Still at the novel, but not at the frenetic pace I was before. Now I'm around 160 in the page count. I enjoy the process, but it can seem overwhelming at times, especially given that knocking out three hundred plus pages is only the beginning, then comes the rewriting. In other news, I celebrated my 29th birthday meaning the three ohhh is, ohhh so close. I'm finalizing a timeline for my move to Thailand. I just signed another contract with Nova putting me at 18 paid holidays - coincidentally the same number of working days I'll have in December. Guess who will be getting a month's pay out of the big guys as a sort of severance? That's right, if things go to plan I'll leave Japan at the end of November. It's about time. My raise plummeted this year from 15,000 yen to 5,000. That's a good enough sign for me. I'm out, but not so quick. I'm expecting a trip to Thailand/Malaysia in May and then I'll work through the last hot, humid summer in Japan (I'll be able to look forward to much of the same in Thailand). That'll bring me into the fall and clearing out the shitload of, well, shit that I've accumulated since arriving in Japan before I take off. Anyway, stay tuned...