It’s hard to believe I’ve already been here for eight months. Work has been quite busy, and I’ve settled into a nice rhythm professionally and socially. The holidays are always more mellow in the diplomatic world, but I filled in for a colleague in the front office, so learning a new job that feeds the Ambassador and Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) briefing notes for all their meetings made for a busier end of the year than usual.
Misha returned to Japan for almost two weeks to celebrate Halloween and attend the Marine Corps Birthday Ball. After a costume party for Halloween, we returned to Kyoto and Osaka to see some sights we missed the first time around, then tacked on two nights of glamping at an olive farm on Awaji Island. It required many train rides and schlepping our luggage and Mochi. It was a great, if not exhausting, trip across the Kansai region.
Misha recently stopped in Japan to visit me while reporting for duty at Embassy Hanoi. It was great seeing her after two months apart. We had a little down time in Tokyo as she tried getting over the jet lag, though it takes about a week to truly adjust (or three weeks according to Misha). On a day when the heat and humidity made the air as thick as pudding, we hopped aboard our first bullet train (shinkansen) to visit Kyoto and Osaka.Â
Beer and Diplomacy 
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