More later, now sleep.

Just writing to let you know what I learned today:

1. Snowboarding is fun.
2. Snowboarding WEARS YOU OUT.
3. It's better if you don't fall.
4. It's even better if, when you do fall, you don't literally punch yourself in the face (with your own fist).
5. It's also better if when you get a lot of speed going, you don't freak out and make a stupid move and something happens where you spin in the air once or twice and land face down in the snow.
6. Newbies: Forget turning. Turning is like, months away from your abilities.
7. I look really cool on a snowboard.

Merry Christmas to all!

I don't know about the rest of you, but my Christmas turned out pretty sweer. Work was pretty fun (since people kept saying it was "free time" and talking to me), then I had a relaxing while to do a bunch of errands, then I went to the hotel where our end of year office party was, tried my first onsen experience and enjoyed that, and had a blast all night with the people from my office!

Also I got to get to know my 23-year-old coworker on a personal level, we talked about how we get lonely sometimes and we've decided to have a takoyaki party at her apartment together. :)

All in all, a great Christmas, if a bit untraditional.

Bump in the night

Had an earthquake about 30 minutes ago.

THIS earthquake!!

My screen doors shook quite a bit. I'm excited to be able to match up my verrrry minor shaking to a REAL LIVE WORLD EVENT.

The days shall now commence their lengthening.

Having reached the darkest and dimmest day of the year intact, I say with some conviction that I am looking forward to the new dawn of warmth and happiness and longer days.

I celebrated the winter solstice by getting myself my Christmas present (BTW, I got myself snowboarding clothes. AWESOME jacket, pants, gloves, and thermals. Keiko and Emerson and who knows who else are going to turn me into a SWEET AWESOME COOL snowboarding superhero, just you watch.)

Today was really great. I reinstalled Starcraft which will be ok as long as I remember to leave room in my life for doing other things. Thanks to a little help from my friend, I now have a clean house. (We even took care of the mold that was on the top of the fridge since I moved in...oy.) I was so happy tonight I kept dancing around my room...because there was room for it! Clean houses make the long dark winter seem less desperate.

Also despite the temperature not breaking 55 F (13 C) today, I haven't had the heater on since over 30 hours ago. And I haven't really gotten cold at all. I feel as though I'm running an experiment on myself to see if I can hack winter.

I'm about 7 months behind the curve but...

I love this song by Japanese boy band "Greeeen" and I can't get it out of my head.

Inoshishi 猪

I eat all kinds of strange things in Japan. Japanese mustard spinach, Komatsuna, a high in calcium green vegetable. Daikon, the famous gigantic radish of Japan. Hassaku, the citrus with the bite of a grapefruit and the pucker of a lemon. And one of my favorites, persimmon, the little orange fruit with a tough skin and a sweet, sometimes mushy interior. (better when not overripened)

So I was all game to try some inoshishi. Inoshishi stands for wild boar. My friend Keiko invited me to go with her to the dinner at her good friend's house. I went there and met her friend, his momma, his wife, and their cute little baby Kotaro.

Inoshishi was good! We had homestyle Yakiniku (grilled meat) on a skillet sort of thing. There was also pork, chicken, and beef provided, but I ended up enjoying the pork and inoshishi the best. Another thing Japan has changed about me is reversed my aversion to the fat on meats and the skin on chicken. I am not sure that's a good thing but it's the truth! Fatty meat is yummy meat...

I spoke mostly Japanese all night. Even to baby Kota.

Weather forecast for the next 3 months of my life

Me: blahblah something Tokyo. Maybe I'll go to Tokyo for New Years.
Home-ec teacher: blahblah something Tokyo! I love going to the museums there!
Me: Me too! blahblah National Museum.
Home-ec teacher: Going to Tokyo in wintertime is so strange. It's not like here. They have cold weather, and snow, but they also have sunshine! Here it stays so cloudy.
Me: ...ah..haha...so Tokyo has clear skies in the winter, but here it's always cloudy.
Home-ec teacher: That's right!
Me: That's Tottori for ya, huh?
Home-ec teacher: (with a big SMILE) yup!