This week has been very gray so far. The wind is howling outside, and though it has been (slightly) above freezing during the day, it is still frigid at night. My electric blanket is now on my bed- after a year and a half of denying its useful-ness... and it makes me quite happy (especially if I forget all those rules about not sleeping with it on, etc.). I spent Saturday afternoon at the laundromat because the drain on my laundry machine froze... leaving me to fish all my soaking clothes out of just-barely-above-freezing water. It finally melted on Monday afternoon... but who knows how long that will last.

One of my good friends from Wakayama, who now (coinky-dink of all coinky-dinks) lives an hour south of me in Iida, Nagano, came to visit from Saturday night through Sunday evening. We had a relaxed evening and then spent all of Sunday back on the slopes of Kashimayari Ski-Jo. It was an amazingly clear and cold day... and I think I improved ever so slightly. One big key has been finally learning how to slow the heck down! I kept wiping out on purpose just to keep from hurtling down the entire side of a mountain. ouch. After watching 5 year olds tackle the same runs, I finally figured there had to be a more rational way to get down in one peice. I think I may have figured it out.

School has been a not so fun place to be this week... the flu and an assortment of colds are making the rounds. On Monday there were 50 kids who stayed home sick (out of 540), Tuesday there were almost 70, and today there are over 90 at home and another 57 who are officially sick but still came to school (which really should be a lot larger number to be accurate). I keep seeing the flushed faces and hoping the powers that be will just send us all home... but so far they've just been sending students home directly after the last class, skipping cleaning time, homeroom, and club practices. One of the 2nd grade classes has had about 17 people missing all week- out of 40 students. Makes for a lonely little English class... actually more of an ideal number for real class, but now we can't really do anything constructive since they don't want the sick students left behind. Anyway... here's to green tea, orange juice and extra sleep!! Hope you all are well...