Is is not over yet! 👹🍣🎎 My Japan

The last month of the year is in full swing and the mood that you seem to feel every year at exactly this time is slowly spreading around. Saying this, 2024 is now entering its final spurt and there are only about two weeks left until the next year will open its doors. But we're not quite there yet, although many people are now starting to draw their first serious conclusions and weigh up whether this year has been a good one.

Well, I basically intend to answer this question with “yes”, even if there were quite a few hurdles and pitfalls this year that I unfortunately couldn't always avoid. Particularly when it came to my health, things were a bit of a mess, and this problem persisted throughout the entire twelve months. The infections seemed to take turns and I felt like I was going from one illness to the next. Even though I didn't want to let things be obvious and I was probably able to cover it up quite well, on many days this year I would have preferred to lie down in the morning and get a little more rest.

But life is a bitch and often comes as a crazy rollercoaster and sometimes you just have to get through these situations. Fortunately, I usually coped pretty well with the tasks at hand and was able to complete most things that came up and were assigned to me. But now, at the end of the year, I feel that I sometimes lack strength and would like to take a longer break.

But unfortunately that won't happen, even though I fortunately have a little more time to rest over the turn of the year. Maybe that will be enough to start the coming year, which probably has a few surprises in store for us again, with at least some energy. Let's see if there's anything good in store for us as well.

But 2024 is not over yet and there is still around half a month to go until we close this chapter. A lot can still happen during this time, and many of us still have a lot of appointments to attend. The Christmas holidays are one last festive highlight that most of us are really looking forward to. Even if it can get a little stressful for some of us and we often wish we were far away in warmer climes.

Speaking of warmth, it's now quite cold over here in this part of Japan too and winter has made its first appearance. This time, it has been quite gentle with its white splendor, but if you believe the forecasts, there could be significantly more snow in our region this time than in recent years. Even though I generally like snow, I prefer to have it in the forests and mountains rather than on my own doorstep. Driving in particular often becomes a bit of an adventure, which I could usually do without. But as a precaution, I already have a shovel in my car, which, to be honest, I haven't taken out since last winter.

So let's see, maybe this year still has one or two more positive surprises up its sleeve. I haven't given up hope that 2024 will go down in history as a very good year after all. Personally, it doesn't actually take that much, so in this respect I simply remain optimistic....