December
12/10/2025.
Our son has 3 cousins in Japan. 2 of them are still young, at elementary school age. I do believe that they are excited about Christmas. I do believe that Santa is coming to their house. It's a really nice and fun age for holidays/events/activities.
Speaking of Santa, I know there is a Santa tracker app or Santa map or North pole station and more recently. I do remember when I heard for the first time that I could see Santa’s “flying” location on the map(!). I was more excited than our son and watched where he went on the computer. Those were the good old days.
This year, I found something different. It says “Reindeer cam”
https://reindeercam.com/web-free/#rdcvids
Have you heard of it? Do you know about it? It’s obviously a live stream camera to watch Reindeer, I mean “Santa’s Reindeer”.You might wonder “How much do Japanese people (both kids and parents) know about Santa’s Reindeer?” Don’t you? In fact, not much. (At least in my era, we were familiar with “A red nose reindeer” only, even “without a name”.). We had a song called “Red nose reindeer”. Maybe the newest generation in Japan knows more now, maybe.
Anyway this Reindeer-cam is really attractive to me. I’m obsessed with watching real reindeer. It is different from the deer in my yard. Especially those antlers! Okay, now you have to laugh at me.
Reindeer cam. Live stream here.
https://www.youtube.com/live/osBeRJkdcc4?si=vH8MCreIej8NWYiH
Another video.
https://www.youtube.com/live/cn5SCJqL2EQ?si=3Yr3BbM8O4nrZYRE
12/10/2025.
Photos of Christmas lights in the dark are tricky to me. I cannot capture nice shiny ones. But here is my house this year. I'm giggling.
12/09/2025
Everyone has their own “habits” in many ways on any topic. Yes, I do. I wrote several times before about “sharing/keeping tiny flowers”.
Here are 2 sections to re-check.
12/22/2022 and 12/30/2022
I bought flowers from Kroger (it’s always Kroger), trimmed them and made flower bouquets (wrapped and tied with ribbon). You know? It feels good all the time because it makes me feel like I’m a florist. I love the feeling very much.
There are always a few B-grade flowers in one batch. I don’t throw them away. I make them a tiny mini flower-arrangement in a tiny glass.
It’s for myself. So that it could make me smile for several days (or a week), plus brings me back wonderful memories/experiences through the events (Musical shows, choir shows and more).
What kind of ‘habits’ do you have, like mine??
My former wonderful librarian mentor (she was a middle school librarian) used to make huge handmade bows with ribbons for gift boxes. She showed me how to make them. I thought that was her fabulous skill and her great habit indeed.
These flowers are from 12/06 post. Yes, it's still blooming nicely and I think back about the show everyday.
The last two photos are from 2022. See the tiny glass?
These below are from older past.
Entry#499. 12/08/2025.
My hometown is Sapporo, Japan (札幌 さっぽろ). My parents’ house is located in Nishi-ku (the west ward). It would take 20min on a bus and 10min on a subway to get the downtown (大通り おおどおり). It’s a nice city. You should visit there someday. I was born there in 1973. I left the city around 1998. Our son visited Sapporo (only) several times. But I believe he remembers some areas in Sapporo from his last visit (his solo trip) there in 2023.
You can re-read here Entry#137 (7/12/2023) Mongolia story. He stopped by Japan on the way to Mongolia, to see his grandparents.
Sapporo has several big festivals which are very popular and famous in nationwide (even worldwide?). Many more tourists visit Sapporo, so I’ve heard recently.
Especially during the holiday seasons in Nov, Dec, Jan, they have “White Illumination” at the downtown.
You would like it. It must be a bit different from my young self era (it’s a long ago). I’ve not visited for a while (forgive me, mom and dad).
Here is a YouTube video.
https://youtu.be/BULKxkd-fjg?si=jUV4o7Xqr8WQo_ch
I think back on this event in Sapporo because Cincinnati Zoo has a big event “Festival of lights”! Funny though, I’ve never been there actually. Bad me. (It started around 1982, didn’t it?? Did you know that? Wow.)
Since our son works at Cincinnati zoo area, it feels more familiar than before. Have you been there? I’ll think about it for our future plan. (One thing I concern is “Zoo property has hilly areas with uphills and downhills” = it would be tricky for wheelchair-walk. But I’ll think about it.)
Our son visited there with his friends. I asked him “Show me some photos from there.” because I just wanted to see some fun photos. Well, he didn’t take any photos from there. You guessed it right? We laughed together anyway. Happy Christmas lights season!!
Also I'd love to see the giant Hippo Nutcracker statue with my own eyes. Did you see it?
12/07/2025.
Our beloved boy-dog, Ranger passed away on 12/07/2023. 2 years ago. I'm thinking back. He was always with us. He was always beside my husband even after he started wheelchair life. Ranger was blind and deaf at the end. We loved him very much. We have tons of great memories. I'm thinking of you, Ranger.
This canvas photo sits on the mantle all the time. It's around 2009 when we got a good amount of snow. Ranger's eyes were still good at that time.
12/06/2025. Part3.
At Pitt, I was amazed about the elevator system at the Cathedral of Learning. Are you familiar with this? I even wanted to stay there all day long to "play with the elevator". Funny?
P.S. I found out about an interesting fact, too. Obviously there are people who want to "climb" (walk) up using stairs all the way up to the top of the Cathedral of Learning (!). Can you believe it? Are you willing to try it? Do you want to do it?
12/06/2025. Part2.
You should know how much I loved being at the cathedral of learning at Pitt.
Entry#498. 12/06/2025. Part1.
It is a long time overdue. I was planning to write before December. Here I am anyway. I want to share my thoughts about the “Cathedral of Learning” at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt). My husband and I visited Pitt for the first time in October 2025 (2 month ago). See Entry#476 (10/29/2025).
According to the internet, here is a summary about this building.
"The Cathedral of Learning located in the center of the University of Pittsburgh campus. Commissioned in 1921 and completed in 1934, The Cathedral is a 42-story, 535-foot-tall gothic revival skyscraper. It is the second-tallest educational building in the world after Moscow’s Main Building."
https://www.lewisandclark.travel/listing/cathedral-of-learning/
Just like as a tourist, I entered the building and looked around it on the 1st floor. I found a tiny gift shop which has a sign board, saying "Guided tour schedule". I understood the system from it. Since I did not have enough time by myself, I gave up attending the tour. Instead I walked to the guardsman booth and had some conversation with the guardsman. He was so kind and gave me wonderful information. I enjoyed chatting with him very much.
I told him how amazed and impressed (astonished) I was, seeing both inside and outside of the building. Especially the Gothic style! My conversation went like this.
Me: How many stories does this building have?
Guardsman: It has 42 stories.
Me: Ohhhhh, am I allowed to go to the 42nd floor to see it?
Guardsman: Yes, you can.
Me: Oh, I can? Is that right?
If you know me well, you can easily imagine how I got excited quickly and made the next action right away. I politely thanked him with a cheerful voice tone. Off we go (!) to the 'special elevator'. (I need to write about it. I will.)
Yes, I went up to the top level floor "42nd floor". Guess what?
I should have guessed quickly from the building structure. It’s a Gothic architecture, going upper level, getting narrower. Right?
When the elevator door popped open with “ding” sound at the 42nd, there was not much space anymore. Actually there was no balcony area nor windows. Obviously the 42nd floor wasn’t for a tourist at all. I was sad. I gave up on trying the view from the top of the building.
I knew I was doing something wrong. There has to be an “observation platform”.
After I came back home, I dug into the information about it. I found out that I did wrong.
It says;
While visiting the Cathedral of Learning, be sure to take the elevator up to the Honors College on the 36th floor. This is the highest publicly accessible floor in the Cathedral and has a stunning view of Pittsburgh when the weather is clear!
It was on the 36th floor! I missed it. My husband laughed at me. Now you can laugh, too.
I had a good fun time there after all. If I can visit there again in future, I definitely will take my husband with me and bring him up to the 36th floor using the ‘special’ elevator.
Here is a video from YouTube. It says “the view from the 36th floor”.
12/06/2025.
Every time I attend to watch some Musical shows, I try to dress up as much as I could and prepare flower bouquets. It's like my fun routine.
For making flower bouquets, I buy flowers at the grocery store 2-3 days before. Most of the time, it works just fine. However this time, I missed timing. It's winter time, inside the house, room temperature is warmer (than spring/summer time).
When the show day came, roses' petals were already in full-open position. They might fall off very soon. I felt bad, but I took them with me at the show.
Yes, yes, I made it to attend the Little Women the Musical at THS! I know 5 of casts/crew in this show. So I made 5 bouquets. I had a wonderful time. Both 'before the show day came' and 'during the show'.
I picked 2 kinds of flowers; yellow roses and velvet color lily of the Incas. Fun. Do you like them?
12/05/2025. Part2!
I really love the song "I'm Not Remarkable" from bottom of my heart. I want to put the lyrics here because I want to read them again and again. This is a really good stuff. (Please bear with me. It is a bit long post.)
I'm Not Remarkable
I'm not remarkable
I'm just finding my way
It's not a walk in the park
But baby I got the grades
Don't wanna be admired
I'm not your inspiration
If you wanna be inspired
There's a library down the hall
Have you noticed admiration
Sometimes smells a bit like pity?
I can be strong
I get stuff wrong
And I don't always talk so pretty
I'm not remarkable
Not heroic or brave
I've got no superpowers
I can't even do this stupid equation!
I'm not remarkable
And neither are you!
We all have toes (How weird are toes!?)
We all look funny in the nude!
I've got a face
I've got a place
I've got a life
I've got a name
And I need stuff
And you need stuff
And all our stuff
Is not the same
And some days, I get so tired
She gets grumpy
He gets bossy
Yeah well, I have a Special Need... I call it "coffee"
Do I have to be remarkable?
I'm just having a try
I'm not fragile or indestructible
And like everyone I sometimes cry
And I'm not like the rest
But then, the rest of you aren't like the rest either
I'm not a saint, I'm not a sinner
I'm not a loser, I'm not a winner
I'm not more and I'm not less
I'm just your average human mess!
I'm not remarkable
And neither are you (Neither am I!)
We've all got toes (Hold on, I don't!)
We all look gorgeous in the nude
I've got a face
I've got a place
I've got a life
I've got a name
And I need stuff
And you need stuff
And all our stuff
Is not the same
And we will strive.
And we will fail
And we'll get hurt
But we'll prevail
And it'll be joyous
And it'll suck
And I'll be lonely
And I'll be loved
And on the way
We will discover
We're not the same
But we're not the other
There's a life out there that I refuse to miss
I'm only remarkable because everybody is
And note to myself here.
https://news.designrush.com/apple-puts-accessibility-center-stage-2025
It's another good read.
Entry#497. 12/05/2025.
I’d love to share this blog entry in SpinalPedia website. (Please scroll down the page to find the title.) My husband was interviewed and it’s written very well. I simply love it. It is his latest thoughts + feelings + his perspective on life.
Title: Yoshi Tomoyasu: Researcher, Professor Returns to Academia Post-Injury
https://spinalpedia.com/yoshi-tomoyasu-researcher-professor-returns-to-academia-post-injury/
Then this happened almost at the same time.
My husband shared this video with me last night. It’s a new ad from Apple.
By the way, nowadays there are several accessibility features/apps (Accessibility Reader, Braille Access, VoiceOver, Sound & Name Recognition, and Live Captions). Did you know these? They are all eye-opening stuffs to myself.
Apple celebrates
1) students with disabilities
2) assistive technology
and 3) Apple features many people with actual disabilities.
My very first impression was “Whoa, wow, this looks just like a big movie trailer!” And then I feel so much compathy/empathy even though I’m an able bodied person. Plus I am still impressed and admire how people with disabilities live.
Title: I’m Not Remarkable
I nod a lot when they say “I’m not remarkable.” Also I would nod imagining they do hard things as well, just like we all people do. Yes, we do.
Here is an article.
https://warnercrocker.com/2025/12/02/apples-im-not-remarkable-ad-is-more-than-remarkable/
I’d love to watch “the behind the scenes” video if there is. I’d watch this ad video repeatedly, maybe everyday. It’s that much wonderful really. What do you think of it?
Do you see? It's already over 12M views!!!
Entry#496. 12/04/2025.
Title: THIS IS US. A new version of The end of semester gathering (in Pearson Hall).
And a take-2. I was able to be in the photo thanks to a researcher friend of the next lab who speaks Japanese.
A little bit of backstory here. I love throwing a lab party at our house. As you know about my family, we don't have a big family Christmas (nor Thanksgiving) in the states. My Christmas is always Lab gathering. And I can say loudly that "It's our Tradition!". We haven't missed it since my husband formed his lab in this town, except for two-times; the Pandemic time + the time of our beloved boy-dog, Ranger's passing.
However at this time, my husband and I discussed and he came up with a new idea.
Instead of gathering in our house, we did have a gathering party in Pearson hall at the space next to the lab. Plus my husband invited two other labs. These 3 labs are located in the same one floor (open lab structure), they share spaces. They call each others "their neighbor".
FYI:
CP lab
https://sites.google.com/miamioh.edu/c-p/home#h.932kspgtp7bd
Li lab
https://zhengli1688.weebly.com/team.html
So, my husband invited them "Let's get together." (In the past times, he did some similar events with different groups.) It was a casual potluck party. The final exam week is next week. Everyone is on the busiest mode (or mood). It turned out wonderful and fun more than we expected. I am all smiling.
The highlight was "Everyone got to know each other very much".
Every time I got a question of "Do you teach?", it made me giggle and smile, you know? I politely answer "No, I don't. I am a wife of my husband and that's it." But I am sure that I do sound too odd because I ask many questions to each of them related to their lab work or experiments including their model animals or plants. Well, that's me.
Also "my bad habit" happened again as usual. The Group Picture!! 3 labs members all together was a good challenge. Fun. Are you smiling? Happy Holidays, everyone.
12/03/2025.
Happy "Show week" to Talawanda high Drama club on performing "The Little Women the Musical" this Friday and Saturday. I believe all casts & crews are ready and super excited (plus happy). Good luck to all.
In honor of "The Musical show", I put another title of the musical which I discovered very recently. The title is "Tuck Everlasting the Musical". Do you know about this?
One of my biology-professor-friends posted about a graphic novel of Tuck Everlasting. Then I found out there was a novel book of Tuck Everlasting (published in 1975!). I'm bad. I've not read it before. Now I know about it.
And it was so interesting that I discovered that the Musical show version of Tuck Everlasting. Did you know that? I'm getting curious more. P.S. Oh, there is a movie of this in 2002. It is surely a famous and popular title. Why didn't I know of it?
As you know, I'm a Musical lover deeply. Also I'd love to watch any "rehearsal" show if there is any chance. I'd say I love watching rehearsal more than actual show, maybe. Funny, isn't it?
12/02/2025.
I love Winter Wonderland. Yes, our town turned into a Winter Wonderland today.
12/01/2025.
You might already get tired of hearing about Pentatonix in December in my blog. It looks I post about them every December. Really funny. Then it makes me think "How much new generation people know Pentatonix in 2011??" They were formed as A cappella group in 2011, 14 years ago. They are really active right now and very popular. Did you know that each of them got married and became a mom/dad, making families. Amazingly successful life in the music world. I love their latest Christmas song "Christmas in the city". How do you think?
Are you ready for Christmas?
These below are from 2011.
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