I Ain't Gonna Work On Maggie's Farm No More

My last English lesson at the community centre. It was also my last early morning lesson. From this point on I don't need to teach before 10 am.

Goodbye, Cruel Beard

Today I shaved my beard off in preparation for going to Thailand on Friday. It feels strange. When I return from Thailand I shall re-beard and I vow that I shall never be beardless again.

Bother That Cat

Read "Mog The Forgetful Cat" with one of my students. Life is very, very good.

Surprisingly Busy

Spent the day studying Japanese, watching Ted Nelson lectures and reading early James Bond novels. In between all this I somehow managed to teach English and go running.

Picnic In The Park

Met up with some people from the Learn Japanese Podcast for a picnic in Yoyogi park. There were about 10 of us at the picnic and I think everyone had a great time.

After the picnic some of us went for a meal in a Japanese pub. We will be having monthly meetings from now on so I should be able to find some people to help out with my film and other projects that I want to do.

The Learn Japanese Podcast is really rather good so if you want to learn some conversational Japanese check it out:
www.LearnJapanesePod.com

Climbing Tou-no-dake

Walked up a mountain in Tanzawa, an area of Kanagawa prefecture. Tou-no-dake is 1,491 m (4,891 ft) and walking up it was a perfect way of reminding myself that I am very unfit.

Walking up mountains is best done alone, regardless of any safety concerns you may have. I was walking in the afternoon so the mountain was deserted, allowing me to feel I was deep in the wilderness, even though I wasn't far from houses, roads and vending machines.

As I started making my way down the mountain the sun set. I had a couple of torches with me but chose not to use them. Walking down in the dark was quite difficult but very exciting. I could hear snakes slithering away from me and also Japanese mountain leeches dropping from the trees.

I think I'm pretty much hooked on mountain walking now, so expect more of the same in the future.

Climbing Oyama

Walked up Oyama in Kanagawa prefecture. It's only 1,252 metres, but I still found it quite challenging. Fuji is 3,776 metres, so I have a lot of training to do if I want to make it up Fuji any time soon.

Wikipedia entry