I had a solid two weeks off for the holidays and spent a lot of it alone. Most of the time, I really like being alone and not having to talk to anyone, but at the same time…I also miss being around people. At the end of 2024, I had a heavy case of the itis. And after talking with my sisters, it’s got me thinking real hard about what to do in the future. I lead a pretty comfy life here, but I don’t exactly have what I’d consider actual savings. 🫠 Will I actually be able to retire here? Living in Japan has a lot of pluses but also lots of minuses. I’d say it’s more pluses than anything. But me being back with my family would be very beneficial for everyone as we’d be able to pool our resources together.

And speaking of family, my sister recently blessed me with these pictures of our senior princess.

Back to my mid-life crisis though, I also have friends here. A few I’ve known for over a decade. Though, with how I get burned out and have become more introverted…I could always visit them in the future if I leave, right?

Anyway, although I did do a whole lot of nothing, I also went out a couple times.

A friend from Tokyo was in town and a bunch of us got together and visited all the food stands in Shin Imamiya. We lined up to get our lucky lil bamboo branches, then walked through endless food stands.

My brother can’t you seeee? I got the victoryyy…STOMP!🎵

It was nice seeing that friend after so long. We all went to a cafe and had a lot of laughs.

Now it’s back to the same old same old. Back to work and thankfully still at home. I’m not sure when I’ll be back at the office, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s next month. Translation is becoming a bit scary with AI muddying the waters. We still have a lot of work to do, but it’s becoming more focused on cleaning up whatever the AI spits out. I don’t know about other languages, but I have a feeling Japanese to English and vice versa will never truly “get there,” so thankfully actual people will still always be needed, unless the company doesn’t care about quality. I mean, we’ve had Google translate and Deepl this whole time…🤷‍♀️It’s just more of that.

Prices are also soaring over here, and I don’t know when they’ll ever actually go down. Sure, this stuff happens in cycles, but something feels a little different this time. I don’t even really like strawberries that much, but I’ll sometimes want a pack. They’re now 900 yen ($6-ish) for like 9 of them 😶‍🌫️ Butter prices are wild, restaurant prices are constantly climbing. A lot of the cheaper options are still relatively cheap, but those aren’t the healthiest or tastiest. Rice went from 2,800 to 3,500 and I think that’s the new norm. It seems like the price should indeed be more than what it was in the past, but this sudden increase is a lot. Still thinking of the grandpas and grandmas managing because they sure aren’t going to be getting pension increases to match.

So for 2025, I don’t have any grand expectations. I recently bought quite a bit of makeup, so I’d like to make this year a no-buy year. That’s something I can stick to! And I recently got one of those mini stepper exercise machines. I tap out after 2 minutes with my heart beating out of my chest. 😅 One of these days I’ll be able to go 5 minutes straight. A walking machine would have been preferable, but those aren’t ideal in apartments.

But yeah, I have a lot on my mind, and I’ll just have to think hard and start planning. I really wish I was more of a go-getter type.