Family fun and blog updating

Well I just said goodbye to my Aunt Mary and my brother Matt who have been here in Japan visiting me for the past week and I'm sad to see them go. We had a great time going around Osaka and the outlying cities for the past six days and were able to see some great temples in Nara and Kyoto. I'll put up pictures later, but right now I am exhausted because we have pretty much been going non-stop for the past week. However I have also decided to challenge myself to update my blog three or four times a week. And to those of you who know me well once you stop laughing and continue reading this I agree, I have my own doubts, but it seems there is fair interest in my life over here and as I am even more terrible at writing letters or emails I figure this is the best bet. I am also spurred on because a wonderful friend known as Erica Wolfe wrote me an incredible letter, as a journalism major should, and I realized I've been pretty bad at keeping this thing up to date. So now the real battle begins...wish me luck because I'll need plenty.

Also a quick update while I'm at it:

1. I have a Japanese girlfriend, her name is Ayuko
2. I live by myself in a one room apartment or mansion as the Japanese say
3. I am transferring to a Nova branch in Osaka soon hopefully, which means I'll meet students face to face instead of teaching over a webcam setup
4. I have two Siamese fighting fish: Yasui and Kantan, their names mean Cheap and Easy

Mr. Sun

Yet another interesting quirk I have discovered about Japan is the populace's fear of the sun. As far as I can tell it applies only to the women, but when I say fear I mean like acute hatred and phobia of the sun and the tanning that it implies. Women walk around everywhere with sun parasols or umbrellas and many of them wear pants, long sleeved shirts and white gloves to make sure they are covered up. Age also doesn't seem to be a factor in this fear of tanning as you see both teenage girls and ojiisan or grandmothers using the umbrellas and other such sun fighting devices. When I asked my Japanese girlfriend and other friends why they are so against tanning they acted like I was crazy to even ask. Like they were honestly kind of shocked that someone would want to get tan in the first place. Lucky for me God didn't decide to grace me with the skin to tan anyway, so I'll blend right in. Thanks for that God, thanks a lot.

Nara

Trying to put up some pics from Nara...let's see if it works

So since coming over here my Japanese has gotten to be pretty good and I've actually started thinking about maybe going to grad school for that instead of psychology. Only because there is a big demand for interpreters for business situations both here and in the states and I've really come to love the culture while I've been over here. Of course what I want to do with my life changes monthly so who knows what will actually happen. Also thought about moving to Europe or Australia for a couple of years when I'm done with Japan. Of course I don't know if my family could handle me being away for that long as they are already heartsick with the loss of me as it is :) Still I kinda have some wanderlust in me so who knows what will happen. One thing I do know is that living in this country has been incredible so far and I still have a lot I want to do here, so I'm just really glad I decided to come over.