Things i will miss (4)

Fast and Reliable Trains-

Relativelty expensive by my standards after only having to pay 2.25 to go anywhere in the city of new york. But for timelyness, cleanliness, reliablity, and generally considerate passangers it can't be beat. In 4 months have only been on a train that has stopped once. I don't ever recall a train being late and if I was ever late it was my fault not the trains.

There has been stoppages due to certain cases im not sure myself, but if the train is ever late there is a station worker at the gate who hands out late notices from the train company explaining it was the fault of the train and not the individual.

There are those vidoes of trains being packed but i was smart enough to choose afternoon classes to avoid the rush, and the rush in the evening is usually not as bad as most japanese work long into th night past 5 o'clock. But really there is no place in japan than is not accesable by train and you can't get to with realitive ease... In that respect Cars are not as needed here....

Things i will miss (5)

In honour of my departure I think maybe going over a few things that in 4 months i've been rather accustom to and i will especially miss.

5.  Konbini and Obento's-

Nothing like the convience of a 24 hour convinience store that has realitively tasty premade food.  Plus the store's are everywhere,  even in small towns.  Equivenlent in numbers to the New York Bodegas  and serves almost same purpose but they also do alot more.  All have prinitng serves, atms, postal service, and you can buy movie and concert tickets from them aswell.   Lawsons and 711/7andi  being the biggest ones there are also  Sunkus, family mart, Circkle K, AM PM, MiniStop and many more.....

yaaaa  i don't want to live without them... :-( 

P.s.  

Lawson makes the best konbini obento's

Good bye to a friend I hardly knew....

Quite a shame that I have to get rid of my mode of transportation that has for the most part faithfully gotten me around japan.  There was that one night in Yokohama but i chalk that up to user error.  Alas bringing you with me would be too much.  So i thank you for the lessons, i thank you for the long rides in the middle of the night and i thank you most of all for giving me the freedom to explore Japan.  You will not be forgotten. 

The thoughts of a Coughing maniac....

As I lay on a futon that my home-stay mother loveingly layered 5 futons deep <3,  I slowly cough away years off my life. I feel fine other wise but i have a pretty abusive cough and there is not much you can do in the prescience of anybody especially Japanese people while you are coughing up a lung. So i lay here and watch Japanese tv which to be honest leaves much to be desired.  I have the same opinion of American TV but thats more my problem than Tv's.

So i let my mind wander a bit, some of my thoughts are rather intelligent even for me, but those of course are few and far between. Far majority are better not shown to the public but hey I am sick with only a white ceiling and a box that emits foreign tv shows so i don't see much other options.

So i present the Musings of a foreigner in Japan, kindly take this with as much seriousness as you would a 5 year who has claimed to have seen a Unicorn.

- I wonder how its the Japanese smoke and drink to excess yet they will outlive me by 35 years...

-  Why because I am american must i own a gun? Is there an unwritten rule some where that i don't know about but the Japanese/asian community do?

- 4 years in catholic high school and school uniform does nothing for me and 4 months in Japan some how does the trick..... i don't condone... i just understand....

- the most flamboyant outfit i will see in a day will always be a guy... And im sure that guy has the potential to get more Japanese women than i do....

- if western food improves the bust size of Asian women... does the same in a different area happen to asian men?

- i am amazed by the strength of old japanese women, old Korean women too... I as a young(relatively), Healthy(relatively), strong(realitively), Foreign man am constanly being muscled out of position for train doors and escalators.


-Why for a country with a majestic and intricate train system must it all shut down at 12?    Japanese people, i tell you now your economy will improve if you fix this one thing....

- why is there such imagination in Japanese commercials but rarely any in Japanese daily and nightly tv.... there is some quality but few and fare between i think and i have only seen evidence of it on Youtube...

- Japanese can put sweet paste and squid inside of an enclosed pastry but i see no signs of turnovers or beef pies... very sad....


all for now enjoy your Christmas...

It's About time.....

My days in Japan are slowly winding down,  sooner rather than later i will be boarding my last flight back to New York.  It is not a thought that I dread either.  For all my experiences here good or bad I am lucky to have such an opportunity, but now I think its a bout time to go home and restart my life.   A bit refreshed, full of brand new experiences, a life time of memories and quite a few new friends.  Was it what i thought it would be?  By no means,  but that doesn't mean it was worse,  I think I surpassed in many ways what I thought was possible for even me in both language ability adapting to new culture and rules. 

My last day of class is Monday... I will say good by to the Chinese Nation that I was able to meet here in Yokohama.  I debate whether I should make a little speech or not.  I am not about making my leave in a grand manner but it would be rude to not at least say good bye, give thanks,  and wish them luck.

After that My plan is to go to Sapporo... Spend some time and meet my last friend in Japan that I met originally in New York.  All in all I don't feel time has gone either too fast or too slow,  everything occurred when it was suppose to, and while plans mostly got changed it was for the better,  I enjoyed traveling japan then go to Korea in such a short time period. It gave me an real experience of traveling abroad,  till then i was just a student abroad with responsibilities to manage both learning and have fun, i got to break out of that mold and focus on fun. However I don't think it would have been as rewarding if i did not put the effort and work into improving my Japanese.

If In the future i could do it again,  i would love to spend some more time in Korea,  and maybe finish my stay in Thailand or Vietnam,  but for now that is the speculation of a man still wandering around in the orient... I am grateful for where I am now and will spend my dwindling days experiencing all i can.