the rooster crows

While the US is busy setting up for Thanksgiving and Christmas, Japan has begun its Christmas and New Year’s preperations. I almost tripped over workers setting up Christmas tree displays in the grocery yesterday, and I was accosted by helpful postal workers selling New Year’s postcards at the Post Office.

The coming of the New Year in Japan means mainly one thing for me: I get to find out what the next animal in the twelve year Chinese zodiac cycle is. 2003 was the Sheep, 2004 the Monkey, 2005 the Rooster, and 2006…The Year of the Dog.

I, being born in the year of the Rooster, was particularly attached to the 2005 animal. In fact, because 2005 was the third time in my life I had experienced the Rooster, it often came to my attention that I would be two times twelve years old this year. As a result, when people asked my age I sometimes mistakenly told them twenty-four, since during this Eastern calandar Year of the Rooster I have reached the easily calculatable twenty-fourth year of my life.

And here we come to the real reason for this post. As of today, November 10th of the Western calandar, I have actually become the twenty-four years old that I told people I was. So, sometime today while you are sitting around at work, blow me a kiss and wish me a long life, good fortune, and a Happy Birthday.