One time, when the world was covered in water....

I've discovered that this whole blog thing only becomes more daunting when you don't write in it for a long time, so I say now is the time to bite the bullet! (I wonder where that expression came from. Ah, wikipedia tells me that historically, wounded patients would be told to bite a bullet in order to cope with extreme pain. Interesting.)

I barely even remember what I did three weeks ago.. I had my field placement for the second time (still awesome.. this time I worked with second graders, who were adorable) and I went to class. I probably did some things that were really fun. Oh right! I went clubbing for the first time, at a place that houses the world's largest disco ball.. it was all electronic music and they had crazy laser-like lights, strobes, and fog machines flashing everywhere at various times. It was really trippy but an amazing experience. I danced straight from midnight to five in the morning.

Two weekends ago I met Becca in Asakusa and we walked around the touristy shops and saw some really nice Buddhist temples. An old man on a bike stopped to talk to us while we were digging into our takoyaki, and he sat there with us for over half an hour talking in a medley of Japanese and English about how he was in the Navy and used to live in California. Nice guy. On Sunday, I met with Mai (a professional Chinese dancer whose sister is married to one of my dad's co-workers) and she took me to a professional ballroom competition. Not having danced or seen dance since I've been here, I thought it was pretty spectacular; granted, there were a few really American-style dances that were strange to see performed by Japanese people at first.

I had class only until Tuesday the next week, so I didn't have to go to the elementary school. Everyone has off a week of school in April or May and it's known as Golden Week.
The first day of Golden Week I got my hair cut really short! It was a men's style, which threw the stylist off a tad, but I'm quite happy with it. Most families travel during this week off, so we decided we would take their lead and go on a mini trip. There were eight of us who went together, and we decided upon a campground in Hakkone that rented out six-person cabins for $200 per night. With eight of us, it was only $25 per night each! (For Japan, that's incredible.) Our trip began with extensive train riding, but at a certain point trains could no longer conquer the land between us and our destination. Thus, we had to take a cable car, which was more or less a train slanted on a steep diagonal, and a GONDOLA! We were all freaking out with excitement about this, because come on.. anywhere that requires a Gondola ride to get there must be amazing. And it was. The scenery from the Gondola was ridiculous; we were in a really mountainous area, and we could see the vague hazy outlines of mount Fuji against the sky. We passed a sulfur mine with steaming mountains, and we began to approach Lake Ashinoko, where we'd be staying. On the gondola's descent we noticed that there were pirate ships sailing across the lake. Added bonus!

The first day we settled into our cabin and found it to be delightful.. it was all wood, but there was a big open common area with huge windows, a nice kitchen, and two bedrooms with three beds each. There was a bathroom, but the toilet clogged within the first hour. We ate lunch (mostly just rice) and then set out to explore. We took an extensive hike around the lake and everything was so beautiful that we could hardly contain ourselves. Living in Tokyo for a month and a half, I've grown used to petite manicured trees in pots, and a smoggy night sky in which only the moon is visible. It was beyond refreshing to see Japan's natural side, to experience real trees again that hadn't been tampered with. When it was getting dark we turned back, and Griffin and I made stir fry for dinner (which, I might add, was delicious.) We all played charades for hours and then went to sleep.

The second day was hot springs day! This I was really looking forward to, because Japan is so well-known for its hot springs. First, though, we took a walk through town and notified the camp officials about our toilet being broken. The onsen (hot spring) that we went to was actually indoors, which was a little disappointing but no matter.. we'll just go to an outdoor one another time. The sexes, of course, were separate, and the we (the four girls that came on the trip) were the only ones there. It was at first a little strange to get naked with three friends, but we all adapted really quickly and then it became awesome and fun instead. Before you get in the onsen, you have to take a shower so that you don't take any grime into the bath with you (this is actually a principle for all Japanese baths, not just onsens.) Getting into the onsen was a little difficult because it was scalding, and being in for too long made my heart beat in strange places, like my arm and my toe. (Who knew that could happen?) We all got out every once in a while to stand under a cold shower, and then we'd get back in and the water would seem less hot for a minute or two. It was really fun, but it left us all exhausted because of the extreme changes in temperature and the general relaxing atmosphere. When we got back to the cabin, some people took naps and the rest of us went for a hike again and sat by the lake until we got cold and hungry. That night Griffin and I made curry, also delicious, and we played cards and charades again. Everyone went to sleep around 1 or 2, but I hadn't been outside at night yet so I went for a walk by myself until I came to an open field that we had played frisbee on earlier. I could see so much of the sky and so many stars that I could hardly believe I was in the same country as Tokyo. I laid on my back and watched the stars and listened to the lake for a long time; it was one of the most emotionally intense experiences I've had since I've been here.

The next morning we had to check out, but we stayed in the area a little longer so that we could ride the pirate ship. We mostly just thought riding a kaizoku no fune in Japan would be hilarious and awesome, and we made abundant reference to The Lonely Island's popular ballad, "I'M ON A BOAT." But we had no idea the view that was in store for us. The sky was clear that day, and as we pulled farther away from our port we noticed Mount Fuji was extremely visible in all its glory. Hakkone was really mountainous, so to see how dwarfed the surrounding mountains were by Fuji was breathtaking.

On the way home, Griffin and I decided we wanted to take some bamboo with us as a souvenir, so we got off the train at a promising looking stop and proceeded to search for bamboo we might be able to steal. Before we found any bamboo, we found a blocked off, deserted path with rusted structures overgrown by vegetation. It was a pretty rad atmosphere but my camera had died earlier that day so I have no photo documentation of the whole bamboo journey. (bamjourney?) Finally we struck gold! We tried not to kill too much bamboo so we took ones that were already bent or cut, and it took a long time to get the bamboo to cooperate in most cases. As we walked back to the train station, we realized we were probably the only white people in the whole town, and we were conspicuously carrying large sticks of bamboo onto a train. But hey, you do what you've got to do.

The rest of golden week, I went to Akihabara and went to a Maid Cafe! (where the waitresses are dressed up as maids and everything is pink and cutesy and they make you sing little songs and play games with them over your food. Definitely geared towards guys, but they seemed ok with the fact that three of us were girls.) The next day Lindsay and I had a small gathering at our apartment so we could have a movie marathon, but the infamous Endo-san came in and basically told us that we were terrible students and that we sucked, and that the neighbors would complain and we would get penalized. Endo-san is the scariest Japanese person I've ever seen even when she's happy, so this was positively terrifying for everyone. She had told us at the beginning that guests were ok before 9, but I think she was upset because some of them were boys? No one was sure what the problem was, since we were being really quiet and obviously she hadn't noticed anyone was there until she came into the room. We talked to IES and they told us don't worry about it as long as you aren't breaking rules, and that IES realizes Endo-san is a little off her rocker.

The next day was my birthday! I did homework much of the day, and that night a bunch of us went to The Lockup, which is an insane prison-themed restaurant. The lady who took us to our table first locked Griffin and I up in handcuffs and led us there. All the staff were wearing police uniforms or cellmate uniforms with the black and white stripes. The restaurant itself was a series of dark, (fake) cobblestones passages, and music from Pirates of the Carribean (what?) was playing in the background. We were led to our table.. or should I say cell (every group has their own private prison cell) and ordered drinks first. My drink of choice was an erlynmeyer flask filled with soda, and a series of different test tubes with various coloured/flavoured alchoholic syrups. They came with a beaker and a pipette, so that you could mix the soda with the different syrups to your own satisfaction. So fun! Other drinks included one with an eyeball in it, one with a syringe full of red coloured flavor syrup, and one into which you put white powder that looked like cocaine. As we were looking at the menu, the lights went out and the music was turned up and a strobe light came on in our cell. Various grotesquely costumed villains burst into our cell to threaten us and prod us with axes and the like. As a jumpy person, I for one was freaked out, but I was sitting far from the door and didn't get harassed. A recording came on to tell us that the police had gotten the prisoners under control again, and the lights came back on and we proceeded to order our food. The most notable was the Russian Roulette takoyaki; we got nine takoyaki (fried octopus balls, one for each of us) and ate them at the same time.. they were all normal and delicious, except one. That one was almost intolerably spicy. Erin got the spicy one and said her mouth burned for a really long time after. We ate (I had fondue! Incidentally, nothing like fondue anywhere else in the world, but still delicious) and went home. And so ended Golden Week.

Yesterday I had a field trip to Shibuya with a class, and since it was a Friday, almost everyone stayed and went out clubbing afterwards. Ellie and I did some killer Disney karaoke and then headed to meet everyone else for the club. It was only a ten dollar entrance fee and that included one free drink, so it was a really good deal. Once again, I danced all night and left at five in the morning, and once again it was 100% worth it.

Fin.

小学校 and so forth.

Somehow another week has already passed. How did that happen?! Dear god, I've already been here for three weeks and I only have fifteen weeks overall. That means my trip is 1/5 of the way done, which is sort of depressing. Let's not think about that, shall we?

So the weekend:
Friday, I had my first pop culture class and it was pretty decent. I signed up to do a presentation next week on the schoolgirl fetish in Japan, which I fully intend to dress up for. Since the trains cut off so early here, we gathered to go out right after classes ended at 5. We went to do some karaoke in Makuhari with about 12 people and two rooms. Some highlights were a poorly-constructed but soulfully-sung Disney medley, the Spice Girls, and me falling off a bench while doing interpretive ballet. It was a tremendously good time.

Saturday was the Taiko drum festival in Narita.. Griffin an I rode the slightly more expensive but way cooler train to get there. It felt like we were in an airplane, but with more leg room. IES had a big lunch planned at a famous Unagi restaurant (for those of you less cultured, Unagi is eel.) Our first course was a clear-brothed soup with little spongy white kidneys floating around it. Mmmmm, urine filters. Really though, it was all quite good, and after lunch we had some free time to wander around. A group of us walked around the temple area for a while and stumbled upon a stream with a gorgeous waterfall. Naturally, I took off my shoes immediately and began to wade down the river, forgetting that every time I wade through a river I end up falling in. We wouldn't want to break tradition, now would we? So I slipped on a rock and fell in walking upstream.. the right side of my body was soaked, and my foot somehow got cut open in the process. Immediately after, we watched a temple ritual, and I felt bad setting my bloody foot in a holy place. The ritual was great though; the monks did a lot of beautiful but incomprehensible (to me) singing, and they blessed participants' bags and other coveted items by the fire pit at the end. I then bought ice cream and promptly dropped it on the ground; luck was not on my side that Saturday. At 5pm, the taiko performances began. The square was completely packed and I could hardly see at all, but even just the sound of the performances was so worth standing for two hours in the chilly weather. The taiko drummers must be insanely strong; the force with which they attack each drumbeat is out of control. It blew my mind to think about playing any instrument that well, much less in complete sync with fifteen other drummers and with simultaneous choreography. The drummers moved as one, and sometimes they did high kicks over their drums (and other duch dance moves) while still playing. A few performances added a wooden flute and/or a xylophone type instrument, and the combination of each intricate part was stunning.

Sunday we went to another park for more hanami, but most of the sakura were done blooming. The park was still nice, though, and we played frisbee and talked at length with some highly intoxicated Japanese youths until we trained home for the night.

Monday and Tuesday I had Japanese class but didn't do much else.

This morning, I had to go to my first day of field placement at the shougakkou (elementary school) in Myoden. Last night I was apprehensive, envying all of my friends who have Wednesdays off and wishing that I could sleep in or travel instead of working. I woke up ridiculously early (5:30, what!?) because I did NOT, under ANY circumstance, want to be late. As it turns out, I was so right to be overly cautious, since I took the wrong train away from my destination at first, and ended up being only ten minutes early. In Japan, ten minutes early is on time, so I couldn't have afforded to be any later. One of my supervisors met me immediately and took me up to her class, which was fifth grade I believe. I had to give my jikoshoukai (introduction speech) to them, and then we played "fruit basket" using English fruit vocabulary, and the Japanese version of duck duck goose, which involves a handkerchief. It was really fun and I was starting to get quite comfortable with the kids when the period ended and I was whisked away to another class. This class was one year older but they were still quite receptive and interested in hearing me out/talking to me/swarming me. I went to recess with them, and we played dodgeball. We went back upstairs and I rejoined my fifth grade class. I there discovered that all 10-year-olds in Japan are far more capable of ink calligraphy than I am. It was mildly embarassing because the sensei pretty much just laughed at me, but told me it was good for my first time. Liar.
I ate lunch with a group of the senseis, which I think will be the only time I do.. usually I will be eating with the kids. It was a group lunch, so everyone had the same thing and everyone helped to set it up. No one brought their own lunch from home, and it was much more communal than any lunch I've ever seen in the states. Over lunch the other senseis and nurses asked me various questions, and they pretty much told me I was jouzu (skilled) at everything I said. They were just being polite, but it was still nice. At this point, one of the senseis pulled me aside to inform me that I was going to be recorded on the television and broadcasted to the school.. right now. I stammered out my jikoshoukai once again on a life broadcast, and then resumed my lunch. Naturally all the other senseis at lunch had watched the tv in the teacher's lounge, so they all clapped when I came back in. I was so hazukashii (embarassed).
I'm not sure how exactly this works, but I seemed to have another recess right after lunch with the same kids. This time we played a Japanese version of tag that seemed to have no rules at all except for to choose a random person, yell out the colour of their shirt, and charge them in a group until you've tagged them. Then find a new target.
We went back upstairs, and I was surprised to find that the next part of the day involved instensive cleaning of the classrooms.. by the students. I had heard before that there were no janitors in Japan, but that workers and students are expected to keep their areas clean. What I didn't realize is that the students move all the desks back and sweep and mop the floor daily. While we were cleaning there was an instrumental song looping in the background, and I wondered if, in the future, the kids would have strong impulses to clean if they heard the song again.
The rest of the day I hopped from classroom to classroom answering questions. Depending on the teacher, some of the students were made to ask in English, and it was very clear that they had only learned one question-asking format in their English studies. This was it: "What you like, [insert subject]?" It was fairly adorable, and I got asked "what I like" in terms of sports, fruits, Japanese words, sweets, colours, movie stars, anime, music, you name it. I also got asked if I had a boyfriend several times, followed by an offer by one young man. One girl asked what my "type" of man was, and then asked if her sensei was, in fact, my type. The students continued to try and set us up for the duration of the period.
As I was leaving the school for the day, I ran into some of the younger kids who I didn't work wiht at all today but who obviously saw me botching my Japanese like an idiot on the television. They got really excited and grabbed my hands and chattered away to me, and I smiled and nodded and didn't understand much of anything. But at the end of the day, I realized that I had an absurdly good time with the kids and that language barriers are easily breached by smiling apologetically and miming a lot. I am really glad I signed up for the field placement, and I'm excited to go back again next week.

Also, I was given even more of a reason to regret my lack of foresight on the bringing-shoes-to-Japan front today. The school requires an indoor and and outdoor pair of shoes, and I don't really have shoes to spare for that. And another point of interest, a LOT of the young kids here wear clothes with English on them, and a lot of that English doesn't make sense. I'm not at all complaining, though; it's a cool trend for them, and it's funny for me. But one girl had a shirt that said "Rochester, NY" on it. Shoutout to Rochester!

The homework that I should be doing is starting to weigh on me. Ja mata atode!

When in Tokyo..

We'll start with the day I went cherry blossom viewing, shall we? Great!

Our school, Meikai, had its opening ceremony on Friday and we all had to dress up. Some of us wore brightly coloured dresses and shirts, but we quickly realized that "dress nicely" in Japan means wear a black suit for both men and women. Griffin, with his 6'5" stature and his vibrant blue/green tie combination, was quite a standout. The ceremony itself was pretty boring, but I stayed awake because they kept making us stand up, bow to the speakers, and sit back down. After the ceremony, I went with two girls to Ueno park to see the sakura (cherry blossoms), which are a really big deal here. I kind of though to myself, 'yeah, they're flowers, they'll be pretty. I'll enjoy this,' but the sakura surprised me. They are truly one of the most breathtaking things I've ever seen because they are so overwhelming in numbers.. it was like trees full of cotton candy or snow.. I don't know. But it was beauuuutiful. And just as the sakura viewing was a great experience, so was the people-viewing. When the cherry trees bloom, all the salarymen get together and sit under the trees on big blue tarps drinking sake and eating obentos (boxed lunches). We wandered around Ueno for a while longer and saw various themed strip clubs and karaoke bars. At a certain point, some of us met up at Nishi Funabashi to look for a traditional Japanese-style bar, and we stumbled upon a small snack bar on the second floor of a building. The seats were all red crushed velvet and only women worked there.. they were all dressed nicely and extremely hosbitable. When we sat down, one girl (Rin-san) informed us that it was a set fee for the whole night of eating and drinking, and that the price was $30 per person. Since we only had an hour and a half before the last trains home, we told them no thanks, we'd come again some other time. But THEN (and here's where the night started getting awesome!) the owner of the place (an older woman) noticed me and started talking about how beautiful and charming I was in Japanese. She ended up giving all of us a $20 discount solely because she thought I was pretty, and staying there was one of our better decisions thus far. All of the waitresses and other customers were eager to talk to us in Japanese and English, and Rin-san sat with us the whole time and gave us her email address at the end because she wanted to become friends with us. Adorable. And good Japanese practice! Unfortunately, I missed the last train home AGAIN, so Reggie and I stayed in the train station playing solitaire and going into various 24-hour shops until 5 in the morning when they started back up.

The next day I finally got to see Rebecca, my best friend from Rochester, who just got here a few days prior. We met up in Harajuku and stayed there for most of the day and night.. we ate some of the decadent crepes for which Harajuku is known, and we spent a while walking through the park looking at the sakura and playing frisbee. The park at Harajuku was insane because there were so many overly-styled people playing sports, juggling, and dancing around half-naked (and drunk). A good time was most certainly being had by all. When Rebecca and I were playing frisbee, most of the people who passed by either greeted us or actively joined in, which was great and kind of unusual. One Japanese fellow walked by us three times before he asked me for my number.. and then my name. (Don't worry mom, I didn't give him the right one.) At the end of the night we both took the train home to our prospective areas so we could go to bed early and wake up the next morning.

Sunday was the infamous penis festival. Nine of us from IES went together, and it took us a long time to get to Kawasaki by train, and an even longer time (and a forty minute walk) to figure out where the festival was. Sooo worth it, though. I got separated from the group soon after we got there and instead met up with Becca and one of her friends from Meiji Gakuin. We ended up right in the midst of the parade, walking alongside the chanting trannies carrying the large penis pedastals. As I do, I was dancing exuberantly, and one of the parade guides told me I could go carry the pedastal with all the she-men. It was really exciting! I learned the chant and everything.. and then Becca and her friend got to help carry it for a while too. The penises were carried to a large shrine and set down.. meanwhile, in the shrine's courtyard, vendors were selling penis figurines, bandanas with pictures of sex positions, and penis shaped lollipops. There were cross-dressers everywhere, and for the first time since I've been here it wasn't uncommon to see white people. Gaijin were taking pictures all over the place.. to the locals this parade is a yearly event, but to us a penis parade was quite a novelty. I met up with the IES kids after Becca left, and we walked around the temple area and saw the turtles there. We went home relatively early because we all had homework to do before our first day of class.

Classes started on Monday, and I have only had Japanese so far. The class goes from 9am until 12:10pm, and there are only seven people in my section so it's a lot of speaking and one on one time. One of our senseis is really great and the other one we have on Thursdays and Fridays so I can't really formulate an opinion yet, though she seems a little too happy and slightly cat-obsessed. We have no class on Wednesday, but I will be working at an elementary school in Myoden on Wednesdays from 8:30 to 3. I met with an IES coordinator and my supervisors at the school on Monday to work on some logistics and figure out what I'd be doing there more or less. I'm going to be helping the kids (from first to fourth grade) with English, and teaching 10 or 15 minute lessons to some of the classes. I will be spending recess and lunch with the kids as well.. the teachers there told me to bring my frisbee when I said I liked to play.. so it can't be all that bad! If anyone has creative ideas on how to engage Japanese children, let me know. But the teachers said that the kids would like me regardless becuase I was lively and pretty (that has been getting me pretty far here, I guess..)

I am about to go to a traditional tea ceremony, which should be really interesting.. there is a chanoyu club at Kanda (the other school I will be taking classes at) and we are joining them for one of their meetings. So I should probably go. But I'm so happy that I finally got this entry done. Woo! Peace out.

The Long Walk Home

So many things have happened since last time I wrote that I'm not sure what to say. Wow. Ok here are some highlights:

WE MOVED IN! Our apartment is great, and the three of us get along so well. Endo-san (who refers to herself as Endo-san, strangely) is very nice but tends to overstay her welcome. If she comes into our apartment she stays for an hour, and she ends up telling us all kinds of things as far as how to clean the apartment and such, even though it's clear that SHE hasn't done any cleaning in years. Though the sheet said she'd clean our living area and take out the trash and such, our apartment is kind of grimy and the kids who lived here last semester told us she never did any of that, but told them to instead. Which doesn't bother me tremendously.. we'll just have a big cleaning day and fix things up a little.

Yesterday we had to train to Kaihin Makahari again for our last day of orientation.. while we left our apartment at 8 and intended to be there at 9, the train we were on decided that it was going to terminate one station too soon, so we were late. We went to a "cultural session" which turned out to be an overly-sugary white lady who's lived in Japan for a while talking about stereotypes. We had an extravagant party to end orientation, with all kinds of delicious Japanese foods and beverages. Then everyone got their new phones and we all exchanged numbers and they all said they wouldn't call me ever because it would be expensive. So that was nice.

I ended up walking around the park again with some others, and we found a pond with Koi, a bamboo secition, and some other really nice areas. Then I had to turn back to go to my meeting and the sky, sensing that I had to walk a long way outdoors, began to pummel me with haily rain. I had an umbrella but the hail was actually quite fun so I ran most of the way in that. At my meeting, they told me about my field placement, which will be in a nearby elementary school! Should be pretty crazy.

Everyone went home to relax for a little, but then some of us met in Nishi Funabashi for some Karaoke! It was a very enjoyable experience culminating in a terrible version of My Sharona, but Lindsay and I missed our train back so we found our way home walking and with the help of several kind civilians that took pity on the lost gaikokujin.

Today I walked around Ginza with Yumi and Rosa, and we did some karaoke again at night. We had traditional Ramen bowls and red bean ice cream for dinner. Ginza is not terribly exciting, but it's kind of like New York City.. lots of expensive stores and tall buildings and glowing signs.

Funny things I've seen:
-On a bag of donuts we had just bought: "THANK YOU, you beautiful people."
-A coffee shop called Badass Coffee
-Instead of "Let's Go Outback tonight" like in America, the banners say, "Let go. GO! Outback"
-A schoolgirl step on a firecracker that made a noise like a gunshot as we were passing by (probably a prank)
-On the karaoke screen: "I am the walrus, goo goo goo joob!"
-Political campaign vans: brightly coloured, filled with waving costumed Japanese people, and bedecked with a loudspeaker.

I guess that's all for now. Cheers!

Day 1: Smile and Nod

Today was the big travel day: I had to get up (or more accurately I had to leave the house, since I never went to sleep in the first place) at 4:30 am and catch my flight to Atlanta. Nothing eventful happened except they served those delicious Delta cookies and the guy next to me kept talking about his kids so that I couldn't sleep. During my second flight (into Narita Airport), I sat by the window and two Japanese girls who were probably about my age. I would have tried to talk to them, but they literally slept 99% of the flight. We got served three meals, one of which was just a sandwich with two cucumber slices and two slices of hardboiled egg. I spilled soy sauce all over myself, which was both unfortunate and unsurprising.

So I got to Narita Airport after an extremely long and relatively sleepless flight, and I had to ask a few people (in Japanese!) where to go and what forms to fill out. I found that the general trend is this: if you speak Japanese to a Japanese person and sound like you know what you're saying, they will assume that you do.. and then proceed to speak back to you in rapid Japanese. At this point, you just smile, nod, and say "hai!"

I found the IES people, and for whatever reason they didn't have my check-in packet because they thought I was coming yesterday instead of today. What I don't get is why they wouldn't bring it today when I clearly DIDN'T show up yesterday. But it all worked out, and I met one of the girls I will be living with once we move into our apartment thing. She is Korean and from the University of Illinois, and her name is Rosa. It seems like we will get along really well despite having very different ideas and interests (for example, she only brought high heeled shoes with her to orientation week, which proved to be a terrible idea once we started walking around.)

We took the bus to our hotel for orientation, and my room is on the 10th floor overlooking a highway, a mall with a parking lot on the roof, and some tennis courts. The area we are in is really nice, and some of the full-year study abroad students took us around for a while after we got in. Not very much Japanese was spoken, but it was still very fun and I just enjoyed taking it all in. I passed a 7Eleven, an Outback Steakhouse (who knew?) and a karaoke bar that I will have to check out.

Well that's all for now. Cheers!

Testing, Fools.

So check it out: I have a blog! It was surprisingly easy to create and set up, which was a bonus.
At any rate, I really just wanted to post something so that I could see what it looked like on the page.

I am leaving on Monday and today is Thursday or Friday (depending what you consider this hour of the night), so I will be in Japan like.. really damn soon. I just began packing and simultaneously realizing that all of my clothes will not be able to accompany me on my Asian adventures. Many will get left behind. While this is a blow to my sense of fashion and my general morale, I will nonetheless prevail.

It's going to be strange to leave Connecticut after being here for so long and settling into a job (shoutout to Cosi folk!). I am terribly excited, anxious to leave, and ever so slightly nervous and sad. But I daresay I will get over that last part pretty quickly.

I promise I won't write in this again until I have something to say.

To Japan!