It's raining something fierce outside as I write this and I the wind is blowing hard enough that I can hear it whipping things around on my balcony. I've just gotten in from work and it's cold and dark outside and the gym seems far away. Inside my shoebox of an apartment there is warmth and chocolate cookies and nabe and...I should go to the gym.

Sigh.

This morning, I sat on the subway opposite a group of four elementary school students and their teacher. They were like very polite little monkeys and their teacher was relaxed and contientious. It may not have had anything to do with their antics, but the subway car smelled like cloves. They played around a bit then one by one, each of them pulled their jackets over their heads (all but the teacher and one girl who pulled her hat down over her eyes) and fell asleep.

I teach a private lesson to a woman who is beautiful and who has a lucrative career as a flight attendant. Don't laugh, but this is a much sought-after job in Japan and the competition for positions with Japanese airlines is fierce and the salaries are relatively high. She is a smart and funny woman, college educated, with a high-paying job--and unmarried. When we talk about marriage, she says that she wants to be married--someday. Her parents remind her that her somedays are coming to an end. Thirty-one is too old to be unmarried in Japan. I ask her what she is looking for in a husband and she answers that she wants someone who makes her feel secure, someone with the same values, someone who is good looking. In that order. The top quality for a husband (according to my other students) doesn't even make the cut. What do other students profess to want in a husband? Money is number one. Looks are next. Then it falls apart and the reasons scattter. The men say they want good looking wives. One says she can't be too smart.