Adventures of a Clay Pot: Life. And snow monkeys.

It's been a long time since I've written an update, and the reason why is a long story.

The primary activity in September was home leave. I spent a month visiting people around Virginia, and then on the way back to Tokyo, I visited San Francisco for the first time. So the whole month was great. Good friends. Good weather. Good shopping (always important during home leave). And one more city crossed off the bucket list!

So then I was back in Tokyo, getting settled, digging out of a pile of emails at work, and diligently trying to limit my photos to a handful so that I could write a blog post. Getting to know new friends. There may have been some picture procrastination in there too.

And then it was November! And I finally had a friend come to visit from the U.S.! And we went to Kyoto and Nara and Nikko. But I'll do that blog post later...

Also in November, my computer died and I lost everything on it. And since I didn't know what Time Machine was, I hadn't used it. Thankfully, most of the pictures had been uploaded to the internet. And there are at least hard copies of the important documents. And eventually I'll be able to restore my music - although, at the moment, about 2/3 of the music that was on my computer is in a storage unit in Virginia - but maybe that's a sign that I need to update some of my music. At any rate... That took a good bit of time out of my life. And then it was the holidays. Yay! I stayed in Tokyo and had a nice, restful time reading and cooking and getting together with friends.

And now it is 2015. The year of the sheep. In Japan, everybody goes to the shrine at midnight on New Years or in the first few days of the year. They pray and drink a sweet sake. You can also get your fortune or buy an arrow to chase away evil. I had been intending to go to a shrine and see what it was like last year, but I didn't make it - although I did see the Emperor's New Year's greeting last year! So this year some friends and I went to the shrine right next to the Embassy housing compound at midnight. And now I finally have one of the arrows that people were telling me to get.

And then a little over a week ago, I saw the snow monkeys! I signed up for a day trip from the compound. They took us in a bus west to Nagano Prefecture, where there is a snow monkey park. It became famous around the time of the Nagano Olympics, when a photographer went there and took a picture of the monkeys in the onsen (hot spring).

So you trek through the snow for about 2 kilometers...

Just a little correction to the sign!

I love how the snow makes this tree look like a monk.

And eventually you see the snow monkeys! They're just hanging out in the wild, living their lives, and keeping warm in the onsen (which is where I like to be when it's cold out too).