The Awards Ceremony

Photo of Kansai Airport
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. . . . . I know the cafeteria post wasn’t very exciting & I didn’t have any pictures to go w/ it. Maybe this one will be better!!

Let me get the boring stuff out of the way first. After lunch I went back to the hotel. I wanted to relax before the awards & dinner/party. I went back to the 52^nd floor to see if I could take some daytime pictures of the Kansai Airport & bridge. I was hoping that the same people weren’t working that were there when I asked last night. It was still kind of lunch time so I felt a little bad asking, but what the heck. They let me do (again!!).  That was so cool to look at. Until you see it in person, you just don’t realize how amazing it is. 52 floors is soooo high. Sometimes if the wind is blowing, you can feel the building swaying. I could even feel it in my room on the 47^th floor.

We went just in case....

Bridge to Airport
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First thing I did when I got back to my room was change out of my clothes!!! I knew that I needed to wear the same outfit back to the awards ceremony, well the pants at least. I wanted to take a nap so bad, but I didn’t want to mess up my hair. I worked on the blog (it’s like a full time job!!), checked my e-mail and straightened up my room a little.

Jeff came to the hotel to get Xavier (he’s from Fuji – Europe) & me@ 4 p.m. I was wondering if anyone was going to notice that I wasn’t wearing the same shirt and if they did, were they going to mention it to me. I had already gotten sweaty during the presentation. I just couldn’t wear the same shirt knowing that we had dinner & probably Karaoke after that.

Beatiful flower arrangement in lobby of hotel (real plants/flowers).
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Back to Fuji we went. Again, let me remind everyone how grateful I am that I don’t have the motion sickness like I used to. All these trips back & forth in the tax & the bus would have been miserable.

When we saw Mr. Mori in the hall before the ceremony, he said he thought we won something. But then Jeff said, well everybody gets something. Of course the Awards Ceremony was in Japanese so I couldn’t understand what they were saying, what place the awards were or anything. Jeff was sitting behind me so I didn’t want to keep asking him.

The award & prize envelope.
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Mr. Ebihara (top guy) was reading a large certificate to each of the winners & then handing it to them with an envelope containing a yen prize (ranging in value depending on the rank/place).

I didn’t really get a good explanation of the ranking, but they gave awards to 3 people in the first batch. Two in the second batch & then 1 award which Jeff said was #1. So maybe it was like three 3^rd places, two 2^nd places & one 1^st place. Then they called 3 more people – maybe be like honorable mention or maybe it was three 4^th places – I don’t know. They called MY NAME - - KRISTINE LUPICA!!!! SERIOUSLY!! FOR REAL!!! I WON AN AWARD!!!! UNBELIEVEABLE!! I’M IN SHOCK – EXCITED, BUT IN SHOCK!!!

The group in Steve's office & FOE staff.
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I had to walk up there & stand in front of Mr. Ebihara while he read the award to me (I'm assuming he read it, I didn't understand what he said). Then he handed it to me with my prize. I bowed & said thank you (I was so nervous & excited I don’t remember if I said it in Japanese or English)!!! Then after the other 2 received their awards, the 3 of us faced the audience, bowed & left the stage.

All the winners had to hang around & have individual pictures taken. Maybe I’ll be in the Fuji Magazine. I’m hoping I can somehow get a copy of some of the pictures the photographer was taking during the presentations & the awards ceremony.

I was so excited that I won something!!! I thought maybe since everyone got something that was all I would receive. To put it in perspective, there were 21 entrants & only 9 received the awards on the stage from Mr. Ebihara. That’s pretty darn good if you ask me!!! I was also thinking that maybe if someone went over the 10 minutes they were disqualified from winning a prize, so maybe that’s how I ended up w/ one. But one of the other guys that was in the 4^th award group w/ me was one that went over the 10 minutes. So I really did get it, but not by default – even better!!

HIP HIP HOORAY!!! I’M DOING THE VICTORY DANCE!!!! (only in my mind – we all know I can’t dance!!)

(Thank you to all my co-workers, friends & family who helped me with the presentation & put up with all my whining & anxiety attacks!!!)