Year of the Horse

[setsuled]

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Happy New Year, everyone. This is around the time I post my "Best of/Worst of the Year" lists but I'm going to hold off for a couple days. Though I sure saw a lot of new movies and TV shows in 2025.

What can I say about 2025? It was my sixth year in Japan, my first year in Kakogawa. It sure is a lot easier to get used to a new town in Japan when you've lived in another one for five years. I feel healthier now than I've felt at any other time in the past fifteen years. My health gradually improved over five years in Kashihara but now that I'm forced to walk two hours most days I feel even better.

I developed a taste for beer over the spring and summer and then completely lost interest in beer except as an ingredient for frying fish. I was craving takoyaki for months and had some every Friday and then one day completely lost my taste for takoyaki. I'll just follow my urges and see where they take me.

I've listened to more audiobooks on my iPod while I've been walking. I must have listened to Seamus Heaney read his translation of Beowulf about a dozen times. I'm speaking to more of my native English speaking colleagues than I did in Kashihara and every time I delight in the opportunity to "unlock my word hoard" to borrow that eternal phrase from Beowulf.

I also listened to Lord of the Rings in its entirety and The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer. Japan's love of normalcy has helped me appreciate anew what a deeply weird thing an American's life is.

My addiction to Skyrim shows no signs of letting up. The constant stream of new and interesting mods sees to that.

Good luck in 2026, everyone. I hope it's memorable for good reasons. If not that, I hope you live through it, at least.

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