Friends and Fellow Travelers,
I must admit that the end of this year has crept up on me. Leaves are still clinging to the trees and the only a few people seem to have caught on to the great American tradition of desecrating their houses with gaudy Christmas lights. The indigenous Japanese Christmas traditions seem to revolve around fried chicken and the ever-ubiquitous Christmas cake. On the other hand, Japanese fashion definitely outdoes America in the “gay apparel” department, so perhaps I should not ring the “War on Christmas” alarm quite yet. In the meantime, I will be thinking about how to top 2007 without breaking the law. Sinatra has never been more prescient, it was a very good year.
I was fortunate enough to be reunited with both Ashley and my parents in February when I was back in the U.S. for a month. Spanning both coasts and Ohio, I packed a whole lot into 28 days and had a total blast. I am still in Kyoto and will be for another year as I finish up my research and live out the rest of my sinecure courtesy of the Japanese government. It has been a great year for travel: from hiking in forest with trees thousands of years old in Southern Japan, and exploring the ruins of Angkor, to wandering the streets of Phnom Penh and getting burnt to a crisp on a beach in Thailand, I have had the pleasure of seeing some prodigious sights in the company of unforgettable people. This coming year, the plan is to get my scuba diving license before heading to the wilds of West Papua in Indonesia for some serious (mis)adventure.
Ashley is in the midst of her second year at Harvard Dental School and she is enjoying herself when she is not knee deep in neuro-physio-anatomy. She was able to make it out to Kyoto for a visit in July so she could experience what it was like to actually live in a sauna. We endured the heat, ate a ton of sushi and walked more of Tokyo than any mere mortal has dared. Over the summer, she moved out of Fenway to Jamaica Plains and now commutes to school by bike. As always, her teeth look fabulous, which contrasts nicely with the Japanese dentists, who look like rejects from a 50 cent music video.
My mother has now been at her new job as Assistant Superintendent and Curriculum Director at Ottawa Hills in Toledo. She still comes home every few weeks to work on our house which we are slowly preparing to unload. The pool fence has been painted, and the kitchen has been transformed with painted cupboards and a new floor. My father has been guarding the homestead along with our loyal feline occupants who unfortunately have a harder time finding the litter box than Iraqi WMD inspectors. They are looking forward to coming out to Kyoto in early spring to see the cherry trees in bloom, and witness the depravity that ensues when the cacophonous crowds descend in droves on Kyoto to get a piece of the action.
And so I will spend the second year in a row half a world away from the hearth and home as we bring 2007 to a close, but as this letter transcends both space and time (sometimes more time than we intend when put things off), so do the sentiments and gratitude that it conveys: may our indelible memories of 2007 help guide us in our task to make 2008 all the better.
Cheers and Warm Wishes,
KLM
