This Week In Japan
(Including weeks 18, 19 20 and recently available 21 edition)

Once upon a time, and thats with the one hour difference from EST, there was a girl named Jane. When Jane was about 13 or 14 (a very young, eager and stupid age) she decided that she wanted to become an exchange student. It was about that time that she bravely announced to her mother that she was going to ship herself off at the next given chance to live in downtown tokyo taking photos of geishas and live off sushi and udon. However, as the years rolled by, Jane's natural talent with Japanese began to fall by the wayside for more important things like soccer, science and boys until one day she found herself at the second bottom of her senior year Japanese class. Not deterred she still applied for the exchange with the slender hope of perhaps chancing a year in Sibera or Quatemala if not her target country Japan. After a long and grueling series of interviews, embarrassing visits to the doctor (one's health is paramount, especially in Quatemala) and a pile of paper work as tall as her sister (who was infortunately much taller than she) she finally managed to secure the exchange. When the acceptance came in one bright Townsvillian day, Jane danced around the Quadrangle of her school, mobile firmly glued to her ear, screaming "I got it! I got it! I got it!" followed by a healthy "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiii!!!!".

However, when she finally arrived in Japan she realised that the 'industrial port town of Imabari' was not quite what she had expected. Somehow the club had made a mistake. She should have been sent to Tokyo to live off the leavings of sumo wrestlers in the roof level penthouse of some rich Rotarian...instead she had been in sent to Townsville...in Japanese. At first the shock of her situation was too much for her (ending in the contraction of a very head-cloggy, snotty cold lasting one week) but after a while she realised that the city wasn't that bad and settled right in.
From there it was up and up. Making friends, trying new foods (including the evil zombie soya beans) and seeing the sites of the city (the bridge, the castle and the local shops). Along the way she met new exchange friends (thank you Alex, for all the support and the amusement through the months...Good luck back in America), visited famous sites around the Isles (I'm thinking Hiroshima, I'm thinking charred bodies, I'm thinking emotional enlightenment) and finally found her life's calling in the form of KICKING PEOPLE'S BUTTS IN KARATE!!!

Life hadn't been all wonderful though. Jane the Intrepid survived two colds, Valentine's disease (symptoms include a rapid weight gain and strange ulcers on the face), conjunctivitus (a fairly recent ailment) and various Karate bumps and bruises including two very impressive blisters the size of 5 cent pieces on her big toe and the ball of her foot. She has been followed around school by a Japanese boy resembling Andy's brother John The Pom, almost run over by a purple van (He didn't stop at the stop sign), punched in the stomach by her black belt karate sensei, smoked out on several occasions by chain-smoking Rotarians and almost ate whale meat (the latter mistaken for tune sashimi until she noticed the blood slipping down her chopsticks)(an Inuit I am not). She has suffered lack of money, lack of shopping and lack of things to do. But like a phoenix from the ashes has been born again (about every month when the pocket money arrives).
The general concensus at this point being:

This last month has been spent living on the remains of her pocket money (severely depleted from buying two summer kimonos - you can never tell which colour is best for the occasion) an amount totaling to $20 australian, practising karate, shedding kilos and reading....lots and lots of reading. Two typhoons have come and gone, one passing harmlessly overhead and the other wrecking terrible gloomy skies, disgustingly high humidity, strong winds and not a drop of rain. It is now of the opinion that Japanese typhoons are a waste of time and kinetic energy.

Now as the seasons deepen into summer our intrepid explorer prepares to battle once again against PE swimming class, the language barrier and her own (shrinking) girth. Will she survive? Will make it through? Will she ever be able to go out in public wearing a mini skirt again? Find out...in next weeks's report, right here on Jane's Exchange Homepage.