today was a gorgeous day, all warm(-ish) and sunny. went to the main department store here to purchase some new winter woollies and decided on a slow meandering wander home, deliberately choosing lanes i have never walked down. it's pretty easy to get around fujiyoshida. everything is either uphill or downhill. the whole town sits on the sloping foothills of fuji-san. i know that if i keep a meandering downhill, vaguely left-ish path, that i'll get home eventually. this town has a lovely way of unfolding slowly with deliberate beauty and wonder. i guess the weather helped today, too....

so there i was, strolling downhill-heading-vaguely-to-the-left, when 2 amazing kids came running up, all excited, with a large, heavy plastic bag. "are you american" said the girl. "no, i'm australian". "ah, wakata" (ah, i know it). we sat down on a large boulder near a cemetary and they proudly showed me what was in the bag...

...shudder. i don't have many phobia's. in fact, i really only have one. i have always had a serious issue with the ugliest, scariest and most unpredictable of insects: the preying mantis. i remember once, i was somewhere in the daintree forest near a beach, when me and my dog were bailed up by the worlds biggest preying mantis, who sat in the middle of the path to the beach, doing his slow, swaying dance, daring me to attempt the crossing so he could leap up my body onto my face and scratch me... this beast was seriously about a foot long, and it's body the thickness of a medium sized tree branch.... needless to say, i turned around, walked back to the main road and took another path to the beach. my dog was very confused - "but YOU SAID we were going for a swim".

so, in the plastic bag were 2 large preying mantis', and they wanted me to take a picture. somehow i resisted the urge to drop my camera and run screaming through the cemetary, and managed to snap about 4 pictures, including two macro-zoom closeups... which didn't work out so well, so you'll just have to take my word that i did it. the kids and i hung out together for about half an hour. the girl had amazing english, she was so delighted to be able to practice. eventually the sun sank a little and we reluctantly said our farewells and i resumed my journey home.

found a great temple with a turtle water spout instead of a water dragon, lots of run down old shops and lovely gardens and finally hit the home stretch. the street that runs past unitas (where i work) and up to gekoji station. man, fuji was looking so special, once again. she has been putting on some spectacular shows of late, in conjunction with the clouds.

tomorrow is a public holiday here and my school is holding our annual kids day event - we're all off to the kawaguchiko field centre to make curry and rice, various crafty bits and pieces and go cave walking. nick and akihiko are planning an acoustic guitar song medley and they have got the teaching staff all singing along for one part of it, should be quite riotous, we're all really looking forward to it.

next week is gonna rock my world in a serious way. my letterbox is gonna be very busy with some high level arrivals. my good buddy juggs (who works in a video store in southport), is clearing out the preview drawer at work and sending me a pack full of dvd's. and finally, the long dreamed about arrival of macromedia's studio works and photoshop 7. dreamweaver mx, flash mx, fireworks mx, illustrator mx. ah, i am going to be a dribbling mess.