Hello Nagoya,,,,

Well its almost 6:00am. I have been up since about 4:00. I got here to Nagoya last night at around 10:30pm and couldn't sleep. The first night is always the worst.

So I am in Nagoya this week looking for a place to live. My company has transferred me. I will move here around the middle of next month. Am I happy about this???? Not really. I am happy to be in Japan but I know the working conditions and customs are very much different than the United States. I understand what I need to do here and so I understand it will be a little difficult. But I am happy to live here and learn more during the next few years. Also... eat good food!!!!! hehe.

So today I will go house hunting. If I can find a place to live today I will go to my office tomorrow and tell everyone hello (just for a minute). Then I will go check out a tennis club and start to prepare for all the things I need to live here.... (need a tv of coarse...hehe)

I will be here until Thursday and then return to Utah to hopefully relax and enjoy the Christmas holidays there. Then after New Years its back on a plane to Nagoya....

Let's Ski!!

Well the ski season has started for me. I have been a few times now and will leave in a few mintues to go do some night skiing. Actually I am on the ski patrol so I will be doing a lot of skiing this year. My muscles are sore this weekend from skiing. I have mostly snowboarded the last few years. But this year I felt it was time to get back on the skiis. Its a good feeling.

Utah is mostly famous for winter sports and skiing. I live about 40 minutes away from 6 resorts. So this is a very good and convient place to be if you like to ski or snowboard. I would recommend anyone to come here and try out the various resorts. This is the time when Utah is full of tourists coming to ski and enjoy the winter atsmophere.

Well.... I guess I will go get ready and hit the slopes!!! Being on the ski patrol is more work than play but still fun to be out on the hills.

Later!

Detroit:

It's Thursday night and I am in Detroit. I have some meetings here this week. I don't really like Detroit. Its a dirty city and not safe. But I also don't like this place because everytime I come here its for very tough and stressful meetings. So I am always looking forward to going home.

Tomorrow morning I have some tough meetings and then I am finished and can fly home. Its cold here and tomorrow will be windy with snow. Now I am just sitting in my hotel room wishing I was home and relaxing... but the weekend is almost here.

Tomorrow is the first day of December. I can't believe November is over. Where did it go?? Just a little over 3 weeks until Christmas. I think most of my shopping is done. I just need to pick-up a few more gifts and I am done. Usually I am not done until just a few days before Christmas but this year I am doing good.

Well tomorrow is Friday and I get to sleep in my own bed.....

Thanksgiving Holiday:

Well Thanksgiving is over. It was a good day. Basically I just went to my Aunts house to spend the day with some cousins and have the traditional dinner with turkey and everything. Then just watched football. It was nice to relax and not worry about work.

Yesterday was "Black Friday". This is the official starting day of the holiday shopping season. It is the busiest shopping day of the year. Many stores opened at midnight or 5 am. They usually have really good specials from 5am to 8am. So people wake up very early and go shopping. I did this last year but not this year. Its too crazy!! Too many people!! But you can find some good deals. I slept in and then went to a couple stores to see if there were any good deals left.

Today is Saturday. I will go to a sports store to see if there are any good deals then come back to my place and watch football. Today in Utah is the BYU and University of Utah rivalry football game. So most people in Utah are possibly going to watch this game. The University of Utah is my university so I am cheering for them. GO UTAH!

Thursday Night....

Where has the time gone?? I have been so busy since I returned to work these last couple weeks. Its been crazy!!! I have had so much to do. I have been going to the office early and coming home late... So this month is just flying....

Tonight is Thursday... I guess Thursday nights are kind of the nights I sit and watch TV. All my favorite shows are tonight. My top 2 shows are "The Office" and "ER". The office started a couple years ago and is basically about an office with a kind of crazy manager. It's filmed like a documentary. I really like this show and find it really funny. Here is a link to it. You can see what the show is. http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/

The other show is ER which has been around for a long long time. But I still watch it. So tonight I am just sitting in front of the TV. The office just got over and now ER will start...hehe.
Tomorrow is Friday... FINALLY TGIF!!

Elections.....

I went and voted yesterday. It was not the elections for a new president. But elections for congress and the senate. I am happy to say the republicans lost big last night. I was happy to watch the news. I watched the live coverage of the elections on the news until late last night. So the democrats gained power in the government. It is a good thing. The president will now have to work with the democrats to do anything. So he lost some of his power which I am really happy about. Now only 2 more years and we can vote for a new president. So I guess most unhappy Americans just need to hang in there for 2 more years...... The next elections can't come soon enough!! As you can guess from reading this I am not a big fan of Bush or his administration!

What a crazy week!!!! ... MONTH!!

Its been a crazy week. I went back to work and that was busy. But it was really good to get away for a while. Now its back to being really busy. But thats ok. I guess I feel a little refreshed.

Halloween was a couple days ago. I didn't get any good pictures. But below is a picture of my house at Halloween... at least my front door. I have a large Frankenstien holding a Pepsi standing next to the door. The kids love it.

I did also take a picture of my house with the mountains in the background. This was a couple weeks ago. The colors in the mountains were just about over. Still you can see a little red. But basically brown I guess. Now the tops are white with snow.

Then last month I went to Hokkaido. Below is a picture of Susukino... one of my favorite places to hang out. But I was alone so I didn't hang out. Just walked over to see if anything fun was going on. Also below is a picture of Otaru. I took this picture from the campus of Otaru University of Commerce. I studied at this school. Its up in the mountain and gives a great view of the city. I really missed living there and want to return someday!!!

So October was kind of a crazy but fun month for me. Still......there are some things that are not so fun...!! Going to Hokkaido for a few days again was good but also bad. Taking time off from work was good and bad also. But I got to see a lot of things during the month and refresh and refocus. So all in all not too bad. October and Novermber are my favorite months.... so I am looking forward to enjoying the Autumn season...