Now then...
1.) Even without snow, Tokyo can get REALLY cold - especially in the morning. Tomorrow's high is supposedly going to be 45 degrees, and we got down to 36 or 37 this morning. I'm still working out how to make my room retain heat - it's not a hermetically sealed facility like some of the ones I'm used to.
2.) My courseload has lightened a bit due to the fact that some of my profs had to get to their home schools for the Spring semester. Now I've only got four subjects to manage, and yet it is still very busy for me.
3.) I really want it to be Winter Break - just two more days...
4.) I have a new friend - a cute little NEC netbook I've nicknamed Sanosuke. I needed to get something with a Japanese version of the Windows OS on it, and buying this netbook was actually cheaper than putting a Japanese version of Windows onto my MacBook to replace my current copy of Vista. Software over here is insanely expensive. The most basic version of Windows 7 (the only software you can get over here anymore) costs approximately $300 dollars - 26,000 yen to be precise. On the other hand, I got a great deal on this little devil with Windows XP (the last Windows system I trust). It also provided a good long-term solution for my issues with CD/DVD region blocking - I bought a plug-and-play CD drive at the same place - it works great. This is especially important considering the fact that the drive in my MacBook has been behaving badly and not burning CDs.
5.) I wish I had known that Downy was just a fabric softener three months ago. Now I need to start buying actual detergent...
6.) I went back to Costco with my dear friend Dana, and I have now rediscovered my love of Stagg chili, Riesen caramels, and big, inflatable lounge furniture priced at $20 for a chair and ottoman set. I also bought a 5 kg box of mikan (clementine oranges). I carried everything home to save 1000 yen on shipping fees. Painful, but worth it - yay for lessons of frugality.
7.) We had three earthquakes two days ago. Nothing to panic about - they were actually kind of fun. I was sitting in my aforementioned inflatable lounger when the first one hit, and I thought my lounger had some secret massage-chair technology in it.
8.) My nengajou (new year's cards) are all set for posting. Be watching your mailboxes!
9.) My application for transfer from the JLP to the KIP for next semester is ready to go. Goodbye to having to wake up at 7 AM 3 days a week to commute for an hour, goodbye to classes on Saturday, hello manageable working schedule!
10) Don't worry about me being alone and/or lonely for Christmas or New Year's. I'm singing two services with the choir at church on Christmas Eve (including a duet solo on our jazzed-up Silent Night), I'm having lunch at our pastor's house on Christmas Day, and I'm celebrating with our choir president's family (both her and her husband also happen to be Keio professors - small world) on New Year's Day - doing a very traditional New Year's Celebration with them. I'll kick off the year of the tiger with my housemates by going over to Gokokuji temple (just across the street - yay convenience) and participating in the festivities there - including the 108 chimes. Good times!
11.) I've been receiving some lovely care packages from home - all of the classic Christmas delicacies have found their way to our happy home and have helped us spice up the season. You have our thanks!
12.) I have my first class this next Saturday, subbing for another Kick instructor. I've got a couple of special event classes over the Winter break, and I start teaching regularly in January.
13.) I nearly made it through the entire Christmas season without hearing 'The Little Drummer Boy' once. I consider it a lost opportunity - we were working on a nearly perfect season.
14.) I think my room is starting to have a vendetta against me - it refuses to be cleaned.
15.) Did I mention how cold it gets here?
16.) Improvisation is the best way to live.
17.) Rest in peace, dear GGL - I'll still head up to Akita and think of you there.
18.) The debut of a Final Fantasy game over here is practically a national holiday - if only they had shut down the schools...
19.) St. Germain's bakery makes very good Croquette burgers. I heartily recommend them and will treat anyone who visits me to one.
20.) BTS instructors over here pay through the nose for program releases. Fortunately I, lacking the need of translation into Japanese, was able to get them for less. Far and away, the best release I've seen of the five programs I teach (they don't have Ride over here - no one's using it...yet...) is Step. Each of the other programs has some issue (not necessarily a problem) that I'm not to crazy about, but Step this time is amazing - I hope I can get a regular gig by the time we launch this one (since that means April, I've got some time).
21.) I'm gaining more and more confidence in my Japanese conversation skills every day - despite the way my homework assignments are returned to me ^_^.
22.) I received some great advice on post-graduate work from one of my professors here over coffee after our last day of class. I think that after my graduation from Rice, I'm not going to be in a major hurry to jump into the next academic adventure straight away - I may take a couple years to do something (not nothing) and just build myself and continue exploring. I was counting on this year providing me some answers, and I think this is a big one.
Well, 22 free-floating thoughts should do it for now, I think. Hope to hear from y'all soon, and if I don't talk to you before then, have a very merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, and a spectacular start to the year of the tiger!
絶望した！
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