Saturday, December 5, 2009

8 months left...

At first I was planning on talking about how exhausted I am and how much I'm looking forward to winter vacation right now. But then I realized that I only have 8 months left in Japan. So I want to do my best to treasure and enjoy every moment of the remainder of my time here--even when I'm tired and/or when things seem mundane/routine!

Anyway, here's my updated (from my November 4 post) to-see/to-do list:

- 十和田湖冬物語 (Towadako Fuyu Monogatari) - Lake Towada Winter Story: Still planning on going in February!

-十和田市称徳館 (Towada Shoutokukan) - Towada Horse Culture Museum: Just gotta pick a day...

-七戸NonoUe人形の館 (Shichinohe NonoUe Ningyou no Kan) - Shichinohe NonoUe Doll Museum: Went on the Sunday of the November long weekend (22nd)! You can see a couple of photos in my Facebook "Around Aomori" album.

- Osaka: I've already booked the hotel accommodations and train tickets through JTB for the January long weekend (9-11). And yes, it's going to be another 一人旅 ("hitori tabi" aka solo trip). The nice thing, though, is that I'm also getting my fourth Ghibli Museum visit in en route! So I'll be able to try the Cafe's winter menu!

- Hiroshima: Looks like I should be able to go with Jen, Syv and Justin at the end of March/beginning of April!!! Very excited!

- Graduation monkeys for the sannensei: Zero progress made. @_@ Still only have 1/2 a monkey completed. I'm going to be sewing like mad in January/February!

- Graduation video: Watched the video from 2 years ago, and it was really just a photo slide show, so I think I should be OK. Discovered that I'm actually missing quite a few videos, so I'm still in the process of capturing them from the DV tapes. Plus I need to get some more photos off the shared drive...

- Farewell speeches/messages: Finished the Kirita Kagura (kind of like a yearbook?) message to the grads because I thought it was due by November 24th. Turns out the teacher deadline is later (mid-January?) so I may want to edit it; the original message wasn't all that meaningful since I was pressed for time and stuck with very only basic Japanese.