What happened to January!?

Happy winter! Hope everyone is staying warm. This has been the most mild winter of my life and I love it. No snow. No ice. Around 9C during the day, down to maybe -2 c at night. Very nice.

This month, Marco has been here. Marco and I did track together at Wooster, his facebook status is what put Korea in my head, and he gave me this current job. He is getting his Masters in Korean now, and on his way to Korea for a year of intense school, he stopped by Iwatsuki. It's been a good month. He introduced me to a lot of his friends and showed me some awesome places to eat and to play. Its also been nice to have someone to talk to and he gives me hugs. You don't realize how important physical affection is until you go months with out it. Japanese people are very reserved, even the kids, so hugs have been really good.

What else...MOM is coming to Japan during my spring break at the end of March. I'm really really excited. I've even been planning...that's hard. I've also been speaking to Cheney about some traveling together in July, which is also very exciting.

BigguyBill and Neda came to dinner. They live in Korea and were in Tokyo for a week. It was great to see them.

Japanese lessons are going well. I'm not good at studying during the week though, so it's slow. Real slow. But it's all right. I'm getting there.

I think that's it really. Just hanging out. Living. Laughing. Learning.

Thursday moms and kids came over for lunch on Saturday.

Me, Marco, Taka at an Izakiya.

Marco and I in a traditional area.

It was a beautiful day.

Meeting some Iwatsuki friends.

People who live very near me. Yay!

Weird space dogs?

We made Korean food one night. And Marco was introduced to Making Bacon Pancakes.
He thanked me for that song.

Marco's "welcome back to Asia party"

Marco's main drinking buds. And me.

This is a video from the traditional town that we were tromping around. We stumbled on this show. It was interestingly weird.