SWITCHING TO ART MODE

Yup, this place will soon become a place where I post my art jazz.
Expect a real update soon, I need to keep working.

Right before Returning

Here it is everyone.

The final blog post before I bring my silly self back Stateside.

Have you missed me? You ready for me to come back and RUIN YOUR LIFE. I mean, fill you with joy that only a guy who has lived in Japan can bring? Yea, I bet you are.

I have to say my time here has really changed me as a person, or at least opened my eyes to viewing the world from a new perspective. I've lived with a family here, and have really felt like I was a part of the Japanese lifestyle. What that translates out to is being busy all the effin' time, but gosh darn it if it didn't get me in shape.

Photos will be super-updated once I am home and have the time to dwell on it. Until then busy yourself with knowing that I'm like almost totally more spiffy then my pictures... wait. Is that a bad thing?

Guess we'll find out.
Hope to see you all soon!

~Love

Eddie

Bullet Update

Finals have started.

I ran a half marathon Sunday.

My mind is ravaged with stress and the like.

I will need, like, 800 hugs when I get home.

Later.

Hokkaido: Nudity, Tragedy, and Kareoke

Love that title.
Thought it up all by myself you know.

This last weekend, I went with some of my friends to Japan's northern island, Hokkaido. The main appeal for me was larger just being able to see snow. There is no blipping snow here in Hirakata, and the weather is simply to nice. Similar to what my sister would say toward her needs for hate and loathing, I've found myself needy of the freakishly cold weather that only Michigan can provide.

So Friday morning instead of going to class ( ' w ' ) I instead went to the train station . We hit the trains for about an hour before getting our buts to the station and on a plane. Oh man, domestic travel is so much easier than the BS infused fury fest that is international flights. We were done and in the air in moments.

A short 2-hour, nap filled flight later we were in Hokkaido. The first day, there was no real snow, but that was okay as it was still freezing. Nostalgia freezing. We spent most of our time dilly-dallying from place to place before we finally capped in for the night.

The next day, we hit the subway and went to... I forgot where, but out of the city. Hokkaido felt so much like America. It had lots of trees and wide open spaces occasionally punctuated with signs of life. The illusion was broken a few times with several temples springing up seemingly anywhere.

In... the place we went, we made tracks for an Onsen (hot spring)! A bum chilling later, we had found our destination. A quick walk inside, a few formalites, and a locker room, and I was standing outside naked with snow coming down from the mountain and steam raising from the outside bath. It was one of the most amazing and beautiful things I think I may ever see.

There were several different bathes at this particular facility, but I was quite partial to sitting in the hot spring outside and watch the snow in the mountains. We and my friends relaxed for like an hour before heading back in, dressing, and then we went upstairs where there was a kick awesome cafe. It was warm and comfy in there, and most of our group wound up napping on the floor. Begrudgingly, we left the place with food in stomachs, and seemingly more fatigue than we came in with. Man, I wanted a nap.

(MORE LATER, I'MMA GO HOME)

It's Coming Down

Cake, go listen to it.

Years closing. Oh. Man.
I'm so not ready to be getting around to come home yet. It just feels like there is so much left to do, and beyond Hokkaido this weekend and finals in the next few weeks, there really isn't much. Today, we spent time working on our skit for Speaking class. It's all in Japanese and poorly acted, so clearly it is golden. I'll be bringing home a copy, or posting it on YouTube / Face Book, so it will so be good as blackmail latter in my life.

Keep that in mind, kids.

I've recovered a bit from my bike accident last week, so my hand still looks pretty fierce. I'm soo getting a scar out of it. I can only wait, heal, and hope it turns out to be a chick magnet. It's also sorta shaped like a crescent, so maybe I can get a moon out of it.

It make trashy myself on my bike over turning slightly to the right a little more bearable.
Alas.

We finish the skit tomorrow, and Dan (guy in my group) will be editing it for the Thursday due date. More on that as it comes.

Take it easy everyone.
~Cheers

Update for Pain's Sake

Kinda sorta totaled my bike.
I'm okay, though I've botched my right hand, elbow, and knee. My beautiful face has remained unscathed. Writing and doing anything with my right arm has become an episode in pain and suffering. It ain't broke, but man, there is a twinge.

Not much on the agenda. A few problems here and there, but nothing I can't handle / try my best to ignore.

~ Cheers

That Buzzing Sound

Salutations, my westward friends (though honestly, east works too).

Found a new way to school today. It skips a great deal of the usual pants-soiling terror I've come so accustomed to. There is however, a rather cruelly steep hill, but I'm not complaining. Anything is better than being a foots length from being decimated by traffic... angry, angry, traffic.

(shudder)

Things have been going pretty well here, if I can get away with saying that. School is a monster, but I'm managing. I don't see my friends too often, but I do my best to hang out with them when I have the chance. I went with a couple to Osaka a few days ago, and we bought some passes that would let us hit up a whole bunch of museums.

One of the first ones we visited was pretty much the Japanese equivalent of Co-Sci. There were kids darting around and playing on everything, doing all the little experiment stations. One in particular I found groovy was levitation. There was a little model of the earth held suspended in mid-air by three different magnets. It was really neat.

Later, we'd go to a (crappy) art gallery, miss a dinosaur show by minutes and then go to Floating Garden. If you are silly, and read the title of this place, you may be inclined to believe that the floating garden includes foliage of some shape or variety. Not true. The floating garden is... well... I'll show you the postcards latter. The easy explanation is that I was on a rooftop 40 some stories up looking out over Osaka City at night, and it was magical.

It was a fun day.

Anyway, on a more life focused thing, I'm realizing a lot of the things that I'm going to miss here. The food, the scenery, the mountains, new friends from far away places... there a plenty of things that I'm going to miss dearly. I am, however, ready to just be able to talk to and see people again. While I'd never want to do the dorms here, living with a homestay comes at the disadvantage of being far away from everyone all the time.

... sigh...

Going out for sushi tonight with friends. If anyone would like to send me a message or something, I'd totally dig it. Also, for those with gmail accounts, I'm online at 8 am to 9 here nearly every day. If you do the math, that means that I can chatted with from 6 to 7 o'clock in America time. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I'm online until about 8 pm Western time.

I imagine (and hope) I'll talk to some of you later.
Take it easy everyone, much love.
~ Cheers