January Updates

School started this week and I am beginning to slip away from vacation mode, back into work mode. I was very fortunate to have had such a long break. It totaled five weeks away from school, but four weeks I was scheduled to be at the board of education, and one week was holiday. The week of holiday allowed me to take my eleven-day trip around Japan and only use four days of my paid time off. That means that I have sixteen days of PTO left and my contract is officially half-way over on January 27th. I suspect smooth sailing for the next six months. There is another school term break in March and there is a week in May that is national holiday. Aside from those breaks, I will likely be teaching up until my contract is over.

A few updates on our end:
-I have posted a lot of pictures from my trip. Check them out!
-I am also working on a lengthy blog entry about my trip.
-Seems as though the weather has bottomed out and is resting between -4 to 5C.
-I have gone snowboarding once and we (Tyler, some friends, and I) are going again this weekend.
-I am two books deep (and on schedule) in my six-book Japanese course. Ganbarimasu!
-Tyler and I are planning at trip to Tokyo in April to see a concert/visit civilization

I have heard from a few of those who follow our blog, Thank you for reading. Knowing that people are reading it motivates me to continue writing it.