Let It Snow 2, and etc.

Well, it's on again: it appears we might have a white Christmas in Nagoya after all!

Most of the snow that fell on Sunday, the most since 1947, had melted by midafternoon on Monday, much to my dismay. A student came into Nova that afternoon after calling his school, telling them that the roads were probably too dangerous for him to get there. We spent a good portion of the evening telling "bad weather" stories in the Voice Room (used for general English-language conversation). Good times.

At least it lasted long enough to let me see a mother and her daughter - probably about three - building a snowman in a parking lot. The snowman, complete with hat, scarf, and mittens on stick arms, stood about the same two-and-a-half feet as the little girl. Seriously one of the most beautiful things I've seen in Japan. Japanese kids are the cutest.

But, it's snowing again! And hard too. It started snowing earlier this afternoon and we've already gotten a good 2-3 inches; and it's not showing any signs of stopping soon. I'm probably the only person in Nagoya who is thrilled about this. =)
**Update: when it stopped falling around 10:30 tonight, we had around 6 inches. In Nagoya, where it doesn't snow.**

The beginning of this week has been pretty busy: I've put up the Christmas decoration my mother sent and decorated my little eight-inch Christmas tree. I've also been trying to find time to finish up the Italo Calvino book I'm reading; though the going has been slow, since Francis and I spent Tuesday evening in Inuyama with Iain. Inuyama is a bit colder than "the dirty Nag", and we spent the evening in Kei's bar. There is little more entertaining than spending an evening discussing Clintonian foreign policy over a pint with a Scot, an Englishman, and a Yugoslavian, in the Yugoslavian's bar, in Japan. I, as Iain so aptly put it, "Feel I have fully integrated into this society."

Not that I want to, really. I mean, seriously, check this "chick" out: this is reason enough to excercise temperence in any bar. That'd be a mistake you wouldn't want to live to regret! Misfits, my new local (but only in Japan. Mayslacks, I love you baby), tends to bring in some really interesting people; so far I've been propositioned by a 65-year-old woman and chatted up by a man in his seventies who told me that I should learn the "world's big three languages: English, Japanese, and Polish." Among others.
But Misfits also attracts a lot of truly interesting people as well: university professors (I'm holding out for a job offer come spring), other writers (including two editors of 'Nagoya Writes' magazine and a screenplay writer), musicians of various denominations, and even a beautiful German PhD student visiting from Tokyo. If you ever stop by, be sure to ask for Dave, he's the bartender/Jedi Master.

On the moving front, the apartment at Freebell is starting to look like a reality; Francis has already set up a move-in date, and our paperwork is going in sometime tomorrow. All I need to do now is get a copy of my vital papers, and get my butt down there. After work of course.


Well kids, I'm outta here; I need to haul it down to Temma-Cho for a takoyaki party at Jen, Sarah, and Christy's. Hopefully it won't be too cold/wet/snowy that the trains stop running - especially with work tomorrow. Hope everything's cool as ice for you all, and that the Christmas season finds you hale and hearty.

Happy Birthday to Eric, who turns the big 2-4 on Friday. Bro, your present is on the way. Have a Woodchuck for me, and say hello to all the kids.

I'm out.

Thom and the "Charlie Brown Christmas tree".