Already broken your New Year's resolution? Let me guess. You have yet to start dieting, and saving money is impossible during this season of "o-toshidama" and company parties to start the new year.

Don't worry. There are plenty of other ways to make a fresh start in the new year. You might try, for example, redecorating you house -- "gaijin" style. And I'm not talking about the natural urge to build cupboards, closets and attics.

Although I enjoy my own Japanese-style house, I have to admit that there are times when a little change is due. A decade of sitting on the floor, for example, inevitably leads to Kotatsu syndrome. This happens every year around midwinter, when you have sat under the kotatsu so long and gotten so used to cutoff blood circulation to your legs that you have started sympathizing with the practically legless "kotatsu" table. Your elbows and wrists ache from constantly leaning on them, and your body reminisces of the back support you so enjoyed in your home country.