More thoughts...

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Written on Saturday morning
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We spent the rest of that day hanging around the beach, walking along the sand, watching the dune-surfers (they really do exist: it takes 2500 yen and a two hour safety school, though, so we decided not to do it). After relaxing in the sun for some time, we slowly made our way back to our campsite, packed up our belongings, and attempted to call a taxi to come pick us up. We chilled around the station's main square when we got there, and quietly watched the breakdancers practicing, did a little homework, and got ready for departure. And thus ended our Tottori adventure.

It's hard for me to believe that two weeks ago I was so terrified and lonely - some of the happiest moments of my life have already occurred in those past two weeks. I've always known that happiness, for me, is inherently dynamic (or fleeting, depending on your perspective): for me to be happy, I not only have to be enjoying the present, but I need there to be the promise of something in the future. It cannot last as the future becomes the present. For this reason, starting out on grand adventures has always been the best times of my life, and Japan is one of those. After getting over the culture shock and making friends, I realize that this place is like some sort of magical Shangri-La for me: all the girls are stylish, attractive, and indoctrinated to be attracted to me (Westerners); the food is delicious; the people are humble and kind; the country is beautiful; and there's myriad neat-o gadgets, technology, and crazy stuff always happening.

Kanako and I have become pretty good friends pretty quickly (i.e. boyfriends exists. Which I didn't find out from a friend until after I asked her out and she accepted. D'oh! Instead of a great date I'll be wingmanning for Mike and Makiko). Since no one really calls in Japan (100 yen a minute from my cell: yes, it's actually cheaper for me to call CA long-distance during certain times of the day), we text each other a couple times a day. It's nice to have a native friend / language partner to help out with things. She's also a really nice, caring person and fun to talk to. Plus I can learn all the crazy Japanese emoticons from her (they're all horizontal here! Most of them can't be typed in English because they rely on all the extra variability kanji offers them, but things like:
\(^-^)/ and (O_O)-o are only apparent after you know they exist).

Oh, and I was asked to play my first band gig (woot): the beginning of a long and triumphant career in J-Pop, I hope. Unfortunately the location would be subpar and the audience disinterested, so I turned it down. Only the best venues for my budding career! (Kumi-san, one of the people-in-charge at the center asked Han and I to play guitar, with Benji on drums. It was for some sort of welcome party, mostly populated by people our parents age, though, so we turned it down. And we wouldn't be doing background music, it would be center stage, so we'd actually have to be both good and entertaining to these parents. Oh, well. Someday I'll get there).


~Danny

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Photos

The four of us
The four of us.

The four of us
The four of us again, my waist being in the picture. We're killing time in Tottori's main square.

Dune Surfer
Dune Surfer! Rockin'.

Comments

[VK]

>_<
I might be your HPAC next year, if you live in Cardenal! @_@ groovy

[Di]

Yay!
I just finished reading through all your blog posts! :) It's so wonderful being able to read what all you've been up to, honey. And thanks again so much for calling me yesterday! It was so awesome being able to talk to you again after so long. I'm sorry we were cut off like that, and I hope I didn't zap too much of your calling card away. Take care, be safe, keep writing, and go Kanako! ;) Di PS Yes, I'm slowly reverting to proper capitalization, complete with correct punctuation. I was beginning to feel guilty and informal.