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This is a picture taken the other day. As you can see the trees are only now starting to lose their leaves. It averages around 16 degrees celsius every day and it is still warm enough to go out without a coat on.

This is a computer screen at a sushi restaurant I went to. You select the sushi you want by touching the screen and they send it round on the conveyor belt by the side of your table for you.

At the moment I am ill again. I visit so many schools and talk to and shake hands with so many children, I feel like a bumble bee picking up all the germs and pollen and spreading it around. I`m like a maniac with obsessive compulsive disorder frantically washing my hands after every lesson.

And shoes. There is a link below to an interesting article about shoes in Japan. Everywhere you go you have to take them off and exchange them for slippers or socks in public places such as schools, hospitals and onsen. Upon entering the schools, I change from my shoes to plastic slippers which are on average three sizes too small. If I have to talk to the head teacher, I change from them into soft slippers for his room and then back into the bright green plastic monstrosities for the lessons. If I want to use the toilet betweeen lessons, there is normally another set of slippers to put on as well. This is another quirk of Japanese society explained far better and more eloquently in the linked article. Have a look.