Hello X,

It's been ages since I've written, and now that my exams are finally out of the way, I thought I put fingers to keyboard, and type you a little email.

Well, my exams finished this week on Tuesday (with a double whammy of a 2 and a half hour Japanese exam immediately followed by an exam on the industrial structure of Japan since just before the war, to the present day). Having promised myself that I do more work this term than last term, I was relieved that they went well. (How annoying would it be to work hard, and then find the exams difficult!).

Well, after the exams Gianna, and a group of 6 of us went to a great Thai restaurant (really good food, with ridiculously bad service - the waiters could hardly speak a word of Japanese, and needed us to point to things on the menu. The "English" translation on the menu was all you'd imagine from a joke that been pushed too far. "Orengi juusu" was next to the Japanese for Orange juice, was a good start, but the "sloppy lice with bits" was a little less appealing.) It being the last day of exams led to an inevitable excess of alcohol, which ensured that the the (yes, two "the's" are important) Karaoke was a scream (both figuratively, and literally when I got the

mic).

Then on Wednesday morning, I went skiing with a group from Waseda. It was an early start, which meant we were on the slopes by lunch time. It's been years since I've been skiing, and I'd forgotten how much fun it is. I really loved it, and I was in a permanent good mood. The house where we were staying came with an Austrian Chef (who was much better than you'd expect from an Austrian.... although I think everyone would have preferred Japanese food), and Jacuzzi. We were split up into 4 bed rooms. 2 for the guys and 2 for the girls. The room I was in was fine, until one of them started throwing up, so I snuck into the girls' room to sleep with Lisa and Nana

(both from SOAS), so when I emerged at 7 am looking tired, hair on end, and looking generally awful (hell, you've seen me in the morning, so I'm sure you can imagine) from the girl's room, it gave people the wrong idea. Worst, Lisa, Nana and I had all slept together and had been up chatting and laughing for hours, keeping the other girls awake.... once this got out, during breakfast I got the whole range of reactions (from evil death stares from some of the girls, to a guy coming up to me to say he was really

envious)... IF only they knew. Thursday day was great again, it was so sunny which is perfect for skiing (well, OK I got sun burn on my nose, but apart from that, it was perfect).

Friday, for some reason (probably the wine in my blood which remained from the previous night), the 3 of us decided to try snowboarding. Well, today is Saturday (I'm back in Tokyo) and my legs hurt, as do my arms, shoulders, back, stomach, backside, head, neck, nose (and not just because of the sunburn), and ankles. And that's before I try to move. P actually managed to turn successfully the first time, without falling over, and so naturally decided he was going to be fine, when everyone else would fall over. (Yes, once again, he was sure of himself, for no reason whatsoever). And so started to go down the slope really fast, and then realised he didn't have a clue how to stop. Well he did manage to stop, but not before doing a quadruple somersault (as in head hits the piste, with the legs with snowboard up in the air) - maybe it should be described as a cross between a somersault and a cart-wheel. Painful? You could say that. In a word: Yes. But apart from that I really enjoyed it. Even at the time (when I couldn't move my right arm, and I thought I had dislocated it), I found it funny, and laughed. As did everyone else. Half a day was not enough time for me to learn how to stop properly (although I didn't feel the need to repeat my cart-wheel trick), but I managed to get to turn quite a few times without French-kissing the snow. It was a constant adrenaline rush, and I can't wait to try it again. You wait they'll be calling me "SportyP" instead of "SexyP" soon!

Today I enjoying the discovery of whole groups of muscles I didn't know I had. And on Wdenesday (you might think I made a typo in that last word, but recently it's actually become really trendy to be alternative with letter order in Japan) I'm going down to Sydney. Mardi Gras is on Saturday, Charles is arriving on Sunday evening, and the parents (who are currently in Hawaii on a "business trip") on Monday morning. My flight is by far the shortest, but is still 9 hours. At least there's only a 2 hour time difference. I'll be there for 4 weeks, and I've just found out that my mother will stay in Tokyo with me for a week on her way back to Europe. I'm really pleased that she can stay, I'd asked her to, but she had originally said she'd be too busy. She's only spent 2 days in Tokyo before, so I'm really looking forward to showing her around where I live, where I lived when I worked for Reuters years ago... I'm really excited about my whole Easter holiday (OOPS, I mean, Spring Holiday - this isn't a Christian country. It's amazing how many religious ideas affect our society without us really realising. The idea of it being good for a girl to be a virgin, just doesn't seem to exist here).

Well, I hope term finishes well, etc etc. (my fingers are about to drop off).

Bye

P.