Happy Chanukah!

I realize this is a few days in, but Happy Chanukah, readers!

In the absence of an actual menorah, this is what I've been doing at night:

The weird black smudges aren't dirt or anything, they're wax.

I actually feel way more Jewish than usual out here, if that's something you can say about yourself. I guess I'm used to being surrounded by people like me, and now that I'm not (there are, as far as I know, three of us in the prefecture), I'm clinging to things a little harder than I normally would.

Which is why I am incredibly excited about my upcoming Chanukah class next week. I'll let you all know how it goes.

In the meantime:



PS: Tomorrow is the Japanese Language Proficiency Test! For which I have been studying my butt off, and which I will fail spectacularly anyway. Good luck to everyone else who's suffering through it tomorrow!