Yes, a happy new year to all reading this. It is the year of the wild boar now (いのしし inoshishi in Japanese, a word I heartily enjoy) and it is freeeeezing in Hiroshima right now. I went for a walk this morning at 8:30 and it was so cold that my ipod screen stopped working and my fingers went numb. Good times.
Sorry for the prolonged break over the festive season but judging from my web traffic over that time very few of you were checking in so no biggie.
My manager asked me to do a heap of overtime during December so I got an extra five days off making a nice two week period of no work over the New Year period. I spent a hell of a lot of that time reading a heap of books, drinking coffee, studying Japanese and just generally hanging out with Yuki. I visited Mitaki-dera (dera=temple) on New Year's Day which was crazy busy as to be expected. It's an amazing temple, built high up into the side of a mountain with a waterfall running behind/beneath and then out the front of it. It was a beautifully tranquil way to reflect on 2006 and welcome 2007, listening to monks' low, hypnotic chanting over the sound of massive bells being chimed and the gushing of the waterfall. There is a path winding up the mountain that supposedly passes through a bamboo forest filled with Buddhist statues. According to a friend it is particularly quiet and eerie around dusk so I'm going to head up there soon and investigate.
I have a whole heap of topics I need to type up here soon including Christmas (which is particularly crazy in this country) and teaching Japanese kids (who have taught me such awesome phrases as "I peed myself" and "you're ugly" and "you stink", hooray for kids).
I'm uploading a bunch of photos from Mitaki-dera and other recent adventures around the place so check the flickr account for the goods. I have decided to mark most photos with people's faces visible as private so you will have to make a Flickr account and contact me before you will be able to see them. Sorry, but I want to respect other people's desire for privacy.
Normal programming shall resume shortly, stay tuned...
