Ikimashou ~ Let's go!: it finally snowed!!!!

which means i can blog again :P this morning i woke up to about 6-7 inches of (wet, heavy) snow.

but this winter is extremely weird folks! this time last year, my house was already burried, snow practically up to the roof and daily snow shoveling was required just to get my car out of my drive way. this year, i can probably count the number of times i've HAD to shovel snow on both hands, and all of the other times was purely for exercise sake. can't say that i'm complaining though, but still it feels very odd.

today i participated in the goninkan world championships! how many of you can say that, hee :P goninkan is a card game (for my family, how appropriate huh?!) that is particular to aomori, and even more so to goshogawara. it's like any other card game with a bunch of random rules and weird scoring, but it was a lot of fun. there were at least 200-300 people there today, all participating in the championships, but me and the other 3 foreigners who came (for internationalization maybe?) stayed in the practice section in order not to be scolded by the professionals. one thing that was cool though, is that there were at least 4-5 people i saw there that i knew, it always makes me feel like i really am getting imersed in this community when i see random people i know at things like this. oh yeah, i was also on tv (again) for it! but this time i was only waving, no acting like a granny or anything.

i'm starting up taiko again, and learned a new song last night. also starting to go to volleyball practice again. a week ago, the elections in goshogawara happened, and i actually helped out, which was a really cool experience.

i haven't been snowboard at all this season, but hopefully i'll go up soon. all in all, i'm doing really good. as the gosho says, "enjoy what there is to enjoy, suffer what there is suffer" and that's what i'm doing. i am struggling a lot, but it feels good to overcome obstacles when i do, so it's all good!

oh yeah, i almost forgot!!!! huge news guys!! i'm going to hawaii in march ... FOR FREE!! ahhhhh!!! it turns out that my host family sister from sapporo is getting married and they invited me to the ceremony. but it's going to take place in hawaii and they said i just need to get to tokyo and from tokyo they'll take care of my airplane ticket and hotel for FIVE DAYS!! they said it's because i'm like family. awwwwwwww, how sweet is that? i LOVE my host family and feel really touched by their generosity. i can't believe it's been 3 years since i lived with them, and yet they really do feel like my family still.

as much i'm struggling, i really am lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life. thank you, i love you all!!!

and for your enjoyment, here's some pictures from a recent gathering of my friends ...