That`s right, I`ve reached the approximate halfway mark of my stay already. Can you believe it? It`s actually more if you count the number of working days and don`t include my allocated holiday at the end o.O;

My mind is drawing a blank for what to write about, so you`ll have to excuse me if this post doesn`t seem to follow the exact order of events since my last entry. I`ve written replies to all my letters recieved so far, so I should get to work on sending postcards and letters to people I haven`t heard from yet… As of late I`ve been trying to edit my UCAS application (once again) since the school found problems with it even after they`d assured me it was ready to be sent before I left for Japan. Yes, I would have appreciated this information 3 months ago! o.O; But at least I still have time…

The end of November… Not a great deal of trips out, as money was catching up with me, but in terms of things at Shiso Home, they`ve been leaping forward quite quickly. It`s almost astonishing when I flick back through my eng (diary) I keep (the written one) and see how packed-in everything has been, and how many new experiences I`ve had (both amazing and unfortunately, as you may recall with the typhoon, tragic). And they keep on coming! I`ve made friends with the secretary at the Home, Nutaba-san, recently, and visited her house a couple of times, meeting her husband and daughter. She`s always really exhuberent; smiling and welcoming, yet has an earnest side and often found time to listen to me on my `off-days`. Yes, they are there, as much as this biased diary might suggest otherwise… There just seems to be a certain looming quality that a `public journal` has over me. I`m reluctant to write every last thought and feeling down here they I do in my written diary, knowing everyone can read it. The blinds are pulled half-shut over the window to my soul, I could say. Sorry :/, but I can imagine reading pages of depressed metaphor-ridden prose might sour the tone of this diary. It`s largely just me thinking too hard and over-analysing, as those of you who have known me for a while are aware that is one of my weaknesses. Nothing to worry about ^_^.

Back to things. I organised a bowling trip on the 20th of November with four of the staff from Shiso. Jess and I caught a lift there with Kondou-san, who lives in an apartment near us both, where we all talked and got to know each other a little better. Once in our teams, we gave them English names: Yamashita-san (who works on the Shiso program with us) was `Jenny`, Kondou-san (who works in A-living area and I talked to that one time coincidence had us travelling to and from Hanshin Home together) was `Sarah`, Taniguchi-san (also in A-living) was Emma and Kyunai-san (who works at Harima, speaks pretty goood English and took us sightseeing when we first arrived) was `Julia`. Jess, Taniguchi-san and Kyunai-san won the overall games in the end, but it was a lot fun all the while.
After bowling we all went too Nanphu, a great okonomiyaki restaurant in Yamasaki, and all shared six different varieties of the stuff. We rounded off the evening`s conversation (with Kyunai-san translating a lot ^_^;) with ice-cream sodas and a lot of laughing. ^_^. I don`t know what went on at the ice-cream machine with Kondou-san and Taniguchi-san when they were getting it for everyone, but I`m sure we must have disturbed the whole restaurant by the end of the ordeal. It was very much one of those times that the tiniest thing (in this case a comparison of ice-cream towers of varying heights and wobbly vertical structures) was made so much more funny just because one person set everyone else off laughing about it ^_^;. Never has luminous green melon fanta and ice cream made such an impression :P – and moreso that this was the first time, they told us, GAP volunteers had invited some of the staff out anywhere.

Anyway, must dash now – until next time.