The winter blues of January

I have been more than a bit behind on my blog for various reasons. One being that not much happened after Okinawa, except a pretty awesome sumo tournament which I do have pictures of but that will come with the number two reason why I haven't blogged much, because it was cold. Two being that after what began as a normal morning: wake up, hit snooze. wake up again, hit snooze again. wake up. turn off electric blanket. run to table to turn on heater. run to bathroom with prayers that the taps didn't freeze, have shower. wrap up in towels and housecoats and socks and slippers. make breakfast. and don't spill it on my computer. Well that fateful morning, I decided not to follow the last step and spilled breakfast on my poor unsuspecting laptop.

A very long story short: Sony Japan has only one person that speaks English and my computer is out of my hands for two to undefined period of time and might cost me nothing or all my money. Shouganai which mean c'est la vie which mean can't be helped. Unless I could go back in time and unspill my cereal on my keyboard which I'm not even entirely sure I would do as I hate time travel but I'm somewhat courageous so I may brave it for the sake of my lap top. Did I mention my newest manuscript was on there?

Needless to say, Janurary being cold, and without Rhee, and a computer was a tiny bit miserable but I made it through as I live in Japan and when I crawl into bed I have an electric blanket to keep me warm! Oh and one Saturday there was three really big earthquakes in a row that actually knocked stuff about in my room but not as big as the 'big' one and nothing to worry about really just enough for the earth to be like 'hey I'm here!' It was kinda crazy but I think the weirdest things about earthquakes are the noises they make. Like this loud crack and then it seems like you can actually hear the ground moving about though in reality it's probably the groaning of the buildings.

I will now show off my pictures of nearly naked fat men! Which are not all Japanese actually as sumo has become a somewhat International sport. Half of the wrestlers were from Eastern Europe and Mongolia. Anyway, it was really fun and really cool to watch. Over the ring is a hanging shrine roof as the sport is closely related to Shinto and before all the main matches they would purify the ring with salt and priests who wave their wands of lightening stripped paper.

So that was really cool. And after that I kinda went into hibernation and between classes and just trying to keep warm I spent many winter night curled up in blankets as a few snow storms hit and the place looked beautiful when in the morning the sky was the most brilliant shade of blue!

A few weeks after that the snow still hadn't entirely melted but a warmish day arose and feeling brave, and a little like I needed to get out of the house and not stare at my broken computer all day, I went for a really really long walk around here. I hiked up this valley to this little community dotted with temples and snow and shrines and took many pretty pictures. I saw a hawk and climbed a hill where I could overlook Saruhashi and my apartment. It was really cool! I found an easy way down the hillside where I practically lid down a steep path but in the end it was great exercise and a brilliant way to spend five hours.

 

 

The view of my little valley and then a close up of my house which is the red roofed shack thing and my little blue car is just visible behind my neighboring building!

So then January came to an end. My fingers are crossed for my computer and for an early spring but February is looking up for my birthday is around the corner and mom comes in a few weeks and before I know it it will be plum blossom season!