Instant cheesecake, eating too much pizza and other such tales of wonderful nothingness. Stay tuned.

I can see this journal entry getting exceedingly long, so I'll just skip to the point with no introduction.

Given my current circumstances, and various problems involving getting into a Japanese University when you're mathematically retarded, I have the following options:

1. Return to UK now, enter a University for September and study something in the field of biology (this is throwing myself back onto the path I was taking before I decided to pack my bags and come here). Then I have the option to come back in 4 years time, and resume my Japanese or whatever, and later doing medical research etc. This is probably the smartest choice, but I don't really want to go back to UK cause it would make what I'm doing now seem like a mistake and waste of time/money.
That and, I like it here.

2. Stay here, continue my language studies and not go to University period. Then go on to some random job later on which makes use of being bilingual. This is dumbest but easiest choice. Not really an applicable option, but hey, it's here.

3. Stay here, continue my language studies, but go onto University and study biology in Japan. The catch is this involves studying maths all the way from the basics, and will involve extra classes somewhere. This is the most difficult/expensive path, but has the most benefits.

4. Stay here, continue my language studies and go onto University, but studying on a different course such as Graphics Design. This makes the math easier, and is the most desirable choice... if not for the fact decent Art & Design institutions in Japan are very difficult to get into.

Those are the thought-out options, although there are several other things I would like to do but haven't come up with a way of doing.
-I like writing, but there's no real viable way of making it into a profitable career without making several hit or miss jumps.
-I like photography, but with the difficulties in competitiveness and unstable employment it's not a good idea to pursue it. Especially since it involves finding an internship and taking business social skill classes. Can't do it in Japan, if at all.
-Becoming a doctor (either practicing or medical journalist) is very appealing, since it's one of the few regions of science I have both an interest in as well as an ability to do. This option involves too many sacrifices though, mainly time. With UK standards, that's 4 years + 4 years + 4 years; I'll be 32 before I'm an actual doctor with a specialisation, assuming I don't fail anything. That + the required maths and the general difficulty pushes it out of consideration.
-Architecture. Maths maths maths maths maths.

I'm past the point of hoping for any serious advice which may lighten up the decision making by a reasonably large margin, but opinions are still sought after.

I'm back (kinda) and... with photos from my Golden Week trips.

Just did a massive clean out of my gallery, getting rid of the really awful stuff from years and years ago.

Also, for anyone interested, I'm working on a new novel.
To be titled "Heart's Mirror", it'll tell the story of a once excellent detective investigating his wife's mysterious death, only to have it lead him back to places in his past he should not return to.
Beset by rival figures, a corrupt legal system and falling into disgrace after Marie's disappearance, Alan Sothersby becomes a habitual drinker, stumbling from one clue to the next amidst the vast urban sprawl that is Tokyo.
However, uncovering evidence soon becomes a race against time to bury it again and find the real killer before the noose tightens and frames the Alan himself for the murder.

....that's all I can give you without spoiling any of the plethora of lovely plot twists, heh.
First thriller I've ever written, look forward to it (to those of you that actually read stuff I write).
It'll be written with intermittent flashbacks of the past, which will fill the gaps and develop characters while leaving the present time frame for all the action.

In other news, kinda umm lost my bank card the other day, so I have no £££ (or yen for that matter), but it's okay. I have a trusty bag of rice and soy sauce to save the day.

Now I need to decide what to do for my birthday in a weeks time. It coincides with the school sports event and that takes up most the day, so the trip I had in mind from before is out the window. No complaints though, I doubt most the people here will even remember.
Well, they're great people, just not the type to place great importance on stuff like birthdays.

School in 6 hours. I suppose sleeping would be a good idea. zZzZ

I haven't actually taken any photos in a long time, but I decided to upload a few old ones.

If you're reading this and you're on my facebook, do me a favour and download the mp3 I uploaded then gimme your opinion on the composition.
Not the playing, I know I suck and Garageband made it worse somehow.