Two Halves - Same Coin, part 4

Let's get the bad news out of the way first: there was no trip to the DMZ today. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was because of this:

That's right, North Korea was closed due to bad weather. It's difficult to be angry, though, as we did get to chat with the lovely Japanese (yes, Japanese) staff at the travel office, and meet our tour guide for tomorrow, when we shall try again. I'm pretty confident this time.

So, today started with breakfast at Starbucks, Pourtoi bakery and Doughnut Plant in that order. The latter was a particularly good find, with doughnuts the size of your head and muffins like great volcanoes on sale. I had a cream cheese... thing, which was exceptionally nice.

Good stuff. Next we moved on to the tourist information booth we visited last time, eager to find something to do with our vast expanse of free time that preferably took place outside of Seoul for a change. The result was a trip to the Traditional Korean Village, Asia's Black Country Museum. The way underfoot was sludgy and slippery, and there weren't many people there at all, but that's their loss as the place looked simply stunning.

The place was much bigger than I'd thought, almost an amusement park in fact, with its own restaurants (about 5 of them) and souvenir shops alongside the preserved 19th Century houses. The actual exhibition (I guess you can call it that) was actually really good, and you could go right into any of the buildings and take a snoop around. There were also funny animals, which always wins me over. The souvenir shop was also a hit, surprisingly, with almost over-eager staff members ready to sell you pretty much anything. Picked up a Western rifle that shoots rubber bands and a present for a certain someone to celebrate a certain milestone. Naturally, the rifle was a present to myself. There's also one ace picture of Steph and I in traditional clothing (Mark's yellow belly got in the way of a full Team Korea photo) which shall be viewable the moment one of us finds a scanner.

Next we set off to Meong-dong once again so I could buy shoes. You should have seen my poor Shoe Zoners, sodden the whole way through; it was a sad sight indeed. But I can't much complain: I now have my very first pair of Converse, which makes me cool! Right? I'll tell you what is cool, though, and that's that they cost a mere £20. Aw yeah.

In the end we spent upwards of two and a half hours on the subway, having gone the wrong direction a number of times and in the end resolving that it was simply less hassle to just go the full loop round. It is now 1.30am, and we've not been back that long. But the fact that the trains were still running at that hour is praiseworthy, as is our new Korean friend who wanted to ask us about why we came to Korea. You wouldn't get many Japanese people doing that, I don't think; I'd certainly have real difficulty mustering up the courage.

Tomorrow is the DMZ, honest so another early start. Expect lots of pictures of stuff that isn't North Korea. Other plans include the evening service at the world's largest church. After that, though, it's back home to Kyoto on Friday, and one early flight.

Thanks for reading. This time it may really be my last.

*****

秋のアニメシーゾンはもうすぐ終わります。残念ですよね？確かに、面白いと思うシリーズが三つぐらいだけあるけれども、バントラーの終わりを楽しむつもりです。そして、「こばと」もおもしろかったから、最後のエピソードを見たいです。

ピート、がんばります！！

Two Halves - Same Coin, part 3

Okay, I'll admit it, we didn't do a great deal today. Over half of the day was spent searching for the flipping USO, a problem which could have been solved a great deal faster if Seoul only had one Outback Steak Restaurant, and not three. THREE!! How many do you need?!

So, let's do this one step at a time.

I woke up at an okay-ish time of 10, yet waited around for 2 hours for Bill and Ben to wake up and get ready to go. In that time I researched our biggest and most dramatic plan for the week: visiting the DeMilitarised Zone (the 'DMZ') on the border between North and South Korea. After attempting to call the USO, the company the runs the cheapest and widely regarded as 'best' tours, and getting an angry Korean voice instead, we set off to search for it ourselves. Breakfast (in a way) at Dunkin' Donuts and then off the the City Hall where the maps said it should be. Only it wasn't, obviously, because there are too many Outback Steak Houses in Seoul. In the end we asked at one of the multitude of Tourist Information booths around Myeong-dong and were off to Itaewon (self-described tourist trap) where we managed to find it without much hassle. Really nice place, the USO, with massive leather chairs and a big screen that shows CNN and stuff. The staff were ace as well, though it didn't change the fact that you need to reserve about a month in advance rather than a couple of days.

On our way to Itaewon proper to grab dinner we passed the Korean War Museum. It struck home, I guess, just how little I know about these two countries and what they went through, and I have since decided to learn all I can about what happened. The Museum, though we didn't go in, is a very impressive building, and even without going in there's a massive amount to see.

We moved on, as we were famished by this point, to Itaewon. The sight of so many classic foreign chains on one street was pretty mind-blowing, I can assure you, but we silently agreed to attempt to be more adventurous and ended up in Curry Town. We, and nobody else, not one soul. It seems Koreans must eat dinner later than we western infidels, as from when we arrived at 6 to when we left at 7 not a single person came into the shop. I had a fish masala, incidentally, which was super-nice but for the mountains of bones I had to extract from it.

Then we went across the road for dessert, to a little pie shop run by a Frenchman pretending to be an American. Good prices and incredible pies on sale, there, and milk that didn't taste like Japanese milk.

Ooooooooooh.

Eh?

Anyway, by then it was snowing, and we headed off to the alleged Tourist Information booth in Itaewon to seek out DMZ tours that weren't full up. And that's literally all we had to ask for. We're on the tour tomorrow. Incredible. There were slight hiccups involving a supposed 'Dress code' which stated no denim, but according to the tour guides on the phone it wouldn't matter so long as they "didn't have holes in them". Well, whatever they say. They'll be the ones keeping us out of firing range, after all. Another thing they mentioned was that one of the tour spots (which include war bridges, monuments and, most impressively, North Korea itself) would not be available due to "military troubles". Sounds exciting, huh?

On the way home we checked out a massive book store near the palace. Mark got a Rachmaninov CD, Steph got some CDs of some Korean prettyboys, and I got 5cm per Second. I tell you, cheap-tastic this country is. Cheap as chips.

Need to be at a certain hotel at 9am tomorrow, which may not be possible for Tweedledum and Tweedledee, so I may get some sleep. That or stay up aaaaaaall night beefing up Ushiro the Venusaur, which is also possible.

This may well be the last entry I make, so thanks for reading.

*****

あぁ、腹減った！！ダンキンドーナツのキムチクロケを食べたい！

以上！

Two Halves - Same Coin, part 2

Today's adventure began with breakfast: a nostalgic trip to Dunkin' Donuts right near our local bus and subway station. The selection is pretty, actually very alarming, with cheese and garlic doughnuts alongside the more traditional iced ones. Cheese doughnuts are an unusual taste, I'm sure you can guess, and not one I really got used to, but it was the experience that counted. From there it was off to the palace, or so we thought.

Due to feeling financially vulnerable, we decided to head there on foot, about 5 kilometres of Seoul's charming skyscraper forest, in an attempt to save money. It shall not be my fondest memory of the city, let me tell you. Street after street of concrete, noisy drivers, incomprehensible signs and construction works. Ooh, were there a lot of those.

Fortunately it was not the only side that Seoul had to offer, and having reached the City Hall and acquired a map or ten we finally got through to classmate Miji, who with her infinite kindness and compassion decided to show us around her city. From Meong-dong, a bustling shopping street, we headed towards the mountains in south of the city and the many monuments, museums and embassies that were situated there.

By this point we had forgotten about lunch and were feeling pretty hungry, so Miji took us to a secluded little eatery near the war memorial, a place that served almost exclusively vegetarian food. It was nice to have choice. My meal was soba noodles with 'bibim', vegetables in spicy kimchi sauce, and was exquisite. We also partook of Korean spirits before leaving, and thanks to my two years of training I was able to impress the Koreans in that department.

By this point it was getting pretty dark, so we went down to the picturesque riverside (site of nonsensical monster movie The Host) for a stroll. It was intensely cold, but the view was pretty spectacular.

It may not sound like we've had a very full day, but I can tell you now it felt like at least a week's worth of stuff. All that walking, all those monuments. And only 10,000 won spent. Result.

Thanks for reading. More again tomorrow.

*****

韓国人は優しいですね。ミジさんとソールを歩いていて、時々道を知らなくて人を聞くけど、いつもその人は優しかったです。そして、帰るあいだにパンやに行って、無料なクリームパッフをいただきました！本当に優しいですね！

Two Halves - Same Coin, part 1

Today I came to Korea.

Now, having never been to Korea before, I was a little lost at what to expect. To be quite honest, up until fairly recently I guess I didn't really believe that Korea was a real place, just some made-up fantasy kingdom out there to the east. The idea of going to Korea felt a little like going to Neverland; it still hasn't really sunk in.

But you'll be pleased to know that Korea did exist, and that it's really not that different to Japan. Enter a shop and the 'keepers all call out a cheery 'Welcome', you press the button on your table to call service and pay at the register at the front of the shop, combinis exist. It's just that all of these things occur in a language I haven't the faintest knowledge of. Well, perhaps not so faint any more; I have a notebook with phrases that might come in handy, and its not so hard to pick out key words from the people that talk at you.

But all is not pleasant and green in this funny country. When I came here this morning... scratch that, yesterday morning, I emptied my Japanese bank account on the belief that I could probably stretch that last 20,000 yen over the week, especially if the accommodation was a mere 3000 yen. Dear, oh dear, oh dear was I wrong. In a horrifying twist, it turns out the quoted price was the cost of the room per day, and that in actual fact the fee took about 90% of my lovely new money away from me. I currently have 2,000 wong to my name, that's about 200 yen, which is about £1.75. Fortunately, I still have 2 friends to mooch off of and the potential for more money to come flooding into the bank as soon as Shinkin get themselves in gear and give it to me.

Y'know, stuff here ain't as cheap as I thought it would be. Vitamin Water is about twice as expensive, for example, though Coke is about the same. Pepsi is actually slightly cheaper than Coke here. Donuts are cheap, mind, about 100 yen each. Pizza Hut (yes, yes. Western food. I'm beyond caring) still set us back about 4000 yen, so it's not all a land of value as I had been told. The people are nice, though, honestly so, and don't shy away from foreigners like the Japanese tend to.

Here's a video.

Airports are the same, you see.

The guest house is real nice. It's just a big house with a bunch of rooms, with the three of us in one of the slightly bigger ones. Everything's a bit faded and peeling slightly, but the atmosphere's genuinely nice. It's a nightmare to find, though. Here's another video to demonstrate:

The whole way we were convinced we were gonna get led down some alleyway and mugged. But we didn't, which was nice. Sometimes friendly gestures are exactly what they seem.

Well, I have a headache now. May not be sleeping for a while, don't feel like it.

Thanks for reading. Praying for better news tomorrow, when we scavenge Seoul for cheap things to do.

*****

問題ある。昨日カイオーガを探して、捕まえて、グラードンをダヤモンドから送った。二匹とオーキド博士のラボを訪ねて、ホウエンの幻のポケモンを見せた。その後、緑の玉をもらって、レックーザを探せるようになるとおもった。でも…　「どちもゴールドかシルバーからのポケモンじゃなければ、続けない」と言われた。

オーキドやろう！！

Shrine Maidens in drizzle cause Fatal KOs

Not a great deal to talk about, to be quite honest, but I've got a but of time on my hands and am feeling productive, so here's a short update on the last week.

So this time last week was a massively successful film night. And the Nabe! Wow, was that something special! Not content with the standard Nabe formula of 'put vegetables and oil and stuff in water and boil for a while', Sara, Mark and I took it upon ourselves to revolutionise the age-old Nabe formula.

Behold! Is it not the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?! It was worth the minor burns and potential for insurance-voiding fire to get it cooked, because wow was this thing good! All four of us struggled to finish it!

The film night itself was epic on the scale of nothing you will ever have seen. We'd all brought films to watch, though we never expected to watch them all. We got through about half of Princess Mononoke before we had to leave the common room as they were locking up, then continued the night run with Reservoir Dogs, Howl's Moving Castle and Serenity, the one film of the night I had never seen before. Must say it was quite good, and definitely fulfilled its purpose of making me want to watch the show. Let's just say, though, I was not surprised when I heard it was done by the same guy that did Buffy. I'll say no more. Sara left us early the next day, and we accompanied her to the station and to get breakfast from the bakery. Oh, did I mention we also bought Lawsons out of Big Thunders? I still have the box.

We returned home and, not wanting to end just there, watched the first Lord of the Rings film, with the intention of watching the other two some other day. We were really starting to fall now, but with intense perseverance we were able to get through. And then, hitting the second wind around lunch time, we decided to finish the set. McDonalds for dinner and back home to sleep at 10pm.

I've still not fully recovered.

And I'd better hurry up too, as the second night is on tomorrow, with special guest star Ben. The theme is aquatic this time, with Finding Nemo and Megashark vs. Giant Octopus on the cards, as well as Totoro and, if we can, some of the films from my 'Films Pete really should have seen by now' pile that we didn't hit last time (The Green Mile, Fargo, Enter the Dragon, Good Night and Good Luck).

What else? Oh yeah, Laura and Caroline came down from the capital to see us, which was fun. Went to Kiyomizu, Fushimi-Inari, Nijo Castle and the like, which was all good fun.

Oh yeah, I also got a job. Go me. Doesn't feel like it just yet, as the students are yet to come a'calling, and I've got Korea on Sunday so won't be available then.

Yeah, Korea. No excuse for not knowing now, eh? Finally had to accept a pitiful defeat and draw some money from the savings, something I was hoping to avoid. Can't be helped. And, I mean, it's Korea!

In other news...

Did anyone see this week's Kobato? I know I shouldn't have been surprised, but I really was. I mean, come on CLAMP, the series is over! Stop chucking your beloved Tsubasas all over the place and make some new characters!

Also gonna finally watch the last episode of Kara no Kyoukai today, which I absolutely adore at this point. The music is particular is simply spectacular. A little cliche-ridden to get it to the leaderboards, and that last episode felt a bit pointless. And that crazy high-school student eating a guy at the end? Cheers, ufotable, lost my appetite for a long time after seeing that.

Right, that's all I can think about for now. Gonna go yaki some soba.

Thanks for reading.

***

フシギダネ…ゼニガメ…ヒトカゲ…みんなゲットだった。子供の頃の願いが満たされていた…

じゃ、次はジェネレーションV！

Paper forms and verb forms

Another blog entry so soon after the last, what IS this world coming to?

Let's start with yesterday's church, which was especially good for a number of reasons. Firstly Mark wasn't there (I kid! It's a joke!). Also the preacher this week, to my utmost surprise, was female. I guess I'd just assumed that with the traditional setting and traditional hymns, Doshisha church's beliefs would be likewise somewhat traditional. But no, nobody seemed to have a problem with the woman, though I still can't remember her name. She gave an interesting sermon on the tenderness of the Holy Spirit, linking Jesus' torment in the desert to her own long-suffering allergies. It was easily understood, too, as she was using more conversational styles of Japanese that I was used to from lecturers. Also met another Christian fan of Gundam, which was simply superb. He likes Zeta and Wing, and was interested in hearing what I had to say about 00. Next week is udon week, so I hope to meet the guy again. Can't remember his name, either.

So today was important for two things. Firstly I was going to get my form (Urgh) handed in that states that I can get back into the country after leaving for Korea in March. Second was dissertational research.

The form in question looked almost identical to one I handed it not too long ago, the form for working part time with a student visa, so I assumed the procedure was the same. Collecting together my passport, alien card, student I.D. and the form itself, I cycled off to uni to hand them all in. I first cottoned on to things not being right when I gave the woman at the desk my form, and she looked at it blankly and asked 'What is this?' You should know, was my desired reply, you gave it to me on Saturday! After handing it round to seemingly everyone in the whole office, it tagged to someone that they don't deal with them, you have to hand them in at the Immigration office yourself.

...

So off I went, map in hand, to find the Osaka General Immigration Office (Kyoto Branch), which was apparently on Marutamachi street, east of the river. No problem, I thought, cycling off to the riverside, extra-specially nice in the spring sun. Did you know there two Marutamachi's, parallel to each other? I guess they wanted to save time in naming the streets so thought 'Hey, it's practically the same road!' So after walking down past the Kyoto City Hospital, which incorporates the Kyoto University Medical School so is massive, I realised my mistake and headed south by one to get to the desired street.

The Immigration Office lies of the fourth floor of a bigger building. Handing over my form to the woman at the desk (who spoke unnaturally quickly), I was told that it would cost 3000 yen to get the thing processed. Not that surprising, I had been told about this before, so I fished into my wallet for the money. But oh no, Japan wouldn't make it so simple for me. On seeing my actions, I was told that I can't actually pay with money.

....

Holding tight to Ticket No. 29, hoping beyond hope that it didn't get called before I got back, I rushed to the thankfully close post office to get a stamp. A stamp!! And with that I could pay the form fee. The people at the stamp shop, by contrast, were very nice, and even gave me some discount vouchers for the duty free shop at Kansai International as thanks for buying their stuff. And when I got back to the office, I found that No. 29 would never be called, because I first had to put the form, stamp attached, into the box at the desk. And they neglected to tell me this... why?! I had to watch someone who knew what they were doing (somehow) do it first before I realised!

So that's that sorted. Now I can leave Japan and still get back in again.

So there's this building called a Daikyoukai (lit. big church) right near the Immigration office. Looks Buddhist, but I really couldn't tell. And there were people living in it. For the life of me I could not fathom such a building's purpose. Was it a themed hotel? I had no idea! I spend ages walking around it out of simple curiosity (and hoping to put off the next task on the list) and could not find out what the people in the building were meant to be doing.

Anyone know what this is? Please, tell me if you do.

Okay, so the big challenge of today. I cycled off to Shimogamo Shrine, the local one, with my new dictaphone, and started asking people what 'Praying' was. I think it went quite well, all things considered, and Shimogamo is a much better place to spend 5 hours standing around than a lot of other places I could mention. I was also blown away by just how nice everyone seemed to be. Well, maybe not everyone, but enough to make it count. The first woman I interviewed, for example, could not have been more helpful, and used lots of lovely keigo for me to analyse when I don't feel so sleepy. There were a lot of similarly kind people around, but I couldn't interview them all. People with cameras, I decided, were out, because they obviously weren't just here to pray. Same went for couples (and why is it that shrines are big date spots, huh? Why aren't cathedrals the same?) as they may have influenced each other's choices (plus I'd feel like a third wheel). So I was targeting the people who went in without any kind of photo-taking device (which made me look like a thief), and anybody who bowed on their way into the shrine complex was a dead cert for interviewing. Oh, and these people were clearly out of the question:

What I found is that people DO use keigo when they talk about Shinto gods, which is helpful, and have some evidence to back that up with. Not enough, though. Not quite. So tomorrow's task will be the same as today's: find a shrine and quiz the occupants. Hopefully now that I've mustered up a bit more courage I can save a bit more time. After that I'll move on to Buddhist temples, and on Sunday do the same at church. The I'll get to writing the thing, which I'm looking less and less forward to. Say what you will, Miriam and Mits, I'm not convinced I can get all 8000 words written on just this topic. But hey, I'll give it my best. Maybe if I quote enough other people it'll rack that word count up.

Until tomorrow, then.

***

あぁ、結婚したいわぁ！＜３

Take those eggs back in time to before the expiration date; that way they're good to eat.

It's still the holiday, folks, and that means I haven't been doing much. But I have been doing something, I haven't been completely wasting my time away. Although some days that's exactly what it feels like.

A beautiful example: Yesterday I took my brand-new CV, a gorgeous sight to behold, and stuck it in an email with something approaching a cover letter. That email was then sent to a company that will remain nameless, because this anecdote does not turn out well for them. I cannot stress enough how many times I checked, double-checked and triple-checked that email (actually it was just one of each); I even sent it to myself once just to make sure it would come through alright. Then, at about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, off it went to, hopefully, my new employer.

So imagine my ballistic rage (the guys on MSN at the time shouldn't have to) when, at 10 o'clock at night, I thought I'd just have a little check in the inbox, just to make sure, and found a new email. And email that I had written just that day! My own email! Attached to it was a brief message from the anonymous internet postman telling me that the email address I sent it to did not exist, and though it would ishhoukenmei try and send it again every few hours it wanted me to know chance of success was small. Small like my patience!

What kind of stupid company, one that prides itself on communication skills none the less, attaches the wrong email to their help wanted ad?! Not just that, to their own flipping website?! Or maybe this was just some elaborate hoax set up by the Osaka Immigration Center, get me enticed by a great-looking job teaching kids English for 4,000 yen every hour and a half, and then remind me that, as a gaijin living in Japan, good things are not allowed to happen to me.

Needless to say, new offers have been sent out, and I sit and wait for the inevitable, familiar voice of the postman.

So that's an update of one of my Big Spring Responsibilities, now the other one. I'm actually quite happy with how the dissertation's going, at the moment. After three solid days (minus the time I spent sleeping until the mid-afternoon, you understand) of reading through often quite interesting linguistics papers on audience design and the role of keigo in style-switching, I was able to write a full 1,200 words of introduction that I am very pleased with. It's a wonderful feeling, knowing it's two weeks into the eight-week holiday, I've only spent a week working on it (if that), and only have 6,800 words left.

Mind you, now comes the really tricky bit, and the reason I was out on my bike for about five hours. I was dictaphone shopping, you see, and those things are both difficult -

Just been invited to a movie night. Sweet!

- both difficult to find and crazy expensive. What kind of hedonistic moron would buy a dictaphone for forty thousand yen? Forty thousand! For that I could pay the rent, health insurance and phone bill for a month and still buy a copy of Heavy Rain on the PS3 (a console I don't have, but would be seriously tempted to buy for that gorgeous-looking game). On the other hand, it's still only half of JASSO for a month, so maybe I shouldn't be the one complaining. The other end of the spectrum was a two thousand yen model which was essentially useless, as the files were recorded onto the 'phone and stayed there. By which I mean you couldn't put them onto the computer. And as the board of markers for Honours Linguistics dissertations is sure to want proof that I really did go and make a royal fool of myself for the purposes of linguistic science that's not going to help one bit.

Not that it really mattered anyway, as Bic Camera had none of them!! Seriously, the whole lot sold out! What is this, buy-a-dictaphone... no hi? What are all these salarymen going to use them for? Ridiculous, I tell you. So I've just now made my own Amazon.jp account and ordered a nice, little middle-ground 'phone (something called an Olympus Voice Trek V-22) for five thousand yen (two thousand cheaper than Bic Camera would have had it for), and in true Amazon tradition it tells me it will arrive tomorrow. Which is Sunday, so I do doubt that. But the range of options for Japanese Amazon really did have me impressed. You don't need to put in a credit card number, you can opt to pay for it at an ATM near where you live. The same goes for address; you just have to put in a Lawson's near you and they'll send it there instead. Incredible.

So I won't be making a fool of myself until Monday at the earliest, which is actually a bit of a shame as o-Hi-sama was out in full this morning, and I can think of no better conditions to be harassing the local populace in. However, church tomorrow, and I'm hoping that resident linguistics lecturer Rie-san will be around so I can offload a few questions. Like, can I record some church-goers praying? Don't know how to say that without sounding like a bit of a nut, so I guess there's no helping it. As they say here in Japan, there is no ginger.

There we go, the two Responsibilities. I could feel a lot worse about where everything's going at this point, so I can be thankful for that. And besides, it's the weekend! What better time to do nothing than now!

And what a great time it is for we slackers! Heard of Google Wave? Louise sent me an invite not long ago, and that is one clever piece of kit. It's like an email, bulletin board, instant messaging thing, and it's also a lot of fun. Louise has big plans to run a Dark Heresy game over it, which I think should work stupendously. Also, I still have my eight invitations left, so anyone interested form a line and get your begging faces on.

Another fairly lengthy use of my time recently has been a not-that-recent anime, but one that I have neglected to check out until just now. It's called Kara no Kyoukai, and easily ranks up there as number one most brutal anime I have ever seen in my whole life. It's also the latest attempt by a studio to borrow the incorrect chronology method of arranging episodes from Suzumiya Haruhi (film out soon and I can't wait!), but pulls it off very well. It pulls a lot of things off very well, for that matter, especially episode previews. This show has the very best episode previews I have ever seen, they're just beautiful. Pity I really don't like the main character, but Kokutou makes up for her so it's still good.

And then there's a free, online farming game. I know what game you're all thinking, but you are wrong. This is a game called Mabinogi, which is easily one of the most popular online games in Japan at the moment. It's the one in all the internet cafes, anyway, and has its own magazine. Typical fantasy setting puts your dude into the shoes of pretty much whoever you want to be. Mercia, for example, is a swordsman who moonlights as a lute-player and sheep-shearer. You get experience for fighting, but also for composing, setting up camps, collecting eggs and sewing pretty patterns into clothes. Pretty much everything. Due to not playing it at the right time I am yet to see all that many people online as of yet, but I'm enjoying what I've played so far. Let's just hope it remains free when my character gets to old age and dies (does actually happen) and I need to have him reborn. I'm guessing not.

That's it. Pretty uneventful holiday, and that fact grates on me quite horribly most of the day, but I'll fight through that feeling. That and the bouncing emails, invisible dictaphones, complicated dissertation topics and not having a pen. Seriously, where did all my pens go? I'll just step out and buy some more.

Thanks for reading.

***

もうすぐ、レッド君。もうすぐ。そして…

倒す！！