The new year approaches and a pretty chaotic year comes to a close. Lots of war, terrorism, natural disasters, as well as personal tribulations. The number of cool people I've met is outweighed indefinitely by the douche-bags I've had to deal with since moving, but what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. With that said, I have no doubts in my mind that I'll come out of 2004 a better person than I entered it and have learned a lot about myself in my bouts with crappy aspects of life that I never before had to deal with.

So, raise a glass of whatever you like and join me in celebrating the year we've just endured and welcoming the year to come.



Wahey! Now that that cheesy stuff is out of the way, I'll go on with the normal account of my days here in To-kee-yo. It snowed again today and the entire city was transformed into a puddle of sludge. My sister's friend Jon's parents were visiting for the holidays, so we went to lunch with them at this excellent eel restaurant. Eel on rice is so heavenly... After eating, we went to Shibuya, took some purikura and went to a cafe so we could enjoy the snow, but without freezing our asses off. Mia and I said our goodbyes and went home where we wrung out our socks and heated up our frigid little piggies.

Now I'm home for our low key new year's celebration. Usually, you go to a temple at midnight on new year's eve, but because of the weather and my grandma's inability to walk very far, we're going to sit around at home and watch Japanese people trying to sing on television. Exciting, eh? My sister has to work again on the first. It's scary. Japanese people never rest.

Everybody have a happy and fun filled new year's celebration!