There was another surprise visit today - 
 by this kind, old man:

He brought my favourite beer, "a winter's tale" - a six-pack(!) - accompanied by the beverage's best friend, two packs of chips! Thanks so much, ladies, for telling Santa about my "craving"!
The girls responsible for this pleasant surprise today hid under the names Kelsey, Courtney, Christina, Kelly and Ashley!
Of course, I love you all! 
Kelsey from Scandinavia needed a little "geography brush-up" about her origin, just for your info!
Ashley enjoyed some British English when watching the latest episode of Harry Potter, being busy at the same time following the Japanese subtitles. Apparently, she was a little disappointed as the main actor was "no sweet young boy" anymore! Also, the story was a little complicated to understand.
Courtney visited Kotosanzan in Shiga for autumn leaves, and had a nice, trouble-free day out. She did tell us about some happenings from a previous tour when a group of "Obanchans" got lost, and came back late! 
Christina brought in the story (which I had just read before the Cafe actually) about a man who got caught speeding in London, and two years later got caught again in New Zealand by one and the same traffic policeman (who had moved to New Zealand and had become a policeman again). This IS coincidence, isn't it? You can read more here.
Kelly told us about her romantic winter she's spending with her very old style Kotatsu,heated with charcoal! It's probably a lot cheaper than its' electric counterpart, there's just one drawback: It requires about 20 minutes to get the cozy area under the blanket to warm up.

We enjoyed this:

 


Today's sweet were German-style "Lebkuchen", which translates into English as Ginger-bread cake, although ours don't contain any ginger. They do, however, provide a nice Christmas feel, and look like this:



It was a nice, cozy & warm time, please come and enjoy the Christmas atmosphere here at the Cafe!

The "Master"
 
P.S. By the way - does anybody know what "auxiliary" means?