damn you... i thought you were going to start of by telling us all about your plans for the coming 3 years but suddenly out of the blue it became a travel entry... hahahaha...

as for the garden.. it looks really nice indeed :S i'd really love to tour japan for its gardens.

the hole in the street doesn't seem to be made by an earthquake xD in this time of year holes in roads appear because the expansion of ice crystals in the surface of roads tends to loosen up the asphalt. so when you drive your car over it the car tends to peel off the road.. creating such holes.

And on your laptop.. i think it's just getting old.. nothing much you can do about it.. the problems you describe are definitely hardware problems, so there's not much use in formatting and cleaning up and stuff.