Happy 2019 everyone! Though to be fair, it is already the end of January, and even by Japanese standards it's too late to say "Happy New Year." I just realized I haven't written since November, back when Troy and I climbed Mount Takao to take a look at the fall foliage. Needless to say, there's no more autumn colors here in Tokyo (though still shocking amounts of green on trees everywhere; it NEVER feels like winter here to me despite the somewhat chilly temperatures). The end of 2018 was a bit of a hectic rush, what with the natural chaos of the Christmas holidays colliding with a lot of advanced work to prepare for my two-week vacation. I used up the rest of my vacation days to spend some well-deserved and much-needed RR back in Chicago, where I did nothing except sleep, eat, watch TV, and catch up with friends and family. Returning to the "real world" after that was a bit of a shock to the system! But I'm all settled into my usual routine