Merry Christmas! Is it so merry for me you might ask, having to work on Christmas Day for the first time ever - and Boxing Day too for that matter. Well, as I`ve said before, there`s a first time for everything.

Last Friday I found myself in a Santa Claus outfit playing party games with about 25 young children - GEOS Kids`s Christmas Party - which actually was a lot of fun. We played many old classics like `Pass the parcel`, `Simon says``Musical bumps` (it`s actually quite hard to judge who is the last person to hit the floor in this game when there are so many), `Musical chairs`, and `Musical statues`, but we didn`t have time to play `Pin the tail on the donkey` which I am sure would have gone down best of all. Anyways, the kids had a great time and after a few glasses of split drinks and a few tears later, they were all on their merry way looking forward to the next one.

I do have one funny story to let you know about and honestly, I am not making it up. Last Thursday, I was standing in line at the Post Office waiting to buy some stamps when I noticed that the cashier was being handed a large wad of cash held together by a few rubber bands. As she starts to remove the rubber bands and separate the notes, I suddenly feel a sharp pain in my right eye as if I have been hit in the eye by something. After a few blinks later, I notice the culprit, a broken rubber band lying on the floor in front of my shoe. So, I start to rub my eye and, as it has already started to water, it might appear as if I was crying. Upon reaching the cashier`s desk, I am greeted with many repetitions of `dai jou bu desu ka?, `doushita no?` (`are you OK?`, `what happened?`) and many puzzled looks. I couldn`t even begin to explain what happened (and quite frankly I wouldn`t have known where to start and I didn`t have enough energy to try), other than to think `how do these things happen?`.

Thankfully, I still have the use of both eyes (though contact lenses aided!) and I retain my sense of humour to be able to always laugh when these things happen. But think about it for a second. A foreigner in Gotemba`s main post office waiting in line to buy stamps is one thing that is quite strange enough. Then, make that foreigner cry by firing a rubber band into his better eye is another thing, maybe one too far. Anyways, I hope you appreciated the story.

Once again, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Japan.

Hello again. So what`s new with everyone? For me, nothing much apart from a few problems with the opposite sex (probably due to the language barrier!) and the fact that I caught a really heavy cold. However, things can only get better I guess.

I am planning a trip back to the UK to celebrate the New Year so only two more weeks and a day to go at work. I am actually looking forward to having a brief time back home to catch up with everyone and have a nice cup of english tea, oh, and a nice glass or two of ice cold milk.

Unfortunately I have no funny experiences to write about this time, but I do have a story from when I went to get a re-entry permit - something I will need if I am to be allowed back into Japan when I return from my vacation.

So I had to go to Shizuoka for the permit and I was instructed to go to the City Hall to apply for the permit. I actually went to the Prefectural Office by mistake and when I asked for directions to the place to get the permit I was helped by a wonderful man who actually explained to me that I was completely in the wrong place and he proceeded to march me to the correct building about five minutes away whilst making numerous similar comments about how good the weather was!

Upon reaching the City Hall I was told to go to 5th floor of another building about 10 minutes walk away (apparently since 1st December the City Hall was no longer the place to go!) - the desk man even drew me a map and photocopied some pages from a book to explain the (somewhat simple) process of obtaining this permit.

Anyway, I went to the new building and filled out the application and was then instructed to go the convenience store (!) next door to buy the stamp needed for the form. It all seemed a bit strange to me and I couldn`t help think that the convenience store must be rolling in money - it cost 6,000 yen to buy the permit and it entitles me to multiple re-entries until January 2006, and I guess a few hundred people buy the stamp each day.

In my heightened level of confusion and after having been in four, yes four, different buildings to obtain what is actually a very small piece of paper I somehow managed to walk in completely the wrong direction for the station and end up in the middle of nowhere in what is to be honest quite a big city! I had to once again call on my Japanese skill to ask for directions back to the station - the woman was quite impressed with it actually!

I guess these kind of stories become commonplace for me now - I am still fascinated by the process of things in Japan - it makes living in a foreign country all the more fun!