Speeding Up…

Oh my how I love 長崎市。。。

Getting out of Isahaya reminds me of two things:  1)  How mediocre Isahaya is as a city, and 2)  How much else there is out there…The best thing about living in Isahaya is it is one of the best places to live for ease of transport to neighboring areas and to the rest of Japan.  All the trains go through Isahaya.  I plan to use them.

Plans are forming for my upcoming 8/9 day vacation.  Nov. 2-4 will be spent either in Kansai, Nagoya, or a random place of my choosing, depending on who gets back to me and which of my friends from 2-3 years ago still live in the area…If I don’t hear from them in time, I will pick up the Lonely Planet and hit something on my own that I’ve never seen.  I miss that freedom that I had with the Shinkansen pass 3 years ago; but at least I can get a taste of it again.  Nov. 4-5 will be spent in Obama city watching the election with Jason, another ALT from a suburb of Nagasaki who is as obsessed with politics as I am.  I have heard the city is actually kind of a dump (Clay), but we don’t really care.  We’re there with a specific purpose in mind:  See Obama win, erupt in cheers, buy a duffel bag’s worth of souvenirs, and head out.  If it sucks REALLY bad, we will head straight to Osaka where there is a big foreigner party for the election.  Nov. 6-7 are up in the air, but we have a lot of ideas and a lot of random friends in random places.  Some options we’re considering are the Japan alps, and I’m thinking about hitting up Ise Shrine.  Then on the 7th (Friday) we head to Tokyo for 2 nights on the town in the big city.  Jason and I both have a lot of friends there, and they are impatiently awaiting our arrival.  Sunday at 6:40pm we board our flight back to Nagasaki.

Got some books today, including　ごっちゃん　by Natsume Soseki, クレヨンしんちゃん, an updated Lonely Planet guide to Japan, a book aimed at junior high students about Barack Obama’s life that is full of pictures and has Japanese translations at the bottom of each page, and Jessica Williams’s “50 Facts That Should Change The World,” the first being “The average Japanese woman can expect to live to be 84.  The average Botswanan will reach just 39.”

I have also decided to do a major overhaul of my aparment (*room*).  There isn’t much here and I need a bigger desk to lay out all my stuff when I study Japanese.  So I’m working on cleaning it up first, and then I will measure it, sketch out a plan, and make it happen.  I don’t know exactly how it will turn out when the furniture has been bought and it is all set up.  But I assure you, it will be classy.