Oh boy, Obon!

Just got back from a week long tour of central Honshu, and my brain feels like the stuff that collects in the sink drain. Will's friend Chris came to visit from America to check out the scence. It was pretty fun-saw four cities, beaches, mountains, museums, temples etc. Here are some highlights for ya.

The view from the top of the Hilton Hotel in Nagoya. They offer a happy two hours all you can drink at sunset while listening to crappy live Stevie Wonder covers. This is where we kicked off the week long party.

Hours of conversation were avoided thanks to our travel partner Nintendo DS.

Wakasawan

Wakasawan

New beachy friends!

Kurobe Gorge.

Takayama.

I found the only 8 bagels in Japan!

This sake brewery is my favorite because they have happily desecrated an ancient tradition by making fruity sake slushees. They're delicious.

Whew.

The recent skinny

So I've moved into my new place. I must say, it's great. Way nicer than my last apartment and didn't come with ass tons of other people's stuff!



It's nice to have my own little patch of space and live off the fat of the land. And by fat of the land I mean the sandwich I make between the two love hotels on either side of the building. I spent all Friday moving and watching high school couples stumble out of parking lots into the light of day. I'm glad that the first thing they saw after their impassioned meetings was a short, sweaty foreigner awkwardly juggling kitchen appliances.

Otherwise things are pretty much just the normal "get used to living somewhere new" routine. I went to the international center this week to get some information and a look at their library. They have some good random stuff, lots of romance novels and about 10 books on Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I'm meeting a Japanese woman for a language exchange this week. I've been meeting with my new company about the job at my new school which is only about a 30 minute subway ride from here. I'm a little worried because the last teacher gave it a pretty bad review and said the kids are lazy and disruptive. I'll be watching Dangerous Minds everyday to prepare myself. Ahoy inner city apathy, here comes Kate aboard the good ship English!

What's new

So I'm in the big city, and things are going smoothly. This past weekend was busy-I think I've sort of recovered. All I know is at one point I found myself eating fine cheeses in a fancy apartment while sipping wine. I guess I really have become an adult!

It's kind of amazing to live somewhere that I actually have several choices of things to do as opposed to dealing with what's available. For example, last night Will and I went to see Terry Gilliam's newest movie Tideland.



I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I thought of it. It was like a weird drugged up fairy tale mixed with backwoods shock value irreverence. I will say that the colors were pretty and the performances were good. Has anyone else seen it?

Found an apartment, rather one was found for me, and it's in a great location between an art museum and a love hotel.

I think I'm anemic. And yesterday for a split second I thought I had meningitis.

I'm studying for one of the Japanese proficiency tests in November. I've got lots more to learn.

Goin to the beach in a few weeks, pretty excited about that. According to one online guide, it's is a nice place to get away from all of life's "hurly and burly". Whatever. Just give me a mai tai and a big floppy hat and bring it.