November was a bit of a tough month as the Japanese winter started to dig its heels in, which made me not particularly want to leave my house :D I'm really not a big fan of the cold! The month did have its interesting moments though, hehe, the most amusing of which was Minato-san trying to set me up with another girl in Ako. In conjunction with her mother, no less, haha. Crazy times. It was pretty bizarre, actually. It all started when the lady came into Minato-ya when I was there and she got talking to Minato-san about how her daughter. Before I knew it I was over the road and in her daughter's room, being introduced to her and two of her friends. It really made for a rather unusual experience! We agreed to catch up for coffee some time, although how this changed from a lovely little coffee shop into her aunt's house, I'll never know. It was the most brutal coffee I've ever had, too, because this poor girl was hardly given the chance to speak - her mother and her aunt grilled me with questions all afternoon and into the night, when we all went for dinner at a great Okinawan restaurant in Sakoshi. Very, very crazy :D

Aside from those escapades, I also took a trip to Mount Shosha with my friend Yusaku, played frisbee in Himeji and started ikebana with my students. And the highlight of the month was catching up with my friends Jacinda and Luke, who came over for a holiday from Perth. I hadn't seen them for over a year, so it was wonderful to catch up. We went running around various places like Arima-onsen and izakayas in Sannomiya, so plenty of fun.