Hi. Today is a very short entry basically because I don`t have much time to write. First thing to say is that I am OK - you may ask why I said that but we had two largish earthquakes in northern Japan a couple of days ago. I actually live about 75 miles south-west of Tokyo so was nowhere near the danger zone and I didn`t feel these earthquakes like I did the last one.

This weekend has been really busy so far - yesterday (Sunday) I went to a BBQ in a really nice park near Gotenba and had a great time - and I was no exception to the apparently `Japanese` tradition of throwing people into the river after eating. I knew it was coming and when four (drunken!) men are trying their best to pick you up, carry you a bit and then throw you into the river, you can`t really do much to stop it. It was actually a stream so you don`t need to worry - I am OK.

In the evening I went to Numazu to watch a fireworks display as part of their summer festival. It was superb and went on for a very long time. There are not too many better experiences in life than sitting by a river on a coolish night while drinking beer, talking to friends and watching fireworks. Gotenba`s festival is next weekend but I`m not sure if we will have any fireworks - but I`m sure there will be some beer :-)

Anyway, you can see some pictures of the above events if you are interested by accessing the following links. There are also some shots of Odawara Castle which I visited earlier this month.

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/keveds2003

My other Japan photos and a few new ones you might not have seen are on a different link as follows:

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/comeinjapan

This morning I went to my Japanese class, and then went swimming - actually my body is aching now! I am currently doing laundry (in between emailing etc) and am planning to make dinner soon - maybe I`ll make something exotic like `yakisoba`! Actually, today is not much different from a usual Monday although I guess because I haven`t seen a cockroach in my apartment for six days, I am due to see one tonight. Who knows....!!! Sayonara!

So since writing last time I have much to tell......actually it`s a joke as I have little to tell but at least I got you interested! The major news today is that Tony (could I be under any more pressure?) Blair is in Japan and at this moment is probably about ten miles away from me - not bad as I had to come half way around the world to get this close to him! He is visiting an onsen today with Koizumi so I hope he doesn`t slip or anything like that! Apparently many roads have been closed off for the entourage of cars etc which means that the rest of what seems like the whole population of Japan are almost backed up to outside my front door. It`s kind of bad timing really as this is a holiday weekend in Japan with Monday being a national holiday, but as my regular day off is Monday anyway, I won`t see the benefit of it....again!!!

So the past two weeks have been quite eventful in my quest to rid my apartment of those ugly black beasts known as cockroaches. After my futile attempt of deploying another few dozen (!) cockroach houses and buying a new killer spray, I decided to take the extreme step of having my apartment gassed with cockroach poison gas to kill them once and for all - I even thought about bringing in the military but they told me that I would need to fill out too many forms! A very good friend of mine (and to him I will be eternally grateful!) actually offered to clean up my apartment afterwards as the thought of finding numerous dead cockroaches was almost as chilling for me as seeing them in real life. So the problem is solved for now but I`ve no doubt they will be back. Apparently they are coming in from a large hole behind the cupboard under the sink - so I guess I should fill this hole in when I get around to buying some plaster - the last thing I imagined myself to be doing in Japan!

Today I had a very scary experience involving insects again. I was happily riding along when a very large orange and yellow looking spider/insect type landed on the underside of my T-shirt sleeve. As you might imagine, I forgot all about the busy road and the fact that I had to steer a bicycle along it in my desperate mission to get the bloody thing off my shirt as I envisioned at any moment that it was going to climb inside my shirt and then I don`t know what would have happened! Oh, so about the traffic, well it kind of stopped for me and luckily I didn`t fall off my bicylce - and I forgot to say that I did all this whilst holding a bag of shopping and trying to drink a can of soda - such is life!

Today I found the swimming pool many people had been telling me about and went for a swim - quite nice and refreshing actually! I also wanted to try to join the City gym but I was told that I have to attend a two-hour lecture split between the theory of fitness and how to use the equipment which is only held on the second and fourth Sunday of each month from 2pm to 4pm - ultra-convenient if you ask me! I am not sure how much benefit I will get from this and as I`ll probably only be able to understand 10% of it, it hardly seems worthit. Anyway, the next available slot is on AugUst 3rd so maybe I`ll go! So much for my immediate plan to get back into shape - I guess I`ll have to start jogging instead!

Excuse me while I punch the wall very hard (repeatedly) because I had just written six well-crafted paragraphs about my recent experiences when the computer suddenly decided to crash! I really despair sometimes and wonder why I bother! I am going to try and write something similar but you are not going to get the original masterpiece nor are you going to get six paragraphs! Anyway, here goes....

Last Monday I played golf again with two friends. I managed to come second making a score of 110ish against a par of 72. I was quite proud of myself as I managed to make one par score on a par 4 hole after hitting a near perfect drive, a good iron shot, a gorgeous pitch, and then holing the putt. Golf is such a difficult game to master and it can be very frustrating at times just to hit the ball in a straight line, never mind very far. Anyway, we had a fab time in spite of the fact that it rained all day - or kind of drizzled actually. It was almost like been back in England but with the Japanese convenience.

On Sunday (two days ago) I extended my teaching skills into the field opf cookery and demonstrated to a class of about 30 people how to make the world famous English dishes `Yorkshire Pudding` and `Fruit Scones`. I once explained to some university friends that `Barnsley Chop` was world famous despite the fact that none of them had never heard of it, therefore, my use of the term `world famous` could be said to be either overused or inappropriate. As Yorkshire Pudding is one of the easiest dishes to make I decided to make it a little more complicated by adding sausages and making a `Toad in the Hole` - amazing ! You can`t get gravy in Japan so we had to make do without, although to be honest, after tasting the finished product I found myself really craving a large helping of Yorkshire Pudding and Onion Gravy!

The scones also came out OK despite the fact that I nearly forgot to add the baking powder - you can`t get self-raising flour in Japan - and with the jam and cream they were very tasty - or so everyone said! I also had the pleasure of demonstrating how to make English style tea, i.e. pouring hot water onto tea leaves inside a warmed teapot, and then trying to explain the science behind the process of infusion. I guess my somewhat cobbled together answers were good enough to survive the translation process and were logical enough to be understood and accepted by the highly intrigued audience. Here`s to the next time (if there is one!) - and my dream of demonstrating something a little more complicated .... oh, just a minute, .... I`m not sure if there are any more complicated recipes from England! Answers on a postcard please!

OK, so that`s the end for today - oh, just before I forget, I also visited a Japanese style castle (they are very different in design from English style castles!) with my Japanese teacher yesterday in a nearby city called Odawara. It was quite interesting although the humidity and heat are really starting to get to me and we haven`t even started summer proper yet. I guess the heat of the summer here will be a stuggle for me! Cheerio!