What’s new? Not much. I just have a spare period and thought I would jot down some recent happenings. Last night I went down to Agimatsu with friends Dave and Dec to visit the Agimatsu orphanage. Dave and Dec go about once every two weeks or so but I have never gone before. I had just got out of Shiojiri when there was a lightening and hail storm. I pulled over for a while until I could see anything. Route 19 is basically heavy truck traffic on winding mountain roads so I thought I would play it safe. I didn’t know exactly what to expect when I got there but as soon as we walked in the place the kids all mobbed Dave and Dec. They didn’t take long to get to know me either. Those kids were great. I spent most of my time in the girls wing with the under 10s. When I came down stairs the young boys were all heavily involved in a big game of Uno while watching a movie at the same time. Boys and girls alike just wanted to sit on your knee or hug you. I carried kids around all night and read some pretty mangled stories to them in Japanese. I am a terrible reader, especially out loud. It was a slow process and they wanted me to read it twice. It was the Anpanman story. Anepanman is a superhero who has friends and enemies made out of various kinds of Japanese bread and sweets. Anpan is a sweet roll filled with bean jam. Shokupanman is Anpanman's closest and most handsome superhero friend. His head is a slice of white bread and he is the patron superhero of school lunches. In Japanese, school lunch is call kyu-shokyu. Shokupanman's secret headquarters are deep inside of Toaster Mountain and he also drives a toast shaped truck. Anpanman’s main objectives are to fight injustice and feed the hungry by giving them a piece of his jam filled head which can be regenerated. There is also Currypanman. Our doughnuts here are filled with curry so his head is a curry doughnut. This cartoon is pretty much the most well known thing going here. You can buy buns shaped like these guys at the store and they have been merchandised in every conceivable way. Their enemy is a super germ called Baikinman. It’s strange that it is so ragingly popular here but it hasn’t gone anywhere else. Hello Kitty and Pokeman are everywhere on Earth I think but not this show. I know how sad that must make you all. I will bring home a tape if I can. If I have room in my suitcase. Maybe. The girls laughed the whole time because my reading was so bad. I should really work on that. It is difficult to put the right accent on a word though even if you can read it. It’s hard to get any kind of flow. The young ones had to go to bed at 8 and every time I said good night to them, they hauled me back into their dorm rooms and asked me to sit down again. The staff there is very good and they work very hard. The guys told me the kids are often different there and many of the kids aren’t actually orphans. Sometimes their parents come and get them. It didn’t matter that I could barely communicate with the kids. They just rambled on to me in Japanese and I picked out the words I could. The young ones mainly wanted to know what colour my underwear were and if I was Dave’s girlfriend. I didn’t understand that question for a while and had to ask. I am such a loser! Of course that is what they would be asking. I just say yes to everything so I am apparently everyone’s girlfriend now. The boys were a little shyer to talk to me but they got on with Dave and Dec just fine. Most of these kids are Dave’s students. One day has passed now. I was supposed to go to elementary school today but all my lessons have been cancelled except for one. So here I will sit at my desk. And it’s a good thing too. I am so tired today I can hardly keep my eyes open. Somehow I woke up an hour early too. There was a public announcement van driving around at 7:00 this morning advertising cloths drying racks that they were selling. I couldn’t believe that they were allowed to do that at 7 in the morning. I was really irritated by it. Plus I had some what of a late night last night because I went out for dinner with friends and I am looking after Rachael's little kitten while she is in Tokyo today. It is only about one month old and is too small to be left alone. I am not sure why she got a kitten when it was still this small but she has it now and it requires bottle feeding every four hours. I should probably never have children if there is any chance they might cry in the night. I am SO tired today. I snuck the kitten into school and am keeping it in the teacher’s locker room so I can check on it periodically. I told her she must be quiet today so hopefully she listened.