A note on the image: 2017 is the Year of the Rooster in the Asian zodiacal cycle, which we poetically generalize as chickens, so our picture presents us as “Little (in Japanese, /ko/ [/co/]) Hens,” reprising the design of 12 years ago. Sharp-eyed friends will notice the inclusion in the online version of this picture above of a new member in the roost, Takumi; 拓生 (Rachelle's bf), not (yet?) formally incorporated into the flock proper, but practically a family member. (Hover over snapshots to see the captions.)
Where did the year go?
Michael continued as Director of his university division. (Click here if you want to see his group's professional report.) He went to the technology and culture “South by Southwest” (SXSW) conference in March (tx, Jun and Mark!), seeing or even meeting in person many famous people— including Ken Burns (documentary film-maker, director of “Jazz” and “The Civil War”), Jimmy Wales (co-founder of Wikipedia), Stephen Wolfram (inventor of Mathematica), and Barack Obama (former politician)— and enjoying interesting speeches and interaction with less famous but no less fascinating scientists, engineers, and artists. He took a week-long course on digital contents creation at Stanford. Michael had also a summer whirlwind tour through the US, including Anaheim, LA (tx, Jan & Jim!), Palo Alto, Berkeley (tx, Ronna & Michael!; tx, Char & Eric!), and NJ (tx, Karen & Ed!). Highlights included Guillermo del Toro show at LACMA, the Grammy Museum, an adventure sports weekend (zip-lining, jet-skiing, mountain biking, ...) in Big Bear, CA (tx, Peter & Cube!), SF MoMA, Escape Room in Philly (tx, Karen!), and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical & MoMA in NY. He enjoyed his high school reunion, catching up with grade-school classmates, not much distracted by having to avoid certain topics of conversation (such as impending election). In the fall, he went to Zhuhai, Macao, and Hong Kong for conferences. Michael was in a tourist brochure (or here if you read Taiwanese Chinese), and contributes (uploading photos to a Facebook blog) for the Gokujo-no-Aizu Project Council to promote the Aizu region. He almost caught up with House of Cards; ハウス・オブ・カード (before post-truth surreality overtook its fictionalizations). His favorite movie of the year: Anomalisa.
Mikiko remains active in the organic food co-op, serving as treasurer and enjoying seminars and workshops about natural foods. She does flower arrangements, and had some pieces featured in a book by her teacher. She flits back and forth between Aizu and Tōkyō, straddling the “country mouse - city mouse” dichotomy.
Biking in Ura BandaiSpherical Image - RICOH THETA
Skiing at Gran DecoSpherical Image - RICOH THETA
Rachelle is still working at Fuji Xerox as a Systems Engineer, and Elitia is in her third year of university, studying early education, working part-time at a restaurant as a waitress and hostess. When the girls come back to Aizu, we enjoy swimming, bicycling, and snow-boarding (as in photospherical video segments above).
Elitia got her driver's license (after “only 2 or 3” tries). She interned at Metropolis magazine, and spent a fortnight as a student teacher at a home for children. She was a model in a fashion show at her college (including having taken a class on "cat-walking"). For her birthday, she got an old-school, back-in-the-day turntable. (Accustomed to playlists but not albums, Rachelle wondered how the record player could skip to the next song.) Elitia's favorite movie of the year: Rogue One.
We enjoyed welcoming friends to Japan (tx, David & Audrey, Jan & Jim, TDK, Ayako & Norbie!), and we did a fair amount of traveling ourselves. Rachelle went to Yamanashi, and to Hawaii with Takumi's family. Elitia, Rachelle & Takumi enjoyed a holiday in Phuket (Thailand), swimming, snorkeling, and sight-seeing. Elitia visited Paris and Guam with her friend Ume, and Seoul with friends from the restaurant at which she works. (Michael also went, virtually anyway, to Thailand and Paris, not to mention Venice and the moon.)
Besides all his academic conference travel (Austin, Anaheim, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, Vancouver, Chicago, & China [Hong Kong, Zhuhai, & Macao]), Michael went to Hong Kong with Mikiko (tx, Raymond, Siew Poh & KK!). You may wonder if all this travel is expensive. (Answer: ¥€$!) Next year, we hope to slow down a bit.
We wish our friends and relations a sweet 2017.
Peace out, from Michael, Mikiko, Rachelle, & Elitia.