Things are going pretty well, I'm beginning to feel a bit more settled in Oita. A couple of other new teachers have started which means that there's a few other people in the same boat as me, and we've hit it off really well. Also my housemate Jayd is moving a couple of hours up the road to Fukuoka so that means that soon I'll either have an apartment to myself or a new teacher moving in with me.

A couple of weeks ago I went to Beppu, the town up the road which is the hot-spring capital. The main attractions other than the Onsen (hot springs) are the Jigoku. Jigoku is the Buddhist word for hell and the 9 hells are various geological features including gurgling hot springs, belching mudpools and geysers. My friend Cathlin and I visited all nine, one even had a sulphurous foot spa, which magically turned Cat's silver ring gold! (Unfortunately later on it just as miraculously turned back to silver)

Last week, I took a couple of trips to Takasake Mountain, between here and Beppu. It's home to an aquarium and also 2 groups of Macaques, one of which is, apparently, the largest community of non-human primates (about 500).

I've shaved off my beard. which apparently makes me the spitting image of Rupan III, a well-known anime character who is a lovable, womanizing thief Only you can judge if there is a real resemblance

Anyway, I began to bore of the shouts of 'Rupan!' so I'm growing a goatie!
  ¶ 7:03:00 pm