Shizzle Bizzle

Hey there. Nice to see you again! Wow, you look great! You're getting in shape! It must be all that exercise! Did you get a hair cut? You look ugly. I preferred the old hair cut.

Well, now that we've broken the ice from our long sojourn, let us rekindle our relationship. I can tell you more longwinded stories, and you can nod your head, half paying attention while I ramble.
I went home for the holidays. It was nice. It was good to see the family and friends. Christmas was good. It was a relaxing, but rushed time. 10 days isn't much time. And I flew at least business class both ways, which was hecka nice. I should say that coming back to Japan was in some ways harder than leaving in the first place. I was moving into a new apartment. I had gotten back into a GOC rhythm. There was no new job or anything terribly new to look forward to. So I came back, and it was a little bit bittersweet.

I lug my heavy suitcase on a 2-3 hour train trek to my ew apartment. The girl who I'm living with -- M --was surprising short, ie no long winded intros. This is fine, and the communal space is spare so its not like there is anywhere to chat, but it was still weird to be like, "oh, you're moving in now. hi nice to see you. this is how much rent is. when do you want to practice english and japanese together? im having friends over tonight does that bother you? ok bye." whatevs. i dont care.

I won't go too deep into it this post, but she is extremely neat and demanding about neatness, I think to an unreasonable extent, and that causes me stress. I know I'm messy, but I think things such as leaving the sponge in the sink, and not leaving the proper bathroom doors open and closed is stupid to keep complaining about. Just close the door, put the sponge where it should be, and call it a day. Moreover, there is no table in the kitchen, though there used to be when I looked here in December, so that bothers me, gonna have to talk about that. She's out a lot, so I have privacy, which is nice.

I got back on the 30th and on the 31st was what we like to call "the new year." We had a whole gang celebrating. Me and old roomie J. J's Nova comrade and this comrade's visiting English friend. My friend N and her visiting English friend. Also, there was another English person there. We GOCers were greatly outnumbered. It felt like the war of 1812 all over again. (Which we won.) But I think everybody won on New Years.

We go over to J's apt. We shoot the breeze and play pass the computer so I can put on music I like. That's always a fun game. We started getting sloppy with canned G&T's, screwdrivers, and man-sodas (beer,) for this young crowd (i.e. no geezers.) Then we played drinking card games. This was a lot of fun. In Japan, you don't often get to go over to someone's apartment and just let loose. A lot of people go out to bars or clubs, (and often leave early to catch last train home.) But the whole, let's go over to so-and-so's apartment just isn't done too much in this country, so it was a refreshing change of pace. That is why I was marginally bummed when we decided to go to Yokohama, but that is what the people wanted.

On New Year's Eve the trains are open all night -- so that people can go to temples any time they want. We get on the train, are on it for midnight fireworks in Yokohama, and at midnight J's friend pops open a bottle of bubbly. We pass it around like the gaikokujin we are, (don't worry, drinking in public is allowed here.) I had a good time on that train, actually. Not sure about everyone else, it took over 90 minutes.

We get to Yokohama and go to the amusement park. We wait in line for about an hour. This wasn't hecka fun. There were two French dude-bro's in front of us who were not a fun time. We ride the rollercoaster and it was amazing

ly unspectacular. Next we go to a shopping mall for some reason and wander around wishing everyone a happy new year in Japanese, essentially saying, I think, "good morning and good luck" (trans. from Edward. R. Murrows). Then some people get tired, some people get club urgings, (but didn't go clubbing) and everyone pretty much splits up. I was bummed that they called it a night, but what are u gonna do. I went part of the way home with some people, (not everybody, N lives near Yokohama, for example.) And then took the very long train journey home.

I didn't get to sleep until daylight, which was probably good for my jet lag. I had messed up sleep cycle until about two days ago. I think what kicked it into normal gear was work yesterday. I have to leave here at 6.47, so I gotta get up at 5.30. Getting up this early, I actually went to bed at 10.30 last night and slept aight! I can't believe I got a good nights sleep going to bed that early. And then I woke up at 5.30 no problem. I think I am turning into an old man. I have also been strong and resisting the urge to nap. btw: work is the same, only add 1 hour to the commute each way. But i dont care too much bout that.

The town I'm in is cool. Higashi omiya. I want to go explore it more. It's a small town alright, but it's got a club! What the heck is there a club doing in this small town? (it's expensive to get in, so it's not on the list of my things to do, but it is nestled between a 24 hour fast japanese food joint and a mom and pop cheap foods store.) there is also a bar about two buildings away that seemed kind of lively on New year's day, but havent ventured there too yet. Too cheap/broke. I'm not an alcoholic, really, but there is limited public space in Japan, and as I said, people don't go over to each other's places.

One more interesting thing. On Sunday, I woke up at about 7 am, with my messed up skedul. So I decided to go to church. I can see the Church from my window, its lit across the street, but also across the tracks, so what would be a 30 second walk is more like a 3 min walk. I sneak in, cuz I'm a little bit late, and listen to the priest talk alot. No reciting prayers in the first part, just listening to the preist, I think reading from and talking about scripture. Some usher was nice enough to get me a hymnal and an order of worship. Eventually the priest's monologue ends and people sing a song or two, a couple prayers, and communion starts. I sang along to the hymns tho they were written in Japanese. Brrra! Brrra! The lady next to me encouraged and helped me to fill out a visitor's card. I wrote my name. And she handed it in. Communion came to us. First a peice of spongy bread was brought on trays to everyone. And then grape juice in small individual glass shooters was brought to everyone on a special tray. I ate and drank when everyone else did. I didn't recite the prayer though, because I wasn't exactly sure what I was praying. After this was the announcements, at the end now, before the final hymn. Some people stood up, said some things. Priest said some stuff, some lady stood up, bowed, people clapped. Then the priest read my card and I stood up, bowed, and they clapped! It was crazy.

After church the lady who was sitting next to me dropped me off with this nice man who spoke English. Turns out this church is basically the umbrella Protestant church of Japan founded after WWII. We talk for about 5 minutes in the pews, and then we go I think to leave. I bow to the minister and want to go right to leave the church, but the minister directs me left to coffee hour, saying "doozo" (please.) OK...

So I go to Coffee hour, and it probably lasted almost and hour for me. I small talked with that guy, very nice. Some other people spoke English. I talked to them a little. They were all very nice and directed me to sit down at this table, which I did. I had all the snacks and tea they offered me. It was very warm and hospitable. Apparently, after Church, since some people are interested in learning English, they have the day's translated scripture and go over it in English. I didn't do that this time, but maybe sometime I will help them. As I was indicating that I was going to leave soon, and also when certain people were leaving, people said, "yeah, so, see you next week." Note the period. So apparently I am in this church now, which is I think is essentially the Japanese version of the church I was in in the GOC. As someone told J, who told me -- "Once you're in a Japanese club, you're in it for life." But that's cool. It should be a good way to get involved in the community and maybe practice Japanese.

That's all he wrote for today. Gotta go! Bai Bai!