BRRR

Yes, it is winter even in the Kansai area here in Japan. We had a very late fall - leaves are still red and yellow and falling - although the Japanese maple outside my living room window is now denuded and I can see the ugly apartment building on the hill above!

Temperatures have hovered around freezing for several days now, not the best time to walk two hours in the wind along a stretch of Osaka riverfront to see their Christmas lights, but some local friends did just that last night. (I didn't have mittens or a hat, so I felt it for about 3/4 of the walk!) We ended up at a 5-story Japanese restaurant (Ganko). We were on floor 4, the izukaya - or drinks + snacks specialty floor (other floors specialized in sushi or roast chicken, yakitori, etc.) The best part was the warm sake after the cold walk!

Classes end December 23, and I fly back to LA on the 24th, arriving earlier in the day than I leave here! We're off till January 6, so I get a good 10 days back in the US to see friends, shop for all the items I can't find here, etc. Christmas Day, the 25th, I'll spend with Ann and Cam in San Diego county. Cam's ex sister-in-law, Gaby Mergenthal, is throwing a Christmas dinner at her house, so it'll be full of family, mainly Cam's side. His brother Jeff Johnston, my Aramco classmate (Dhahran '72) and old play pal, died suddenly this October, so that has been hanging over the family since. Hopefully, being together over ham and turkey will lessen some of that pain.

Wishing everyone a very warm - family and friend-filled Christmas - wherever you are in the world reading this!

Paul

NEW APARTMENT PHOTOS

These are some recent shots of my new apartment about half way between Kobe and Nishinomiya. I moved in the last day of October. I'm in the bottom apartment of only two! (The Japanese-Chinese neighbors upstairs attend my church in Kobe and have been very helpful ...)

My view from the kitchen window ...



The Shinto 'torii' gate on the north end of our parking lot. It leads to a shrine back in the woods up a staircase.



The view from the west side across a bridge. The red Japanese maple is right outside my office window - and yes, the leaves are still changing the first of December here!



A view fromthe south side showing the torii gate in the distance and the wooded mountains behind ...