Happy New Year everyone!

Welcome to my first post of the year 2005. So far it's been a good one. Of course, it's only January 11, so there's a lot of year to go.

Christmas and New Year's was good. In Japan Christmas is more of a romantic holiday, so my girlfriend and I went out to dinner and exchanged gifts. It was good. New Year's was great, also. I was able to do what Japanese usually do at the beginning of the year. I went with my girlfriend's family to a local shrine, and we said our first prayers of the year. It seemed very spiritual at that time. But that quickly went away when I saw all of the food stands and goods tents that were set up on the shrine grounds. However, the food was very very good!

The big news over the holidays around the world was, of course, the tragic earthquake and tsunamis in South Asia. (By the way, if you didn't know, tsunami is a Japanese word. It means "harbor wave". My Japanese buddies were surprised that we use that word in English.) There were no tsunamis here in Japan. But we felt the impact here at my company. Some teachers were vacationing in the area and my bosses were not able to contact them immediately. But it turns out that they were okay. They weren't in the affected areas, so that was good news.

Well, I look forward to a good 2005, and you all should, too. Take care.