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Exercise and learn English at the same time. With the Zuiikin Gals. In Japan. Spare me my life!

Thanks to Eddy for this.

I got married last week and my family came over and here are a few pictures as I get back into the swing of blogging:

Baby Belle

Onigiri that was larger than my head

A torii in Koyasan

Balloon release at the wedding

Danjiri in Kishiwada

Northern Osaka as seen from the Sky Building

My family is coming from England from tomorrow for my wedding on Sunday so updates will probably be lacking in the coming days. In the meantime, please try some of these excellent Japan blogs that I follow when I should be writing myself.

Tokyo Times Amusing Japanese News
An Englishman in Osaka He`s an Englishman and he`s in Osaka
Japundit Commentary on Japan
Mutant Frog Comentary on Japan
Frangipani - Photo Blog
Jamie Abroad Diary of a foreigner abroad
News 3Yen Japan News
Blue Lotus Japanese Food Photoblog
Riding Sun Motorcyclist Fanatic in Tokyo
Jean Snow Your Guide to Design and Pop Culture in Tokyo
Tonari no Shibafu Japan Diary
TV in Japan Bizarre and Excellent Japanese TV shorts
Sushicam King of Japan Photoblogs
Cosmic Buddha Amusing Japanese pop culture blog
Higo Blog Ex-English teacher in Japan`s blog
Bitter Girls Stunning Japanese pitch shifted photo blog

Here`s a list of useful sites for anyone studying for the JLPT:

JLPT Kanji A resource to aid the learning of Japanese Kanji. Included in this site is a listing of the full Jouyou Kanji, classified into JLPT levels, with a lookup of vocabulary for each JLPT level. Including printable kanji lists (Example list), save kanji and vocab to your folder, and kanji and vocabulary level marks to indicate JLPT level

JLPTStudy.com The JLPT Study Page is a resource of study materials for JLPT Levels 2, 3 and 4.

JLPT Forums Forums with general discussion about JLPT

JLPT Vocabulary List These are the complete JLPT vocabulary lists in UTF-8 format, as printed in the official specification book (Japanese Language Proficiency Test: Test Content Specification, The Japan Foundation and Association of International Eduation, 1994-1997):

JLPT Vocab lists Japanese Language Proficiency Test Vocabulary Lists

MLC Japanese Lots of useful Japanese online materials

JLPT Home Home page of the JLPT

JLPT Guide Smug man explains why you shouldn`t take it

Kanji a day Just like it says

Level 4 Vocab A list of vocab from the 4th level.

If anyone can add anymore, I`ll put them up.

Living in Japan, and outside of the main city, the main problem of a night out is gettting back home.

What do you do? Stay out all night and wait jaded and confused for the first train in the morning, stop over at an internet cafe or a love hotel or make a mad rush to the train station to catch that last train?

If you take the last train, you can have up to an hour crammed into a tin cage on wheels rocking gently forward and back to your destination, the highs of the night`s excesses passed and the nausea, floating dismemberment and pile-of-vomit shame instead as your new mental companion.

Should I be glad it`s not the last boat rocking me into vomit induced shame?