Well in case you haven’ heard, here is what happened: On Saturday I moved into my second host parents house. Everything was fine but on Wednesday they said that I needed to take to care of the house because they were going somewhere and not coming home till the next day. I thought “Hey Great, Im gonna have some friends over”. So some friends come over were all having a good time when my parents come home. The music stops, and heart falls through the floor. They yell and scream but I don’t understand what they’re saying. All I know is Ill be back in Miami on Tuesday…JUST KIDDING!!! Hey, Sorry about they little joke but nothing interesting has actually happened over the last few weeks. Life is pretty normal. I did change host families, they’re very nice but the mother treats my like Im ten years old. They really did leave me the house to my self but they didn’t find out about the… I mean I didn’t have a party. No I really didn’t. The new home is two stories, has three dogs, two kept in a kennel by the door the other chained up outside at all times. I have some older siblings though they are not often home. Sisters aged 29 and 21; brothers aged 27 and 25. The Father owns a large metal screws nuts bolts pipes factory. The mother works there as well. The mother is kind of crazy and I don’t like her much. She is always laughing about nothing and too over protective. She asks me every morning if I have a cold. I think shes hoping I get sick so she can take care of me. She wouldn’t let me drink the milk in the fridge becuase the sell by date on top had passed. When I came home from hanging out with my friends on saterday night she smelled me for I guess cigarette smoke or alcohol. (I probly smelled like an ashtray cuase most of my friends smoke). But hey you know me, I DONT smoke. Every time I leave the house she tells me to be careful about twelve times. Oh...she must always be talking, or listening she doesn’t believe in silence, (this is the worst at breakfast because I’m just waking up and she insists on talking and talking and talking). For some reason I cant understand her as well as I understand the father or the brother. The two sisters are just as bad. I thought maybe I would be friends with the 21 year old but she is far to immature to talk to. AND she is a rat. Not that I do anything wrong, but I know that she is not the sister I can confide in like I could with my last host sister. I feel that anything I tell her (my current host sister) will immediately be told to the whole family. The Father gets really drunk every night, (I think that the only way he can deal with these people) but that is very common in Japan. He also smokes. The house is in the middle of downtown, there is no beautiful garden or anything and next door we have a bowling alley. I have automatic shutters on my windows which I have to close at night other wise it doesn’t get dark. The entrance to the house smelles like rotten dog because of the two dogs that are kept in a cage ALL the time. It gets freezing cold outside but the dog outside is never put anywhere else and is ALWAYS chained up. As bad as that all might sound I am rarely home to enjoy the wonderful family.  Ive been skateboarding a lot, and studying a lot. I know about a hundred kanji maybe. I managed to have an hour long, meaningful conversation with a non-English speaking rotex member. We talk about homesickness and making new friends, and Japanese culture in general. Ive made lots of friends over here, mostly through skateboarding at which I have greatly improved. Ill get some pictures of that home soon. Today is Thanksgiving, but we don’t have that here. Christmas break is on the 20th. Ive been invited to a few Christmas parties, they should be fun. I also may go up to Aomori Prefecture to go snowboarding. Well see what happens and Ill let you know. All the way from Japan, Mark