QUICK UPDATE - NEW YEAR'S PREVIEW

Ok, I'm officially on my New Year's break. As Nova employees, this is the only holiday we get for the year, so I started panicking a little on Monday, wanting to go somewhere interesting for it. I went to a travel agency, but flight prices are REALLY inflated at this time of year, so I ended up just buying a train ticket to Tokyo and am excited to be spending New Year's there. Tokyo will be insane... it's the largest city in the world and the centre of almost everything in Japan. I booked three nights in a hostel with Catherine, the girl I met from Nova Scotia and we just bought our shinkansen tickets.

The Shinkansen (Japanese Bullet Train) alone is something that I've been excited for since before I left Canada. It's probably the fastest, most efficient form of ground transportation and can get me from Osaka to Tokyo in just 2.5 hours (it would otherwise take over 10, I hear).

Anyway, I have some packing to do, I'll fill you in on my trip later. Talk to you soon and have a great New Year's.

Ryan