Happy new year! I’ve just returned from a two week vacation to the United States and am back at work in Tokyo. It’s good to be back, but lots of changes are taking place for me this year. I’m looking forward to it.
To start off the new year, I wanted to share something with readers I’ve been meaning to do for a while now. Every night when I walk home, I pass a shrine. There’s a signboard posted in front of the shrine where I assume priests post a message for passerby. The message is always written as a haiku. As I walk home at night, I read it and try to guess what it means. It changes fairly often, so I thought it would be fun to share with you, readers. This is the message for the new year:
It reads “Kyokujitsu ni/mayoi no kumo wo/harau asa.” I’ve translated this as “In the morning sun, hesitant clouds are swept away for dawn.”
I thought this might be a nice message to start off the new year. Of course, if you have an alternate translation of the above haiku, please let me know.
Hope you’re all off to a great start in 2012. I’m looking forward to an excellent year.
