On Having Little to Write About

Since my last post I have had very little to write about, as the title of this post explains.
Coupled with being lazy and conflictingly very busy with work, this journal has been put on the backburner.

However I have a few things to pass on.
The first is my most recent encounter with the person who lives beside me.

Yesterday, as I was leaving for work I opened my door and stepped out to see this neighbour, a woman around 65ish exiting at the same time as me, and heading to the elevator. I greeted her with a happy "こんにちは！" (hello!) expecting to receive one back. Instead I got a murmured and very scared hello back. She stood near the elevator, and as I approached (the elevator, not her), she would take steps back to keep away from me.
Thankfully the elevator door opened in only a few seconds, at which I politely offered her entry ahead of myself. She hurriedly walked in, not pressing the button and I followed, pressing for the ground floor and then immediately facing the door.
What followed was a short, but confusingly-awkward ride down. I was trying to figure out what the hell was running through this woman's mind. I was wearing a suit and was freshly shaved. What was threatening about me of all people, was a mystery.
We exited the elevator and she just stood under the overhang, staring, staring, staring at me as I unlocked my bicycle and rode off.
It was pretty weird.

On a completely different subject, rainy season is approaching, and that means one thing. Rain? No. Cockroaches.
Lots of them.
So I've been slowly cleaning my apartment, corner by corner, in an attempt to avoid hosting these fairly large, disgusting pests. An interesting guide for those of you living in Japan, or living anywhere really can be found here.

As for work, my new schedule is hectic. Busy, busy, busy. Wednesday is especially strenuous, with four of my seven specialized classes! I originally was very bothered with this setup due to reasons I won't get into... but now I've decided to take it like a man and just live with it. I've made my bed, and now I have to weasel my way out of it-

But all is not lost! Golden week is in t-minus 4 days for me!
I have planned a trip to the beautiful area of Kagoshima to visit one of the most active volcanoes in Japan - SakuraJima, which I will be hiking up with my even more beautiful girlfriend, Fumi.
Afterwards we're visiting the local Aquarium and then returning to Fukuoka 2 days later. I can't wait. It will also be the virgin voyage for my new camera- a digital SLR I got for 200 dollars under the list price, including a 5 year warranty and lens kit. Go Kitamura camera!

So expect lots of photos coming up soon- I might be buying a flickr account so that I can just unload them there, depending on the price and what Pat says about their service.


And a quick addendum for my father:
Not to worry Dad, the camera was nowhere near the price of Greg's camera. In fact it was less than a half - perhaps a third of what it was. I figured I'd put this so you don't have to worry.

On Owing You One

I suppose I owe you all some pictures with all my past crap text-only entries now that I have the internet at home.
I'm just going to post a load of photos to give you, my dear reader, an idea of what I have been up to.

These are photos I took on one of my sporadic bike rides down to the beach in November and December:





It isn't very cold here in those months, dipping at the lowest to 5 degrees Celsius at night, and usually 13-15 during the day. Recently it's gotten cold enough to warrant the purchase of a heater in my apartment, which I just leave on constantly. I'm not looking forward to my electricity bill.

This next group of photos is from the Christmas party held at the Sakata manor, where I made spaghetti with meatballs (following the traditional Christmas tradition) and afterwards got very drunk:

Fumi and I are great in couple photos... we're idiots.

The party group! Michael was my only real drinking buddy. In fact he and I polished off at least two wine bottles, various other drinks and this bottle of Shochu set in a Tanuki bottle:


Finally, here is my best friend Pu. He smells pretty bad and barks all the damn time, but inside his furry, brittle old body lies a heart of gold or some other precious metal. Maybe silver. Or Emeralds.

Then there was Hawaii:



The sunglass trio.


This is a solidified lava pool. The entire thing! Greg is asking what you're waiting for.




After Hawaii, which was absolutely amazing, came New Year's which I spent with the Sakata's once again. Here I am ringing in the New Year, literally, at the local shrine.

And here is Fumi doing the same:

To my extreme happiness it snowed on New Year's day! Here is the mountain behind Fumi's house:


Now I'm just about into February and have no pictures from the past month to show. My next vacation is in May, so hopefully something worthy to write about happens to me! This Sunday I've sacrificed a day off to work for ECC Junior again, which is a pretty good way to earn some extra money. It's a lot of work though, quite tiring.

Also I have started to moderate my comments, so when you post it won't show on the website until I have approved it! I'm looking at you, gramps.