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Brrr..... it is getting cold. I am trying to avoid spending a ton of money on my electric bill this winter. Last winter, I had really high electric bills. So this year, I am relying on my kerosene heater to heat my apartment. So far so good. I will let you know in a couple of months.  

For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed being out in nature, camping, hiking, trekking, and so on. It is so glorious when the sun is beginning to peak over a mountain, casting a beautiful ray into the valley below. It is interesting to think that every time the sun rises over that peak, the ray is different. Each time you see such a scene, you view it in a different way as well. Nature is interesting and beautiful and, for me, it brings me to a state of peace and hope.

Thanks for reading!!!

Leigh  

I have loved my time in Japan. I've made a lot of good friends and have had a lot of fun. Along the way I made a friend at the bank. She always helps me with whatever I need and does an excellent job. When she shared her birthday with me I was sure to get her a gift. She returned the favor. She even wrote a birthday with on the chocolate and put heart stickers on it. So thoughtful.

  

One of the great Canadian stereotypes is that we are obsessed with hockey. To that I can’t disagree. When packing for Japan, I brought two hockey jerseys with me! One of them is my team Canada jersey, for when the winter Olympics take place in 2014 in Sochi. The other is the jersey of my favorite professional team: the Ottawa Senators. Hockey is played on an ice surface so players have to wear skates to move around the ice. The goal is to put a round rubber disc into the opposing team’s net. Players do this by using a stick with a curved blade. There are 6 players on the ice at a time per team. Three forwards, whose main purpose is to try and score, two defensemen who try to stop the forwards, and one goaltender who is the last line of defense and heavily padded. Living in Japan makes it hard to watch games all the time, but I do usually make an effort to watch most of them. My team is doing okay, but they haven’t been as consistent as I would like. Hopefully they can win a couple more games and make me happier!  

Families have been creating traditions for generations many of which have lasted for centuries. All family traditions are connected to some event or point in history that intrigued our ancestors or made our ancestors scared. But many of the traditions today are relatively young traditions. My family, for example, are Reenactors. We act out certain points in American History that hold a special meaning to us. This past weekend, my family in Texas participated in a large Civil War Battle at a plantation named Liando. They slept in traditional wall tents, wore traditional garb from the civil war era, and spoke in the tongue of the day. It is a truly interesting tradition and is quite exciting.

Su  

One of my favorite things about the holidays would have to be the holiday movies. I started a tradition about 7 years ago to watch a movie named Love Actually every Christmas. A lot of families all over the world have a movie that they watch around Christmas. For some it's a movie named A Christmas Story or A Nightmare before Christmas but I love "Love Actually". It is by far one of my favorite romantic comedies. Do you have a favorite movie to watch around this time of year?

  

One of the biggest barriers to learning a language can be the fear of making mistakes. If you are afraid to make mistakes, you'll never take the opportunity to speak or write unless you can be sure you're perfect. You'll just be getting in your own way. The quickest way to get better is to make as many mistakes as possible! That way you'll be getting the most practice. Also remember that no matter how much practice you have, no one ever speaks perfectly. Everyone forgets words or pronounces things wrong sometimes -- that's life!  

In times of need, when disaster hits, when times are just hard, most local communities all around the world show an amazing degree of helping each other out. Organizations will tell you, that the overriding spontaneous reaction of people is to "pitch in" to give each other a hand in rebuilding and getting things back together. In fact in times of generalized chaos and need, like just after the war, the Japanese showed these qualities to an admirable degree, this feeling of team spirit, and joining forces to get things back to normal. Truly amazing. As things become easier, and people tend to concentrate on their own little circle of family, these ties may weaken though. I think of people in cities having no real idea who their neighbors are, and people's obsession with isolated activities, like the web, and games. I hope that spirit has not weakened and that people care about each other as much as before. And I worry about Tohoku, and Fukushima. Are people really following what's going on? I wonder. What do you think?   

I went driving in the mountains on the weekend. It was very beautiful and the trees were beautiful. I climbed a mountain and had some very good soba.

Dustin  

Living in Japan, one has to find ways to stay warm in the winter. Unfortunately, simply going indoors is often not a solution. Generally speaking, the houses and apartments in Japan lack proper insulation. When it is hot outside, it is hot inside. When it is cold outside, it is cold inside. A simple and useful solution, is to sit under a kotatsu. I do love kotatsus, but getting out from under them to go to the bathroom can be torture. brrr.......  

Malls here are epic! I have to say they are the funnest malls I have ever been too, and not only are the stores completely awesome, the customer service is amazing as well! If you need something they will do everything they can to help you and they will do it with a smile. I recently went to the Shotengai in Takamatsu and I am seriously blown away! So many stores and so many people, it's simple awesome! This is a picture I took at the Shotengai, I hope you like it!  

I had a late birthday party recently. It was great. It was with my Japanese family. Here is a picture of the cake. It's always nice to have people with you to celebrate your special day. I've never been homesick and I doubt I ever will. People like these make me feel at home anywhere.

  

Winter is quickly coming to Japan. This will be my first winter in another country. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t going to miss Canada. Winters back home are long, cold and dark. By all means it sounds terrible, but there is something about Canadian winters that I find absolutely charming. One of the things I love to do is skate on outdoor rinks. In Canada it gets cold enough that you can flood areas in the city with water and it freezes to create outdoor skating rinks. Yes it’s cold, and yes you are probably a little crazy to attempt outdoor activities when it’s 25 degrees below zero, but I love it. I happen to also live in the capital of Canada: Ottawa. Ottawa also has the longest skating rink in the world: the Rideau Canal. It’s 8 kilometers long and starts right downtown in the heart of Ottawa. You can skate the whole thing in about an hour depending on how polished your skating is. Along the way there are lots of goodies like hot chocolate, hot apple cider and best of all Beavertails. Ottawa isn’t known for much but the Rideau Canal is definitely one of the must see attractions in the winter, and if you get the chance it is something you must do!  

I started to watch a Japanese anime called Bleach. I still have to watch it with subtitles or voice over in English but I do have a fun time watching it. I go started watching it because Kelly and I bought a jigsaw puzzle with the characters on it and I thought "Why not watch the show?" I didn't like putting the puzzle together without knowing their names. I was saying things like this a piece for the red haired guy and here is a piece of the old guy. I really enjoy watching the show but the puzzle was very difficult (I don't think another one is in my future). What do you do in your spare time?
  

One food I really miss from home is pizza! A lot of people have heard of Chicago-style pizza (a round, deep-dish pizza) and New York-style pizza (very wide and thin), but where I come from we love Detroit-style pizza. Detroit-style pizza is not round, it is shaped like a square or rectangle. It is deep dish and often has extra sauce on top. The most delicious pieces are the corner pieces and everyone always fights to make sure they get one. What is your favorite pizza like?   

For all those who expressed their concern by my illness last week thank you. I seem to be snapping out of it slowly. Winters, especially the change into season are fraught with dangers. I'm hardly ever sick myself, so was really surprised how hard it hit me. Anyway, though I couldn't manage to help out with other classes on Saturday, I managed not to miss any of my own despite my feeling so bad. I apologize for any lackluster performance because of that. At least I managed to hold my own. I'm looking forward now to catching up on all the things I wasn't able to do, especially making plans for Christmas Vacation. I hope some of my options are not gone because of the delay, but I'm looking forward to going to India again. Wow!  

Hello,

My name is Dustin. I am a new teacher here in Kagawa. I look forward to meeting people from Kagawa and Ehime. I love the outdoors so I think I will enjoy living in Shikoku.

Dustin  

This weekend I returned to where I started my adventures in Japan. I arrived late Saturday but that didn't stop me and my friends from enjoying the night life. As you exit the station there is a giant wooden structure of an old Japanese musical instrument. Kanazawa is a city with a lot of shopping districts along the main street and, given the funds, you can do a lot of shopping in a day and still not have time to go to every shopping hub. Although all of the stores were closed by the time I got there, it didn't stop us from enjoying a great time at an Izakaya.

Izakaya's are always the precursor for shenanigans.

A lot of the time spent on Saturday was taken up my shopping and food! a new sushi restaurant opened up and it had some really good quality sushi. I was also in search of a guitar to buy in order to continue learning, and eventually use it for classes.   

The first experience I had with the Japanese culture was watching Sailor Moon when I was very young. Since then I have grown to love Japan in more ways than that, and I have also grown to love the style of Art that is Anime. I have watched many Anime shows in my lifetime and look forward to watching more in the future. My favorite anime, hands down, is Sword Art Online. The whole story was very unique and the art is absolutely stunning. I hope that they make a season 2 in the future so that I can continue watching and experiencing that.

Thank you for reading!

Leigh   

It has been a while since I went to the movie theaters. In fact, this December it will be one year since I went to see movie in theater. The last movie I saw was the first part of the Hobbit trilogy. With the second installment of the trilogy coming next month, I am looking forward to going to the theaters, grabbing a big bucket of popcorn and enjoying the flick. If you haven't seen the first part, you still have time to catch up. See you at the theaters!