This will be my yearly complaint about the lack of central heating in most parts of Japan except Hokkaido (and I have only heard that they have it, I don't know how widely used it is). Probably, I wouldn't even notice if, when I turned on my natural gas heater in the morning, the thermometer didn't read 10 C. Come to think of it, it was probably just as cold in the morning in Canada. I just didn't have any numbers to verify the fact. The nice part about my apartment is that I have a lot o...

Why do I let things pile up on me? At first I thought it had something to do with a lack of self-discipline (but not self-criticism) but now I wonder if something just isn't inherently wrong with me. Do I secretly crave punishing myself with the stress of not getting things done, feeling guilty and panic? Am I an anxiety junkie? I certainly don't subscribe to that "I do my best work under pressure" thing, but it lately it feels like I only do my work under pressure. Enough whining. B...

I dropped my biscotti in my latte. Now I am in the ignoble position of either fishing it out with my fingers (and then licking them then, I guess, as I have no tissue with me), or trying to suck back that latte before the thing disintegrates into soggy crumbles of a decimated sponge. Well, if this is the worst thing that happens to me today, I will be KICKING ass!

So, I finally decided to follow the crowd and get a cell-phone that can take pictures. This way, next time I'm at some kind of event, I can stand around with everyone else, arm raised high above my head to avoid the crowds and take pictures oSome of them turn out pretty well. The deciding factor is that my current phone, being 4 years old and the victim of countless, accidental droppings, has bad reception. The only problem now is finding the time to go out and get a new phone. Lately, I a...

Ski trip to Nagano was pretty good. We went to Hakuba and skied at Happo-one. I got a chance to go down the Olympic downhill run (not in Olympic downhill style, of course). It was pretty fun. Snow for the first few days was pretty good, but an unseasonal 14 C for the last few days meant that the snow became really slushy and slow. Boots that were too large meant that I didn't suffer from squished bone syndrome so my feet felt pretty good and I could enjoy myself. It was great to be in ...

So I checked out the web-page. The course is 3.5 km long and has 11 obstacles. There is a maximum of 390 people allowed to participate in the event, so I hope I get registered in time. If I win (which is really unlikely unless everyone else is abducted by aliens mid-course) I get 150kg of koshi-hikari rice. If you haven't tried this rice, you don't know what you're missing. 10kg costs anywhere from 30 to 50 dollars US. There are 5 draw prizes for trips to Hawaii. I will be hoping for that...

I have no idea what this whole thing entails. The best understanding I have yet is that people have to run 3.5 km in deep snow. The event is far enough away that I actually stay over-night there, so I wasn't going to do it until I saw that they have a costume category! How can I not go see an event where people wearing costumes are running in snow? I will probably not wear a costume (I simply don't have the resources to put one together, but I would like to dress up as a moose if I had a ch...

I am going to go skiing! I am pretty excited about it. I haven't been able to go for a couple of years. Hopefully, the boots won't hurt my feet too much. I have bones in wierd places so ski boots are quite painful- which is one reason why I don't go often. So down-hill for a few days and then on to cross-country!

I have to go back to Canada for a funeral. Getting all the documents together was a bit tough. Say what you want about United Airlines, but my husband got me a mileage flight with three days from departure. Let's see Air Canada try that! Had to get my re-entry permit into Japan so I can come back though. Thank god I remembered because it would really suck to remember at the ticket gate and not be able to go. I get to immigrationa and there and there are 92 people ahead of me. I pray f...

I've got a contest deadline tomorrow, and heaps of homework for Japanese class that I have not even touched and what do I do? I spend last night tinkering with digital images on photoshop and print them out in post card format (some nice printed images if I had taken care to reset the pixels). Today, I spend all my free time writing post cards to people I haven't been in touch with for a long time. These are all good things on their own. The photography thing could even be argued as a d...

If you don't count the printer ink that I bought for myself, I got dinner and dishes done. He made curry, which was pretty tasty and did the dishes. Usually whoever cooks doesn't have to do dishes but I really don't like having to wash out a curry pot. So I got to work on my photos while he cleaned up. Apparantly, he still hasn't read my blog either so he is a little clueless. Coincidentally, I did get some chocolate. Giving me chocolate is a pretty safe bet. But two things were not...

I have no idea where this well-spring of optimism is stemming from, but lately, I just have the greatest snse of well-being. I have lots of things to be thankful for and a great husbanis being prtty supportive. This is not simply a bid to get him to take me to the fireflyviewing dinner at the FourSeasons in Tokyo. It just occurs to me that when I disappear to my room to wirte (mainly procrastinate about it in reality) he has no problem with doing dishes or taking up some of the slack. ...

This is my way of subtle hinting to my hubby of what would be good ideas for our anniversary because he reads my blog sometimes. DH (that's you honey, Dear Husband 'cause I feel freaky using your name on-line) First, thanks for the last five years. Most of them have beeen pretty good, and we don't need to rehash what could have made those freaky ones a little better. Most of the time, it's pretty fun hanging out with you. You're still my favorite person to spend time with! Thanks also,...

Writing has been stalling a lot lately. It could have something to do with holding down a full time job, trying to prepare for a Japanese proficiency test and still spend time with hubby. Still, you gotta do what you gotta do. To kick start my procrastination habit I decided to enter a small writing contest. No big eal, write the next chapter 1000 word limit. In one respect, it was great. I whipped off 2000 words, trimmed to 1200. The next day, I am still trimming. I double-checked ...

How much money gets spent on war? God only knows. I often think that they should just chuck the whole lot of that money into R&D for alternative energy sources. First of all, it would get rid of any reason to fight over fossil fuel related energy resources. Probably something other resource will be squabbled over, but it would be nice if it were not oil and gas. Then again, once the world starts fighting over water, people will probably be saying, "Remember the good ol' days when people ...