I have started a couple posts, but I am just too tired to really finish them. So for now, I want to extend my best wishes to you for Thanksgiving Day.
Thanksgiving is a special day for Americans. It is a day when we remember how grateful we are for the gifts we have. Yes, we can easily focus on what we don’t have, or what is not going right, but there is so much to be grateful for in our lives.
I have several things I would like to share, including upcoming plans, hopes, dreams, worries, and recent experiences. But the most important thing to share with you now is gratitude. As the holiday season begins again, let’s try to take the spirit of this time and keep it alive all year. After all, we shouldn’t really need a special day to be thankful; it should be something that we feel in our hearts every day.
Sorry, I don’t mean to sound preachy and didactic. Just a thought. Best wishes for a Happy Holiday. Although I cannot be with you in person, I am with you in spirit.
By the way, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Japan, but it is a national holiday: 勤労感謝の日、which is the Japanese equivalent of Labor Day! Unfortunately, I have to teach one class at a high school for my company, but after that, I will be a free man for the rest of the day. (And I don’t have to go to the high school where I normally teach, so I am grateful for that!) 
on Nov 24th, 2006 at 10:49 pm
What do you mean “we” don’t celebrate Thanksgiving? You’re not Japanese
on Nov 25th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
Hmm..Are you really an English teacher?
Read the post again. I didn’t say “we Japanese”: I said, “We don’t celebrate it in Japan.” I am not Japanese, but I am in Japan. And I celebrate (or don’t celebrate in this case) holidays according to the calendar here. I let you off the hook when you commented about about not using Japanese to teach English, but I gotta bust ya here!