Turns out that Friday’s snow was only a foreshadow of days to pass.  By Saturday morning the snow was all gone.  Was only mad, because I eventually gave in to the voice of my Father in the back of my head, admonishing me for not “getting out ahead of the snow” and shoveling.  Having only sipped beer socially that evening I had not been able to completely shut him out and cleared the snow in front of my car.

Sky has been yuki-free since Kin-youbi so, this afternoon was given the green light for the much anticipated launch,

please click here to view the slideshow

I was unable to attend, teaching numbers a few towns over, but thankfully my good friend Ki-San kept me updated on the action.  I’m just happy everyone came back alive.

Écrit près Charles Jeffrey Danoff | Homepage | danoff dot charles at gmail dot com

EDITOR’S NOTES

• This blog spares no expense, so it’s no surprise that my crack team of editors – the best money can buy – my Mother and Grandmother King, found several of my errors in the “An American President Abroad” post.  They have been corrected, but not swept under the rug.  Changes are marked with strike through text, like this.  Particularly impressive is paragraph three, with no less thatn three mistakes.  Please take note readers, despite being an English major and teacher I make mistakes with the language constantly and am eagerly awaiting your corrections.
• The subject of that post was reaction to Obama’s election in Japan.  I have a few updates:
  • Today, walking out from work a co-worker asked me what I thought about the election.  I did not know enough Japanese to say happy, but still unsure about the future.  Thus I naturally said I was “fun.”  I asked him what if he was exctied and he said, “moshi,” meaning perhaps.  Backtracking to what sounded a little more like what I wanted to say, and coming off as intellectualy weak in the process I said I also felt “moshi,” not “fun.”  We then discussed how both America and Japan face tough times ahead with changes needed in the economy, education systems, and govenrment in general.
  • My friend and fellow ALT in nearby Sarafutsu, posted this on his Facebook Wall on election day:
    • “even from Japan, the election feels pretty monumentous. Ha, best part of my day was when an 8th grader walked up to me and said ‘yes we can!’”
  • Monday, Alex also wrote a post in his blog with a young voice from Japan’s thoughts:
    • “Anyway, Obama won the 2008 election last Tuesday and that’s wonderful. I’m not as diehard a fan as many of my pears are, but I’m really honored to be part of what it all represents. The US seems suddenly galvanized, with something ineffably special running through zeitgeist.”
  • Clearly, my penchant for poor spelling has been rubbing off on him.  Alex has also been added to my links at left, under Northern Hokkaido Co-Conspirator.  Readers – and by that I mean you Grandma – today would be a good day to skip comments for me, and show Alex some love to continue his writing and give you another window into nearly the same world I live in.
• Also, sent an email the other day to Josh “Fat Finger” Jones, the creator of the wonderful Super Bomberman 4 site I linked to on Saturday’s post about time travel.  He was kind enough to forward me a picture of the multiap I actually used, the official one a true piece of art – beautiful in both appearance and funcionality - as opposed to the multitap picture I included in the post.