nipponDAZE

Postmark: Beppu November 23, 1989

For Thanksgiving dinner, we ate chicken, dressing (sans sausage), potatoes and giblet gravy. Coincidentally [today] was Thanksgiving/Labor Day here, so we had the day off.

We will have two weeks off for winter vacation and are going to Kyoto from Dec 23-28 with Ms. Murakami. I hope that JQS is up to a lot of sightseeing.

I’m looking forward to exploring Japan anew. One does begin to live life in an ordinary way after awhile. It becomes a routine of work and housekeeping. But I’m doing several things now that make it worthwhile to be here. I’m going to tea ceremony and flower arranging clubs at school. I enjoy the ritual of tea ceremony immensely and flower arranging enables me to have a new flower arrangement every week. I also go to school on Saturday morning so that I can take a calligraphy class from one of my fellow teachers.

The problem with all three of my classes, as well as with learning Japanese, is that I never have time to study. The year is 1/3 over and I’m not sure what I’ve gotten out of it. Sometimes, I just want to be in America. But when I think of all that I still need to see and do and learn, I can’t believe I’m 1/3 through the year.