It's been quite cold around here lately. I'm glad that all of the heaters (one electric, two kerosene) have timers that allow me to have them kick on just before I wake up in the mornings. It's too bad that I can't leave them on all the time, but the electric one eats too much power, and the kerosene ones make me a bit loopy every once in a while.

Even though Christmas was a blast, New Year's was kind of a drag. Like I mentioned before, just about everyone I knew was either out of the country or otherwise occupied on New Year's Eve. On New Year's Day, a local doctor invited me to visit his family for a few shinnenkai (new year parties). We visited three of his relatives in and about Kagoshima City, and at each place, I was badgered about the fact that I don't have a girlfriend. This is not a fun way to spend New Year's. The availability of copious amounts of alcohol only partially made up for this.

One thing I forgot to mention about my Christmas trip to Tokyo was the fact that I got a really good deal on plane tickets. About $200, round trip. I flew on a new airline, Skymark, which flies two routes: Kagoshima -- Tokyo, and Fukuoka -- Tokyo. I suspect they only own two planes. Anyway, although the price was right, there were a few drawbacks to flying Skymark. The most annoying of these was the way that they pack the planes as full of passengers as they can. Picture, if you will, an average/smaller than average jet aircraft, such as you might find flying between MSP and Chicago. Now, picture it with eight seats in every row.

These seats were a bit narrow even for Japanese people. As a higher than average (you know what I mean) American person, I didn't have a chance. The flight up was...uncomfortable. On the way back, I decided to shell out the extra �10000 to upgrade to business class. In addition to a wider seat, that extra money bought me a really bland box lunch, and all-you-can-drink ZIMA. (I stuck with the apple juice.)

Speaking of (writing of? Typing of?) "seat size," I seem to have actually lost some weight recently. Woo-hoo! Time to haul out the "somewhat-lighter person" clothes!

Wait a minute....

I don't HAVE "somewhat-lighter-person" clothes!

This could be a problem. But it's not a bad problem to have....

R.