Sooooooo... I said I'd update later.. well.. seven months later, spring and summer has passed... we get an update.

Well, Im in Japan, in the city Matsuyama, on the island Shikoku. Never heard of it? You wouldnt have because its about as country as you get. Thankfully Matsuyama is the biggest city on the island, and Ive been fortunate enough to be shoved here.

WEATHER

Spring was nice, as is Autumn, Summer was hell like you wouldnt belive. Us Auzzies, we are used to the heat, burning on your back at 40C (100 whatever F) and airconditionining not working - BUT, Japans summer nearly killed me. Australias a hell of alot hotter, it rarely got above 33C here, but it was so damned humid it was unbelivable. Constantly sweating, everyone carrying around a fan and a small towel. It was hell. Australians hotter, but Japan is a hell of a lot worse.

TRAVEL

Naturally living here Ive been given some amazing travelling experiences. Heres a list of places Ive been so far..
Tokyo
Nagoya
Osaka
Hiroshima (miyajima island)
Matsuyama
Kochi
Tokushima
Takamatsu
Fukuoka
Nagasaki
Okinawa (times two)

Combinded with my previous trips (Kyoto and Nara) Ive been to a looot of places. Ofcourse heaps of little places in Ehime and Shikoku that you and every other Japanese person has never heard of.

LANGUAGE

Very fotunate for me I came with previous study of Japanese, my 4 years at highschool, so I didnt have nearly as many language troubles as normal (Rotary) exchange students do. But I wasnt perfect then and Im still not fluent, but luckily I have improved alot. I do 11 hours of Japanese classes a week, alot of it Ive already learnt, so isnt helpful, but still its putting my japanese into hard practise.. often. For those that know JLPT Im between level 3 and 2. Three being waay too easy, and two have faar too many kanji. If you dont know what JLPT is then chances are my japanese is better than yours.

Consiquently my english has also gone downhill, due to not speaking to foriegners/in english all that much, I keep forgetting words, making words up, and making terrible spelling makes.
The price you pay.

TV + MUSIC

Japanese tv rocks, and their music. I know nothing about the latest western music, I only know arvil largine as girlfriend was INSANELY popular here.

ART

Ive done jack shit this year, i ended up undevwatching most people, but I still lurk around and look every now and again. I am particularly interested in the OC tournaments going around, like =Endling's thing, and surivive dA etc (I cant believe Grampy lost, but Im rooting for Dood).
The art I have done was at school and it carved flowers into paster, took me... 9 months. Mainly due to not having art class for half of the year.

Um.. im done writing now.

GOOD LUCK TO TEE PEOPLE!!!