Catching Up

Reading: The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman
Listening: koreanclass101.com

あけましておめでとうございます！今年もよろしくお願いします！

To those who still read this blog, I'm sorry for the delay in updates. Yet it's a good sign when my posts are few and far between, as it means that life has been too full of wonderful activities for me to record it all.

My last post left off somewhere in early December. Since then . . .

- The Akashi Girls held Secret Santa Night at Kelly's before we all left for vacation. We combined forces and assembled a dinner of chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pasta salad, a dessert of chestnut pies, and of course, Asahi. Lena, my gift-ee, kept me laughing the following day by e-mailing pictures of her making use of her new tea, mug, and sketchbook. Bren, my Secret Santa, caught me by surprise with all of my favorites from Lush, along with a pair of pink squirrel hairclips that I'd had my eye on.

- Chris and I drove to Nara for a weekend to snag 道の駅 stamps and to catch a Marc Chagall exhibit at the local art museum. The latter was solely for me, but Chris tagged along and found one or two paintings that he liked. I was scolded by the museum staff for observing a sketch too closely. I fed two deer. We ate at Mellow Cafe. We visited the Nara National Museum of History.

In the last few weeks of December, much busyness ensued, primarily due to hosting Nat, a high school friend. A post on the vacation, including pictures of the Studio Ghibli Museum and Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea will be coming your way, though I can't promise when, as Chris and I will be off to Korea in two days. Check back later!