Now that Japan is over and life is back to decent normalcy, I guess I shall return to writing here. Have been staring at the computer screen for a good part of the hour, and calibrating this sorry excuse for a monitor for godknowhowmanymillion times. I don’t really know how grey looks like anymore; sometimes it looks like this, sometimes this looks like red; sometimes, blue.

Christmas is over. New Year is over. A brand new year ripe for the abusing. I can’t believe Irina won Project Runway season 6. What a tired bland season. Despite being back for a week, this country still feels a little unreal to me. I go out in the afternoons, and don’t curse the sun as often as I used to. I think sumimasen instead of excuse me, and dream of good, easily available tonkatsu.

Last week, Ms. J and I discussed new year resolutions over our rather usual dinner of 五香. We both made vague but admirable ones. Resolutions are easier the more precise they get, and therefore, you should praise our gallantry and cross your kind fingers for us. Let’s try to make this year work a little harder, stay a little more focused, a little more ambitious, and a tad more merrier. Merry New Year!

(I just remembered that I made Christmas resolutions last year! I am quite happy to announce that I fulfilled every one except the first. The first shall roll over to this year then. And well, it seems that vagueness worked then, too.)