over all the same things, I am so grateful to have someone like her in my life. Thank you so much jokey, JB, yoon, george, sam, fred, jeebs, jeebsie, jeebsieyoon, joke biffle, best friend. Yes I am aware we have lots of names hahaha!

                                          Photo taken by my cameras self timer!

Even though we hit a few rough patches, I am so thankful for one of my best friends, Ariel. We have been friends for 10 years now, and we are still friends! We share a lot of the same passions and interests which I am so grateful for because when we get together we always have the best times. Thank you for being the peanut butter to my jelly, and sticking with me. I really appreciate it Little Monster <3

2015 was also the year I went to my first concert. I got to see Walk the Moon with my close friends, Mikelle. Although, I admit it was stressful with so many people it was totally worth the fun! We had such good laughs, and walk the moon was awesome live.

I also felt like I made a lot of good friends last year, and I am grateful for every single one. You know who you are :-) I feel like I have a really good group of friends, and I am so glad I have a nice group of people in my life I can count on. Thank you :))

2015 was the year I discovered my love for language. 2015 was the year I decided to take two languages instead of one, which might not seem like a big deal but it actually is quite the challenge. I am fortunate growing up already bilingual (with Japanese) all my life. And I am now taking sign language and Chinese and am absolutely loving both! Personally, I find it really interesting the origins of words and how to carry on a language in certain countries. Also learning the culture of a country and the language is very fascinating!

Those are just a few highlights of my 2015, hope you enjoyed! I hope you all had a great year, and that your 2016 will be even better.

- Marea

Christmas 2015

This post is WAYYYYYYY late, oops :/

Christmas is by far my favorite time of the year, the music, good food, warm drinks, the decorations, absolutely everything! Seriously, what's not to love about it?! I am personally a huge Christmas fan, and am one of those people that is counting down by no later than November 1st, if not earlier. I understand if you don't celebrate Christmas but I hope you are showing your holiday spirit somewhere! 2015's Christmas for me was a huge success but was also very different than all the previous years.

One thing I got a lot more into this year was Christmas movies! My family was never really into Christmas films until this year, we watched quite a few this year and I enjoyed it so much! One of my best friends is by far the biggest Christmas fan ever and finally got me into Christmas movies this year! One of my favorites I watched this year is called Santa Paws , I am sure you probably have all seen this before but I loved it! It was such a cute movie, and just put me in the Christmas spirit and made me feel so happy :) If you love puppies and Christmas this is definitely the movie for you!

                                                         Image Courtesy of: IMBD

This year was also different because my family didn't do advent calendars. Every year that I can remember we always buy chocolate advent calendars but this year we decided not to. Which was kinda sad, but the chocolate was never really good in them anyway haha. This coming Christmas my mom and I thought it would be a lot more fun if we could make our own!

Another thing that was different this year was that we had company! Almost every year my grandmother comes to visit us and we celebrate, but this year it was much more fun! My aunt and uncle drove out plus my cousin flew out with my grandma. I have to admit it got a bit crazy with all the people in our small house, but we managed, and it was a ton of fun.

Image courtesy of my camera's self timer

This year was the year of no photos in my family. Somehow we managed to not take any photos! We had a really hard time making our family Holiday card because of it! But by the end of the year, I was determined to get at least one good photo. My cousin, Owen, the youngest boy in the photo above, hates having his picture taken but this is the best one we got! 

Last but no least, one of my favorite memories of this Winter break was playing the board game Quelf with my family. If you ever get the chance to play this game I 100% recommend it, it's a ton of fun! It's an awesome game to play with a bunch of friends but also awesome for families!

In the end, this Christmas was definitely very different than previous years but it was a good change. I look forward to the years to come, and hope you all had an awesome holiday season.

- Marea

Adventures in Tahoe!

Wow, it has been awhile since I have written. Oops. Also - my blog is all over the place, and I need to fix it as soon as possible. :/

Anyways, I thought I would write a little bit about my trip to Tahoe this year!

Overall this trip was a major success, filled with lots of laughter, memories, and I got to be reunited with my childhood best friends. 10 kids, and 10 adults in one cabin was pretty crowded but was definitely one of the highlights of my year.

Most of these girls I have known since day 1 (literally) except for Mina, Saki, and Joe. Mina is the one in with the glasses at the top, Saki is in the background eating udon noodles haha, and little Joe is the adorable and only boy in the photo. The little boy in the photo, Joe, I had met before but not Mina and Saki. But I am really glad I got to hang out with them too, they were both really nice and we had such a good time. Also - my friend Momo, my brother, and Ken-chan did not get in the photo because they were either asleep, or else wear haha!The Tahoe trip was my Christmas present from my parents which I am so grateful for, it was loads of fun and maybe we can even go next year. ;)

 What was really nice about this trip was the fact that all of our parents are still really good friends and still keep in touch after all these years. All of our moms are Japanese and all of our dads are American, what a surprise! ;) Since my family moved to Utah, I have not gotten to hang out with these girls but when we do get to see each other we always make the best of it.

The trip also included lots of skiing, which I have to admit is not my favorite sport ever but since I was will friends which made it 10 times better.

All pictures were taken by my friends or me :)





I also managed to take about over 100 pictures maybe even 200, which I had to include because Tahoe is absolutely gorgeous! If you ever get the chance to go there I completely recommend it!




Another highlight of this epic trip was the food. If you have ever had Japanese food, you probably know that it tastes AMAZING. With 5 moms from Japan in a kitchen you are bound to get amazing food!  New Years was the biggest feast, filled with lots of traditional Japanese food, it is called Osechi. Osechi is a traditional Japanese meal that is eaten during New years.

We got to end the trip with an awesome tasting Ice Cream cake from Dairy Queen! My brothers birthday was the day we get back from Winter break and my mom and I thought it would be a lot more fun to have a small celebration with everyone together while in Tahoe. We choose an Oreo ice cream cake, which tasted incredible! If you like oreo's and ice cream this is definitely the cake for you, Dairy Queen also did an awesome job with the presentation!


Overall, the trip was incredible and was so much fun, I am so glad I got to spend my new years with so many of my family friends. I hope you all had an awesome new years/winter break!

Until next time,
- Marea