here, there, everywhere

Merry Christmas, a few days late; we are keeping warm in sub-zero Aberdeenshire (well, I'm keeping warm; Iain is running around in the snow in t-shirts and generally proving himself to be much more comfortable in this weather than me; see: photos.) At any rate, I had a very nice Christmas with Iain's family, which was made all the better by being able to talk to my sister and mother over Skype, as well.

Since Christmas, we haven't done too much, although I spent my first-ever Boxing Day snowboarding* for the first time ever!

Above: Iain trying to push me off a cliff, as if I weren't doing a good enough job of it all by myself, everytime I strapped myself to a snowboard. 

Anyone who knows me knows that I am terrible at all things involving the cold, heights and fast speeds, so you can imagine how good I am at snowboarding. Despite this, I actually had a great time when I wasn't falling flat on my butt and/or clinging to Iain for dear life; at any rate, I'd like to do it again and to hopefully get a bit better. This whole 'winter sports'** thing is quite foreign to me; I tried blaming a childhood spent in California, and when that didn't work (Tahoe what now?), I tried blaming a childhood spent with an un-athletic family (quiet, Maggie), but I think we all know the real excuse is that I am a great big wimp with lazy tendencies, which I wouldn't mind getting over at some point, even if it does involve falling down a lot.

* Or, if you want to be all concerned with things like accuracy, intermittently flailing down the kiddy slope with Iain's help, and spending a inordinate amount of time sitting in the lodge's cafe reading Wolf Hall. 

** Fine, this whole 'sports' thing, period. 

Our last days in Tokyo are a bit of a blur, although we did (finally!) manage to drag ourselves to Tsukiji Fish Market for an early morning sushi breakfast like we'd been planning to all semester.

Less delicious and much more sad, however, was saying goodbye to everyone, especially my students. I know I said it before, but I really lucked out by getting some of the friendliest, funniest and just generally all-around-awesomest students in Tokyo. As you can see from the pictures below, we found lots of highly educationally enriching ways to commemorate the end of the term.

 (Clockwise: me, Ryo, Hiroe and Akio).

Like making everyone wear funny hats.

(Left to right: Mari, Haruna and Yuka)

And letting them make snowmen out of marshmallows.

And doing the limbo.