The Anti-Climax

Yeah yeah, I moved to Japan and haven`t really contacted anyone outside of a few special exceptions. I have excuses. Do you want to hear them? They are integral to my current mood.



First of all, the assortment of boxes I mailed over from America a week before leaving, which contained items such as my desktop computer, art supplies and books, is being held at some location where I can`t get to them. It has come about that I should receive most of them tomorrow, but at this point I`ve gotten used to life without any of that stuff, and I now don`t even feel like I need any of it. There`s more space in my apartment than I thought there would be, but now there will be .. even less. Really, all I want is my computer, since the company laptop suddenly/mysteriously turned from a piece of shit into a piece of shit that takes minutes to do anything and freezes up constantly. Amazing! Anyway, I`d bet money that my computer is one of the items allegedly held back, so until I receive that jawn, expect updates to be infrequent as they`ve been so far.



But I`m not here to complain about my packages being held up in the mail. I`m here to complain about my apparent total lack of geographical direction, of which many of you are already aware. The morning before I left for Japan, I got lost driving around Boston, though that was because I was 7/8 asleep. But since my arrival here, I`ve gotten lost in this town no less than 4 times .. twice running, once walking, and once by bike, which was the worst .. no, actually the worst was probably running Saturday afternoon in 32 degree heat. That’s right, I`m rocking the Celsius now, fools!



Do you think you know what humidity is? Because you don`t, unless you live here. Going outside is like diving into a pool of warm, carbon monoxide flavored jello. Luckily I spend most of the day inside .. but on the other hand, there`s the work uniform (!), which aside from being made out of recycled plastic bottles, doesn`t fit me well, unsurprisingly. Discomfort has been redefined for me as “something I never felt before last week.”



This isn`t what you expected to hear, is it? Well, it`s not what I expected either. In fact, last week as I was killing time with some busywork before my training actually starts (also tomorrow), for a moment I seriously started to think “oh shit, what did I do,” and wonder what the fuck I was doing here, an easy state to fall into considering my last two weeks in the US and my first week here, and the handful of friends I`ve once again ditched in favor of a bunch of fast-talking Japanese guys. But then I thought of Kentucky, and suddenly everything was right with the world.



Speaking of everything being right with the world, I headed up to Tokyo this weekend to hang out with Warao, aka ツーティー, aka the coolest bastard ever. We got some sushi, drank some nihonsyu (note to you sake haters: the real thing is nothing like the warm rubbing alcohol they serve in American sushi restaraunts, and I drank enough of it this weekend to drown a sumo wrestler), discussed some of the finer points of life (women), and wandered around.



Ah, wandering around the city ... it`s what I like to do, but at the same time I have to rid myself of this subconscious fear of spending time at my apartment. I feel like if I don`t go out every night, even to do nothing in particular, I won`t be making the most of my time here. Again, it comes down to balance ... when I feel like staying in and blogging, I`ll do just that, when I feel like sleeping, I'll sleep, and when I feel like going out and getting lost again, which is now, I'll do that too.