Today we went to lunch in the usual pizza restaurant, and as usual spent hours in there talking and drawing in the scrap books they have (probably designed for small children, not us). I discovered Russian tea, which is normal tea, except it comes in little china cups and a teapot like proper English tea, with a little silver milk jug, and a little pot with marmalade to make it sweet. It was heavenly!!

We met an ex-student who I haven`t seen since they left, which was exciting. He had changed loads, and really grown up. Now he is working for the local railway company, and has had a change of haircut and a complete personality transplant.

I also got to have a long talk with Moo, who I haven`t seen in ages. He had bought a wicked t-shirt in the bargain bin at Daiei. It had an angry looking man drawn in a traditional style, and it said 「ふざけるな」 (fuzakeruna), which roughly translates as "don't mess with me!". Well, all the Japanese people thought it was hilarious.















In the evening we were supposed to have a bbq. However, most people were leaving the country in a few days, and realised that still having the entire contents of their flat on the floor was not good. So in the end it was just 5 of us, so we cooked the meat on the little table grill, and then went and played with fireworks in the usual life-threatening Japanese way.