Six months

Babies, presumably.

Are you privilege to some information I'm not, BiB?

Six months already? Gosh, doesn't time fly?

Must be six fabulous months eh?

i stumbled across your blog while typing into google 'japan family mart'. your blogs interesting and i love reading what you have to say! thnxx for the entertainment, it's beautiful to see and experience different cultures! the worlds a wonderful place xxo

Oh, you know, just an idea. They/it might make your smile broaden exponentially.

Six months, cool.

Then six more and more and more and more... Soon it feels like you live here! :-)

Congratulations on breaking the six-month barrier. This place grows on you.

@Lina: it's been an eventful and generally positive six months, although not without their ups and downs of course. Living here is not a holiday ;).

@BiB: Wishful thinking...

@tranno: thanks for your kind words!

@Contamination: I'm finally moving in to a proper apartment today, a permanence of sorts is drawing close!

@jturningpin: It certainly has its attractions. Fortunately it's not my first six months ever here, so I had a vague idea of what I was letting myself in for.

Thanks for the shoutback.

This is my second go at living here as well. Hope you're enjoying yourself. Not sure how you've coped, but for me, like clockwork, at the end of the first week I stood in a corner and cried the tears of an abandoned child. Both times, it seems to have done the trick. Now, hell, I'm never going back.

Wow. That wasn't too much information.

Anyway, I really enjoy your blog. Take care.

Thanks! I've linked to yours on the sidebar.

I had the advantage the first time round of having studied Japanese for three years and being on an "organised stay", which made the start a lot easier. Even then I found things pretty frustrating as I was able to have a game stab at reading the subtitles on TV but didn't have the foggiest as to what people were actually saying.

This time I got lucky as far as working goes, and the internet has proved incredibly useful for finding things out and learning from other people's experiences, which saves a lot of time and energy. Still takes a while to get used to things, finding the best places to shop / get a coffee / find a good dentist etc. though.

Thanks again the reply.

I'm enjoying myself here quite a bit, though you wouldn't know it from all the ranting I've been doing recently. I think I'm long overdue for an actual informative post. (Though in my defense, I was John T. in your tea thread, so at least I've been informative here if not in my own neck of the woods.)

Sorry to hijack your comments section again. Take care.