I can’t believe it has already been a week since my last post. CRAZY. I swear the time is flying, and I am HAPPY about that!!! 80-something days until I grace the North American Continent of the AMAZING US of A. You people (yes YOU PEOPLE) in Colorado just keep soaking up the fact that you can go buy coffee or chai….mmmm chai….. from a Starbucks. Yes I probably could too… but that would mean a bus ride to a place where I would take a ferry to my final destination of a Starbucks, where the employees probably wouldn’t understand that I need a chai as large as Titanic with 2 shots of vanilla and whip cream. Maybe if I compared it to Godzilla…. hmmm. (The cost of travel, the actual cup of chai and the giant cup holder (which the Japanese people probably imported from America, since that is the only place where you can by a 50 gallon single serving of anything) would set me back my entire paycheck for the month. But really… I am in serious withdrawals from conveniences of the motherland…. like 2 ply toilet paper that feels SOFT, and grocery stores where I could ACTUALLY know what it is I was buying… because, let’s face it… I don’t speak or read Japanese so my next option is to study the pictures on products and hope I choose the better tasting. However… be it known… pictures on foods in Japan, DON’T MEAN ANYTHING!!! There will be a nice picture of something, a flower, a smiling little girl holding her bunny, a beaver gnawing some wood… all of these are on opaque packages (that would take Superman’s x-ray vision to see through) on the aisle that seems to be fruits and vegetables. This is when I leave that row, and head toward the produce department… where everything is clearly marked APPLE, BANANA, FISH, OCTOPUS. No it isn’t REALLY labeled. But God did a pretty good job of distinguishing natural foods with their own characteristics so that stupid people (or people in foreign countries unable to tell if a beaver gnawing wood is gonna be something that tastes good) don’t die of starvation.
This is not meant to say that I am not STILL loving it here. I am. I mean, where else can you get the day off because the national holiday is Aged Day. (Or in other words, a day to celebrate OLD PEOPLE.) So great!!! This also happens to fall within the same week (which, looking at my calendar only happens every 7 years IF leap year doesn’t happen) as the Autumn Equinox… which I also get the day off for. So, two three day weekends with a three day work week… I may never be this utterly rested again. 
Well, it is now 4 pm Japan Standard time. Which means it is 1 am for all you Coloradans… I am going to go home now and watch SUMO. More on that topic…. Later.
Delighting In Each Moment 
Ok, so I don’t have time to read your post yet, but I thought I would comment on your comment on MY post. (My that was a long sentence.) I talked to him yesterday when he just randomly showed up at Evan’s. I had no idea he even knew those guys. Oh well. Anyway, so it was just me, Evan, Mitch and for a bit, this girl Brittney (none of us really like her) and Andy just showed up. He kinda hung around, didn’t say much…HE didn’t even tell me he was seeing someone. He just avoided me…I am not an idiot. Ugh. So I approached him about it and we joked around, but really…have some kind of consideration for the girl whose heart you just destroyed. Geez. Now, really, for the most part, I am over it. No more pictures, no more ankle bracelet, no more thoughts of him like that really, I do like Evan, and I like the way life is going and I’d rather go slow, but why is it that I am so quick to get over. It makes me question if he ever really had feelings for me in the first place and sadly, the answer I come to, is that maybe he did, but they weren’t ever deep feelings, but rather, the feelings of “hey, I’m 17 and a 22 year old is in love with me and we can make out, and go out, and she is cute…” the list goes on. It all boils down to having NOTHING to do with me as a person. Is that sad??
Its OK. I am really not AS upset as I seem. Things with Evan are going well, not dating, but hanging out a lot and doing fun things. I brought him home with me and my mom thinks he is the cutest guy EVER (but, as she said, he’s no Andy…I don’t know what that means. Evan is like 7x the guy Andy is.) Ok tangent over. I have to get ready for class…
The letter is coming soon!
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sumo!!! lucky. you’ll survive without starbucks chai just about as much as i have survived without the chocolate truffle ice cream..or grape for that matter. or pocky. or BBQ. or okonomiyaki. geh…now if i were to go get one of those things….it would set me back about 1/5th of my entire year’s income. i’ve got plane tickets, bus/train money, and then the money for the actual product. i guess we’ll both live. 80 something days isn’t too long. can’t wait to see you!
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Isn’t it so bad when you start into one of those “things we don’t have here” conversations? Several times in the past week some of my Canadian friends and I have started one of those conversations and then just stopped because it was not a good thing for us to continue. We love China anyway, so why think about what we can’t have here when there’s so much do have? Here the big thing is to label products with movie stars and sports stars and stuff so my food choices are (I’ll admit it) somewhat influenced by who decded to sponsor them. So far the famous Chinese gymnast didn’t do a good job choosing which cookies to endorse. Ugh. They’re horrible. And as for moon cakes, I’ll pass. Which is hard to do around here during mid-autumn festival. But the moon is amazing here at night – so big – same for you?
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Aris, I am completely ready to hang out with you when you arrive back in the lovely land of Colorado! I hope you are enjoying Japan. I’m jealous that you are in a foreign country and I, on the other hand, am stuck in Colorado. 🙂 Don’t get me wrong, I love it here, but I love travelling too much to be here all the time 🙂 Talk to you soon! Have an awesome week!
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Allow me to clarify..ahem…by “no one” I meant…a boy. No boys ever seem interested. They just laugh. Do we remember Mark??? 🙂
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Yay I’m a Llama again!!…wait a second…
Great movie.
I see Mark quite often…he is at least still friendly with me, unlike SOME boys. I sent Andy the “farwell” email…mostly for myself, but it said a few things, like thank you for reminding me how I deserve to be treated, thank you for being there for me when I needed you, and most of all, thank you for my kitchen table. 🙂 I saw him this morning, he just glared. Oh well. I must say, that he seems a heck of a lot less happy with Marissa than he EVER looked with me. 🙂 Tee hee hee. I am gloating. I’m better, I’m better.
Yay caffeinated beverages. I am completely addicted to Starbucks. I cannot physically go one day without it. Its a sad state of affairs.
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i would totally buy a food product if there was a beaver gnawing wood on the package. maybe i’m just weird like that… 🙂
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so “old people’s day” is so awesome. a couple of days ago was supposedly “international talk like a pirate day.” and today is supposed to be “wear a green shirt day.” i think tomorrow is “Aris is so incredible day”.
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it’s been nearly another week since you’ve written. sounds like life is exciting. it’s not the same without you though, yanno. did you ever get my email? let me know if you did or didn’t so i can resend you another or sumthin. love ya lots girl and hope you have a flippin awesome day!
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i love that movie 🙂
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Hey beautiful! Im glad to hear you still have your wits about you. Do you think i should take up sumo so you could watch me in a diaper? well i guess i dont have to do sumo for you to see that!
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