The art of fishing for strangers on the internet...

...is obviously not something I'm good at, or at least actively. I'm a magnet for unsolicited hellos and friendships when I don't try (mostly thanks to SparkNotes)

I've tried contacting three Western bloggers who reside in Hitachi, no resposne yet. Maybe its in the e-mail subjects, people are unfashionably paranoid about spam these days.

• Vanese - "ive been in japan for about a month now and already ive experienced the deadliest typhoon in 2 decades and the deadliest earthquake since 1995." - Inspiring
• Err... I've lost the other two which is just dissapointing :(

I did find a fellow recruit, but he's from Canada (I'm half Candian!); and despite starting arriving the same time as me and working around 80km from me, he's going to a totally different training session weird. Other factoid: I've been getting stray hits from his blog due to the tag I left on his tagboard, he's now my second best referrer.

A while back I managed to contact someone who worked the same position (same employer, same job) as me in the mid 1990s and she was quite helpful with information.

Also dropped a line here informing that the male pregnancy is a hoax, got a nice thank you and blessing... how courteous, thank you.

I'm doing better at my hiragana/katakana recall --- only "nu" for katakana is screwing with me now. Its "me" with a head, "me" with a head.

PS - The Budget Traveller's Guide to Sleeping in Airports (Tips, Stories, Reports, Reviews and more)