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As you might gather from the post infrequency, there's not been too much to report as of late...just lots of study really, as well as occasionally seeing friends and such. This term is going well so far, and feels slightly less daunting than last term. I am studying manga comics in one of my elective classes and have been officially designated an otaku by the teacher of said class...even though she meant it as a kind of perverse compliment (she is one too and we have similar favorites), I don't read that much! Honest!

Still worried about my post-Yamasa future...I keep meaning to update my CV, search for jobs etc., but I haven't had the time...the whole resumé thing seems to be slightly different here. I saw the CV of a Japanese friend of mine the other week (who was in the process of applying to NHK)...she had to pick up a special resumé form (that you can get from any convenience store) and fill it out, by hand, with her academic background, employment history, personal statement and so on and so forth. And one has to do this for every job one applies for, apparently. Personally (mainly because my handwriting is abysmal) I prefer the good old word-processed, couple-of-pages-of-Times-New-Roman, references-that-you-haven't-spoken-with-in-10-years approach. Hey, it's gotten me work in the past...well, occasionally.

Well, better go...I have homework exuding from every orifice like some kind of homework-ridden Edgar Allen Poe nightmare creature...yes. Argh, must sleep.

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First day o' term

Term started today. Have passed the time thus far this week shopping, meeting a few people, overcoming jetlag, watching bad films and generally attempting to get my head back into Japanese mode...it's definitely been good to have a bit of time out before term started again to get myself re-adjusted.

So yes...to my surprise, in terms of classmates, my class this time round is exactly the same as last term's (with the exception of Stephanie-san, who sadly left). Quite why they've done this I don't know (they've always mixed us up each term in the past), but, since I really liked my old class, it's all good news (teachers are completely different this time around though). Also, this term we have the dubious honor of being 'H' class (each class is assigned a roman letter, 'A' being the top): 'H' transliterated into Japanese becomes etchi, which is also a kind of catch-all term for anything lewd, perverse, indecent or sexual. So that's us, we're the etchi class. Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh-huh-huh. Cool.

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Happy new year! / あけましておめでとうございます

Happy new year to all...

I am now safely re-ensconced in my little room in Okazaki after 2 weeks back in the UK visiting the fam, hence am feeling generally very jetlagged and uprooted at present. I didn't manage to sleep at all on the overnight 12hr return flight from London-Tokyo, and as a result my sleep cycle is completely shot...woke up at about 5am this morning. Hopefully I can realign it soon.

Anyway, except for the travelling and the tiredness caused thereby, I have had a very nice 2 weeks...very glad to have had the opportunity to see friends and family and to remind myself what life in the UK was like. I also had a good chance to relax. However, it being Christmas and all, I feel like I may have over-indulged on the food and beer fronts, and I worry that all the weight people kept telling me I'd lost is slowly returning to me...

My 2 weeks back have also, as I say, left me with a strange feeling of uprooted-ness, kind of like I don't know where home is any more...add to that the directionlessness and worry of not really knowing what I'll be doing in 3 months time (it looks like I'll be here for another 3 months unless I find a job or something by then) and we get a kind of feeling of discombobulation (now there's a word I should use more often).

So, nose goes well and truly back to the grindstone soon...I am a little worried (there's that word again) since all last term I felt like I was at the bottom of the class, was generally behind all my peers and was constantly playing catch-up...and now I have barely spoken, written or read a word of Japanese in the last 2 weeks (it just didn't seem...possible to even think about that stuff for most of the time I was away in a non-Japanese speaking country, if that makes any sense at all), so I'm afraid I'll be even further behind...

Oh yeah, and it's totally cold here and is actually snowing outside as I type! Criminy!!

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