All is well in sunny Gifu.

I am back, seated, in the familiar surroundings of the Blue Giraffe Internet Cafe, Gifu.

This week has been great. I did my first all-nighter in Naoya city, whch consisted of a few quick bowls of rice (I arrived at the restaurant quite late as I was teaching) in a very pleasant bar, and then a few (by few I mean 7) hours at 'Joy Joy', an all you can drink Karaoke bar. t was really good to put face to all the names I had heard during my first month here. All of my co-eikawa teachers seem to be really great fun, and I had a fantastic night. It was a little odd to leave the bar at 6.30am and walk out into 30 degree heat and blazing sunshinr, and the jounney home on the commuter train was probably just about the opposite of fun, but the night itself was great.

I spent today sleeping, mostly. This evening I went into central Gifu with my new co-teacher, and got some food before visiting (for the first tim) the gaijin br. Gaijin literally means 'outsider,' but it basically translated to English as foreigner. Tere were a few fellow westerners hanging around, ne of which provided us with genuinely enjoyabe conversation for the duration of the evening. The bar is a very relaxed palce- I will go there again.