An Englishman in Nyu-gun: Bush vs the World

So, it looks like it's happened again. Gilead has once again voted in Big Brother as its undisputed leader. Yesterday I sat in an apartment full of Americans for eight hours, watching the depressing events unfold, until it all got too much to bear and we decided to watch Bugs Bunny cartoons instead. CNN should show more cartoons, they certainly break the crushing blow of bad news. Maybe they should animate the entire channel.

Anyway, it's been a crazy old week here, I don't really know where to start. Probably the strangest thing I saw was on Saturday, when I was shopping for my Halloween costume. I was wandering through the children's section of a department store in Takefu looking for a wig when I noticed the calendar section, and was slightly taken aback. Nestled amongst the cutesy Looney Tunes and Hello Kitty calendars was a Playboy calendar. If you don't believe me check out the photo below... The girls here absolutely love the Playboy bunny - about half the girls in my school have knee-high socks with the bunny on them, and most girls have at least one Playboy T-shirt. Yet, when I ask them about it, most of them are completely unaware that the bunny comes from a pornographic magazine. Hence a calendar of scantily clad women in the children's section.

I've also started doing kyudo (Japanese archery). It's really good fun, but bloody hard. The bow you use is two metres long, and it's really difficult to pull back - hopefully I should have the muscles of an ox by this time next year. It's made harder by the fact that there's a very specific way you have to move and hold the bow - I'm coming into school early every day to practice the movements on the kyudo range. Even so, it's going to be at least two weeks before they let me near an arrow! There's loads more I want to say, but I have to plan a lesson on proverbs, so got to go. Keep emailing me, it's great to hear what you're all up to!

Take care, Lewis