The Small Therapist: Gimli (Patreon)

Hey hey, All 🐰✌️

I wanted to do a catch-up post and share some photos.

I made it to Hokkaido. Yay! I got in late and stayed in a hotel the first night. The below photo was taken from the hotel window. The night before, I'd walked that same street, navigating the pitch dark and the frozen slush, and I managed to fall down right on that spot. It was epic. Miraculously, I didn't break any bones.

It wouldn't have helped me that night, but I thought it was sweet that every so often there are little houses filled with bags of sand/gravel for anyone to spread around the particularly slippery roads.

Yeah. This one's empty.

Been here five days and feel great. It's like a long overdue reset. The first couple nights I had nightmares about Someone destroying my computers and all the writing I'd done on the new book so far. But after a couple days with Julyan, Kaho, and their pet rabbit (Kaho calls her the "chiisa na serapisuto" / the Small Therapist), I'm feeling much better. No more three hours of sleep (!), I'm actually getting a good night's rest. Apropos of nothing really, anyone ever hear of Cassandra Syndrome? I'd heard about it, but never really read any details until recently. All I can say is WOW.

Let's see, some random photos:

Posted this one on social media, but the kids took me to a place where they make cheese and they had a big dollop of ice cream, sprinkled with sea salt, with two pieces of washed cheese. I'm normally a "washed cheese is nasty!" kinda person. But the sweet, the richness, the salty, and the reek was some culinary masterpiece.

Found these at a cheap antique shop, Buddha faces! I'm going to add my mask collection to Ojiichan's (father-in-law) collection and have one of the two rooms I'll be living in surrounded by masks. I think one of these will get the place of honor. Need to visit again before I leave and pick one. I also found a creepy plague mask. Although since plaque masks were a thing in Japan, maybe it's a tengu? Might get that one, too.

Wasabi and salmon pizza, anyone? This was actually incredible.

Got a little video of the wasabi grating.

I'm used to the sun setting at exactly 16:30. So it's weird when it get dark here a whole hour earlier. Last night's moon was magical. Here, have a little ✨🌜moon magic🌜✨

Julyan and Kaho have been amazing. They've offered to let me stay here for as long as I want to write the book. That's a very attractive offer, but I fear what will happen to to all my stuff while I'm gone. They've also said they'll fly down to help me move which is another huge help. I, too, appreciate when we drive around they show me all the houses for rent or sale and give me all the little selling points. "This one has the onsen heated floor and its own onsen, too." "That one has a huge yard with a forest nearby." "This one actually used to be a minshuku so it's really big, beautiful inside, and has several rooms that each have their own bath and toilet. In case you want to rent rooms out or have people over." Ah~~ to be independently wealthy.

Here they are as we stroll through Noboribetsu, lots of onsen, steam, and oni.

Okay, I just wanted to do a quick catch up, let you know I am doing okay, and will be back in the old house in about five days. While there, I'm going to record a couple Bedtime Stories and edit and process them myself and put them up here. I'm being told I can't do the job and I take that as a challenge. Plus, if I can't, Julyan said he'd be more than happy to help me with the show. Someone won't release the bit that they did though.

I'm wishing all of you the happiest of holidays, the merriest of Christmases, and the luckiest of New Years🥳! Although I'm sure I'll write again before the end of the year.

XOXO,

terrie