Gidday.

How are we all?
Things here are well. Mooching happily along, a public holiday tomorrow, so there`s a chance right there for some concerted thank-you card organising. Crikey.

Elope.

We are now proud owners of NZD1000 tickets to Fukuoka on the Bullet Train. Wooohooo!!! Strutting along at 300-odd kph for a few hours this coming Saturday. The erstwhile host family has been notified, the outrageously expensive tickets purchased, and the oooooh-fun-times-a-big-old-adventure feeling has been kicked into at least 2nd gear. It sure is going to be swell fun. A little odd though. I have thought about what it would be like to get on back there and see folk for the past 11 years, I have even dreamed of it a few times - usually with the soundtrack from that Tegal ad running in the background - "...the old hometown looked the same....as I stepped out from the train..."

Mmmmm The Grand Poulet....

I spent a year there as an impressionable 16 year old living in just a swell family, Mum (46), her boyfriend (23), a brother a year older than I and a sister I didn`t know existed until she walked through the door after I had arrived. Dad had been thrown out by the Mum (a Buddhist Minister, Aerobics instructor and Barmaid) 6 months before I arrived and the day before I got there the dog ran away and hasn`t been seen since. It was a fairly a-typical Japanese experience in many ways. It was one that taught me an awful lot and it will be super to be able to get back there and natter with them again, while also introducing Nic to some people that played quite a large role in "me".

Fukuoka is a pretty city too. Should be nice to see the sea. I`ll let you know how it comes along.

Tata.