Today is the last day of 2004. We just finished writing our New Year postcards (a three week long process). This year's total is forty-one (one short of the magic number and down from about sixty last year), another eight cards could not be sent because we lost the addresses. We are leaving for Chiba now, where we will spend New Year's Eve at a friends' house, if possible go to the famous (and totally over-crowded) Naritasan Shinsho-ji shrine and maybe also to an onsen.