What a thoroughly lame blogger I am.

Truth is, too much has been happening, and not always in a good way.

The good things are these: I have two Japanese classes a week now - a conversation class and a vocabulary/kanji cramming class. Reason being; I've decided to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in December. I'm going for level 3, which means I'm skipping the beginner level. Rather arrogant of me perhaps, but my reasoning is that studying for a level that may very well prove to be beyond me is will force me to learn things I'd otherwise allow myself to avoid. It's true, I'm a lazy student. Solo study often sucks so this is the motivation I sorely need.

Also, I'm maybe falling in love. In a different language. 志穂美 is a great girl. I can't fight cynicism any longer. There's a thousand reasons I can't ever leave Japan now, and she's almost all of them.

And besides, I've realised either age, or Japan, or the ongoing battle with mosquitoes and cockroaches, or the recorded voice at the ATM, or the tune the rubbish truck plays at 7am, or all of these things, have conspired to chip away at my long cultivated aloofness.

I have no clue what point I'm making here.

And it seems I might never have to leave Japan, or at least, not soon. A recent conversation over ramen suggested that, should I wish to stay and teach after the JET contract terminates, a visa sponsor might be available. Good to know. Will now mull.

And the bad reasons for my constant failure to update? Here's one for your respective pipes - smoke it at your leisure. A couple of nights ago I was detained for 7 hours in the company of Wakayama's finest for an incident it would be unwise to describe here. I did a dumb thing. Some would say, a very dumb thing. But perfectly correct at the time. 'My' statement ran for six pages. If there's a next time, I was told, it's the first plane back to England for me. No charges were pressed.

Think I'll stay home and study a bit more. Maybe.