So...I'm here, and let's get it out of the way straight away; Japan is fucking outstanding, there's not a person I don't meet, a corner I don't turn, or a thing I don't see where I fail to be anything short of humbled, overfilled with cannyapathy, or totally gobsmacked. Koriyama is hardly even mentioned in any guide book on Japan, aside from being a gateway to somewhere else, but in truth it's massive, about 5 times the size of Newcastle, possibly more (although that might have something to do with me getting lost every day)I'm finding it hard to explain exactly what it is that I love so much, most of it usually involves me going on bike rides by the river during the day where, despite being so close to the city, everything is really peaceful, and then coming back on a night time, when I love bombing through the back alleys with there being only a little bit of light, and loads of really fun, downhill shortcuts, it makes me feel like I'm in the Goonies a bit too. In all I spend most of these times cycling around, saying out loud 'this is abso-lutely fu-cking brilliant!' with a massive smile on my face.

My job so far is pretty cool, I get on really well with my boss, and I had my first lesson today with intermediate students. Aside from saying 'spot on!' and them looking at me like I was a pigeon in a top hat, or something else peculiarly arbitrary, and then being asked what the difference between 'everyone' and 'anyone'is, and having to think on the spot, I think I did OK. Everything is about the students having fun, which helps a lot, and though doing everything in a conversation, you soon realise that you've taught a lot more than was originally intended.

Conversely, my Japanese is still absolutely shocking, and aside from saying please, thank you, excuse me, and after you, I'm pretty much a useless article. I'll get better though.

I'll wrap it up here before I start to babble. Next week I think I'm going to mosey on down to the township of TOKYOOOOOOOOH! So I imagine that will bring plenty to talk about. Shi goto o shi mas.

Oh aye, and christ, 50 inch HD tellies for 300 squids. Fuuuuuuurk.