There was being an earthquake

Things are going very well. Classes have improved since the first couple lessons, I'm getting to know my neighborhood and Tokyo more and more, the home stay situation is still awesome (I'm going to stay there through November at least - and I arranged another home stay in Hokkaido for the time between the summer program and fall quarter), I'm healthy - eating and sleeping well, and I didn't feel the earthquake at all last Saturday. I'm even meeting some real live Japanese students despite the emptiness caused by summer vacation. It's a lot of fun to speak with people my age using Japanese - I find that I'm less judgmental in meeting and talking Japanese people because even if they're not my kind of person, they can still teach me a lot.

Even so, sometimes I miss that connection you share with someone when you each understand exactly what the other is thinking and why, whether it's a funny thought, sad thought, or whatevo. There have been a lot of scenes, absurd, ironic, and otherwise, that I've wanted to communicate to someone else but can't, not just because of language barriers, but because people won't see them the same way as me. I've certainly made friends, but so far not any real bonds like what I'm describing.

I'll surely meet a lot of people when real school starts in just a month or so. Hopefully I'll be able to connect with someone then.



I found today's Engrish last week in Shibuya. I'm pretty frustrated about the crappy image quality. If only these computers had photoshop. I tried compressing them with paint, but I couldn't read the kanji, so if anyone knows of a way, let me know.