I have been writing Christmas cards by hand and sending them to my relatives and friends overseas for many years now. The time I spend writing messages while thinking of the recipient is a truly precious time for me.

Last week was the first time in a long time that I had many opportunities for face-to-face meetings, and I felt the importance of meeting in person.

The other day I was invited by one of my ex-pat friends to visit a “rooster market” for the first time.

Last week I held a year-end premier edition of my 7-Day “Boost Your Efficiency” Challenge, and I also had my individual ongoing coaching sessions over the weekend on both days.

My aunt was temporarily back from the U.S., so I went with her last week to visit our family grave. She moved to the U.S. 58 years ago, the year of the Tokyo Olympics in 1964.

When you’ve been “adulting” for a while, it’s easy to kind of just keep doing things even if we don’t really know what we’re doing… whether that’s because we feel too stupid to ask, or we’ve just been doing things a certain way.

With the start of November, I feel that the end of the year is quickly approaching. I still feel that these last couple of months are hectic, but it is also an exciting time of year.

I went to Kyoto on a sudden impulse for an overnight stay - it’s been quite a while since I had last visited.

These days, there are many different tools for communication: social media, Facetime, chat, etc. But are we really communicating?