The Hard Cold Facts

OK, so maybe some people are still in the dark about what the hell is actually happenin' over here. Dan and I live in a house in Hagi on our own, its Japanese style with tatami mats inside http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/culture/tatami_mat.html and rice paper slides for doors/walls. It's quite pretty. We have 3/4 bedrooms plus lounge and kitchen so its very spacious. We are next door to a tiny coffee shop called CoCo, Yokoyama-san owns it and shes lovely, she helps us with our rubbish and gives us food sometimes. The rubbish system here is amazing, even Japanese find it difficult. You have to sort it into burnable and non-burnable and heaps of different categories. Then there are all the different collection days. It's an aneurism waiting to happen, people.
When we arrived the house was empty bar two futons. And I mean empty. We didn't have predecessor JETs like everyone else, for reasons subject to gossip and dark tales. Everyone else arrives to a furnished house with stuff that other people have been buying for the last 5-10 years. Not so for Dan and Rosie! However we have now bought pretty much everything we need, including the exact same stereo as Macka has upstairs, except the buttons are in katakana. We even bought house plants (I've killed 2 so far, 2 out of 4 ain't bad).

So we live around the corner from the biggest shopping complex, its very convenient and a 5 min walk to the coolest bar in Hagi, called No Side. It's run by a couple of guys who used to go to a Rugby Academy here in Japan, so they have it on the TV and wear World Cup shirts. I think the name of the pub is a reference to being offside or something. I only just got it the other day.
So that's it. Any other questions just email em thru gloweNZ@hotmail.com