January 17 — the day of the Great Hanshin Earthquake, and for me the anniversary of my grandmother’s passing an hour before it struck. Plus some complicated friend drama.

December 19’s snow left Nagoya’s Nishiki-dori deserted under 23 cm — the most I’d ever seen, yet only half the city’s 49 cm record. Winter tires earned their keep.

Happy New Year… though it’s already the 16th. (Embarrassed.) Various things came up at the end of the year and start of the new one, so I couldn’t write.