Long time no write! Sorry about that. So September was a very busy month for me - parents visiting, friends visiting, mosquitos visiting, but NO cockroaches visiting I`m glad to say. I don`t know where to start, so maybe I won`t really. Let me just say that it was great to have my mum and dad visit me and it was even better to be able to show them around Japan and let them see what a really great country it is. The hightlight of their visit for me was when we went to eat Korean Barbeque on the day we were in Gotemba - I don`t think I have laughed as much since I came to Japan - my dad was especially hilarious. Another highlight was taking an English speaking guided tour in Kyoto, although it did seem a bit surreal and almost like I was on holiday too.

I spent my birthday in the Izu peninsula with some friends who were visiting me from England. The early part of my birthday was spent driving around the coastal road in typhoon-style weather - there was actually a major typhoon only about 50 miles away from our position! However, after three hours of what some people might call "a really crazy way to spend a Sunday" I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the Japanese-style ryokan we had booked both by the size of the room and the fact that it had an outdoor onsen (or rotenburo). I am pretty OK with the onsen culture now (i.e. comfortable with taking my all my clothes off in front of complete strangers and sitting together with them in hot water!) and I am actually really looking forward to my next trip there - outdoor onsens are great in winter time because you have the mixture of cold air and warm water on your body at the same time - very, very nice!

Anyway, let me bring you a bit more up to date with things. Last week I visited Kamakura (the capital city of Japan in the Kamakura period surprisingly!) and sat on the beach for two hours or sea enjoying very warm sunshine and a great view of the coastline. I didn`t realise it could be so warm in Japan in October - I guess when you have lived in Gotemba for a while though anything feels warm! I also took a trip to Yokohama (very near Tokyo) and ate some delicious Chinese food there - the Chinatown in Yokohama is pretty big - it rather puts London`s to shame really - although I do like London`s Chinatown and miss eating there sometimes.

Anyway, gotta run, write more soon I promise.