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This is one of many homeless men in Osaka who collect cardboard boxes around Osaka city in order to make some money.

The linked article says they get about 6 yen (3p or 12 cents) per kilo they collect and make only around 1000 yen (5 pounds or 10 dollars) per day.

Reiko and I are doing fine Mr Brian. Last Saturday was our two year anniversary so we went out for a meal. The place was a bit posh so I didn`t know what to do. I hate the most when they get the wine out and then make you taste it to see if you like it. Just give me the bloody wine. I`ll drink it whatever the taste is so the whole ceremony is annoying.

As a present, Reiko went on a shopping spree with her work friends and because for me the idea of going clothes shopping with four women for four hours is as appealing as having my toenails pulled out/fingernails down a blackboard/etc etc. I avoided it. However I managed to wangle myself an iPod mini out of it which I am busily filling up with songs. As the computer at home which I blog on runs Windows 98 and can be outrun by blind moonwalking snails, I have to use the mighty Japanese internet cafe.

Cunningly enough they are all in Japanese. I have to install iTunes and a program which copies the songs from the iPod to the computer whilst manouevring through the menus and guessing whether the three line question Windows has just asked me is, “Are you ready to start?” or “Would you like to delete everything on your iPod?” This can take anything up to an hour. Only then can I start to get my music on. I should be getting a more modern computer soon as a late birthday present which will save me some of the hassle.

This is yet another bizarre picture from Japan. This was taken at the university which is very close to my house. Thanks to Reiko I know it`s a poster for an event, although it doesn`t say what the event is. With my very basic Japanese all I can tell is that it`s on the 19th May at 16:40. Any ideas what the thing is in the middle? A sheep?

I am a busy man lately with work, lesson planning and scurrying from one school to another of my nine schools. Today it was 32 degrees and with the start of the rainy season allegedly beginning tomorrow it is really humid as well. The lobster red tint is returning to my skin and I am back to taking a daily cold shower when I come home. My work schedule, although relatively easy, is exceptionally hectic especially as I have to be Mr Genki for up to nine hours straight. But enough whining.

Thanks for the congratulations before. With the visa, it was getting to the stage where I was on the point of booking a ticket back to England. I was most surprised to discover that the Certificate of Eligibility I was waiting for the last month was about to be sent off the day I went to the office. Coincidence and good fortune or a sinister plot to get spite and get rid of me?

Let me also tell my English comrades that I believe England is a very great country. I just don`t want to live there at the moment. One thought that came to me is that one year doing something abroad is a like a gap year after which you go back to doing something “serious.” Two years becomes the start of a career. I`ve got this feeling that Fate`s assigned me to being a French teacher you know.

This is a picture of some Japanese children who were about five or six on the way home from school. They were riding the subway home (Very scary) I`m not a paedophile or child predator by the way whatever you may think. It made such a good picture I couldn`t resist. They`ve got an interesting uniform and carrying their landoseru which is the traditional large, heavy duty schoolbag that will last them until they are 12.

Today is an especially good day. As well as discovering my blog was written about in Kansai Scene a free magazine for the gaijin community in Kansai, I also managed to finally get my visa changed. I can now stay one more year in Japan. I celebrated with an obento and a fake beer to get one step closer to the DVD fridge.

This is the class after the picture before. These are better behaved but still kids after all.

In an effort to combat the state I was in last time where I only had one picture of the children I taught for six months, these are some kids I teach at the English school. They decided to take things out of my bag and pose with them. They`re really nice kids but easily bored so they can be a bit of a handful.