New Zealand

Hi All,

I always said I would re access how things were going here in Japan and give it a couple years, things have been ticking away here but to be honest Japanese is harder to learn than what I thought, the summers are so hot here you tolerate not enjoy them, something I am not really use to, summer time in NZ you can get out and about and do things, hat and sun cream and you are away! But here it is so hot it is draining. The humidity is a killer and the mosquitos make life very uncomfortable. Either side of summer and the weather is quite pleasant, the winters are just like Christchurch, maybe a bit drier. Some really good things here but big cities are big! Tokyo is an old city and outside the main areas that look new there are some pretty old parts of Tokyo. Taxes are high here too, I didn't know that you paid a residence tax, 10% for the pleasure of living here. GST is going up from 5% to 10%, Power prices are increasing to pay for all the problems of the nuclear disaster at Fuakishima and extra cost of using other forms of power generation. There have been some real good things here, grandma and grand dad are here, there is always something different on in the weekends, see my blog :) I have decided to return to NZ the lifestyle in NZ suits us better, so keep your eye out for us in 2013

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