A Busy Day, Making Hay

Up at 11 am this morning. Feeling tired, but not as tired as I expected I would feel.

Got some study done. Did lots of general admin stuff. Do certain people need offices?
When I checked my Gmail account this morning I was overjoyed to see a surprise email from long-lost friend.(Hi Tomoko!) I've lost touch with quite a few friends from Japan. If you are one of them, send me an email: karamoon (at) gmail (dot) com

I spent most of the day studying and reading. In the evening I headed into the city centre to attend the monthly SISJAC lecture on Japanese culture.

My name was down on the booking sheet as Karamoon, which was kind of cool. I usually book from my work email account, but this time I had booked the seats from one of my personal email accounts which had my name set as Karamoon.

Before the lecture I saw my friends Keiko and Geoffry. There wasn't time to talk much to eachother, but it was good to see them nonetheless.

The lecture was better than average. The subject was Japonisme, which is a fusion of Japanese and European art. It mainly covered the French impressionist movement and how it influenced and was influenced by Japanese art.

After the lecture I met Simon, the assistant director of the institute. We had a brief chat. Simon is very enthusiastic about things, so it's always good to talk to him.

My friends George and Barbara were also at the lecture.

Dinner at the Thai Dragon with Keiko and Yurika. It's really wonderful to eat at a good restaurant where I'm known personally to the staff. The food was, as always, excellent.

Keiko, Yurika and I discussed many topics of interest over dinner. Topics of note included: whether there is a time to stop reading. Why there are so many clever people working in crap jobs in Japan, why Japanese people often claim to enjoy doing crap jobs and whether "Making the most of it" a positive personality trait...