Grey day

... and tomorrow we leave for Europe, were we'll stay for two and a half weeks. See you in March!

Cute racing beetle

This beetle is really a racing car, with only one seat inside, and special tyres and seatbelts.

... and yesterday afternoon

Yesterday morning

Daylight is fading ...

...at Geto Ski Resort, near Kitakami. Nightskiing is possible until 9 pm, under lots of strong flood lights along the slopes.

New hope ...

Freshly fallen snow on a rice field. Will winter finally come?

Japanese snack

My very friendly japanese teacher offers me a snack for each lesson, usually tea or coffee with some fine japanese sweets specialities. This was today's snack, tea with mochi, a soft, very sticky kind of rice cake, this one filled with anko, sweet bean paste, wrapped in a bamboo leaf in a traditional way. In the beginning, I found mochi a very strange thing to eat, but the more I eat it, the more I like it.