Shivers and laughs

You know you've been in Japan too long when...you follow the trend and buy this season's ヌーボー ("New borduex" is a kind of wine that isn't aged) after watching the news announce its start.

So, fall is slipping into winter and December is nearly upon us. 'Tis the season for end of the term tests and people with cold masks on their faces and 簿年会(end-of-the-year parties). Christmas cakes will soon be selling and the catalogs for New Year's Day special food 「おせち」are already passing through many hands. I recently got my flu vaccine, while Katsumi and Lilica have scheduled theirs to be sometime within the next coming weeks.

Life slows down in the cold of Japanese winter, like synchronizing your heartbeats to the gusts of wind. Next year, I'll start teaching an English conversation class and I'm prepping for that, too. Yet, much time still remains...

We've been eating lots of daizu (soy beans) in our school lunches. Dinners have been hot and usually out of a pot. Lily's still growing, but has a very fresh memory of the recent events which she details to whoever is around, whether asked or not. She makes us laugh at her sharp awareness of details, like the facts that a red cup "is not blue" and that it's "no thank you" to more dinner but always "PLEASE" to the mention of dessert. She continues to make life a joy every day and she binds our family up in very good times.