and it's official ...

I passed the "Ninyou Shiken" ~ the SGI entrance level in Japanese!! woot woot!!

My house has been winter-proofed. All the outside vents (actually I have no idea what they are called in English or Japanese) have been wind-proofed and covered. My chimney was fixed. And I've moved into my living room in hopes of saving on heating and electricity.

I'm always busy at work now. When I go to one of my schools, the English teacher looks and me and says, "So, what are we going to do today?" Before, my response would be, "Uhhhhh." Luckily I've improved on that answer, but it means spending a lot more time preparing for class ... oh you mean I actually have to work for my money? ;)

Speaking of money, it's been a very expensive month. Japan has this crazy thing called "shaken" ~ car check up. Every two years, you have to take your car in and get it checked out and it always turns out to be somewhere between $1000 - $1500. And the older your car is, the more expensive shaken is. No wonder everyone just buys news cars here, it's too expensive not too! I can't afford a new one though, but with a friend's connection, I was able to get it done for relatively cheap. Also had to buy new snow tires, although thanks to a teacher's connection, I was also able to get them pretty cheap too. It's good to know people who know people :)

At the end of October, I was able to attend an amazing training course south of Tokyo. Met let's of really cool people and got to catch up with some old Soka friends. It was exactly what I needed to get me through the month of November, one of the most challenging months so far. With the test, work, SGI activities, and bad news from Sapporo ~ it was a test of the emotions. But I got through and am feeling really good! Especially since the news from Sapporo has been good recently :)

and now ... if my internet lets me ... I'll leave you with some recent pictures

sunrise from the hotel room during the training course, I'm rarely up that early, but when I am, it sure is pretty.

silly soka students ;)

apparently, the Daishonin was left on that rock you can barely see when he was exiled to Izu.

oh my goodness, the yummiest dessert I let myself indulge in at the Hard Rock Cafe in Tokyo.

hmmm, what was I thinking?