I haven't posted lately because there hasn't been much happening - well nothing of interest anyway, same old routine day in and day out and even though I'm posting now, there still isn't much to write about!

We had a bit of a panic last week when we thought the home was going to give Setsuo's father his marching orders. He'd been lashing out at the staff and so they called us in for a chat. It went okay though so we're breathing a big sigh of relief although I think if it keeps happening there's a good chance he will be kicked out - imagine being expelled from an old folks home!! A couple of days later they phoned again to say that he'd fallen in his room at night and since he had a high temperature the next morning they wanted him to get checked out at the hospital. Again it turned out okay and the temperature must just have been from a cold. Poor Setsuo is getting a bit frazzled with it all since he is usually the one to go. No sign of the others even asking for the name of the home never mind paying him a visit but since we never expected them to, no surprise there.

Other news:

Aya and boyfriend have found a flat and Aya will move out at the beginning of October. They'll still be quite near (about 15mins by bicycle).

Lisa and her friend went to Guam for 4 days this morning - lucky her!

Haven't heard from Kana for a while so don't know what she's been up to lately although last time she emailed she said her and a few other friends had gone for an audition for a lip-sync competition and got through but they didn't know if they'd manage to do it since one girl had exams and another had something else around the same time.

Keita has been playing in the 2nd years baseball team as well as his own team. The 2nd year team aren't that great and have a lot of players out due to injuries so Keita and 6 others have to join them although not all play in every game. When he isn't pitching he is usually on first base and since the glove for each position is different, I had a feeling I was going to have to buy another glove - another 50,000 yens worth - but last night he came home with a brand new one that the team owner had (hopefully) given him! I'm going to have to check that it was *given* and I don't have to pay. While he was at baseball we went searching for running shoes for him and ended up at the big shopping mall near Lisa's flat in Sanda. There is a Outlet mall there and we finally found his size in the Nike store. We also found out that they stock some shoes up to a size 33 cm (which is HUGE) so can relax a bit even if his feet do grow a bit more!

Today Setsuo, one of the carpenters and I went for a health check. It's a yearly thing although it's the first time in about 20 years that we've been. Now we just have to wait for the results and hope they don't find anything. They did ECG, height and weight, blood, urine, stool, eye and ear tests, X-ray and barium meal. Quite amusing to see a whole room full of people walking about in pajamas - mine were LL size (rather embarrassing since Setsuo's and Okawa's where only L) which were fine in the length but the waist was so big I thought I was going to lose them every time I stood up! I also found out that I'm 177 cm as opposed to the 178 I thought I was (either that or I'm shrinking at last!)