MERRY CHRISTMAS 
From the frozen wastes of Chiba, here's wishing everyone who tunes into the blog a very Merry Christmas!

Since starting the blog in the middle of September, we've had over 9000 visitors from all over the world, and we're still getting people from new and exotic far-flung places on a weekly basis. In addition to all the regulars, which are mainly made up of Japanese, Europeans, Americans and Russians, this week alone saw folks from Australia, Argentina, Venezuela, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Mali, Morocco, Indonesia, Hong Kong and China tuning in. Thank you all for your support, and may you all be blessed with a happy and healthy new year to come...