Again it's raining! Howling winds! Driving rains! And cold! Weather fit to wither a banshee's tits! I guess that's the end of the sakura then. I took a stroll along 哲学の道　(The Path of Philosophy) yesterday and took some pics (in the rain) which I'll try to upload later but not today as the server's down again. My news is I taught my first class at the junior high school today. It went ok. Not great! But not bad either. Now I have a better idea of what the little imps are capable of, I can fine tune my lessons a bit more. Had coffee with new colleague Leilani afterwards. She seems like a good egg. She married a man from Pakistan she met on a chat site last year which intrigued me and somehow we ended up quoting Pulp Fiction at each other "The pig is a filthy animal.... But bacon tastes good. Pork-chops taste good..." etc. Anyway teaching the 3rd years tomorrow. May be a whole different story.

Meanwhile... The News from France: student and trade union protests prevail and the government's wildly unpopular employment law is scrapped. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4897898.stm

News from Italy: Romano Prodi looks set to defeat the right-wing media mogul Silvio Berlusconi in the elections. Another victory for the Left in our inevitable march toward world revolution! (etc.) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4897994.stm

News from Tokyo: Masayoshi is getting married! Our little Masa's all growed up! Here's a pic of him and the girl who finally pinned the blighter down. Congratulations!

My good friend Rik (http://www.43things.com/person/rikabel) recommended this to me and so now I recommend it to you: http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail150.html Inspired.

Also for different reasons this is kind of nice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Sl0M39R4qU&search=banjer

If you like that sort of thing.