It Was Like A Dream

Hello there








You join us on the other side of the fun and games of holiday and now it's a much darker colder place!!!








Japan is getting progressively colder (a small difficulty when living in a paper house) and working with cucumbers has been fairly tiresome (I don't think there will be a "Cucumber Special"). But worst of all is the fact that I have less than 2 weeks here and I don't feel ready to leave yet. Amyeric the Frenchman and Marc the Canadian felt the same way when they left. The place just seems to slowly work its way into your brain.































The realising of this happened at an exceptionally magical rave in the mountains that Noritaka and myself had been looking forward to for some time. The Full Moon Party did me no favours in getting me out of my state of indecision. It was heavenly, set in the beautiful, ski resort mountains of Minikame and the party area was reached by following a majestic river to a forest grove. It all sounds cliched but as Noritaka put it, it really was like a dream (especially due to the fact that we didn't arrive until 1AM and didn't get home until 7AM) I met even more of Noritakas friends another incredibly fun bunch that I don't want to leave behind.











It was one place I will never forget, Noritaka now refers to it as "heaven" and he isn't far off. There is a plan to go again but it cuts very fine to the point when I am supposed to be leaving and you always run the risk that the second time won't be as good. Better to leave it in its own perfect, untarnished bubble, although it was slightly tarnished by... yep that's right you guessed it drunk Americans!!! I am sorry to keep banging this drum but I don't think I have seen one slightly tipsy American in Japan that hasn't fallen over, stripped naked or talked so noisily that the whole place has to listen to them!!!

There was also a traditional "me and my truck" trip to Nikko on my day off which was very similar to Kyoto but more mountainous:

At this point I have the chance to live for another 6 months in Japan. Conveniently Noritaka needs a flat mate in Tokyo (at 130 squids a month its a real bargain) and I am in love with the idea of heading off to the big city to find fame and fortune with nothing but a stick and handkerchief to hold my modest belongings ... but maybe that's a little too fairy tale like.

Either way I will be happy. If IAEA don't show up with the goods I have a very appealing back up plan, if they do then I will probably still go to NZ, not a bad situation to be in.