Pit stop / My day off offhand.

It's been about 6 weeks since I first landed here in Japanland. Time feels at this point to be completely irrelevant, however. I have a routine, I am into the swing of things, I have furniture and all the creature comforts in my apartment. I lucked out, and unlike many people who end up with terrible, roach-infested, underwhelmingly less-than-satisfactory living situations, mine turned out to be fantastic. I will most likely stay here until a pressing need of one kind or another forces me to move - I am a pretty stagnant person, after all.

As I become more comfortable over here, everything seems that much more distant over there. I miss the various pleasures of home which need not be recounted, but in more of a wishful way than a needful one. I did have a dream last night that involved the thruway tollbooths on 787 into Albany, but that's about the extent of my current nostalgia. I won't stop missing my family and friends, but it's definitely bearable.

And without me, believe it or not, life goes on. Three people I have known for years are getting married this fall. One of them is actually my age too, and I never pinned him as the type to settle down. But people change, as do priorities. Am I happy with my current agenda of living life to the fullest and taking advantage of my current location? Mostly, yea. I get emo from time to time, but quickly remind myself that girls are a distraction, they come with needs and impose, and they are quite frankly trouble (no offense ladies). So I'm not actively looking for anyone. I figure that when I come across someone who truly captivates me, I will know it. Until then it's bachelordom for me, as it has been for what must be 2+ years now. This time in my life has given me ample opportunities to flesh out my career and my goals, and also to "find myself," silly as that part may sound.

Till death do they Shred
(Congratulations to Scott and Lindsey)

So this is really a kind of intermediary post to let you all know where I'm at. It's really just a bout of useless philosophy (and is there any other kind?) but it'll be helpful for me to look back on in the future, and maybe interesting to any one of the 30 people who check out this page on average. Seriously, thanks guys, you make it seem like I'm not just talking to myself, and I do have a habit of doing that quite a lot.


"We need to talk just means we have nothing to fight for" - Blacklisted.

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Today, I ate a bunch of thai food with my neighbor Nick, who turned out to be an older punker from California who knows D.R.I. and Sucidial Tendencies and all that. Really, the correlation between hardcore and English Teaching is just staggering. A few years back in Albany, I knew a kid who got the stuffing knocked out of him at a show once for no apparent reason by a mean-looking guy in a crew jacket. It later turned out this guy taught elementary school kids in New Jersey (he also profusely apologized for said incident). While I'm not that violent, sadistic or psychotic, and that is quite the extreme case, I have seen that the love of music and the love of teaching are nearly symmetrical in many people. I just happen to be one of them.

Back on point here, I met Nick's girlfriend Yuko, a nice girl with a good vernacular, and we talked and shared food and drank a few beers and it was a good time. I was supposed to go out with some fellow teachers but just couldn't bring myself to move much after all that rich food, and conked out for about half an hour around 7. It's been raining for the past 36 hours, and I need nor want no more part in it.

Part of the reason I was so tired is that as of today I am officially a member of the Japanese National Health Insurance plan, which was surprisingly more painless to enter than I had anticipated...even if I had to buy a new umbrella from the dollar store (some jerk goinked mine, 3rd umbrella down since I got here) and spend about $9 in trainfare. Now, if anything like an accident happens, I'm covered. Plus, the premium is only about $110 for the first year due to my prior non-working status as a college student. It will unfortunately jump out to double that per month starting next August, but hey, might as well enjoy it while it lasts.

I also talked briefly with my friend Kevin from back in NY today, and discussed travel plans. He is coming to visit for a few weeks around the New Years break, and I am very excited about this. I believe that he will enjoy Japan immensely, and find that it is worth the ridiculously high price of his plane ticket. Let this also serve as a message to anyone who made mention of visiting me in the future: Get your asses out here, you only live once!

"No beginning, no end AGAIN AND AGAIN" - Ringworm


P.S. Just no CD of the week this week, I don't feel like it.