it hasn't hit me yet i'm not simply on summer vacation. and i don't think that will hit me until about october.

Adjusting

Day one in America, these were the things that seemed weird to me:

No tray to put my money in at cash registers. Where do I put the money?!

All the choices I had to make ordering dinner at a restaurant. What kind of salad? Which two side dishes? How did I want the steak cooked?...it was like a frakking interview!

Strangers talking to me/not being terrified to talk to me.

How small American cellphones are.

Happily, America has:

Shoes that fit me in womens' styles.

Cheap, delicious pizza.

PBS.

Hugh Manatee.

a few more little things...

I will miss...

The Shinkansen. Best way to travel, period.

Amemura, or America Town, in Osaka. It's to America what our Chinatowns are to China.

The hideous things Japanese McDonald's come up with. The breakfast McHotDog. The Egg Double Mac. The list could go on and on. You don't need to eat them to enjoy the ridiculousness.

Buying sushi at the convenience store.

Japanese convenience stores in general.

No tipping but still having service twice as good as the States.

Streets filled with paper lanterns during festival season.

The cuteness of Japanese kids. Sometimes I think the dopamine rush they give is the reason I stayed so long.

Onsens. Public baths are just not something Americans do, but it's really pretty delightful. Especially if you get to drink beer and eat ice cream in the nude. Oh yeah.

Seasonal Kit-Kat flavors. Salty watermelon, green tea, blood orange, and so forth. Some are better than others, but it's like Pokemon, gotta try 'em all!

Capsule machine toys. Way cooler than the bouncy balls and cheap rings we had as kids.

Puri-kura photo booths. Sometimes you DO need that much glitter in your life.

adrift...

and now, i am homeless and wandering. Achan has been kind enough to offer me her home when i need it, and it turns out that it was sooner than i anticipated.

when i had originally planned on leaving Japan the 16th of August, it was under the impression I would be in my home until the end of my contract, August 5th. But the new folks moved in a week earlier than that. While in most cases this would mean the board of education would put the new folks up in a hotel til their predecessor was prepared to leave, MY board of education basically said "well...good luck getting out!" and that was that. it does reconfirm for me that i really can't work with them any longer, nice as they are most of the time, because the level of cluelessness is just astounding.

anyway, what i had planned on having as a little over a week of wandering is now a little over two weeks. i have plans for some of those days, places to be and people to see for the last time...but others are just blanks in my daily planner. no clue where i'll be or where i will stay. i really feel like i can only rely on one person's hospitality for so long before i become a nuisance. thankfully, i'm not a penniless wanderer. should i need, i can get a hotel or catch a train someplace. but having spent more in 4 days than i normally do in a month when my friends were visiting makes me hesitate to spend more than i need.

really, this post is just me bitching. nobody really wants to hear that, i suppose. but i think i can sum up what i really want to say in a few words that everyone can agree upon.

being homeless sucks.