Well, the last few days have been eventful. As many of you know, my old email is alive, but inaccessible. I think it has something to do with signing ups with yahoo messenger, and a glitch in the system this way. And, I did not have access to Blogspot for a while, although, as you can see, I have figured out what I was doing wrong with blogger. The former is an annoying, puzzling mystery, the latter just my own foolishness for not entering in the correct user name to log in.

But, so much to report! When I last wrote, I was going to tell you all about my Tokyo adventure. Well, we walked around the temple, and then went back to my friend's house, to eat chanko nabe. This is a delicious stew, made from boiling water, adding vegetables and meat (usually beef) and some soy sauce, and other flavourings as is to your taste. And, oh is it tasty! We ate, laughed, drank much beer sake and wine, and had a grand time of it. On New Years Eve, the general Japanese custom is to gather the clan at the homestead, and eat and drink, and drink and eat, and catch up with each other for the year. I-san and Y-san and I did just that on January 2, and so I think I-san and Y-san got to do it twice, and I got to have a real Japanese experience. Plus, I got to stay in a Japanese house. So, I had many firsts: first stay in a Japanese house, first stayover at a Japanese house, first New Year's in Japan, and my first ride in a Japanese car, as I-san drove me to and from the Shinkansen station and all around Tokyo. My first view of Tokyo was not the typical tourist trap, but rather the city as one lives in it. January 3 saw all three of us motor over to another mutual friend of ours, whom we met at GHCC, for lunch and to catch up. M-san is a wonderful, talented human being, and her English is probably better than mine. She, her husband and their cute-as-a-bug-in-a-rug daughter and I all sat down, and commenced to eat, laugh, and catch up.

I have started this new year very well, thanks to some very good people. I went back on the train back to Osaka, and rested up a bit before I had to go to work. Nova trained a number of us to do a new kind of classes, one designed for students to improve in weak areas.