Happy New Year again! I hope you had some nice holidays and some quiet time for yourself. I did, and it was wonderful! The construction, or rather: de-construction next door had their last day on December 30, as did the garbage facility, so I had 4 days of really quiet time. It seemed almost as if all of Kyoto had shut down, the mornings were so quiet and nothing stirred at all.
I didn’t dare going out at all though. The bell-ringing on New Year’s Eve was largely cancelled, but I could hear them clearly for an hour or so around midnight. Hatsumode also I postponed, just to be safe. It’s the year of the ox, so I would have to go to Kitano Tenmangu shrine, but this shrine is super busy to begin with, so I didn’t want to add to the crowds (which we are still supposed to avoid because Corona isn’t over).
Instead, I did a lot of reading over New Year’s. A friend of mine sent me a book with stories by Viennese authors as a Christmas gift, but I decided to read this one in style – and in a cafe and not at home (if you know Viennese “Kaffeehaeuser”, you’ll understand.) I borrowed books from the library, but the one I wanted, they had to get through inter-library loan from Kyushu, and I haven’t heard back from them yet.
So yes, I’m gearing back up again since Monday. I have a new client and work will start soon, possibly this week, and some of my previous work will continue on Friday, if everything turns out alright. After the garbage fire of 2020, I can only hope that this year will get much, much better. I do need it – but then again, I guess we all do.