In reguards to Ryans comment, unfortunately there just isnt a whole lot more to say. The Boston girl leaves in 2 weeks, so I see things winding down there really quickly. Maybe 2 weeks from now, Ill go into more detail on that situation. As far as the blog goes, I am an open book, but I gotta `spect her privacy.

Other than that, Ive just been taking care of the basics lately. Trying to cook. Trying to learn the Japanese alphabet. Trying to sort out some of this medical school stuff. I expect a reply by the end of this week, so if I dont get any, I suppose its the end of that chapter.

Currently, I can see myself staying in Japan for quite some time.

So whats new. I:ve successfully broken free from the friend zone with the Boston girl and moved into kind of a dating zone. The one thing that Robert Palmer forgot to mention was Alcohol. But, Robert Palmer:s song is all about doing it right, and I almost took a nosedive in the doing right department when we got drunk. In diplomatic relations there is a term called Brinksmanship. In terms of the Cold war, the Cuban missile Crisis is when things were brought to the Brink of disaster. Well, I was on the brink of making some very bad moves, and fortunately I had enough sense to pull back. Basically, what Im trying to say, is Alcohol helps, but you wont be doing it right. To do it right, its gonna take money and time.

lets see, Saturday night, I got home at the crack of 4;00 am and I had work the next day. I knew that if I went to bed that there was no way that I was going to wake up in time. So instead, I take a shower, eat breakfast, catch the train, and make it to work by 7am. Then I hustle my way past security by waving my gaejin card and saying Nova, the company I work for. Then I head up to the office, turn the AC on, leave some notes for my coworkers, and take a nap in one of the classrooms. In the end I got a good 2 hours of sleep and was off to start the day.

I know what you are thinking. You fucking degenerate! The greatest thing is that when I tell this story to my coworkers, I never get said responce. Instead, I get responces like "why didn:t I think of that" or "Thats the dopest thing anyones ever done around here! or "Thats bloody genius Junior" (Junior is my nickname since there is another guy named Rob, and I am Robert Joseph ALack Jr.)

Anyways, hard to believe that Ive been here a month. I need to get out of this city, but its quite hard to make myself plan anything farther than a day away. Actually the only thing I can think about is the Boston girl. This will end badly, for reasons that I dont feel like going into. Mainly just to keep me in my self delusional state of bliss. But, in a way, in life, everythings temporary, and as for Today. Today was a good day.

Few notable firsts. Went to my first festival last night. Had some seriously impressive fireworks. Apparently my coworkers werent all that impresses, but Ive never seen anything like it in real life as far as fireworks are concerned. It lasted a good 20 minutes. Its a good thing they keep people like me away from things like that, because I would have gotten bored and lit every single one of them in about the span of one minute.

Lived through my first typhoon. Don:t let that scare ya though. Remember hurricane strength is somewhat proportional to ocean temperatures, and that the water here is cold. It was barely a thunderstorm.

And had the first night out with the coworkers. These guys are mad. Personally, I didnt see much point in going out the same night as the typhoon, but that didnt even cross their minds. So we were the only people walking the streets all night. And those guy got completely torn on a thursday night. I got just about as drunk as I get, but some of those guys couldnt even remember what happened the next day. Good times.

I don:t know what a good phone is, but my phone has 2 cameras in it, and it was free. All I had to do was sign a 2 year contract. I know that sounds like a lot, but my monthly bill is about $8/month. And I decided to splurge and pay the extra $2.50 for text messages and I can receive emails. So you can actually write a message in hotmail and send it to my phone. I havent figured out how to use that yet though. So for that $8, I get unlimited calls during the day to people who have my carrier. (Soft Bank) They are the biggest in Japan. And night time calls (after 9pm) and calls to other phones are 40 cents per minute. So It works out pretty well. And when I leave Japan, I:ll be stuck with $10 for 2 years.

Much more to say, but my times up
-Rob

Texas. So today I had to explain that people in Texas are alowed to own guns, but not only that they are allowed to carry them around. On top of that, a lady told me about a Japanese person who got shot while trespassing during halloween. And theJapanese person didn:t leave or stop when the Texas told him to freeze. And then I had to explain how in Texas, that is actually completely legal, and that that person would get in no trouble whatsoever for shooting the Japanese kid. I also had to explain how Texas hands out the death penalty more than all other states combined.

I felt like I was explaining some dangerous scary place. Like you can:t walk down the streets without being attacked. But as you know, that just simply isn:t the case.I feel perfectly safe walking around the streets, and I:ve even been to some fairly shady areas. Granted I didnt feel safe, but what the heck, nothing happened to me.

Other than that, things are going well. Ive made a lot of friends at work, but I:ve yet to make any Japanese friends. And Im still having trouble with the basics, but Im starting to get a hang of things. Im pretty sure I will eventually get fired from Nova, which wont be good for possible future employment in Japan. IMO, teaching a person English is one of the best things you can do for a person. It just opens up a whole world of opportunities that wouldn:t be otherwise available. That said, I don:t give two shits about teaching English. I don:t want to be good at it, and Im just doing it to pay for my little working vacation. Nova tells me I have to put in one month notice to take vacation, and on top of that, they reserve the right to deny it. Well, push comes to shove, I say fuck you Nova, and I go off and do what I was wanting to do in the first place. In the end, I might be fucked in the world of employment, and be poor and destitute unless I come up with a million dollar idea, or grind out a living at the poker tables. Its all good though.

-Rob