Well, a lot’s happened since I posted last. For starters, I was back in Canada for 10 days over Christmas. It was nice but unfortunately not long enough to see everyone that I wanted to see and do everything that I wanted to do.
When I got back to Japan, there was quite a snowstorm in Tokyo. I didn’t pay any attention to that, though; I just hopped on a train and went straight down to Kobe for the Kansai Canadian Association’s New Years Day Polar Bear Swim. It was fun, and the Kansai folk were very hospitable to the “spy” from the Tokyo Canadian Club.
A few days after that, back in Tokyo, my buddy Dave and I got a car and drove out to Mt. Fuji (pictures to be posted later). It was a great scenic drive, though a casualty of the drive was my Palm Pilot (with built-in Japanese dictionary) which either got left in the rental car or dropped somewhere between Tokyo and Mt. Fuji.
Hmm, I suppose that some people may not know this (because I may have forgot to tell people) but in January I started working as a Software Developer again (I’d been working in an English school since I got to Japan). It’s great to be back in a job that’s in my “career path”, and it’s good that I don’t have to worry about whether I’ll be able to stay in Japan. Right now it’s a bit tough since I’m still working part-time at the English school (saving up for an apartment deposit) and I feel like I never have any time off.
The biggest change recently is that I’ve moved to Higashi-Omiya, Minuma-ku, Saitama-shi. For those unfamiliar with Japanese addresses, let me translate: “123 Nowhere St. E., Lower Bumblesnort, Alberta”. It’s a nice little town about 30km North of Tokyo — about 35 minutes by train. It’s quite rural — there’s a park across the street, and an orchard (an honest-to-God orchard) beside that. It’s nice, quiet, and cheap. Right now there’s a little bit of trouble getting an Internet hookup, but those are the breaks.
Anyway, I’ve got lots of pictures that I’m sorting through. Look for those to be uploaded fairly soon…
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