Wow, is it December 6 already?!?!!?

Sorry for the lack of updates! I've been busy doing, well, not much really. I'd like to say that I've been studying my butt (or as they like to say in Japan, "hip") off for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) that I'm taking tomorrow... but alas I realized a few weeks ago there's just no way I'm going to pass it, lol

On the advice of many people I, and several of my friends, signed up for the level 3 (4 being the easiest, 1 the hardest). The reasoning being that we've been in Japan for over a year so should be able to pass that with sufficient studying.... which looks to have been a bit, optimistic. So I've just kept plodding along with my usual pattern of studying when I have down time at school and going to my Japanese class on Friday evenings. I've decided to just use tomorrow's test as a gauge of what I know, since I'm pretty sure I can't pass it ^_^

Other than that, I've just been going to work, chatting with my kids, and playing taiko. Also, in a freak dropping-accident, I seem to have broken my camera, so I don't have many pictures these days to post. The camera still kind of works... sort of. Something inside of it is whizzing around and makes the whole thing shake, so taking pictures that aren't blurry is a challenge. I am planning to get a new one when I go home for xmas in a few weeks, but until then I have to live with either blurry pictures, or none at all.

And here are a few of the least fuzzy pics from the past few weeks, in no particular order. Enjoy!

The shrine I've only recently discovered, which sits at the bottom of the back road that climbs the hill to KJH

Some low clouds hanging in Kuguno

My contribution to Thanksgiving dinner: green bean casserole, from scratch!