New Year!

2008!

Welcome to a new year everyone.

Here in Japan not much is going on. I fell asleep around 9pm with the local Troll population. Woke up at 12:05, just in time to catch the 'around Japan on New year's eve' TV show. It's pretty interesting to see the different places in Japan. There are some really beautiful shots of some of the nicer temples as well as some local color - including a Taiko show from Yubari, a town nearby that has been in the news a lot recently due to going bankrupt.

Got to see some fireworks this morning, courtesy mom's webcam from Norway :P I was however too busy with the kids to really enjoy it. This morning I also got my Christmas present from Kumiko: Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud (UK ver. the link is the US ver.). We've both enjoyed the previous two books, so I'm looking forward to reading this in all my spare work time.

Tomorrow we are heading off to Marukoma onsen at Lake Shikotsuko, a place we quite enjoyed when mom was here this summer. The food was only so-so, but the onsen is fantastic, as is the view. I think both the kids will enjoy the baths as they both are big bathing fans at home.

Once we return from Marukoma on the 3rd things will get back to normalish. I still don't work until the 7th, and full time from the 16th, but Sasha is back at daycare and Kumiko is back up to full workload. In the meanwhile I'll take the opportunity to enjoy some skiing. I'm really looking forward to that.

Regarding the diet I mentioned the other day, I just hit my first target and I'm thrilled about that. I'll mostly leave that story off this blog, but if you want to follow that story you can check out my daily posting here.

Both kids are great. And Munchkin did her second flip today, and rolled halfway under the living room table. Quite spiffy. She also had her first taste of Orange Juice today, freshly squeezed. She was quite happy with the alternative to breast milk.

And with that I'll leave you with another photo.