Ha, see, look at that? 2 days into December and I’ve already stopped writing daily. Granted, yesterday was pretty busy, though.
I got a late start and made it to Claire’s after 1:30, only to find that I was the first person there. We chatted and snacked on bread and hummus and…and yogurt-and-dill sauce whose name I’ve forgotten, and played with the always-adorable Sofie. Kiki and Louise arrived a little while later, and we got started slowly on decorating our nengajou, but we soon really got into it. I’m really happy with most of the ones I made, but in 3 hours I only decorated about 10, and I have a lot more to go! Louise and Kiki made some gorgeous ones, too. Claire’s friend Jane also came by a little later–I’d met her at rugby earlier this year, and we’d chatted briefly about India.
We all left a little after 5, and I went to do some shopping–I bought some gorgeous Muji futon covers (but they’re way too big–and here I thought they’d be too small) and some pens for Hannah (hopefully the right ones!), and started scouting for orphanage gifts…which reminds me: what would you buy for 11-13-year-old boys or 14-17-year-old boys? I have 2 boys in each age group that I’m getting gifts for, and all gifts have to be under ¥1000.
I then drove back out west and picked Julie up halfway in Yamakawa–we’d planned to go to the Sri Lankan restaurant, but it was closed again, but this time I learned why: the owner went back to Sri Lanka for a few weeks! We ended up eating at Prison, our izakaya of choice in Mikamo, and picked up Julie’s overnight stuff and came back here, and right after I vacuumed the tatami room and straightened up and got the futons laid out, we went straight to sleep.
She left early this morning, to catch a 7 AM train to Takamatsu to take the JLPT (with a lot of other ALTs…oops), and she and Brian will be here around 7 tonight for the Avatar season finale! I need to send Kam and Kiet messages to see what they’re up to as well–they’re both up there taking the test as well. I also just got a download of the episodes started, but they’re apparently not great quality…they’ll do for tonight, I think, but I’ll be downloading the full Moonsong captures of season 2 to get the best-quality version aside from the DVDs.
I was hoping to get in some violin practice time–we had to change the date of our caroling due to scheduling issues, and now my final eikaiwa is this coming Friday with caroling pushed back by a week–but I only have an hour before I have to leave to head back to the city, for the musical meeting/readthrough and more holiday shopping. I hope I can beat Julie and Brian here and have enough time to clean up first. In the meantime, I’d better go get ready. Go Go Avatar Day!