Bringing in the New Year

George wanted to do something new for the first year of our new life in Japan. Since the people in the village went to the Kirishima shrine at midnight, we tried to stay up until then. Well, that didn’t work out. At 10:00 p.m., we went bed. We decided to go in the morning with the dogs.

I told George that my new resolutions in Japan are to PRAY, be POSITIVE and PRACTICAL. At the shrine, my dogs PLAY, PEED and POOED. I guess I’m already off to a difficult start for 2012. On the other hand, George has been PLEASED and PAMPERED in his PREFERRED country.

We were invited by one of the local business owners to celebrate the New Year with some foreign students. We enjoyed sharing a traditional meal with them for one hour, but we returned quickly since we were not comfortable leaving our dogs at home alone. We will have to get used to working full time and leaving the dogs. I don’t think the dogs will suffer separation anxiety…we will. The year will be full of new challenges.

Erika