dogen here. i have some good news and some bad news. the good news is that my new host family is fantastic. that bad news is that i dont have personal internet access and the home computer is slower than rocks. plus its windows, which really slows things down after using OSX for the last 6 months. what this means for you* not a whole lot. what this means for me: take my computer to internet cafe and blog there. btw its impossible to type english on a japanese keyboard. PACE