We're back on the air.

Sorry folks! The blog broke, so I haven't been able to post for over a month!

Let me point out some highlights:

Well first, Semester 1 is over! It was a hard slog, but probably worth it. After I'd finished, I went to a cafe with a classmate. His Japanese friend showed us an essay he'd just written, in Japanese. When the two of us saw it, we both started laughing: Because of what we'd been studying in class, we understood just about everything he'd written! Unbelievable! So, that was naturally a huge encouragement. This whole semester, all we did really was study Japanese history, in Japanese. We started in pre-history, and touched on every period of history up until the 20th century.

Also, on the 1st of July, I went canyoning. Canyoning, for those who don't know, is basically where you get wetsuits and helmets and harnesses on, and you go to places that have waterfalls and rapids. You basically slide down waterfalls, abseil down rock faces and then jump into the water, and even just jump of rocks freestyle. In fact, the grand finale was when one of our guides did a backflip of a rock face 6 metres off the ground into the water. And, soon after, I jumped off that same 6 metre rock face! So, after what felt like a few seconds of airtime, I plunged into the freezing cold water. Remember that it's summer here, so, before we got in the water, everybody was sweating profusely because of all the gear we had to put on. In fact, one smallish Japanese guy was sweating so much that it was as if someone poured a bucket of water on his head! However, once we landed in the water, we understood. It was absolutely freezing! It was so cold that, our bodies couldn't adjust enough to deal with it! Whenever we got out of the water, all the excess water would drip off. Every time, some water would get through my suit, and, everytime I'd get out, I'd feel this very cold water drip down my chest! Brrrrrr.

Also, about a week ago, a friend took me to a Japanese-style festival, with lots of food stalls and the like. It was in an area of Tokyo called Tsukishima, which is famous for having nearly 100 restaurants that serve the same food! That food is called Okonomiyaki, and they also have Monjayaki. Basically, for both of these, imagine a pancake, but instead of it being sweet, it's packed full of seafood. It was pretty good! I also received a Japanese-style yo-yo, which is actually a balloon with water in it, attached to an elastic band. I have a picture:
Also, last week, I went to a place called Enoshima, which is an area with a beach, and it basically faces out toward the Pacific Ocean. I was supposed to be meeting church people there at 11am on the Monday (which was a public holiday), but nobody was there! So, I waited, and sent a message to a friend, who said, "There are people coming! Wait!". So, at about noon, 5 people came, so that turned out well. We had lunch in a restaurant (with the beach out the window), then went to the beach. Now, this is not the kind of beach I'm used to: The sand is...black! Apparently it's volcanic. Whenever the sand gets on you, (especially if it's wet), it really makes a mess. Anyway, after that we went to Enoshima itself by boat. There is a cave there where people apparently used to camp in centuries ago.
There are rocks in there covered with some sort of moss. There are black-lights mounted throughout the cave, and it makes the rocks glow all different colours, like M&Ms!
That's the island from the boat.
That's a bridge that goes around the rock-face to the cave. There are rocks below.

Lastly, tonight, at 10:30pm I start my climb of Mount Fuji. Its height is 3776 metres, and it's high enough for altitude sickness. I'm going with a group of church people so it should be fun. We're starting at 10:30pm, and we will arrive at the summit at about 4am, so that we can watch the sunrise.