Riddle me this!

What's worth over 1,000,000 yen and yet makes you want to bite your hands off, and put your head through the monitor of your computer.

If you guessed WINDOWS XP... then you paid too much for you O\S. However, if you guessed master's degree in Japanese Language and Society... you've hit the JACKPOT!

Indeed, it was exactly two and a half years ago that I made the first fateful payment towards my master's degree by distance learning. I went up to Tokyo for an orientation, and met other non-Japanese like me who were actually interested in studying Japanese and getting certification for their skills (as apposed to almost every other ESL teacher I have met in this country). It was at that time that I discovered I would have to actually purchase, then read, English literature pertaining to Japanese society. On top of that they wanted me to write essays on what I had read, and this is in addition to the 18 months that would be spent studying Japanese grammar, respect language, and translation techniques, all while being evaluated by both written assigments and telephone interviews.

However, this turned out to be all child's play (and I do mean in a horrifying way) compared to what was to follow, in the final year! The mother of all mothers, the dissertation. Although, 20,000 words sounds like a lot, 100+ pages sounded like even more! Getting there took an arm, a leg, and all sanity that I had in my body. Particularly the final month (in which no one received any emails from me, despite the wonderful birthday notes that I recieved SORRY!) But as of 3 days ago, the final hard copies arrived in Sheffield, England, where my distance education course was based out of! With the successful receipt of my 120 pages of sweat and blood (and hopefully sanity) my job was finished! Finally, I have become free!

I wait now, for about 2 months, to hear the results. I am very positive about the outcome being at the very least the receipt of a graduation certificate (knock knock), and at the very most, some pleasant comments by the markers who thought that it was nice that I had sanity while writing this.

I'll fill everyone in on more details later, but for starters I thought I'd just let you all know.

Bali Vacation!

All those who have been to Bali need not click on the following link to my photo page, but since that's probably none of you, why don't you go ahead and check it out!

Itsuki and I had 7 days on this wonderful Island, most of which was super relaxing, but occassionally, bothersome. There's a secret clue in all of the photos, that some of you know about and some of you don't, so look hard and well and give me a shout if you think you know what it is!

Click here http://photos.buffmuthers.com/gallery/v/graham/ and check out Bali Island!