Dear Readers,

I would like to take this opportunity to update you on a few things. First let me say that I won't be posting for a few days. I am traveling to Yokohama to visit my Japanese relatives. It should be very interesting since I've never met them and the language barrier is up and fully armed. I fortunately have a translator; Ai has graciously agreed to help me communicate with them. So I actually get to visit family and a good friend on this trip. I will also be staying on base with Ai, so I can stock up on a few items and search for a Halloween costume. I got asked to present some information at a Halloween party here in Iwade. However the party is on Oct. 1, not the 31. Go figure! Anyway, I should be back Sunday, so check for a post on Monday or Tuesday. If you are desperate for opinions, photos, or input on Japan, check out my links section. I have added two new links of friends blogs. They are also JETs in Wakayama. "Starting with Japan", is Lauren's blog and "Adventures of Corri", is obviously Corri's blog. Oh, I've also uncovered a mystery. I showed the photo of the "Chicken Beer" to my Japanese language teacher. Furuta-sensai informed me that some beer companies sell advertising space on their cans. It was an advertisement for chicken. How bizarre! I guess anything is for sale. Also the vending machines here have converted many of the iced coffees to hot coffee. So the can comes out hot. For those of you that don't know, there are drink vending machines everywhere. I am surprised that Japan hasn't figured out that they could make a killing if they had snack machines too. Surprisingly there aren't any and I always seem to want a snack on the train. Photo above is a shot at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. The sushi literally moves on a belt pass you, tempting you to eat more. This place was good and reasonably priced. Almost forgot, I added a word verification trigger for those that leave me comments. I actually received some spam as a comment. The word verification thing is a simple step and should eliminate spam. Sorry to give you one more hoop to jump through in order to communicate with me. However I do greatly appreciate it. Last thought on my mind, just 4 weeks left until Rich and Irishman arrive in Japan. Can't wait!