Back at the whacky keyboard at Root Down. This has been one of the busiest couple of weeks ever; we're really shortstaffed and I have been working full shifts non-stop... 10 days in a row and counting. I'm not whining... much. OK, yes I am. I'm tired! I want to go to a hanna-mi party (cherry blossom viewing)! I want to sleep in and then hang out for a whole day in my jammies! Ahhh. Venting complete. On the plus side, I am healthy, I love my job, and the weather has been pretty good. And obviously, I am not too tired to go out to the bar! Tonight is Ken's goodbye party. He's going back to Tasmania. It's too bad, I didn't get to know him very well. But he did sell me his stereo for cheap, so I can't help but be thankful for him!

Since I'm woefully behind on the updates, I'll fill you in via (somewhat) brief point-form.

* My new room-mate, Joanna, arrives from England on the 13th of April. I don't know anything about her, and I'm a little nervous.

* Ume's visit was a blast. I found out how to say Screw Off in Japanese; two versions, the polite, and the not-so-polite. Unfortunately, I don't remember either one. I also just learned that when I thought I was saying "nevermind," I was saying "danger". No wonder my kinder kids looked so scared... Ume also taught me about the whole ummm... size-issue thing. You know, the rumor about small Asian packages? Apparently, the reciprocal Japanese belief is that they are smaller, but much firmer. (!) Which seems to be the case with all packaged goods in Japan, now that I think about it.

* My bike was confiscated from in front of the train station and carted away to a bike impound the last time I blogged... whilst I was blogging, in fact. This resulted in a taxi ride to an unfamiliar part of town, finding the scary bike-barn, paying a fine to the scary man, and getting a scary scolding for parking illegally. Then I continued from there along the base of Mt Bizan to find my way home, and had a thoroughly good adventure. I visited many shrines and temples and cemetaries. I stopped at one with a Kitsune shrine (the fox-woman spirit) and as I was leaving, was approached by a (nice, polite) young guy. He's now kinda my unofficial language exchange partner; we text-message each other regularly. He's learning more English than I am Japanese.

* I went to Bubu' s house for dinner (the Okonomiyaki guy)... it was wonderful! Many women were there, Bubu being a kinda comical patriarch for the young university students that come to his shop. He did a 'fortune telling' for me. I am an Intelligent Ape. He is an Elegant Cheetah. Another girl was a Strange Pegasus... Yeah. I don't get it either! Anyway, we ate do-it-yourself sushi and tempura and drank beer until we were all satisfied. Bubu's wife and a couple of the girls wanted to touch my hair, so I let them. This prompted Bubu to ask if he could touch a couple of other things... you can guess what! My friend Norm says that you can take the nicest Japanese man, get him drunk, and then all he wants to do is touch boobies. I've found what works best is just to excalaim, "Yeah! They ARE big, aren't they!" and this seems to embarass them into submission. Anyway, no harm, no foul, and no booby-touching.

* I have a couple of great new routes to and from work-- much safer, and more scenic. I can see the changes in the fields and the ...

OK. I'm being coerced off of the computer; Jon wants to use it. Besides, I did say 'point form' didn't I? Until I have a day off...

Namaste

Endrene