Today was a city day. After a couple marathon (good luck Jessica!) phone conversations, we left to do the Christmas shopping. It was a bit weird on account of the weather: plus twenty with no snow in the foreseeable future. That and the utter lack of Christmas decorations, spirit, cookies or carols. It isn't much fun doing your Christmas shopping in a place where Christmas doesn't really exist. We managed, though.

First we stopped at the little flea market outside of Ino Town. There wasn't much on offer today: four or five old kimonos, slightly stained on the inside, but beautiful nonetheless; an antique Godzilla toy; tableware; a big pile of used jeans. We weren't really sure who would want a kimono for Christmas, so we didn't bother.

We made it to the city in time for lunch. But not before we managed to find a whole schwack of amazing gifts. We even bought a couple to keep for ourselves. That's the best kind of gift after all, isn't it? The one you want to keep for yourself? They should be in the mail by the end of the week. Our apologies if they don't make it in time.

After shopping we went to yoga, which we've been going to regularly since the weather cooled down. The instructor is this really beefy Californian who teaches English at the university and surfs every morning. It's a cool atmosphere: the class is bilingual and everyone there is friends with everyone else. Afterward a bunch of us went for conveyor belt sushi where we ate our fill and got in a good mood for sleeping. G'nite.