A found a frog in my apartment tonight. At first I was frightened I'd stepped on him as he seemed to have stuff hanging out of him, or a limp limb or something. Then I realised he had collected a whole lot of fluff from the front entrance and it was hanging off him (I limit my vacuuming to the office!). Anyway, it was nice to have a visitor. I let him go next to the vege patch out the front of my place. Incidentally, it's a very interesting vege patch. Not to me, but it is enough to someone to warrant a school excursion to it. One morning I was leaving for work when 2 or 3 classes of elementary school kids in matching coloured caps (they look very cute)were amassing outside my place. I thought they were getting ready to cross the railway crossing together, but then they were all directed to the vegetables. Wow, I thought - all this time I've taken for granted those veges. It is an impressive patch, but I haven't felt compelled to study it yet.

Sorry for the negative post last time. This blog must provide an amusing picture of someone becoming very jaded very quickly! So, on a lighter note... this week I was taking an older class; the lesson was on referring to people by description - "the woman in the yellow coat" etc... the woman whose picture I was holding up was the Queen. Her face drew a blank - they didn't know her ("wakarahen"). Fair enough, she's not the queen of Japan. I then noticed this girl's sneakers (a 14 year old girl) and complimented her - they were white shell-toe sneakers with different coloured stripes and "Arnold Palmer" written across the tongue. I asked her "Do you know Arnold Palmer?" She nodded. I swung my arms like I was playing golf and then acted like an old man. She nodded (with a look of "well, of course I know Arnold Palmer!"). Weird, huh? A Japanese 14 year old girl knows an American golfer from the 70s and 80s, but not the Queen of England. I dunno, it made me laugh. The celebrities that become popular here can seem a little random (no, I'm not trying to be trendy in that annoying "oh, you're so random!" use of the word random. I mean random!). The ads that use Western stars can be hilarious. The actor will look serious and smouldering as a very serious Japanese male voice-over speaks (picture Bruce Willis driving a Subaru) and then a slogan will appear on the screen like "I feel liberty" or something like that. They remind me of the merman ad in Zoolander.

I made my first impractical and stupid purchase today. It's an Egyptian Samurai robot figure, about 25cm tall. I found this amazing warehouse shop packed with second hand toys, figures, clothes, CDs - all the things I have a weakness for. Anyway, I thought it was about time I bought something that will be a huge pain to bring home. But once you see the photo, you'll understand.

I pigged out tonight on udon noodles with mushrooms, different meats and a side of rice and tempura. All for about AU$14. It was delicious. Sorry, I don't mean to gloat... but haha

I've been trying to budget my food bill to around 1000 yen a day with the occasional splurge. I think I'm achieving about 1200 (this is about AU$15) including drinks, but some days I break well under 1000 (if I've cooked). So, Japan doesn't have to be so pricey overall. Except... I realised the $50 bags of rice aren't even 10kg, they're 5 kg. Anyway, I'll leave you to ponder the cost of rice in Japan - I'm sure it's been keeping you all awake at night.

I have to sleep. Oyasumi nasai!