お久しぶりですね！

Reading: Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
Listening: Love Song, m-flo loves Bonnie Pink
Craving: loco moco

Mr. Dylan will be amazed that I still know how to write a post.

Tokyo Trip
Chris and I caught an overnight bus from Sannomiya on December 22, arriving in Tokyo the morning of the 23rd for the Emperor’s public birthday greetings. Watching the Emperor address a crowd of awestruck Japanese gripping paper flags while standing amidst said crowd of awestruck flag-holding Japanese was . . . awe-inspiring. See my official photographer for awesome pictures.

We stayed with the Endos (Taka Endo being a college friend of Chris’s), a warm and funny foursome into which one instantly wishes to be adopted. Our first Christmas away from home was none so lonely at an Endo wine tasting party!

HARAJUKU – Nodame Café Attempt / Audi Forum / Crepes / Shopping
SHIBUYA – Hachiko / Dinner
GINZA - Ogling
ASAKUSA – Temple Visit / Manju
AKIBA - Wandering
ODAIBA – Fuji TV Studios / Toyota MegaWeb Showcase
SHINJUKU – Krispy Kreme Attempt (Bah humbug.)

We met up with many Tokyo friends, attending the opening of a new bar (Hub), eating loco moco at a Hawaiian café, and more. I've failed to mention many other Tokyo adventures, but as I've come to terms my failure of a memory, you should too.

I made it to neither Disneyland nor the Studio Ghibli Museum, but there will undoubtedly be a special trip solely for visits to those two.

Jamieee!
We returned to Kansai on the morning of the 28th, meeting Jamie in Osaka before heading home. On her visit from Fukuoka, we took her to Himeji / Akashi / Kobe in Hyogo prefecture, as well as Nara for her requested deer visit. I made certain to fill Jamie up on the yummiest foods of Kansai. Having her with me for only a few days only made me wish even more that we had been placed nearer one another.

New Year
Chris and I said our goodbyes to Jamie in Osaka on New Year’s Eve. We spent the evening stuffing our faces and watching the Red and White Song Fest, cheering for all of our favorite J-Poppers. I felt that there was too much enka, as usual.We slept in on New Year’s. No toshikoshi soba, no ozoni, no temple visit. Laziness at its best.

Oh yes, I have a job.
I took vacation through January 3rd and returned to “work” on the 4th, though I spent most of my day enjoying the elaborate tea ceremony put on by my tea ceremony instructor.

I spend most days either frozen in the classrooms or toasty warm at my heater-adjacent desk in the staff room. I still love my students, who participate enthusiastically in our class activities and convince me that hours of lesson planning can be well worth the time. My classes with the third years (who only ogle me at the front of the room) have already ended; they graduate within a month!

I’m keeping up with Tea Ceremony and Ikebana Clubs, the former encouraging me to study up and improve for “performance” at our cultural festival in four months and the latter continuing to be a calm space in which I learn more about flower names than native speakers do. I use my teachers as my personal compendiums of Japanese cultural knowledge, and they are generally more than happy to answer all my nosy questions.

Yes, I’m a Material Girl: Favorite Goods
Nintendo Wii. (Thank you, Chris!) The Wii features the latest installment of The Legend of Zelda (Twilight Princess), the game that serves as my primary reason for buying new Nintendo gaming consoles. (i.e. GameCube) Wii = LOVE.
Heart-Shaped Post-It Notes. Alli provided me (Post-It-obsessed Person) with a supply of bright pink stickies that I crazily post atop my desk, giving the impression that Valentine’s Day has permanently exploded across my work space.
Puffer Jacket. Jamie has a knack for always picking out perfect gifts, and I instantly fell in love with my soft white puffer, which transforms cold, shivering Kristine into a warm, cuddly marshmallow.
Warm Vanilla Sugar Body Butter (Body Works). So creamy. Smells so good I could eat the whole tub.
Digital Camera. Chris had been feeling sorry for my old camera, which would sadly sputter out death whimpers as it struggled to even turn on. I now have a spanking new camera, which I should now use to share my sights with everyone at home.

The Books
My Name Is Red, Orhan Pamuk / Ariel, Sylvia Plath / Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri / Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Marisha Pessl (I highly recommend Pessl's novel on the strange events in the life of a precocious high school student. The chapters are named after works in the Western canon.)

I’m not getting much reading done these days, a clear sign that television has taken over my life.

On that unfortunate note, I end this post. It’s clearly time for a good lunch. More soon. 約束です！