Still Alive

Ok, Ive got to admit it, I`ve been a total failure at keeping up on this Blog, and I`d be surprised if anyone is still checking it, but if it means anything, I have been having an amazing time over the past five months. Roughly the entire time since I posted last time, until now, I have been undertaking my traineeship at Saitama city council, very soon I will be putting up a post about the local government system and environmental management in Japan, and the differences with Australia. (I mean it, I really will post)
Saitama is a great part of Japan to be, Its about 30mins from Tokyo by JR rail, and is home to about 1.2 million people, many of whom commute to work in Tokyo. Since Ive been here I`ve worked in over 20 different departments at Saitama city hall, roughly spending a few days at each one. This can be extremely tiring at times, meeting new people all the time, going on site facility tours and answering the same questions over and over, but it is also an amazing learning opportunity. Most of my training is undertaken in Japanese, which was very difficult at first, but gradually go to the point where suddenly It snapped in my head and I could take in the main point of what was being explained to me nearly all of the time. I have been doing home stay whit a Japanese family too, which is very useful for picking up the language quickly. The time has gone so incredibly quickly, I knew it would, but now looking back and realising I only have one month left, it is almost scary how much time can seem to speed up when you are having an experience like this.
Anway, I honestly promise to post again soon, with a more details about my training, place Ive been to, festivals visited etc,
thanks, and sorry ;-)
Andi san,