New! Serepax in living colour!

Well, I splashed out and bought a device which purports to be a mobile phone but also moonlights successfully as a digital camera, video camera, internet access point, email sender and receiver, music player, bar code reader (?) and teleporter. I think I'm in love. Anyhow, there are now pictures of My Life in Japan, sans identifying features. If you know me in real life and want to see pictures of me, Kiyono, adorable Japanese children and my gaijin friends, point your cursors to:

http://www.myfilehut.com/userfiles/*****/index.html

***** is my real name and the first letter of my surname. Wow, how secretive. Sorry, random visitors. The Phantom's face can never be seen, etc.

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I have been neglecting tales of my brother's exploits here. I think the whole poverty thing is a bit hard to get used to for him, but he has successfully partnered up with one of the girls in the house here, after battling off a determined and handsome Swedish challenger who also lives here. The Swede managed to kiss her after Row had already been seeing her for some time; her justification was that it would have been rude to refuse. A gorgeous culture clash, that one. Anyhow, now that Row has seen off the interloper, Y. wants him to stay longer and Commit, which is, well, a rather big ask. Also, his 37 year old student who wanted his hot body turns out to have been married, which she saw as a inconvienience rather than a real problem.

We went to a sento (a public bath) together last week, which was quite a shock. Public baths in Japan are gender divided and naked. So we disrobed as quickly as we could under the watchful gaze of an elderly woman at the reception desk and scarpered into the bath, where we were confronted by a throng of Japanese men who gave us inquisitive looks which we returned. Suffice to say that I have never seen penises of the variety or like before. Also, the last time I saw my brother naked would have been, oh, 15 years ago. Good lord. It's not an easy thing to acknowledge that your brother is better equipped than you. However, two days later he admitted to 'fluffing' himself occasionally in order to present well to the locals. Yep, it's certainly bringing us closer together.