I am not blogging much. I realize that.

That is mainly because I am not getting close to the computer very much these days. And the reasons for that vary. One is that Mitch is sleeping in the computer room, and sitting at the computer has got to annoy him, so I tend not to come in here as much. Another is that I have been in Japan now very close to a total of three years, and I am feeling guilt-ridden about the mediocre state of my Japanese language ability. So these days (that's "konogoro" in Japanese - just learned that yesterday...) I am trying to focus the majority of my free time on my Japanese text. And language learning is such a roller coaster. One day I have a conversation that makes me think I have arrived as a fluent speaker. The next I find my self in a situation that leaves me wondering if I have yet made it beyond the beginner stage.

And beyond that, there is general internet boredom. I hit these stages (in the last one, I quit my blog altogether) where sifting through pages and pages of blogs loses all appeal to me. I am in one of those right now. I am sure the time will come again when I will blog faithfully, though I wonder whether I will ever reach the more-than-one-entry-per-day stage again That for me seems to require a sort of depression-induced boredom that keeps me sitting at the computer for hours on end. And things are going too well for that these days.

So let see, while I am here, what could I update you on... Well, we are getting the music going again, and that is making everyone happy. One of Diana's student is a really good fiddle player and so we are going to try adding him to the band mix. I love the weird fusion that happens in adding a violin to a pop/rock setting, and this guy is a freestyler so it should be fun. We are just getting practiced and getting gigs.

In addition to that, I am trying to write more (songs), but life's busyness is making that a challenge. That is what was so great about university: there was so much time to just think and feel and create. I wonder if I will find a space like that again. Maybe when debts are paid. We'll see.

Mitch is a fun addition to the house. He is looking for work and might have found something last night at a club we went to in Nagoya. They want him to be an MC for the techno/house night on Saturdays. Not a DJ, an MC. For house and trance... Neither of us really knows what that means, but he is willing to find out.

The weather is already getting beautiful after a brutally cold winter. I think it went as low as minus three last month! And people still choose to live here. Wow.