Amazing scenery all along the southern coast.
Who dat hippy blocking the view?
End of the year sunset.
I like Big Booties.
Showing the lads how it's done
Little bro workin' his magic
With wheels like this it's easy to pull
Adam and Aidi off-roading
Ronan givin' her the wellie
Little bit of flooding
My favourite holiday is near upon us and this year I like it even more because I'm too far away to buy anyone presents. I'll be missing out on the family cheer this year, as well as the Northern Irish tradition of getting stupidly drunk and brawling in the streets on Christmas Eve. But I'm sure I can make my own fun. 
I'll be seeing little brother Ronan and lying on a hot beach somewhere in Southeast Asia, so I can't really complain. Hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year. Remember to be extra nice to everyone and drive carefully.
My test is over and done with. It was never important, but it did stress me out and put me under pressure. My Japanese is still crap, but I feel great for 'trying' to study so much. I've never appreciated free time as much until this week. From now until January I'm doing nothing but fun things (oh, and work of course). My desk is now entirely devoted to snowboard magazines, novels and dirty cups (and there might a dirty sock there too, but it's not mine so I'm not touching it). Having free time again feels great. 
Going to hot springs after work, or out for a meal before watching a DVD are now guilt-free pleasures and, as I just said, it feels great. I guess it's kind of like being hungry for a while and then really appreciating some food when you finally get it. But in this case the hunger is the studying and the food is the books. Or maybe it's the other way around. Either way, it's a nice philosphy. Feel free to quote me on that.
I'm at the Elementary School today. I'd four classes in a row, which is one more than usual. Kinderdarten, Grade 2, Special Needs and Grade 1. Plus lunchtime was spent in the grade 1 classroom. So as you can imagine I'm absolutely knackered. These kids never cease to exhaust me. The highlight of the day is usually when a handful of first-graders decide what a great idea it would be two dive at me and then hook there arms around my ankles, thus forcing me to drag a chain of them as I walk back to the staffroom. This is always hilarious for the first minute or two, even for me. But as the energy is sapped out of me, and a couple of the more extreme six-year-olds actually try to climb up me, it gets exhausting.
I was talking to one of my brothers at the weekend. He started talking about the love of his life, a very beautiful girl from Slovakia. He talked and talked and talked. Oh, she sounds amazing. Anyway, as it turns out, apparently this beautiful and amazing girl and all her friends in Slovakia are very interested in Japan. And so they've been checking out this blog. Wow, I'm so pleased. It's now an international blog. 
Recently I started going to a Japanese class on friday nights. I thought it would help my motivation, but it hasn't. Rather, I think I'd learn much more studying alone in my apartment. The class is full of Chinese and Filipino ladies who came here when they married Japanese men. Most of the class seems to be spent gossiping in Chinese. I'm learning more Chinese than Japanese, but to be honest it's all starting to merge into one big 'I don't know what the f*** is going on anymore!!'
Last week, instead of our usual intensive study routine (haha) we learned how to make Japanese curry, in Japanese. This was a whole lot of fun. I wore my sexy apron to impress all the mothers and make the kids cry, and was sucessful on both accounts. Despite my participation the curry turned out really good and the night was a lot of fun.
Japan is a seasonal country. The Japanese people are very proud to have four seasons and when I first arrived here I was amazed at (and eventually sick of) how many times people proudly told me, "Japan has four seasons, how many does your country have?" But I've live through all four now and can completely understand why they are so proud. This place changes drastically and beautifully. With amazing leaf colours in autumn, tonnes of snow in winter, cherry blossoms in spring and sunny days mixed with typhoons and terrential downpours in summer. It blows me away. 
Yesterday was a public holiday in Japan. It was also Thanksgiving Day for all those Americans. I headed south to see some friends and eat a bunch o good food. There was even turkey and cranberry sauce so I was a happy chappy. As I was driving the sun was setting below the mountains. There’s no daylight savings over here so by 4 o`clock the colours were already spectacular. I pulled over and took a couple of snaps. Needless to say, neither my camera nor my skills can do justice to what I saw, but it was really beautiful to see such a picture above me as I drove on a long boring grey road. It literally looked like a painting. 
