Bonus chapter, just for you guys!

“If you don’t move you’re getting left behind Evie, come on!”
Jem grabbed both women by the hand and dragged them along behind him, weaving through the maze that was Tretis’ artisan’s district. The clatter of boots behind told him the guards were still following him, and he cursed rapidly in Old Croft under his breath. Eva giggled, and Lineel scoffed.
“Language!”
“Lineel, this is not the time!”
After pulling them into the bustling main market square he paused for a moment, looking around wildly to get his bearings. “Evie, where’s Berit’s place?”
“Next square over, Monkey Face, I told you that already.”
“Then let’s move it!”
He let go of them and set off, trusting that at least his wife would follow him, if not his captain. Gaining the alley he chanced a glance over his shoulder, and saw that both were indeed hot on his heels. Throwing out a hand to catch the post, he threw himself around the corner into the square, and up the first flight of stairs he came across. It wasn’t until he was on the upper level that he realised he was on the wrong side of the square, and the guards were closing in.
“Uh, ladies….we’re taking the scenic route.”
“This is why you don’t get to lead very often, Tamarn!”
Jem stepped back and waved Eva on. “After you.”
She rolled her eyes at him, and pushed past, grabbing the edge and pulling herself up on to the roof. Jem gave Lineel a foot up, and then climbed up himself. Eva was already skipping across the gable, grin slapped across her face.
“Just like the good old days!”
The older woman rolled her eyes at her husband, and set off after their captain. Jem spared one last glance down at the guards arguing below as to how they intended to get on to the roof, and moved off. The tiles were hot on his bare feet, he having lost his boots when attempting to save Eva from the merchant she had ripped off. ‘One day she’ll get over that…’
Up ahead Eva slowed, peering over the edge of the buildings as she gained the far side of the square. Eventually she spotted the window she had been looking for, and squatted down on the edge of the roof. “I think he’s in, Jem.”
“You gonna check?”
“If you’d be so kind.”
Lineel shot them both a confused look, shrugging as Jem knelt down next to his captain, taking the hat she passed him and handing it to his wife. “Wear this a moment babe.” He took hold of Eva’s booted ankles, and shot her a stern look. “No swinging, that’s how you nearly landed on your head last time! Might knock some sense into you right enough…”
“Let’s just get on with this Tamarn.”



Berit looked up, puzzled, as a shadow fell across the table he was counting coins on. He looked to the window, and found his baby sister upside down, waving at him. “What the…”
“Hi Berit. Can we come in?”
“We?”
“Jem and Lineel are here too.”
“What are you doing on my roof?”
“Jem got a bit lost, and there were guards on our tail, so roof was the best option.”
He stared at her for a moment, and sighed. “I shouldn’t be surprised.”
Eva smiled, and put a hand to her head. “Can you get me down? Blood’s going to my head, I’m getting a bit woozy.”
The pirate sighed, and dragged himself to his feet. Moving to the window, he grabbed Eva’s forearms, then stuck his head out, looking up at Jem’s grinning silhouette. “I’ve got her.”
“You sure?”
“She falls, you gonna cry about it?”
“Not really.”
“Hey!”
They both laughed, and Jem let go of her ankles. She swung down, only just managing to get her feet on the sill, falling back into Berit’s arms. He helped her down, and she threw her arms around his neck. “How’s it going, big bro?”
“Same old.” He stuck his head back out of the window, and pointed to Jem’s right. “There’s a trapdoor about three paces over, if you don’t fancy repeating Trouble’s trick.”
“Cheers.”
He turned back to the table and found Eva slumped in his chair, fiddling with a coin, his tankard in her hand. “Make yourself at home why don’t you.” He moved past her to a cabinet on the wall, pulling out more bottles as Jem and Lineel appeared from the next room. He shook the former’s hand, and planted a kiss on the latter’s cheek, before handing them a bottle each. “What are you still doing following that nutter about?”
“Y’know, I don’t know either.”
“Oh shut it Monkey Face.”
Berit let out a gruff chuckle, and took a seat opposite Eva, taking the coin out of her hand. She glared at him for a second, then looked away. Jem and Lineel perched on the edge of a low cabinet near the door, the woman resting her head on her husband’s shoulder, bottle untouched. He kissed her head, and took a mouthful of his ale. Berit looked across at Eva, a scowl on his face.
“You lose the guards?”
“I think so.”
He took a deep breath, rubbing a hand over his eyes. “So who did you piss off this time? Folks round here don’t set the guard on you without very good reason.”
“That why you set up base here?”
“Just answer the question.”
She sighed herself, draining the tankard and smacking it on the table. “Some jackass merchant who doubled his price between us settling the deal and me finishing loading the ship. I told him I wasn’t paying the extra, and he said he knew who I was, and if I didn’t want the guard on me, I’d pay. And you know that’s never worked on me, so I told him so. And he called the guards.” She shrugged, then looked over at Jem. “Guess that’s another country off the list.”
“Which leaves…the three on Selan-shur. You carry on like this Evie, we’re not going to be safe anywhere!”
“Oh quit your whining, this way life’s more fun.”
“For you maybe, I’m the one cleaning up the mess all the time.”
Lineel nodded. “He’s right, Evie, maybe we should calm it a little, Shan’brasik’s already attempting to set the entire continent on us, no point in helping him along.”
Eva waved a hand, getting to her feet and moving over to the hammock Berit had tied up between two pillars. She flopped down, and closed her eyes. Jem laughed.
“Guess that’s that conversation over then.”
Berit grinned. “I’m guessing you weren’t here just to hide out?”
The mate grinned back, sun shining off his tooth gem. “Got a favour to ask…”


“Ok, if you just try and relax, hopefully this won’t hurt too much.”
Jem rolled his eyes at the young man holding the needle poised over his bicep. “Look son, you’re inking about the only space left on my arm, I can take it.”
The young artist grinned, and set his needle to Jem’s skin. “Just don’t move.”
The mate got as comfortable as he could with his arm in such an awkward position, and closed his eyes. Lineel giggled. “You always fall asleep getting these done, I never understood it.”
“It’s relaxing babe, you should try it some time.”
“No thanks.”
He opened one eye, and grinned at her. “Suit yourself.”
She grinned back, then took to looking out of the window into the street below. Berit looked up from the table as he finished counting his coins, nodded at Jem’s arm. “I assume there’s a story?”
“As always.”
“I ain’t going anywhere, Tamarn.”
“Didn’t know you were one for stories.”
The pirate grinned, raising his bottle to his lips in silent answer. Jem nodded once.
“Well, we were over in Genan before we landed up here, though course Shan’brasik didn’t have the foggiest. Scouting about a bit, we found he’s got some artist he’s kidnapped from somewhere, probably here, to make up these posters. Posters with rewards for us. Needless to say, we found it pretty funny. Graffitied a few, stole a few, just made a lark of it. And on the way over, I figured, if we were gonna be that notorious, I may as well have a tattoo to prove it. So the flag. That lot over there believe only true pirates will fly it.”
Berit coughed, choking on a mouthful of ale as he laughed. “By Zerran’s gunwales, will Shan’brasik never learn?” He cleared his throat. “You got one of them posters about?”
Jem fished in his left pocket, pulling a crumpled sheet of parchment from within, and handing it to the younger man. The pirate burst out laughing as he unfolded it, looking to his sleeping sister, then back at the parchment.
“They’ve got her pretty much spot on.”
“That’s why we decided to keep a couple, couldn’t leave such a flattering portrayal behind.”
Lineel scoffed and moved over from the window, placing a hand on her husband’s shoulder.
“You mean your massive egos wouldn’t let you leave it behind.”
He wrapped an arm around her waist, trying to scowl at her, but finding himself unable. “You always know how to wound me the most.”
“And you freakin’ love it.”
She leant down and kissed him, eliciting a disgusted sound from the smuggler flopped in the hammock behind.
“Go back to sleep Evie, we’ll be a while yet. We’ll wake you before we leave.”
“You be’er.”
Berit nodded, face mock serious. “I don’t care what story you make up Tamarn, don’t leave me stuck with my little sister!”

Things I have learned in Japan, Part 2

1. Kyoto is really pretty, like seriously pretty. And so is Nara. And you can actually see the sky!

2.University professors think nothing of giving you multiple exams on the same day, which is annoying.

3. said professors also think nothing of not telling you they are going to videotape your skit until the day of the test. And then put them on a dvd and play them back to you.

4.it's easier just to buy regular Coke, cos you can find it in bottles in most vending machines. You'll spend ages hunting for a bottle of Coke Zero

5.it is flippin' cold when you're in a house with no central heating, in winter.

6.no matter how far away from home you go, you'll still have to face the usual Scottish stereotypes; "do you put brown dye through your hair to disguise the gingerness?"

7.Tenpura is probably the tasty thing on the whole planet. and so cheap!!

8.it's near impossible to book a return from here to Edinburgh; everywhere wanted to offer me flights for the other way round!

9.special New Year's foods are awesome. and the big pit of nabe we ate 2 nights in a row = win

10.notebook often have weird and wonderful english on them. it's best not to question it, but just to accept their wisdom and let it brighten up your day.

11.friends from your home university who are studying in the same city, just not the same university, or indeed in other cities, will always be as mad as they were back home in the burgh (I'm looking at you, Mark Christie).

12.it needs to hurry up and be summer now, that's sposed to be the best time of year.

Things I have learned in Japan part. 1

1. if you're western, people will quite freely stare at you on the train/in the street/while you're eating etc. there is no point taking offence at this.

2. "can you eat japanese food?" applies as much to chopstick use as it does to you actually liking the food; spoons are only for curry!

3.Japanese mobiles are weird, though not as weird as the trend for hanging object larger than said phone from it.

4.Japanese people are always amazed when you can speak to them in japanese, and are not therefore just the dumb gaijin they thought you were.

5.5'6" is tall.

6.guys wear more pink than girls. seriously. there are so many guys walking round my campus with Sophia written across their asses in pink. it's odd.

7.being the token Scot entitles you to special treatment; money off things, drinks, sensible conversation that doesn't involve the E country in anyway...

8.Japanese TV will never make sense. Ever. End of.

9.Japanese boys really don't know how to talk to girls. Or maybe my host brother just doesn't like me XD

10.emailing between phones is much better than texting.

11.the trains are always busy, only late in a typhoon, and the american announcer is possibly the most annoying bitch in the history of the universe.

12. Harajuku is shopping heaven.

13.A "small" university is at least 3 times the size of the George Square campus.

14.Japan freakin' rules!

Busy Streets, giant Koi, fashion and video games

I still can't get over how busy it is here, even the streets in Himonya are always full of people, and bicycles. Went to Shibuya again yesterday, and it was even busier than the previous time. And yet, despite all this, I am yet to be barged into and pushed aside like I would be back home.
At the massive crossing in Shibuya, on the way back from getting my photos, there had to be close to a thousand people trying to cross the road at the same time, and yet I managed to cross with no trouble at all. It's bizarre.

Some tastes appear to be universal though, and it made me smile:


Today was more of a chilled day; I studied some kanji, went for a shower, then out to find lunch, notched up a high score on the taiko game (got 100% on the first piece ^_^), then wandered up to the nearby park. And it is gorgeous! There's a huge boating lake in the middle, so I took a seat nearby and alternated between more kanji and reading Pandaemonium. The weather was a little on the warm side to begin with, but I had a can of coke with me, and it cooled when it clouded over, so I survived. I wish I'd had my camera with me though, as I saw some of the biggest fish in the lake; they could have eaten my goldfish back home and probably wouldn't have noticed!
I saw a genuine koi as well, bright orange with the white star on its head. It's supposed to be lucky, so maybe it's an omen ahead of my first day at uni tomorrow!
There is also a shrine on the little island in the middle of the lake, and as I stood on the bridge trying to remember proper etiquette, the tiniest little old lady came up to me and asked if I was ok. I managed to explain that we had been taught shrine and temple etiquette, but that I couldn't remember which was which, at which point she told me to go with her, and she walked me through it! She was so lovely, I couldn't thank her enough. And again I wish I'd had my camera.

Fashion here seems to be really bizarre too; I mean, you got the obvious student types, who look like they live in jeans, and the slaves to whatever some mental rich people in Paris say is 'in' this season, but then you get the truly bizarre.
I saw a guy yesterday who looked like he had forgotten to take off his pjs, or brush his hair. Then there was the guy with the mini-skirt over his jeans...
And that was just the guys.

There seems to be a trend among girls (yes, they're my age, shut up) to wear tiny shorts, the sort last seen on Lara Croft in the 90s, and team them with the largest boots I've seen since I last played as Dizzy in Guilty Gear. A few of them seem to have taken the 'Tales of Symphonia meets Harry Potter' route with tops and hair. I saw one guy who actuallyhad a lightening scar. And it was real; I stopped and asked.

I think the prize for the weirdest outfit have to go to the chick I saw on the train on the way to Shibuya; flat brown shoes, knee-high white socks, a little yellow blouse, and a short-legged, yellow, woolen, for lack of a better word, romper-suit.

Man I love this city.


There are awesome arcade games also, see below for; Guitar Freaks, Drum Freak, Empress Turntables and anime-version "House of the Dead Ex":

just a quick one

4 volumes of manga for less than £3? Am I full of win? totally ^_^

目黒にいます！楽しいだよ！

Ok, so, better get on with this, I could be here a while ^_^

First view of Japan ( if you look real close, you see Fuji) :

Arrived on Thursday morning, 9:15am local time, 1:15am for those of you in the land of Scot. After a traumatic time in customs, in which I headed in entirely the wrong direction, and thought I was going to be trapped in the luggage hall forever, when it turned out the customs desks were behind me the entire time, I found my way to the front of the terminal, and was met by the lovely Naoko, a fellow 3rd year student at Sophia, who had kindly agreed to come meet me at Narita, so that I wouldn't flake out entirely and end up at the wrong side of Tokyo, or indeed not in Tokyo at all.

First encounter with the population was on the train, where I managed not only to buy the wrong ticket, but apparently upset an elderly woman sitting nearby with my rather clumsy, sleepy japanese-english conversation.

Finally, we made it to where I will be staying; Meguro-ku, which you can find here on google maps: http://maps.google.co.jp/maps?hl=ja&tab=wl I live where the A points.

And this is the house I live in (taken at a clumsy angle, cos I didn't want to end up in the neighbour's garden) :

first day none of you will be interested in; I slept most of it! ^_^ though Papa and I did go for a walk round Himonya (the little bit of Meguro we stay in), and got some awesome tempura for dinner ^_^ :





oh, and this little guy is the marker I need to watch out for to make sure I get the right block ^_^; onigiri-kun! :

and the awesome manga shop two blocks away, I can buy books for less than £1! :

yesterday I went for a bit of a wander, went to Daiei, which is this massive department store/supermarket, it is massive. Connor gets ten cool points for giving me the heads up about this, but minus twenty for not telling me it tastes like bubblegum; even regular Coke is better than that! :
for those of you who don't read japanese, it's grape fanta ^_^

today I ventured to Shibuya with Papa and Tomo, who were very kind and took me to the store I needed to get the right adaptor to be able to plug my laptop in, and the cable for charging my ipod which i forgot to pack. and man was it busy!! and that was at a quiet time of day! :

thing is, I have to go through there in the morning to get to university, and then back again in the evening, so goodness knows what it'll be like then!!

Also went for a wander round one of the music stores, and found a rather amusing graffitied Dave Grohl; the cheeks are my favourite bit :

although somethings never change; attached to the music store was this: