Christmas break

I am in Tokyo. And I am loving it.

Here is a picture of my apartment building. I won't be living here for much longer. My employer, who handles all of the housing stuff, has decided to get rid of the apartment and move me into her house. That should happen sometime this month, I'm not exactly sure when. I'm a little bummed about it, but oh well. On the plus side, no utilities. So that's cool.

November 28

I am in the Incheon airport, but my flight isn't for a few more hours. I got here early because airports make me nervous - I always feel like there will be some sort of change and that I won't have scheduled the right amount of time for all of the things that I need to do, so I figure it is better for me to be here extremely early and ready to go than to come a bit later and miss my flight completely. These feelings are a bit extreme. I can't control them, though. Anyway, I have checked my bag, so it's just me and my laptop. I am pretty bored. I will soon begin to listen to David Sedaris. I have a headache. I am worried that I have something wrong with me because I have had headaches pretty frequently. Could be stress related. I just saw three airport business guys walk by and one of them had their arm around one of the others, just pleasant like. I like that. Very neat. I wonder if that's a Korean culture thing. I'll have to look into it. Anyway, it's soon back to Japan.

Monday November 27th

I am still in Korea. I did some more sightseeing here. Walking walking. I had some Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast. And then I went to Outback Steakhouse for lunch (and subsequently dinner because lunch filled me up so much I couldn't eat another thing all day). I have never eaten at these places in America, but I thought it highly appropriate to take advantage of all the American things available. Anyway, I have found that if there is even the slightest chance for humiliating myself, I find it and go for it, gung-ho like. I would write about it, but it's a little too recent for illumination. I can't think about it without whincing still, so it will have to wait. I explored all of the underground arcades that were near city hall and my hotel. I did a lot of browsing. I also went to Namdaemun market and walked around for a while. I bought these ridiculous cards at one of the shops. They have these pictures of this Korean heartthrob and there are places for me to write my name, telephone number, and email address. So that I can hand them out or something. Or they are luggage tags. Completely wonderful. I think I will split the deck with Katie, because I don't think I will ever use all 50 of them and she can appreciate their potential. In one of the underground arcades I found this little art print gallery. I bought two lithographs and a card with a traditional painting on it. Very neat. They were pretty cheap. Well, I'm going to go watch some Korean television so that I can dream about hot Korean men.

I am going to publish several posts right now. I wrote these on separate occasions, but I haven't had time to post them until now. So here they go.

Today is Sunday November 26. I am in Seoul, Korea. I got in at about 11:30am and after all of the airport stress etc., I arrived at the hotel at 1:30pm and relaxed for a while. I took a shower and realized I forgot shampoo and conditioner so I had to use the complimentary soap. Crappy. So I went and bought a little pack of travelers shampoo, conditioner, face wash, and body wash. Smells good. Then I went to this place called Deoksugung Palace. It was a large square of buildings that used to be the palace of the (king?) of Korea, or whatever they call their supreme leader. It was beautiful and I took a lot of pictures. Delightful. The reason I went there was because as I was on the bus from the airport we drove past this place and there were some things going on in front - men dressed in traditional Korean clothing doing some demonstration or something, formations and whatnot. I don't know if it was a national holiday or if that is a regular Sunday activity. Anyway, the amount of stuff I don't know about Korea could fill a book. So once I checked in and cleaned up I decided to check it out. And it was beautiful, like I said. I did a lot of walking. I was trying to find some of the places that the other teachers had told me about. I didn't do any shopping, I just bought some dinner and some ice cream. So Korean people are a lot more relaxed than Japanese people. And PDA is a lot more common. The most I have seen between Japanese couples in public is handholding. But here there is a lot more kissing, draping, etc. here. It's crazy. It makes me kind of wish for some sort of boy thing to happen with me. It's a lot easier to ignore those kinds of feelings in Japan where it seems like affection doesn't exist. But I'm having a really good time. I love being by myself, doing things alone. I am really happy about this traveling alone business after all. Though it would be nice to have someone readily available for picture taking so that I could sometimes be featured in my photos. Well, that's all for now.

today is the day

Today is Sunday for me. I think it will probably say it is early Sunday morning on my post, but it is actually Sunday evening.

Well, things are a little weird and sad for me right now. I just feel a little down. I don't really know how to explain it and I would rather not think about it, so I'll move on to something else.

I was invited by Justin and Sarah to go look at some delightful fall colors with a member from the branch. I am excited. I like doing things like this. I am very good at staring out of car windows. Being a passenger in a car is one of my most favorite things. Without the responsibility of navigating and keeping the car on the correct side of the road and keeping everyone in the car safe, my mind is free to meander. I can be quiet for hours in a car, just thinking and staring. It always feels very nice. So tomorrow should be good. I am getting more comfortable with Justin and Sarah which means that I feel more comfortable to just be quiet with them. I hope it doesn't weird them out or anything; I don't think it does. Anyway, I am glad to be included in this adventure and glad to have met such neat people.

I am going to South Korea on Sunday. I will be there until Tuesday. I have mixed feelings about it. It will be neat to see a big city, I've been in the countryside for a while and I miss the movement of a bigger city. But I'm kind of nervous to be going alone. And I'm nervous about coming back to Japan. But I don't really want to talk about the details of that either. I just can't wait for it to be over and I just hope that everything goes smoothly and that I can somewhat enjoy myself for a little while. I'm going to look into some Korea things so that I can make the most of the situation.

I've been crying a lot. Some frustration tears, but a lot of deep pit of the stomach sadness. Maybe this will leave soon and I will be left with only happy things and bright sunshine in my stomach instead.

Well I am back.

Today is Tuesday and I start teaching in about an hour.

But here is the real news - I got a GEO card. This has opened the door to a wonderland of movies and music that I can rent for a week at a time. It is the Japanese Blockbuster. Goodbye empty hole in my life. I can now fill it with all of the entertainment and mind numbing programming I want. That is good news. I rented 4 movies, but I can't tell you what they were because it's too embarrassing. But I enjoyed 2 of the 4.

Oh, but let me tell you about the experience of getting the card. I had to fill out a form that had directions in English and Japanese. But there were parts that had Japanese characters and no English explanation, so I had to just guess. And I think I may have done something, not necessarily wrong, but dumb. Because as I was waiting for the girl behind the counter to photocopy my passport and the form, she showed it to a coworker and they both started laughing. I was a bit put off, but oh well. At least I now have a membership. And I can rent to my heart's desire. Because it's only 94 yen per movie, which is like 78 cents. Nice.

Well, I better go.

this is my first blog.

Well.

I am going to blog now. I am intimidated at the thought of people reading this, but hopefully I will get lost amongst the millions of other blogs on the internet. But I thought this would be a fun way to document my time in Japan. Which is where I am.

I live on the island of Shikoku in Japan. I am teaching English at a school here and that is mostly what I do. I have had a bit of time off already and I have been able to see a couple of really neat things. I work with some very neat people, and I have fun hanging out with them. I don't have a roommate right now, and I am one of (I think) 3 Americans in my city, so I am a bit isolated. But some of the other teachers who live close by have invited me to do things with them, which is great. So, for the most part I am enjoying myself.

I think that that will be all for this post. But I will be back to supplement. But it is late and I am tired. So, bye.