Better Days are Waiting / Happy 2011!

In many ways, 2010 wasn't a particularly good year for me. There were some problems I won't waste time enumerating.

But I'm grateful that this year, I was able to gain a better appreciation of the life I have in Tokyo which I oftentimes complain about, of my family and friends who I admittedly take for granted most of the time, and of myself – my strength, my resilience, my determination – which I oftentimes underestimate.

A Promise Is Enough

I laid in bed looking out my bedroom window, which in a happy coincidence faces north, waiting for the promised meteor shower. I waited and waited, but the only dancing lights I saw were from the shifting shadows of the rustling leaves below. An occasional firefly caught my eye, at times the reflected headlights of a passing car, but still, nothing of the cosmic kind.