December had about an even number of ups and downs, the downs mainly thanks to it being so cold I really didn't want to leave my apartment, haha. The start of the month was actually quite warm, and the highlight was the school bounenkai. It was another true 'forget the year' party which had plenty of interesting surprises, including me winning a takoyaki maker and seeing a lot of the very serious people I work with get drunk, laugh, tell crazy stories and generally reveal secret English skills. Good times. Before Christmas I also caught up with my good friend Chika from Osaka, made a new friend in Ako, Hiroe, through Mixi and went to the famous Ako Gishi festival (I had to work, though >_<).

Christmas was quite fun, too. No hot dates (Christmas is 'dating' time in Japan, for some reason :D), but Amanda threw a Christmas party in Himeji that was wonderful. We had dinner at a Balinese restaurant (go figure :D) in central Himeji, then hung out at Amanda's place for a nabe lunch on Christmas Day. At night I went to see my friend Kenta play a live show at Beta in Himeji, which was fantastic. He was pretty good, and the bands after him were very amusing too. I bought a couple of CDs and also got the never-fading joy of causing a few of the live house staff to explode when they saw a gaijin come in :D

After that I went very cultural, hehe, thanks to my new conversation partner Kimura-san and his family. Kometani-san, my first conversation partner, introduced us and I started to do conversation with Kimura-san every week too. By chance, he is involved in a lot of cultural things in Ako and insists on taking me along to them, which I really enjoy. We made new year decorations (omamori) by hand at the local volunteer fire station and whacked the crap out of some rice and made delicious mochi, and although I couldn't actually go he also invited me to his house to make osechiryouri, the famous and delicious Japanese new year food.

My New Year was pretty quiet as I decided to stay cultural as well. Some of my 3rd year students were playing a live gig at Beta in Himeji on the 31st, so I went along to that, much to their delight. Afterwards I went to Oishi-jinja here in Ako to do hatsumoude (first shrine visit of the year, often done at midnight) and then I met Minato-san to watch the first sunrise from the top of a hill out near Sakoshi. It was a great experience, and a nice start to the year.