Frustration

So I received this letter two days ago detailing my current job situation:

Thank you for requesting re-employment with G.education. Since taking over operations at Nova we have put all our efforts into proceeding with the reopening of branches. As a result, we expect to have approximately 130 branches offering Nova lessons during December 2007.
At the same time, the Trustees in Bankruptcy are making progress with dissolving Nova Corporation. At present they have started proceeding sequentially with terminating leases of properties which will not be taken over by G.education and the problem of unpaid wages. With the cooperation of property owners, we have managed to rapidly reopen many branches but now intend to more closely align branch reopenings with the current business situation. The process of opening the Ekimae Ryugaku branches and restarting lessons requires a lot of time, personnel and expense. To enable us to offer lessons even more quickly to students who still have unused lesson points, we will shift the focus of development from the branches to expanding Ochanoma Ryugaku lessons with a view to even opening new Multimedia Center facilities overseas.

To be able to continue business operations at Nova, it is essential that administrative and branch operations are run with a suitable staffing level. It is for this reason that when existing contracts expire, G.education needs to conduct the offer of new contracts with caution and strictness based on employment adjustments. Thus the current situation unavoidably means that it is difficult to offer positions to everyone.

This is an agonizing decision to ahve to make while dealing with request for employment at
G.education, but is the decision that must be made for both the company and Nova operations. We ask for your understanding in this matter.


Takashi Ono
Chief Executive Officer
G.education Co. Ltd.

Basically what it means is that I won't have my contracted renewed when it expires in February and therefore have to find a new job before my current work visa ends on February 14th. Now this is extremely frustrating because up until two days ago Nova had told me that my contract would be renewed as well as another one year work visa, thus I have not been looking for jobs or researching how to manage my visa situation. Luckily due to my living situation with Ayuko's family and the fact that January through March is the big hiring season for English teachers I should be able to find another job, but the real problem is my work visa. If I change it to a three month tourist visa I am not sure if I can be hired by another company or not and as the government office dealing with visas is closed for the holidays I have to wait to find out what my options exactly are. So once again Nova has giving me the big middle finger. Awesomeness once more. So not exactly sure how things will play out at this point, but I sure as hell won't let Nova ruin my plans once again. Just suppose I'll have to adapt to the situation and come out ahead somehow. While this whole experience with the business part of my stay here has been incredibly shitty, pardon the french, it has made me much more cognizant of my financial responsibilities and goals. So as Calvin's dad would say it has been a very character building experience!

Merry Christmas!

In Japan it is officially Christmas now and while I have been poor at posting recently that will be remedied. However seeing as it is now 1:27AM and I have to work today this will be a short post. As in goodnight and enjoy the pics.

Third day of work today and we are slowly starting to get more students. The vast majority of them are returning students and while at this point there is just a few students spaced throughout the day, in a couple of weeks branches are expected to be back to full capacity. Today I only had to teach one student and so the rest of my day was spent reading, talking with the other teachers, sleeping, and various other forms of amusement. As mentioned before I'm lucky in the sense that all of the other teachers are fun and personable people and we had a lot of fun today just killing time with stories and jokes.
One example is that another teacher is currently dating the granddaughter of the man who founded Shinsei Bank in Japan, which is one of the major banks at least here in Osaka and possibly all over Japan. So her only job is to spend money. Seriously. She has an allowance of 300,000 US dollars a month and I'm fairly certain this doesn't include the money she is allotted for her penthouse apartment and equally posh house. She also lavishes her boyfriend with clothes and various other gifts, so all in all I think he is a pretty lucky son of a gun. So needless to say I work with a varied group of very different, but very fun teachers.

Random J-girl cosplay pics

Al


Thought I'd spice up the blog with some randomness. Also the recent changes to the blog layout are due to the fact that I figured out how to switch the settings into English and now just play around with them.

Well yesterday was my first day of working at my actual branch in Kongo and it was very uneventful due to the fact that we don't have any actual students at this point. There were three other teachers there, out of eight total, and after some general cleaning of the branch we spent the next six hours just reading books and magazines as we tried to kill time. However its good to just finally be working again and having something to do during the long winter days.

The other teachers seem nice and the only unfortunate aspect is that the head teacher at my branch is a huge ass kisser. This is pretty common among a good portion of teachers who have worked for Nova for any long period of time as for them this is their career, not just a way to live in Japan for a few years. This guy has been working for Nova for 14 years and has only advanced one step above me in the corporate ladder which shows a serious lack of ability on his part. Sadly this hasn't stopped him from acting like our job requires the utmost dedication and effort in order to please our Japanese masters. However I'm not really too concerned as he doesn't hold any power over me except to be annoying and after living with my sisters I can certainly deal with that. Just kidding girls!

Also at this point I am contemplating of quitting Nova in May to be able to come home for a couple of friends weddings and just see friends and family in America for a month or so. Since Ayuko is moving to Tokyo in May as well it would give her some time to get settled before I would move there and start looking for another job. The reason I would quit Nova is that we can't take any sort of leave of absence and the new company screwed us over as far as paid holidays went as well, so after my whole experience with Nova I understandably have no loyalty. Especially considering the new company has already defaulted on a great deal of promises they have made as well. Ah the life of a corporate drone! Of course I am also looking into going back to graduate school for business, so who knows.

Either way I got paid a small advance from Nova today so I won't be starving in the streets and overall I'm really happy to be working again in general. Also not sure if I've mentioned this before, but since all of this financial hoopla has happened I've decided to be much more focused on my finances and save the great majority of my paychecks. My current goal is to have at least ten thousand dollars saved by March/April including both savings and the back pay I will receive from the government. I plan to mark this as my retirement fund/emergency fund and pay into it as much as I can from now on. Sadly this makes me feel like a real adult...

Here is the run down on my current job working for the newly revived NOVA. As of today I officially was hired and added to the payroll of the company that bought out NOVA and am assigned to a school that is about 25 minutes away from my home train station. It is currently not open and tentatively scheduled to open on December 4th, but that could always change as this new company adjusts to dealing with their currently rather overwhelming situation. However until the school opens and I start working full time again I am paid to 'standby' or simply to wait at home. Now originally this pay was supposed to be my full wage, but on Tuesday G. Education, the new owners, changed this pay to only 60% of our full salary. Consequently the foreign heads of staff were enraged and are currently fighting to get it returned to full payment or at the very least 80%. So while that is frustrating, at least it seems that there is a chance that I will be able to obtain full salary while waiting for my school to open.

As far as the back wages I am owed by the now defunct NOVA the government will pay 80% of those, but due to the large number of applications that have to be prepared and processed by the government trustees appointed to NOVA it is unlikely I will receive this payment until March at the earliest. However this should be in the range of 4 to 5 thousand dollars, so at least I will be able to recoup some of my losses.

The situation is much better mainly because the foreign personnel heads of staff are being very upfront with us about the entire situation and are actively fighting for us whenever the Japanese owners attempt to manipulate or take advantage of us. This is a huge departure from the deception and outright lies we had to deal with before, so things are finally turning around. All in all my spirits are high and I can finally start enjoying traveling again as I'll finally have money.

Christmas in Japan

Since the Japanese don't celebrate Thanksgiving, after Halloween they dive right into the commercial fever of Christmas. This includes sales, decorations, the whole nine yards. I thought it was interesting because while Japan is a mainly non-religious culture, they certainly embrace the commercial religion of Santa Claus. These are some pictures of just a few of the many decorations I have seen...

Alright this will be the last time I say this, but I actually have a job. I start next Thursday for the company that bought out NOVA. Good news on that. The reason I haven't been blogging recently is that I lost my password and only recently figured it out, so I hope you haven't been too on edge wondering about what has been happening to me in the land of the rising sun. For now I will leave you with some pictures of when Jeff visited as well as some random ones. Enjoy.

Well jokes on me I guess as the company that bought out NOVA will now only rehire about half of the foreign teachers and J staff. More info on this can be found here:

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20071113TDY02307.htm

It is still unknown as to whether I will be offered a job or not and no one living in Osaka that I know has been offered a job yet, but that doesn't mean much. If I have not been offered a job within the next week or so it seems very unlikely that I will get hired back, so that is rather depressing. However I do have two more interviews this week, so maybe one of those will work out. I apologize for any false hope, but we were once again given misleading information from surprise surprise a Japanese company dealing with foreigners! This whole situation hasn't lessened my desire to stay here for another couple of years, but it has shown me that Japan is sadly still very xenophobic and quietly racist. I am not sure if I mentioned this before, but when the Japanese media was covering all of the NOVA scandal all they kept mentioning was how horrible it was for the students to lose their disposable income while nary a mention was made of teachers being evicted from apartments, penniless, jobless, and starving. So while almost all of my interactions with individual Japanese have been amazing, their society at large is shockingly anti-foreigner with no concept of discrimination or racism. Overall I'm just hoping I don't turn into some cynical ex-pat due to my poor business experiences in this country...but the future is looking bleak.

I have a job. A company bought out NOVA and I basically will be doing the same thing I did before, which leaves something to be desired, but regardless I won't be getting thrown out of the country. So that is rather uplifting. Still have a second interview this Thursday and if that works out I will have a better paying job with better holidays and all, but who knows how that will work out. So basically I will be in Japan for quite some time as was planned before, so sorry to anyone who was hoping for a quick return of their hero. Anyway more info on the new company and such later, but I haven't gone to sleep after a night of kinda partying and club hopping. Kinda sad, but it wasn't really that good of a night, more just philosophical talk with my friends. I fear I am getting old...

http://www.nova.ne.jp/information/announce-071106-en.html

This is the latest info from NOVA regarding the buyout. Potentially I could be re-hired by the company that bought 33% of NOVA's assets, but they have not announced exactly how that will work at this point. Hopefully since I live in Osaka and a good number of the initial schools will be centered around here and Tokyo, I will have a better chance of getting hired. Who knows. As soon as I know more details I will post it.

Well had a ton of fun with Jeff in our time around Osaka and Tokyo and despite getting over a pretty bad cold things are looking up. Seems that the lawyers controlling Nova right now are in negotiations with several companies who could possibly buyout the company and they have stated that their goal is to announce the sponsor within a week. More info on the whole situation can be found at www.letsjapan.org, but i suggest you only read the first post in all of the blogs as all the comments following the official posts can be very confusing and mostly inaccurate. However this blog stays very up to date on the situation and posts any official news from Nova, the bankruptcy lawyers, and the media.
I also have a second interview with another English school and as there were over 400 applicants and subsequent interviews and only three of us called back for a second 2 hour demo lesson and interview I suppose I should be proud of the fact that I was selected to come back. This job would be full time with better pay and while it wouldn't start until December it would still be a much better position than the one I currently hold with Nova. So once again thank you to everyone praying for me as I still really appreciate all the support.
Lastly here are some of the pics from when Jeff was here!

Japanese children are cuter...

...that is all

Quick update for those of you who wish to stay up to date on the Nova situation. Probably the most straightforward and authentic website to use to get information is www.nova.ne.jp, which is Nova's official website. There are two English links on it now detailing the exact bankruptcy proceedings that are currently ongoing and what exactly will be the fate of the company both if the government lawyers can find a sponsor and if they can't. I'll also try to post any important changes as soon as I can, but hopefully this site can help with any questions or confusion anyone has.
However on a brighter note Jeff, Ayuko and I have been having an incredible time so far here in Osaka and the surrounding cities. Today Jeff and I went to Nara, one of my favorite places in Japan, and were able to see some beautiful temples and scenery. We were lucky to have great weather today, about 70 degrees, and should have comparable weather for the rest of his trip. I've gotten some good pictures and once he leaves and I have a little more free time I'll start posting them. Since we have been walking an average of 9-10 hours a day for the past three days we have decided to take a day off tomorrow and just be lazy. Maybe go to a movie or get massages or something. Who knows.

OH DEAR GOD...Sahashi, NOVA's president, has been forcibly removed from his position by the board of directors in an emergency meeting today. They have also declared what is essentially Chapter 11 and are attempting to restructure the company now that they can work unimpeded from Sahashi or Monkeybridge as everyone calls him. (His name means Monkeybridge) What this means is that their first order of business is paying teachers and staff, then paying off debt, then refunding students. So basically NOVA might be able to pull out of this and chances are I will actually be paid! HOORAY!

Well still no pay today, surprise surprise, but I don't really care at this point because Jeff got into Tokyo a couple of hours ago and I'll be picking him up from the bus station in Osaka early tomorrow morning. After we drop off his stuff at home, mainly to let him take a shower after close to two days without one, we'll be hitting up Osaka to see the sights. Since he is staying here a week I plan to go to Nara, Kyoto, Hiroshima, maybe Kobe, and then end the week with a couple of days in Tokyo. I've never been to Tokyo, but have been really wanting to go ever since I got here so it should be a lot of fun. It also looks like we'll be in Tokyo for Halloween, so we should be able to go to some crazy clubs and see some ridiculous outfits. If I have time I'll update over the next week and try and put more pictures up and I'll definitely let you know if I ever get paid or if one of my interviews actually panned out.

Well today determines if NOVA survives or not and it all depends on their closing stock price today. If it closes a 35 yen or above then most likely it'll be bought out by two companies based in the Virgin Islands who would exercise the stock warrants they currently have. This would mean that I would actually get paid tomorrow which is always a nice thing. However, if the stock closes below 35 yen than the companies actually lose money if they exercise their warrants, so it seems doubtful they will if that is the case. Regardless today will definitely be a rather stressful day as I await my fate, but if for whatever reason NOVA is not bought out I just hope they have the decency to go bankrupt so I can collect my unemployment and get some form of money. Sigh...

However my friend Jeff from college is coming tomorrow for a week of Japan craziness, so I can at least forget about my worries for a bit. Just wanted to say I appreciate everyone's support and prayers during this rather exciting time of my life as well. Hopefully things will work out with a new job or I'll actually get paid from NOVA! Imagine that! Getting paid for work you did! Another big sigh.

Holy shit Jeffrey Hamilton is coming to visit me in Nihon. Let the craziness begin. Also my goal is to get him married to a girl like one of the above. Kawaiine!!!!



p.s Also just had a kickass interview which hopefully translates into a job. Fingers crossed!

By the way Ayuko is on the right of all the pictures

Well as NOVA is now a week late paying all the foreign teacher wages as well as over a month late in paying the Japanese staff it seems that their collapse is imminent. Supposedly some shady stock deal with companies in the Virgin Islands is going to put about 70 million dollars into the company on the 24th, but the NOVA president is so untrustworthy you can't believe what he says. Like the fact that we were supposed to get paid today according to some fax he sent out last Saturday, but SURPRISE no pay today and no explanation. He did this last month to the senior teachers by feeding them faxes like that FOUR times until they were finally paid three weeks late. So nevertheless no one has any faith in him and as far as I am aware almost every NOVA teacher is refusing to go into work until we are paid, essentially shutting the company down. I have boycotted three days this week and go on paid holiday tomorrow until November second, so who knows what will happen. All I care about is that we get our pay for September as I work about 30 hours overtime...BUT life is going great except for the whole not getting paid thing. I'm loving living with Ayuko and her family and just being in the countryside as opposed to the concrete jungle. I'm putting up some much requested pictures of Ayuko with this post and will put up some more of the area as soon as I take them.

Well I've moved into Ayuko's place as of now and they are currently remodeling my bedroom and bathroom into like a deluxe suite. I'll have a tv in my bathroom as well as a huge bedroom and my own kitchen. All this plus food, electricity, internet, rent, EVERYTHING for only 20,000 yen a month or roughly $180 US. Ridiculous. This living situation means not only that I will save hundreds of dollars every month, but also that if NOVA does go bankrupt I'll have plenty of time to find another job. Speaking of other jobs I had the second of three possible interviews with Berlitz, another big English school, today and if all goes well I'll have a final interview sometime in the next week or so. However there are about 100 people applying for 5 jobs, so needless to say the odds are against me. I think the cliched saying of you miss 100% of the shots you never take applies here, so we'll see how things go. I'll put up pictures as soon as my room is complete. Still rather stressed as to the whole job situation, but hopefully things will work out. Gambaru!

This is a quick update as I have been too busy recently to post more regularly. So it looks like Nova is going to go bankrupt, but the only question now is do they just give up and file for it or do they try to drag it out as long as possibly to take in as much money as they can. One never knows, but one way or another I'll have another job within the next month or so. I have an interview next Thursday with Berlitz, another big English school, so hopefully that'll pan out and I can abandon Nova forever. Secondly I am moving into Ayuko's parents house as a kind of homestay/super cheap living situation. More on that later, but regardless Ayuko and I are getting rather serious, like not wedding bell serious, but still serious. That's all I have time for as I have to go to work, but hopefully once I settle down at Ayuko's, I move today, I can post like I did before. So wish me luck on the interview and pray that good looks and charm can do the job once again.

WARNING: THIS POST MIGHT BE OFFENSIVE TO YOUTH AND ELDERLY READERS

However, I have decided to post my true feelings about Japan in this post, so those of you who wish to avoid any real feelings should stop reading my blog now. Also don't worry as I am keeping in mind that my two teenage sisters check my blog daily, so I will not be posting any offensive posts. However, from now on I will be writing my actual feelings and experiences, so for some this may come as somewhat of a shock. Up until now I have been avoiding exposing friends and family to my true experiences, but for me this blog has become somewhat of an outlet for emotional distress and such, so if this causes too many problems I will just start a second blog for select individuals who wish to see my true experience. Actually for anyone who wants to see my true blog please send me an email @ clopez80525@yahoo.com and I will send you the site for my new blog, ONLY IF one is necessary.

Only recently I learned that one of my good Japanese friends, Yuko, used to work as a hostess. For those of you who don't know what a hostess is they work in 'hostess clubs' which are essentially places where lonely Japanese men can go to have a flirtatious encounter with a beautiful Japanese girl. There is no hanky panky that goes on in the majority of these clubs as the girls only flirt and pour drinks for their male customers. So what the customers are really paying for is simple female companionship for several hours. According to Yuko all the girls do is talk to and build up their customers egos. She made about 150,000 Yen a night which accounts to about 1,3500 US dollars. All of this for six hours of work. She told me that most customers are shy Japanese businessmen/office workers who are too hesitant to approach women in a real environment, so they pay for the opportunity to do so in a risk free place. Still Yuko said that all she did was hold conversations with her customers, nothing raunchy, just normal conversations. From an American point of view this is craziness, but I don't yet understand the Japanese mind.

I've switched over to a branch in Kishiwada now, so hopefully it'll be as good as my current branch. Wish me luck.

This post is in defense of my change to Japanese fashion in general...by the by Western fashion is if anything second rate here...and this has nothing to do with nationalistic pride, I honestly agree with Japan that Western fashion is far behind what they agree is fashionable. Japan and Asia just have better fashion sense...gomene....that means I am sorry, but it is definitely true. Also...yes I left America very well dressed as I myself worked at Old Navy, so please feel no guilt towards America, but the honest truth is that America is simply a mass media worked machine that has no real view towards global fashion. Hontoni gomenesai...or in Japanese "I am terribly sorry", but Japanese fashion is just better...sorry America...we are actually far behind in this race...

Overtime?

So I'm looking to move by November, so recently I've been working some crazy overtime to build up some much needed capital. This month I'll work about 50 hours of overtime which'll give me a good chunk of change to put towards a new apartment and possibly a much needed wardrobe overhaul as western fashion pales in comparison to Japanese. When I told Ayuko that I wanted to get some new clothes to fit in better she was like, "ummmm yeah....you definitely need to do that...I'll take you shopping so you get something good. I mean the summer doesn't matter because you just need to stay cool, but in winter.....yeah we'll definitely go shopping." So its always good to know that your belief that the majority of people think you have poor fashion is blatantly confirmed by your Japanese girlfriend. Awesome. Oh and Nova is definitely on the downfall, a bunch of small unprofitable branches, mine included, have been shut down and merged with core big schools. What this means is that Nova's aggressive expansion has backfired and now they are scrambling to post a profit. AWESOME. After I move I am definitely looking for other work and I might be moving to Tokyo with Ayuko in April anyway, so who knows.

So my friend and I decided to be adventurous and try to find some beach to go swimming at last night. Our starting point? Somewhere in the middle of Osaka. Our eventual ending point? A giant swimming pool complex at 6AM. Needless to say we found a lot of warehouse beachfront property with plenty of disgusting concrete jetties and rusting machinery to play on, but sadly a lack of pristine white sand beaches. We even contemplated swimming in the dubious water we did manage to find, but as Japan is notorious for terrible pollution we decided to stay disease free and opted out of the experience. However we did discover that you can go just about anywhere you want as we found no fences, guards, attack dogs or anything in our wanderings which shows just how trusting this country is. Anywhere in America that is closed at night is usually surrounded with barbed wire fence and lots of lights, etc. Just another difference.

Apartment pics

Here are some pictures of the monster one room apartment I call home.

Gaijin Smash!

So as I think I've mentioned before being a gaijin in Japan gives you a great deal of freedom in an otherwise fairly structured and hierarchal society. No one expects us to be aware of their various and sundry social rules and not only that, in such a polite society everyone is very hesitant to approach us if we do act wrongly. I like to attribute this to what I call 'gaijin fear' or the deeply instilled xenophobia that Japan is historically known for. However this isn't entirely true as my Japanese friends have told me that most people are just too nervous to approach us because of the language barrier and their culture of ignoring instead of confronting as one sees in America and other Western countries. A great many gaijin don't care and love the freedom they are given here and now we are finally getting to the 'Gaijin Smash'. My friend Nathan termed the gaijin smash to describe behavior in which gaijin just blatantly intimidate and ignore any thing that gets in their way. The smash comes from when gaijin come off the last train just wasted and having lost or never bought a ticket just 'smash' through the ticket gate and ignore the Japanese staff who hesitantly call after them. Now behavior like this earns us the reputation we have here, but I mean come on...that is just hilarious. Seeing gaijin out of control over here is like watching Godzilla destroy Tokyo, the Japanese people just flee in terror. Hilarity.

and...

To those who didn't know, you can click on the pictures to see a bigger version of them. Let's you see just how excited Matt is in that first picture and wow is he excited about something....

Pictures!

Here are some random pics taken with my cell phone. The ones with the cool cloud formations were taken right before a typhoon hit Osaka, so it was crazy windy and the sky looked really pretty. Others are just from around Osaka.

one more time

Just a quick note to anyone who actually reads my blog. If you want me to regularly update this thing like twice a week or something you HAVE to comment on my posts. Otherwise I figure no one is reading and just don't write in this. I'm also rather lazy, so if I can use the excuse of no one reading my posts to avoid writing more I certainly will. So really you decide if I write or not, so do what you will.

Wow

So who is terrible at blogging? This guy. Anyway here is what has happened in the crazy world of Christopher:

1. I have moved to a branch school, so I am no longer at the Multimedia Center. This means several things: no more webcams! hooray, working with a core group of great teachers! hooray, seeing the same students on a daily or weekly basis and thus being able to build up relationships! hooray, and having just four different Japanese staff which I am getting to know well and practicing my Japanese with! hooray

2. I just skyped with my family for two hours so now I'm actually going to bed.

3. Joey I have no idea if you are alive or still in Med school or America or jail or whatnot. Get skype you big weirdo so we can talk. As sad as it is I miss giving you all the advice you are always bothering me about. www.skype.com Easy peasy. Do it and im me your schedule or times you might be able to talk weekly.

4. This one is for Monica...Rhino charge followed by a walrus flop, with an eagle claw and seagull dive to stun you, then an elephant stomp to finish you. Burn!

Red, White, and...well that's it

Another kind of odd thing I've noticed while being over here is that there are no Japanese flags displayed anywhere. Especially considering just how nationalistic and isolationist they are over here one would think that they would prominently display their national colors as often as they could, but so far I have seen all of two flags, both of them in Kyoto. I don't know if this is an after-effect of WWII or if they Japanese are simply more subdued in displaying their national pride or what exactly is the reason behind the lack of flags, but I have to admit it intrigues me. Especially since in America one sees them everywhere; porches, car dealerships, post offices, classrooms, on pick up trucks, hats, t-shirts, really just about any open space. However as I mentioned earlier I personally believe that the Japanese don't like to openly flaunt their view of themselves as the most superior Asian country, instead they prefer to crush the opposition with superior goods and businesses, but always in the most polite way. That sounds terrible, but from my experience the Japanese are for the most part an extremely driven people, both in their personal and business lives. Almost all of them are busy 24/7 and when I sometimes ask my housewife, childless, rich students why they are so exhausted from their non-working lives they tell me that if they take the time to just relax or be bums they feel guilty. Craziness. But sadly I'm starting to feel the same way, like lazing around all day isn't as fun as it used to be. I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so...da da da da

Pics

Here are some of the pictures from when my family visited. We visited some different temples than I had previously been to when I went to Kyoto and Nara so I was still able to get some great pictures. Something I just realized too is that living over here is so much more incredible than I thought before. I mean I just casually mentioned going to Kyoto, the cultural capital of Japan, like it was like going to the grocery store or something. Have to say I am finally settling into my life over here and I guess I never really realized that until writing this post. Yikes. Don't worry though Mom even though I may stay in Japan or abroad for some time I'm still coming back to America someday, maybe with some nice foreign wife for you to meet! Good lord I am terrible for my poor mother's blood pressure...