Yesterday, we moved into our new flat, and we slept here last night. Everywhere is full of boxes, but my computer is set up and working, and I am hopeful that I will be able to get the office clear of boxes before my first student arrives in five hours or so. The rest of the flat will still be a complete tip, of course, but the biggest advantage of the new place is that my students don’t need to see the rest of the flat.

In the end, the move seems to have gone off without any serious problems. Despite snow falling on Saturday, the next days, Sunday and Monday, the days we were moving, had perfect weather. It was dry, warm, and not too windy, without being hot. We could leave things on the balcony to keep them out of the way, and nothing got wet between the two flats. A local electrical goods shop sold us a new heater/cooler, and moved the old ones to the new flat, doing all of it on Sunday and fitting covers over the hoses between the interior and exterior units. Getting that done before the furniture came in was a big help.

The removals company (Kuroneko Yamato) sent people to pack our things up on Sunday, although they didn’t quite finish, so they had to come again on Monday. Then, on Monday, everything was loaded into trucks and unloaded into the new flat. They even managed to get all of my bookshelves into the positions I wanted in the office, which, given that they are double layer and there is about two millimetres clearance over one of them, was quite impressive. Some of the tiny metal cylinders that support the shelves seem to have fallen out at some point, so I hope I still have the ones that were left over. Of course, even if I do have them, I have no idea where I have them.

So, the new flat is now full of boxes. My first student is coming around 11am, so I have to get the office straight before then. One of the big advantages of the new place is that I can teach in the office, so there is no need for students to go into the rest of the flat. That’s just as well, as it’s still going to be full of boxes.

Yuriko’s parents have come up from Nagoya to help, and yesterday they mainly helped by looking after Mayuki all day (Yuriko’s mother also did some cleaning at the old flat). In the evening, when Mayuki came back to the new flat, quite a bit of the furniture was already in, and she was shocked. “That’s not right! Take it back!” she said (roughly, in Japanese). Unsurprisingly, she hadn’t quite understood what “moving house” meant. Still, she calmed down and watched her video, and then went to sleep, so I think she’ll get used to it.

Now I have to get on with putting books on the bookshelves.

The actual physical move is almost upon us. The removals company will come on Sunday to pack all of our things up, and our air conditioners will be moved on the same day. On Monday, our things will be moved to the new flat, and we’ll hand over the keys to this one to the new owners.

Also next week, or maybe the week after, Yuriko will start her new job, at a kimono rental shop. That will probably mean that the days Mayuki is in day care will change, and the school where she takes her music classes is also likely to change.

Fortunately, my job won’t change much; I’ll just teach my students in the new flat.

All these changes are, of course, keeping me quite busy, and I’ll blame them for the lack of interesting articles on this blog.

I mentioned before that we were supposed to be able to see Mount Fuji from our flat. Well, a few days ago the weather was clear, so I was able to confirm this. As you can see from the photograph, it is possible to see Mount Fuji from our flat.

You can see it, can't you?

OK, maybe it’s a little too small in the photograph, even with a bit of help. Here’s a photograph I took by zooming in a bit.

Can you see it now?

Actually, when you’re looking, it’s quite clear. A couple of days ago we were there in the evening, discussing the redecoration and such, and there was a very nice silhouette of Mount Fuji as the sun set behind it. On clear days, it will be a nice feature of the flat.

The blog has been a bit neglected, because we are having to sort out exactly what we are having done, as well as doing normal work and sorting out address changes. We’re a bit busy at the moment, even more so than normal. I really hope it will settle down in April.

Happy New Year to everyone reading this blog. It’s a beautiful day here in Japan, but our family are starting the year jet-lagged, having only got back from the US on the 30th. I made it to midnight hatsumode at Shirahata-san, the local shrine, but I was the only one.

One of my aims for the new year is to write more in this blog. Wish me luck.

To everyone reading this blog who celebrates it.

Spammers are using davidchart.com addresses in their From: field again at the moment, so I’m being flooded with undeliverable message responses from really, really stupid MTAs. My junk mail filters are being pretty good at picking them up, but if I send an email to you and it really bounces, I won’t know. (I’m getting over 300 bounce messages per hour.)

In the past, they’ve moved on to other addresses fairly quickly (don’t annoy anyone enough to make it worth their while to go after you…), but if they don’t I might have to set my account to discard anything from mailer-daemon or postmaster, in which case I simply won’t see any warnings or undeliverable message notifications.

We’re all fine here.

I’m just not finding time to write in my blog. That’s bad, of course. I really should write more here. But not today.

Merry Christmas, everyone. I’m going to spend time with my family today, rather than sitting in front of the computer, but they aren’t awake yet, so I have time to write a quick blog entry. I suspect this is likely to be the last Christmas for some time when Mayuki isn’t awake yet at half past eight in the morning, so I suppose I should be making the most of it.

Anyway, Merry Christmas, everyone.

So, the US elections are finally more-or-less over. The American people appear to have given the Democrats larger majorities in the House and Senate, important results that should not be overlooked in the general rejoicing that they have also elected Barack Obama as president.

The first African-American president is of great symbolic importance, and it’s vital not to underestimate the significance of symbols. Furthermore, Americans have voted for what he has offered in his campaign, by a significant margin (at the moment, the New York Times website gives Obama a majority of seven million or so). Obama won Virginia and, apparently, North Carolina (the NYT gives 100% of the vote called, but hasn’t marked it as a Democrat victory, which may just be because they’ve all gone to bed, or may be because there are still technicalities to go through). A black Democrat winning in the South is a major change in the US political landscape.

This is already a significant event, and a positive one.

Can Obama live up to expectations?

Given that he is apparently not God, nor Superman, and rumour has it that there is no magic non-inflationary money pit back in the Obama bus (the money apparently was all donated by ordinary Americans), probably not.

However, in the campaign he has demonstrated that he is inspiring, that he can gather knowledgeable advisers and listen to them, and that he has both stamina and poise. If there is no more to Obama than that, he will be a better president than Bush, and better than McCain looked likely to be. (Although I do think McCain’s concession speech was very good.)

In short, to believe that Obama is likely to be a bad president, you have to believe one of the wacko conspiracy theories.

I hope he’s going to be better than “not bad”, but, let’s face it, even that is a major improvement.

Roll on January 20th.

(Cruel question to ask people who are almost-but-not-fully in touch today: Who is the President of the USA?)