New Year

After Hakone, I spent two weeks recovering from the flu... at least, I managed to get in a short holiday over the Winter break, so as you can pretty much guess, I didn't do much after Hakone.

When I felt a little less contagious, we did a couple of movies, and we went to the zoo... don't get me wrong, zoos are a convenient way to learn about animals without having to venture out into jungles and down under, but I never really did care much for zoos. Zoos are depressing places: caged birds; kangaroos lazing around on their own droppings; a lone elephant swaying from side to side at the gate, I was positively relieved when we left. I'm fine with seeing insects in insectariums and domesticated animals on farms, but anything else should really be observed in their natural habitats [obviously from a safe distance]. Sorry, no pics, I lacked the enthusium to shoot anything.

Needed to stretch my legs from staying in bed so long, so I went for a cycle around the local area:

[There's so much open space around the river, and in the distance are the mountains of Okutama.]

[A sleek-looking bridge]

With the flu, it already hasn't been a very good start to the new year. It's been two weeks since coming back to work from Winter break, and work is just work. There's some fun moments, but I think I've said enough in my previous posts for you to kind of grasp how I feel about my job. There's three weeks left to decide whether I'll be recontracting or not... so will it be money and travel or a better job... So 2012, what else have you thrown at me sofar? My washing machine has broken down on me; my bicycle has a puncture, I had to walk an hour to work in the snow today and back... I hope that's my "misfortunes always come in threes" over and done with.

Here's to a better week next week.