First of all i have a bit of an updated list of things for everyone to look at.

ive got two photo albums up on the internet:

http://www.bubbleshare.com/album/63238.53780cf3566
http://www.bubbleshare.com/album/63460.d089f057e46

ill be adding more as and when i take more photos

my videos are here: some are out of sync. hopefully at some point i can sort that out.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=jamesrharper

and my blog is here of course:

http://jamesrharper.blog.co.uk/

so i hope that i can write a message here every now and again so people can see what im up to. instead of me replying individualy to everyones emails.

so right now im in this nice little internet restaurant. its basically about 2 quid an hour for internet. which is pretty good cos you get free drinks in the time you use on the internet. but its eating into my budget a lot. theyve got a huge library of japanse comic books which i cant read. loads of computers. one guy is sat next to me on the computer with a full course meal in front of him as well as a book.

(ill take this time to apologise for spelling mistakes. i dont have to much time to do a proof read)

ok so thats where i am now. my apartement is about a 2 minute walk so not bad. we:ve yet to be given opur bikes which will make the trip even better. the small shop called lawsons is even closer which is ok but expensive. there is a supermarket a little further on too.

yesterday we had dinner at a chinese restaurant. tasted pretty good. maybe ill start eating japanese cuisine soon. food is pretty unusual here as i thought. the hardest thing is knowing what you like and eating cheaply. it is pretty expensive here. maybe ill setup a donations section to this blog. hopefully it wont come to that.

im at the hospital tomorrow. i get to meet the director, which is apparently a big thing. i better get eevrything right. this leadds me nicely onto a new section im going to add to this blog;

the japanese person offendimeter

so far the offendimeter is on one... i walked into my apartement with shoes on and nami tojo or tojo-san got properly cheesed off. so much for me thinking they might be forgiving. she had been nice and quiet all day and then she kinda shouted. oh well.

so i have offended one japanese person so far...therefore

offendimeter = 1

ive had some low times here. you do kinda feel alone. very few people speak english. im pretty grateful luke is here to talk to. but now im on a proper high. im enjoying talking to japanese people. everything is getting funnner and im looking forward to work and things.
so im glad im hear now. first few days were a bit shaky.

im going to say a big hello to as many people as i can now. if i missed you off its because you:re too good to for the list. expect your personalised special email any day now.

so hello to my mom and steve of course first. thanks for all support and such blah blah :p thanks for phoning too. i look forward to next one.

hey dad. hope you can get my email through janet. im having fun. say hi to william for me. he'd love it here.

hi grandma. hoepfully someone will show you this or maybe you have an internet cafe near you too. anyway hope you're feeling good and that yesterday want too difficult for you. i had my moment.

hi steve and rachel. i hope my email got through. thanks again for the money. much appreciated. although my plans for the money may have originally involved alcohol, the need for some food may be greater.

the barbers. hope you all had a good time at centerparcs. can you believe they dont do crabbing here. i tried asking where you can find crabbing lines and they got really confused. not impressed. not sure how easy webcam will be. theres none here. maybe when i can get settled ill find a place.
hi elliot, i hope school is going ok, keep working hard. hi harriety, i think you would be happy to know that my japanese phrase book is pink, maybe you can have it when i get back.

in no particular order...melodie, sam, sarah and sally. hi all. make sure you look after my mum. a few days off wouldnt hurt. thanks very much for your card. it takes its place on my rice cooker.

hey Sem, miss you loads. speak to you soon.

hello to all my friends. Jack, haz, ash, riki, nick, gunnny, wikum, niki, rachel, sam, nick, madu, ham, neil....
thanks for any emails or cards you gave. and thanks for those who came to see me the day before. made me feel pretty special.

hey Boots people. i was shocked to find that theres no boots here. ill soon change that. cant say i miss working yet. give it time though. thanks again for the cards and goody bag.

sorry if i cant email you all individually. hopefully you can leave comments on this page (should be a button somewhere). and then i can respond here.

ill keep posting here with things i do. just a quick summary of what ive done so far...

i arrived on wednesday morning in narito airport. i then spent three days in tokyo. staying at the international youth hostel. i went to akihabara which is called electric city. i have a video on my videos page. lights, noise and computers pretty much. plus lots of weird stuff to go along with it. we found an english pub which was hilarious.

we walked in and they said 'table for two' and then got proper confused when we asked if we could just sit at the bar. the head on our carlsberg (we had some japanese beer after) took up half the glass. asking for less froth was pretty funny. we got laughed at anyway.

we also went to a shrine and a place called haku joku. japans fashion district. incredibly weird. spaceman outfits, plastic nurse costumes seem to be the order of the day. goths, punks all there. very weird.

we got the shinkansen or bullet train on friday to nagoya. very smooth and pretty fast. we've got the wwkend off and im going to hospital tomorrow.

ill try and keep you updated as much as possible. until then...

dewa mata

james