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This morning we were woken at seven in the morning my one of Reiko`s neighbours`s basically saying Rei-san Rei-san your dog has broken loose. Their dog is trained in sitting - osuwari, wait - matte and paw - otte (I think that`s how they`re spelled. Apart from these three basic commands it won`t do anything else. We are training it by squirting vinegar water at it when it does something wrong. The smell is strong for their sensitive noses and it is supposed to help train them. Dogs are treated quite badly on the whole here. In a culture where even you change shoes for different rooms of the house (and you must wash before you can take a bath(?)), dogs aren`t allowed in the house in general and so are chained to a post all day. On the other hand Marrosan (the dog) is well treated with two walks a day early in the morning and when it gets dark but it strives for attention. Most mornings at five you can be awoken by a loud whining and the occasional suppressed bark as I think I have written before.

Anyway although he is badly trained he is very cunning. He has managed to unleash himself inside when the house is empty in the evening but never outside. He managed it twice today. The second time in the evening (whilst inside) he bolted down the road as fast as he could and urinated and defecated wherever and whenever he could. Once inside and secured by leash, new collar and string he worked himself loose and urinated in the bathroom to loud screams from Reiko whilst the young lady was inside. We have only just managed to secure him again with all of the items mentioned above and a cheap jeans belt bought in Japan though his whining has continued unabated and my dreams of a long and uninterrupted night`s sleep are diminishing rapidly.

On the work front it is still going fine, I had only fifth graders (or 11 year olds to fellow English readers) and I taught them no.s to twelve. It was fun but I had to do a lot of walking and my legs ache. I shall chronicle these daily marathons in another post as this one is far too long as it is. Goodbye.