First things first: Happy birthday Gerry!! I believe your birthday isn`t until the 23rd but the internet place isn`t open on Tuesdays. I looked into the cost of a round of golf here for you. You might want to save up. It is about $200 Canadian (20000 yen) in my area for a round of golf. I don`t know how much it costs at home but that sounds a little steep! They said the driving range was a little cheaper though. Thank God for small mercies! Apparently they would take a whole day to play those 18 holes by the sounds of it too. Its quite an event. I hear that the Onward Spitfires are doing well in the playoffs too! I showed some of my co-workers the pictures of you guys playing and they think you are major league or something. I won`t tell them any different.

Today is my first big day at work. Eight big hours of lesson prep. I am currently on my lunch break. As a gift, one of my associates gave me a dessert cup. It is composed of clear gelatin and the bottom of the cup appears to be red and brown fermented beans. It is a little strange but tastes not too bad. I am getting used to eating really weird stuff. An update on the flugelhorn. I went back to the place a couple of days ago to try and buy the thing again but this time I went with a native speaker. They said they didn`t have anything like that and that it had sold. As if! Well I`ll have to find it somewhere else.

I went on an interesting outing to Nagano City on Friday. We went to the place where you pay one price for all you can eat and all you can drink. You mix the drinks yourself. I didn`t get back to Shiojiri for two days. It was fun times. I met some fun people and stayed in an internet cafe for a time. There was lots of Karaoke too. I rocked some oldies with my friend Gisella from South Africa.

I am making a Canadian bulletin Board with quizzes and challenges for the kids at my school. While I was searching the net for pictures of famous Canadians, I came across the Red Green website. Before I could click off of it, it started playing that tag line If the women don`t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy. Everyone is the staffroom was looking at me. Oops. Well at least they don`t know what it was about.

I hear my Alien Registration Card is finally processed so I may be able to get internet access before the next ice age settles in. If any of you have a moment, please send me your thoughts on your favorite Canadian Landmark. I can`t think of many monuments to show. My neighbour is from England and he has stone hendge and London bridge and all of that. I feel somewhat at a loss for Canada. Anyhoo, my lunch is over and I had better get back to work. Pictures are coming soon, I promise. Once again, Happy Birthday Gerry! and Go Spitfires!