Well the main river was flooding; it’s calmed down a bit now. It was kind of wierd watching the centre of Kofu (nearest big town) on NHK news last night. Some of the teachers got evaquated for a couple of hours and the Minobu line (local train line) is out. To me this sounds normal … Read More

Its the twenty third of the season and it’s a big one. You may have noticed occasional blips in my entries since I got here; that’s because typhoons have hit the coasts and islands and my net access has been knocked for six. Something wierd happened to the phonelines last night as well. So according … Read More

People who know me will be aware of the rather disturbing fascination I have with people doing impressions of the little worm from Labyrinth giving directions to Sarah(`The castles That way`) and of the sketch from a Duckula episode (basically a reworking of Abbott and Costello’s `Who’s on first` for those philistines who don’t remember … Read More

I’ve been here almost for three months. Still no trace of the phantom homesickness. Drat the thing why don’t I get homesick? Three months. I have no idea if I want to recontract or not. A quarter of a year was what my Grandma said the other weekend. An eighth of the time I will … Read More

Take my Quiz on QuizYourFriends.com! Go on, how much do you know about me?

The Dante’s Inferno Test has banished you to the Seventh Level of Hell!Here is how you matched up against all the levels: Level Score Purgatory (Repenting Believers) Low Level 1 – Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers) Very Low Level 2 (Lustful) Extreme Level 3 (Gluttonous) Moderate Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious) Moderate Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy) … Read More

This weekend was supposed to be great; me myself and I, relaxing no people just time to write and talk online, cook a little, maybe bake a little, post some letters and potter with my plants…so much for that. I should’ve known on Friday that this weekend was just destined to be shitty. On Friday … Read More

I don’t like it. Well to be more acurate, I don’t like SG-1. I had this gut reaction to the episodes that I saw before leaving Britain but was unable to accurate defend this reaction. I don’t like that. So every evening (more or less) I have sat down in front of the TV and … Read More

It has gotten markedly easier for my elementary pupils to win stickers as of today. I have an introduction to The United Kingdom (which is really four countries: pause for gasps and cries of `honto?`) which I have now done for over four hundred pupils; only five hundred more to go, this is taking so … Read More

I sometimes wonder about how I personally define real. Skimble and I went to watch bunraku today which is traditional Japanese puppetry. The sets are elaborate and the puppets are about a third the size of real life. In fact all the puppets are are maskand wig with clothing and hands. There was an explanation/demonstration … Read More