January 14, 2021
Brent's winter holidays
Winter holidays for 2020...
This was probably the second quietest holiday season I have spent in Japan. My very first year I was basically alone and back then (way back in 1997) it was very difficult to contact people in other countries. I would have to stand outside at a public phone and use a very expensive phone card to make an international phone call. It was about 2000 yen for a 10 minute phone call (on the NTT cards?) if memory serves me correctly. There were some better deals at times but they were not always available.
This year, despite all the challenges, I felt very fortunate because I have my family here and my family back home. And I also have so many friends and former students as well. These days, we can have a video call for free for as long as we want. I made sure we took advantage of that as much as possible.
Students (and teachers) face many challenges coming here but modern technology continues to make life easier and better for us all.
I hope you had a chance to reach out to friends and family over the holidays.
