Friendly co-workers make all the difference in the formal, Japanese office environment.  Mr. Nishi loves challenging me with the translation of random Japanese words to English, most of them describing the secretary who then strikes back by speaking proper English with me as we cast smug looks back at him.  Things get even more interesting with a ( Read more... )

Here’s a quick tip: If you tend to have trouble sleeping at night like I do, try driving some winding, mountain roads for ten hours straight.  Guaranteed to knock you right out.

In other words, I’m back in town.  And back at work.  There is something rather delightful about having only two days of work before the weekend begins again.  I could use ( Read more... )

Now that I am off of my two-month hiatus, I have decided to return to my journal. Besides that, I have not been as diligent with the email as I thought I would be, so I guess I communicate best via this platform. By the way, a big thanks to all of you who encouraged me and helped me to edit and put together my journal into a book form. It is ( Read more... )

Hello Everyone ( Read more... )

Yay for the false hope of spring. Temperatures have lately soared into the 50s, leaving the roads safely clear and hardly a trace of snow in the yard. I’m certain that my town will be blasted by a malicious blizzard before the end of next week, but for now, I am enjoying the warmth by jogging around the river after work. I’ve also switched to ( Read more... )

Minna-san, tadaima ( Read more... )

Hello everyone from home! It’s only a week now until I’ll be home and seeing most of you. Yet, I just had to try to sqeeze in one last journal this year so I don’t have to explain the happenings of the entire last month ten times over. It’s been a busy time for sure. I did not know what I was getting myself into participating in Nanowrimo: ( Read more... )

Winter is here at last. The first snow fell on the second of this month, completely dumbfounding me as I left my house that morning without a winter coat. I definitely had not expected to see a single snowflake until the end of the month. It seems I’m not the only one surprised, though. I heard snow fell in the western half of the States in mid ( Read more... )

As I mentioned before, I visited the old capital of Ayutthaya during my vacation in Thailand, and took lots of pictures of the impressive brick and stone structures that date back to the Middle Ages, as well as their surrounds. Without further captioning, here are the pics:


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Here's a small album about my first day in Thailand.


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