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Wally's Yamasa Journal: 2004 Jan 13-16
4 and 9 Street Market
4 and 9 Street Market

Wally's Yamasa Journal

2004 Jan 13 (Tuesday) to Jan 16 (Friday) - Is the Holiday season over yet?

 Felt a bit strange coming back to the office after the weekend of hopping around between Nagano, Matsumoto and Tsugaike Kogen, especially since I didn't arrive back at the village until 9:30 the night before after a six-hour drive. All this was also after have nine days off the week before for the Oshougatsu break. At least I was better prepared for the expected work this week which was to work on the web pages for some of the sites we visited. It`s been a great way to learn more about the places we visited, especially from Declan's point of view since he knows quite a bit about them anyways. I still had to rely a fair bit on the pamphlets we picked up, what was on the internet and my own experience (as well as the notes I photographed, another nice thing about the digital camera). Had a lot of photos to download too.

The holiday season may be over but at least I can still get my fill of mikan. The 4 and 9 Street Market (open in the mornings with dates ending in 4 or 9) has still been bringing in the oranges and I'm still getting a whole bunch of them pretty cheaply. Back home, we only get to buy Japanese oranges in November and December. Too bad persimmon season is over, though.

Despite not having classes anymore, I still feel a bit pressured on time. I just passed the halfway point in my stay, after all and I still had a fair bit to do. I also needed to pool some work time to make up the day I lost on the Toyota trip last Friday, plus the Sapporo trip next month, though I could make that up working on the holiday the week after. That meant I`ve still been keeping relatively late hours, with an odd chess game with Roger here and there (he kicked my butt this week), so I`ve still haven`t done much in the evening around here. Since I`m not a drinker, and I don`t feel like watching western movies here, the other option, I suppose, is to go to a karaoke box. Maybe next week.

I did find something on TV that I may want to follow. I suppose me being Canadian, it being winter here now and having just come back from Nagano, it figures that a TV drama series about ice hockey would be starting. I`ll see how it goes for a few weeks.

I also found out that there may be a Super Bowl party that may or may not happen. Declan's was open to the idea of opening the Furo Bar for the game until I found out for him that the time for it here would be between about 8:30 am to probably noon on Monday, February 2nd. That would conflict with classes which, of course, is not an option for him. He`s likely to record it for later viewing. Like Christmas and New Year`s, though, it`ll still be fun to see it in Japan. Mind you, I get the feeling that the better game will probably be the semi-final this weekend between the Colts and the Patriots.

Closed the week watching on TV an anime classic, Nausicaa, the one which my pet Teto was first in (I brought him out of the room for the occasion). It was basically background though since I was sorting and organizing paperwork at the same time. I also took part in a poker game which I started hot then went dead cold. Not a good week for games.

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