I'm going to be stereotyping here, so just a warning. Don't want to get anyone's knickers in a twist.

Preface: Some of my favorite people are interested in the Japanese culture and language. Several have lived in Japan for a period of time. Several of them teach, either English to Japanese people or Japanese to American people. I do dearly love and respect these people that I know. Just wanted to get that out there.

That said, Americans who are deeply interested in Japanese culture tend to be...weird. Case in point: I have "adopted" the Japan Club at the high school where I teach, since the teacher I replaced is living in Japan for the year himself. They needed a sponsor, and I was the logical choice. I don't have to do anything for the club; they are basically using my room as their meeting ground twice each week, and if they need a teacher to sign for something, I'll do it. But two seniors are responsible for the running of the meetings and the preparation and delivery of all the material. And they are...weird. They come to my room wearing pink and black and ruffles and army boots and giant fuzzy hats on their heads, hats which resemble my old Cookie Monster stuffed animal (which is 35 years old and not in the best condition anymore, as their hats also seem to be). Their meetings, while informative, are also punctuated with discussion about anime, and how to cuss in Japanese, and anime, and their favorite comedy routines, and anime, and (today) whether they themselves, and their favorite anime characters, would survive a zombie apocalypse.

Really?

How much anime is there? And why does it all end up looking the same?

The rest of the club is as eccentric as their fearless leaders. They're all very nice; they're just...weird.

I don't know why I felt like mentioning this. Just did. Weird.

Winter is arriving. We had our first official snow flurries yesterday, although nothing stuck to the ground. And today was pretty chilly, maybe only up to about 40, with a lot of wind. It's funny, but I'm sort of looking forward to winter. Winters here aren't bad. Billings is in what the locals call the "Banana Belt", meaning our weather is surprisingly temperate for as far north as we are, and at 3000+ ft altitude to boot. Most of our winter days will be between 30-45 degrees. Oh, sure, we'll have enough 20 degree days to make it wintry, and we'll have a week or two of -0. But really it's not bad. Also, we don't have a lot of snow that hangs around. It'll snow, then melt, then snow, then melt, and over and over. In sheltered, shady areas, the snow might not ever melt off, but in most places it will. So it really shouldn't be too bad.

And of course we can go skiing and snowboarding. Gotta be careful that I don't hurt myself, of course. I really need new ski boots. After the pregnancy last year, my feet grew, and my boots no longer fit. Good excuse to buy new stuff, anyway!