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On a cross country trip across Japan. Spending New Year’s in a cottage in the middle of nowhere in Fukuoka.

I read an article in the Japan Times about the best Japan-related internet stories of 2007. The advertising campaigns caught my attention.

Unsurprisingly most of them completely passed me by including Uniqlock the quirky flash based clock you can have as a blog widget for Japanese clothes outlet Uniqlo that’s playing above.

Also is the Pepsi Nex Dance which if you can decipher a few kanji lets you create a character that dances to the music on the site. (Click start, then the green button in the bottom left of the screen. Then scroll down the menu and click on the left button which lights up to get into the designing section.)

Nike Cosplay involved a salaryman being chased around Akihibara by ninjas.

Merry Christmas from Japan! Alone in house with baby. Reiko has to work

I’ve spent almost four years in Japan. Couple that with the year I spent in France and Germany and the three years in the wilderness in Wales and it totals 7 out of my 9 years of adulthood in a foreign country.

With that in mind it’s time to go home. Real home. I had a meeting with my boss today and we agreed I’d finish my contract until March and then I’m a free agent.

I’m going back to England for a change of career. The one downfall of living in a foreign country is that there is a glass ceiling to what you can earn if you don’t speak the language fluently. I have no desire to be an English teacher my whole life.

I’m going back in April alone to look for a job and find somewhere to live so that my wife can get a visa and come with Isabelle hopefully a few months later.

People I talk to about this think I’m crazy for wanting to go back to England. I have a lingering suspicion that if I had gone home once over the last four years I would think the same. But I have to push through the glass ceiling. Especially with the family now.

And what about the blog. Do I get a new one or trim the title down even further to Undercover? Undercover in London doesn’t have the same ring to it…

This is one of my favourite ever Isabelle photos. She`s really progressing. She is 17 months old and is walking confidently． She can say some words like Mama, Dada and Hai.

She can also say Deta which means it came out. She says this when she does a poo. It`s a really good early warning system and has stopped our wails of despair when we discover　little brown surprises in her nappy.

There is not a single fish that tastes better cooked than raw with soy sauce and wasabi.

Words written out from my English lesson:

Complain. Compliment. Until they grow up. Retirement. Future.

My bedroom is 7 degrees celsius. We have no heating.

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu is the king of all Japanese words. Having many meanings from Nice to meet you, please do this favour for me or please don’t kill me. It has incredible power. Especially when talking with Japanese colleagues.

For example, “Please could you fill out this form for me [deep breath] yoroshiku onegaishimasu.” A little switch goes on in their head. Their pupils contract and they have one purpose in life from that moment on. To fulfill your request as soon as they can before they die.

I’ve only tried it out with small requests - Could you find me some rubber bands? Please help me with the freak student in the fifth grade. It’s had instant results. But it needs testing with some more powerful requests:

I don’t have to come into work today do I yoroshiku onegaishimasu?

Give me ALL your money [deep breath] yoroshiku onegaishimasu!

Kill him NOW yoroshiku onegaishimasu!

Try it yourself. Find a Japanese and ask them a request. You don’t even have to know them. And take over the (Japanese) world.