Tarto in Japan

Usually I write essentially about Japan, but for once I'll write about myself! After 5 months studying, only 3 weeks remain until the end of the term, time really flies by! Last week-end, I went back to Nagashima's amusement park (please have a look here for the first visit). This time, I carefully checked the weather forecast to make sure they wouldn't stop the Steel dragon: no storm (that is, "light drizzle", indeed Japanese criteria are a bit different...), sunny weather the whole day, perfect! However, when I bought my ticket, I was told that they might stop my favorite ride because of the...strong wind! I took a picture so that you see for yourself, from the position of the flags at the right, that the wind is indeed extremely violent:

Once again, Japanese criteria are a little...let's say weird!...Thankfully, the Steel dragon ran the whole day, which allowed me to shoot a new video:

Here's a picture taken during the climb:

And a few numbers: the white, wooden rollercoaster at the back which looks so small is the white cyclone (121 feet). The Ferris wheel is 300 feet tall, and the Steel dragon reaches an amazing 318 feet!

By the way, I still haven't told you that I moved to a new apartment, actually it was in january...I'm doing my house warming party tomorrow, yes it's two months late but better late than never, right? The party was planned on saturday but several of my "friends", with whom I had carefully chose the date, finally decided to do something else together that week-end, and nobody even bothered inviting me, let alone telling me...What kind of "friends" is that?...Anyway I changed the day to friday because it was better for almost everybody else.

As for the next holidays, I'm planning to tour Shikoku island, famous for its temples. Actually there's a pilgrimage path that goes through 88 temples, for a total length of about 1400 kilometers. I want to follow it, not for the religious thing, but because it's the best way to discover the island! Obviously, 2 weeks and a half is too short to do that on foot or even on bike, so I'll certainly have to use trains and buses as well. However I really need to move my ass, because I still haven't gathered any information at all so far...

Next, I want to study for another 3 months, and then I'll see...my goal is to find a job here, so I'm probably going to start checking that very soon. It's not easy though to find the right timing: companies usually require the 2-kyu, which I'll quite certainly be able to get by the time I finish my studies, the problem is that the exam is only in december, and that's incompatible with my visa which expires at the end of september. So, either I find a job at a company that doesn't care about the 2-kyu by then, or I come back with a tourist visa. I could also check out the English-speaking job offers, but it will obviously not be the best to improve my Japanese...another possibility, I've been talking about that with a friend lately, is to work as a freelancer, but that's not the easiest thing to find. I may ask you for contacts very soon.

That's it!