Happy Birthday to...me.

Well, I'm back. ¥18,000 (~$175) in for the new hard drive, ¥19,800 (~$190) for the old drive "repair", and I'm back in the saddle again. The good news is my new hard drive is almost three times as big (80Gb compared to 30Gb) as the last one. I also bought a 40Gb external drive, for a back-up, from former upstairs neighbor and all-around cool guy Conrad (mad props. yo.) who so kindly left about 17 million songs on it for me to peruse. Sweet as.

Anyway, yes, today is/was my birthday; the second of such anniversaries I have spent here. Man, the time flies! It's hard to believe I've been here just about 14 months already! Well, today was pretty non-eventful for the most part; even forgot it was my birthday until I was doing a lesson on talking about news reports, and when prompted a student replied that today was the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. *sigh* Right. Same day. That's how I remember.

BUT, work was over quickly - surprisingly so - and I was off like a light, came back home, chilled a bit, took a shower, then headed off to the hospital to see my friend Elaine...

...but that story is getting ahead of itself.

After the hospital, I met up with the wonderful Jo for drinks at a rooftop restaurant in Kanayama. She is such a sweet thing; she got me Murakami's "Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World" and a card (which far outshines my own meager offering of Austin Powers on VHS for her birthday), and also delivered a card from her mother, who had somehow remembered me. Bless. To Jo's mum, Mrs. H--, you've raised a wonderful young woman. Thank you.


My computer has just informed me that it has just passed 'late' and moved into 'ungodly', so I'll draw this to a close. Take care and be blessed in this next year; I'll write more soon, it's been a busy month.

-the older, wiser Thom In Japan


New updates will include:










SUMO: Rock You Like A Hurricane











FUJI-SAN: The Roof of the (Japanese) World











AND MANY OTHERS...