Expedition Japan: Who was the 'tall, fair-haired and very red-faced European' pulling the float at Kyoto's famous Gion Festival? None other than Simon, sweltering in 90°F, and that's how he was described by five "Blue Peter" viewers who just happened to be in the crowds lining the streets! But that was nothing compared with wading shoulder high into a sea of 50,000 eels, playing the part of a Samurai warrior at the Kyoto Movie Studios and coming face-to-face with the massive 30-stone Sumo wrestlers who make Big Daddy look a mere midget. And talking of giants, see how Prince has grown during the summer break and catch up with the latest news about all the other four-legged members of the team - Goldie, Jack and Jill and Maggie and Jim.

Prince's Progress Goldie's puppy, Prince, spent his first night under canvas when he went to camp with the First Glen Hill Guide Company last month. All excellent experience for a trainee guide dog puppy who has to learn to ' be prepared' if he's to pass his tests and qualify as a pair of eyes for the blind. There'll be progress reports on his brothers, Buster, Sandy and Henry too, who are also being puppy walked. If you have the time and the patience to train a puppy for the Association, and you live within 40 miles of Bolton, Exeter, Forfar, Leamington Spa or Wokingham, write to Derek Freeman , the Guide Dogs for the Blind Puppy Walking Manager, at the following address: Tollgate House, Ban-bury Road, Bishops Tachbrook , Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.

Expedition Japan Slippery Customers Thirty thousand wriggling eels were Simon's ' catch' when he waded up to his waist at the Hamana Lagoon Eel Farm. But the problems didn't end there - Master Chef Kyoshi Motohashi had his hands full when he showed Peter how to cook this gastronomic delicacy!

Expedition Japan Sarah discovers you have to take lessons before you can wear a Japanese kimono. Peter learns to fly in a jet cockpit where a flick of a computer switch changes night to day and fair weather to foul. Another computer gets Simon in the swing as he perfects his drive at a top Tokyo Golf Clinic.

Christmas Stamps This year's Christmas stamps and official First Day Cover have been designed by "Blue Peter" viewers. A colossal 500 million have been printed and you can see them roll off the presses at the printers in today's first public preview.

The Battle of the Giants!: Japan is Sumo mad! The 30-stone wrestlers are an awesome sight, and it was a dramatic moment when Peter stepped in the ring with the giant Kotonoryu!

Expedition Japan Hot Stuff! Peter takes a bath in a pool of volcanic mud, Simon is buried up to his neck in scorching sand (a recognised cure for hysterics!) and Sarah boils an egg in a hellpool where the water bubbles at 176°F! The setting is Beppu in southern Japan where the town lives in the shadow of one of the world's most dangerous active volcanoes: Mount Aso.

Straight and Narrow! There's more to ploughing with a team of horses than meets the eye, as Simon discovers when he joins some of Britain's top plough-men in the 1981 Championships in Oxfordshire.

William Adams was shipwrecked on Black Island off the coast of Japan in 1600. Sarah traces the true story of the Englishman who became samurai to the Shogun.

Butterfly Safari You don't have to go to the tropics to see orange tips, monarchs and woodnymphs. Keen lepidopterists can spot them only a few miles from London Airport! Join Sarah on an unusual safari and discover how you can go butterfly hunting the easy way.

If you missed last Thursday's programme, now's your chance to catch up with "Blue Peter"'s most important announcement of the year - the 1981 Appeal. Have a pencil and paper handy!

Save this copy of RADIO TIMES and transform the pages into a reindeer. A cardboard sledge completes the model and you'll end up with a magnificent Christmas decoration that would cost pounds to buy in the shops.

"Grange Hill" Special Your chance to see behind the scenes as Blue Peter films rehearsals for the "Grange Hill" Christmas Special. Competition winner Paul Manning, who wrote the story line, was allowed to join the actors as part of his prize - watch out for him at the Christmas disco when the Brookies get their come-uppance!

The latest news of the Operation Pipeline Appeal. Your stamps and coins are still desperately needed to give villages in Java supplies of pure water, and the Depot at [address removed], is open over Christmas except for tomorrow and Boxing Day. Join in with carols round the tree with children of Allfarthing's School, Warlingham County Secondary School and the Band of the Chalk Farm Branch of the Salvation Army, and can you penetrate the disguises worn by Simon, Sarah and Peter in the Blue Peter Panto?

Remember Simon as an Elvis look-alike, Sarah wearing corsets and Peter slogging it out in the first ever London Marathon? They are just a few of Blue Peter's 1981 highlights and others include Kevin Keegan in action in the studio, a meeting with Morph, the birth of Goldie's puppies and leaping through fire with the legendary White Helmets. If you missed any of these mile-stones today's your chance to catch up and to look forward to 1982.

RAF Airlift: Operation Pipeline gets a big boost when the RAF comes to the aid of viewers in Scotland, and heavy loads of stamps and coins reach the appeal depot in record time.

Simon meets the man who doesn't have fairies at the bottom of his garden - he has a giant satellite aerial instead. Steve Birkhill designed and built his own satellite receiving station. Now he watches the Russian six o'clock news and the weather forecast from Saudi Arabia!

'Aunt Jane was the delight of all her nephews and nieces - but, as Sarah discovers, Aunt Jane had a secret!

Simon and Tina reveal secrets of the tombs of the Pharaohs to mark the centenary of the Egypt Exploration Society, and the 'Excavating in Egypt' exhibition opening in the British Museum.

Scruffy or sharp? Tatty or trendy? What's your verdict on Peter's clothes? No one seems to agree on what suits him best, so now's your chance to design the ideal outfit!

Beat the prices in the florists' shops and make an everlasting bouquet of flowers as a very special present for Mothering Sunday.

A World War II bomber 15 metres below the freezing, murky depths of Stoney Cove quarry in Leicestershire, is just one of the obstacles Sarah faces during her latest diving test.

Maggie and Jim Britain's fastest tortoises make their spring debut. Because of regional variations in climate, it's impossible to make any hard and fast rule about when to bring your tortoise out of hibernation, but beware of late frosts and bring tortoises indoors at night until the warmer weather's here to stay.

Marathon Man!: Relive those gruelling 3 hours, 11 minutes and 42 seconds as Peter competes in the first-ever London Marathon and comes 1,868th out of 6,418 runners to finish the course. This year Peter's determined to beat his time and come in the first 500. Watch out for his "Blue Peter" strip amongst the 17,000 runners in Sunday's 'live' Marathon coverage on BBC1, and check his feet for blisters on next Monday's "Blue Peter"!

Operation Pipeline Auction: "Blue Peter" viewers created a record with the auction for the Operation Pipeline Appeal held at Phillips last week. The collectors items, from the stamps and coins donated to provide pure piped water systems and health care services for the people of Java, formed the biggest "Blue Peter" sale ever held! See the lots go under the hammer wielded by top auctioneer Christopher Hawkings - aided by porters-for-the-day Simon, Sarah and Peter. And discover how much the biggest lot raises - the unique Merlin sports car complete with the "Blue Peter" ship on its doors!

Glasshouse Giant Today HM The Queen opens the pride of Kew Gardens, the renovated Temperate House. Over 3,000 species thrive there, including Kew's second-oldest inhabitant, the giant Chilean wine palm, otherwise known as Jubaea chilensis. Percy Thrower takes Sarah behind the scenes for a hothouse preview.

Each year more than 30,000 new recruits join hospitals all over Britain at the start of their nursing careers. Sarah spends the day at one of the most famous of the great teaching hospitals - St Thomas's, London. On Seymour Ward for children, a trainee nurse is expected to cope with anything from babies who don't want to be bathed, to cheering-up new and nervous patients.

Lloyds of London In 1688 Edward Lloyd opened a house near the River Thames for the new popular drink, coffee. Simon reports from the world's centre for Shipping Insurance, where the tragic Loss Book records disasters like the sinking of the Titanic, and rings the famous Lutine Bell from the French frigate captured by the British in 1793. For over a century the bell has been rung at Lloyds to warn of stop-press events - once for bad news, twice for good.

A Dive through Time Sarah achieves her ambition as a diver and reports direct from the seabed and the wreck of the Mary Rose.

It's a Knockout: The first 'knockout' of the new season starts tomorrow, and Simon, Sarah and Peter are there sharing the commentating with Stuart Hall. Find out what goes on behind the scenes, and how games like Rock a Rooster, Stack a Bale and the Milk Run are tested.

During the last 30 years more natural woodland has been lost in Britain than in the past four centuries. Find out today how you can help, and see the incredible 260-million-year-old tree discovered a thousand feet below ground at Six Bells Colliery, Gwent.

HRH The Prince of Wales, President of the Mary Rose Trust, shows some of the newest treasures recovered from the wreck and talks to Simon and Sarah about his experiences as a Mary Rose diver.

'He flies through the air with the greatest of ease...' Man has only been airborne for less than 200 years, and when it happened it was by balloon. Sarah makes her first ever ascent in a basket, in an ancestor of the historic Montgolfier balloon of 1783.

Metro Magic How long does it take to change the engine of a car? The men of RAF Strike Command and Support Command claim they can do it in 60 seconds flat! Two teams race to break this astonishing record in the Blue Peter studio, in preparation for this year's Royal Tournament.