It's August. Time flies!

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end and unfortunately, the summer holiday is nearly over. Looking back, it’s not been the most restful holiday I’ve ever had, but I have really, really enjoyed it!

For the past five weeks, a typical day has looked like this:
-Wake up
-Cycle to Gusto for breakfast. Look at the notes for the day’s lesson
-Cycle on to my Japanese class
-Home for lunch
-Cycle to Starbucks to do my homework and occasionally chat to someone there
-Do something fun in the evening (often involving people and tennis).

Today, I had the end of course test, which, thankfully, I managed to pass. This means that I am eligible to study in the next class. However, I’ve decided to take a break for a while. We’ve flown through so much material in the last five weeks. I’ve understood it (often thanks to some second and third explanations from Nilesh, Michael and others!), but I’m not yet using all of it so I want to spend some time practicing speaking (watch out Yuichi, Kabe, Adrian, Eri, Mai etc!!). All being well, I will try to start the next class at the same school in January.

I have done some other things too. A while back I got an email from Hugh and Mikio in Coventry which lead to me meeting a lovely family who have just moved to Nagoya from Coventry: Aki, Kana and their daughter, Yuna. Well, in August, they invited me to Ise in Mie Prefecture for the weekend. Their whole family was so kind to me and gave me a lovely experience of their home town, including a visit to Isu Jingu and a taste of the local food, including delicious udon and sensational sashimi!

The week after, we had our church holiday on the sea front in Hamanako. There, we ate the local delicacy, eel, which got a mixed reception and Tsuyoshi taught us how to windsurf, which we all enjoyed! It was a really significant weekend for the chuu,rch, with several people being baptized in the Spirit and all of us growing together as a family.

I’ve also enjoyed some great day trips. In particular, last weekend I went on a white water rafting day in the stunning location of Nagara, Gifu with Eri and Marie from tennis and some other folk I met on the day. It was a really brilliant day!

Finally, I’m excited to tell you I’ve booked a return flight to the UK on December 23rd, for about two weeks. More details about that trip in the future.

So, a lot to report, but it’s back to work next week. Our topic is Dinosaurs. I’m confident that the kids will know more about them than I do, but I have at least got a good idea for a dinosaur related dance!

God bless. P.S. Yu, I played tennis with Nobu last week. We thought of you.