Big congratulations to my great friends Virginia and Chris on their very first newborn. Welcome home Audrey! We’ve been waiting for you for quite some time now. Even though you were late, you were fashionably late so all is forgiven.

One of my dearest friends from college recently had a baby a few weeks back and I was lucky enough to visit baby Audrey on her birthday, which was about a week later than we all had expected. We tried everything to get her out on her due date. From hiking to eating extra spicy Indian food, but man was she persistent. Took a little extra patience, but I’m glad to say that we’ve got a beautiful bundle of joy for both Chris and Virginia as well as the first official addition to my close group of friends.

Aaron Kwok was one of the very first Hong Kong music concert that I’d ever been to. Since he’s my girlfriend’s all time favorite childhood idol, we ALWAYS get the closest seats possible. So when he came in town again for some shows in Las Vegas, tickets and room were pretty much booked before I ever found out about it.

So off we went to Las Vegas with my trusty new Canon 5D Mark II + 16-35mm f2.8 in hand for a trial run! Even though I barely know how to work the video record button, I have to admit that I LOVE THIS CAMERA! It takes some gorgeous images and the limited video capture that I tested is spectacular.

For those of you who don’t know, most Chinese concerts are about the costume changes and flashy effects. Aaron’s Hong Kong version of his concert recently received the Guiness Book of World Records achievement for the World’s Largest Indoor Revolving Stage. As awesome as that would’ve been to see, I couldn’t imaging them shipping that thing overseas for a small venue like the Encore Theater. Instead we had to settle for third row seats near the middle.

I’ve always been a fan of Japanese culture and have always wanted to visit this amazingly diverse country. The fact that you can walk down the streets of Akihabara for some electronics shopping and pass by a traditional Geisha is such an intriguing blend of old and new cultures. We only stayed for seven days traveling through the different areas of Tokyo and needless to say it was NOT enough time. I could’ve spent an entire month here. My all time favorite city. Period.

I took my fair share of touristy pictures, but the below are some selects that I felt really showcased how beautiful this country is. Christy and her Winnie the Pooh collection included.

During this trip, I truly fell in love with my $80 50mm f1.8 aka the Nifty Fifty lens. Such a great little piece of glass and was on my camera 80% of the time because my 24-70 f2.8 was just way too heavy and expensive to be lugging around with me everywhere I went.

We were there for only ten days, but OH MY GOD, it was some of the most hectic and adventourous 10 days I’ve had all year long. Once off the plane, it was literally packed with things to do, see, eat and visit. Some highlights include – two weddings, spending 24+ hours awake after landing on the first day, book 2 lunchs and 2 dinners on one day (happened on several days), stay up at a karaoke lounge til 6am in the morning only to end up at a hole in the wall dim sum restaurant, eat some amazing food at what would be considered a D grade restaurant in California, eat rattle snake, eat tiger prawns, eat mantis shrimp, eat… eat … eat. You get the picture.