***************************
Dear Reluctant Traveler,

Travel is a bit of a bug. Once it gets in you, it’s really hard to avoid it – it’s an inevitability. But it’s good to show a little restraint and not just run off without learning anything (though that can be fun too). Personally, for me the process was complex. I left the US first to work, and so I was already “on the road” in a sense. That made it a lot less of a jump 8 years later when I decided to hit the road in a real sense as a full-time traveler.

My best advice for you is to ask yourself 2 questions:
Why do I want to travel?
How will I travel?

Everything revolves around that. For me the why was because I wanted to find out what people do around the world to help each other and to basically learn about people in different places.
Once you get the why down, the how is very simple.
For me, I travel to learn about people, not places. So I just go wherever the wind takes me and learn about the people there using a few tools like couchsurfing, hostelworld, and wikitravel. I’m not traveling to see specific UNESCO world heritage sites or anything like that…I could really care less about that kinda stuff, so the only time I find myself going to major tourist sites is when my quest to connect with the people leads me there inadvertently. You can’t really plan how to meet people the way you can for sights, so that means my how is a lot less organized and planned out than many people’s travels. It also means that I use a lot less money and can avoid scammers, thieves, and massive crowds a bit better than your typical tourist who is going for the sights.

The why is the first step. Think it out a bit, and the how will fall into place. ^_^

One thing I have decided upon: Caught Doin’ Good, in its public mission, has failed. CDG always was mostly a search, but I had intended to share my findings with the world. I had intended to force myself into enough positivity to produce clearly positive and inspirational stories to share with the world. I just didn’t succeed at that. I’m still breaking down what I did wrong: failed to set clear goals (including short-term and long-term goals), failed to network effectively (closely related to not having clearly definable goals), failed to focus on the project and not get distracted, etc…
Before I started CDG, I think my goals were so focused on making it happen that I lost sight of setting any clear goals once it started.
I should write this out a lot clearer and in more depth, but for now, suffice to say that it (in it’s public mission) is over.
I still have LOTS and LOTS of unused video, and I do intend to do something with it at some point, but I think I need time to process the experiences before I present them publicly, so that’s that.

Now the question is: What next?
I’m in Switzerland right now. Recently I got my official ID card here as a citizen, so I can find a job here now.
But very much to my surprise, I really don’t feel like I wanna live here. It’s beautiful, of course, but not every beautiful woman makes a good wife. Arranged marriage proponents would say, “Every woman can make a good wife if you decide to make her your wife”. But I’ve always been a bit more the dreamer/romantic.
I miss Japan a lot.
That’s something I never expected to happen. I passed through Japan in January, and something clicked in me then. After I left, I just wanted to be back. It’s been 6 months now, and I still regularly think about going back to Japan.

So here are my options as they stand in my mind:
1) Get a job here soon and delve into the routine of life here. A busy routine will clear a mind of all kinds of thoughts, and missing Japan will soon leave the forefront. But then what? What if I wake up 20 years down the line just saying, “I didn’t wanna live there in the first place anyway”.

2) Get a job here with a clear plan of staying for 1 year and deciding after I’ve given it more of a shot. My first reaction is, “Screw that! I really don’t feel like putting off deciding any more”.

3) Stay in Europe a couple more months visiting Italy and Greece (always been a dream) and more of Switzerland. Then hop on the trans-Siberian railway (also always been a dream) and take it across to the tip of Russia. Hop a boat to the northern tip of Japan and through walking and hitch-hiking, make my way across the country within the 3 month visa (again, a dream of mine). Spend some time making videos around the Tohoku area and documenting the situation as it is right now. Get a round-trip ticket to the US for the holidays to see my family and then back to Japan in the beginning of next year. Search for a job from the beginning of next year in Japan and plan to stay for good at that point.

If I choose #3, I’m putting in about 90% that I’ll be in Japan for the rest of my life, and Europe will always just be a vacation spot.
If I choose #1, Japan will slowly dwindle into a piece of my past and Europe will become my life and my future.
If I choose #2, I’m just choosing indecision.

Stuff to consider:
1) I’m a Swiss and British citizen, putting me in a perfect position to work and live here for the rest of my life without ever a hint of visa concerns.
2) I’m white. Japanese people aren’t. I look like I should fit in to Europe. I’ll never look like I fit in in Japan.
3) Saved money is finite. If I choose #1 or #2, I work immediately. If I choose #3, I continue putting off work for another 6 months minimum.
4) There’s always the chance that it’s just a “grass is always greener” effect, and as soon as I arrive in Japan, I’ll wish I was in Europe. Or maybe I just don’t wanna deal with working, and I’m finding excuses to put it off longer.

I’m not asking for help deciding…just felt like there are many people who have supported me SOO much over the years online, and right now I’m just leaving you all hanging, especially with CDG just being up in the air. I wanted to declare it publicly over.

And well, that’s what’s in my head. ^_^

Hope you don’t mind! 

Ok, so today marks exactly 4 years since I arrived in Japan.  Four years ago today I got off a plane at Narita airport and cluelessly made my way out to some small podunk town in the middle of Chiba somewhere.  I remember clearly the bicycle parking garage just outside the station – it was huge!  If I remember correctly, there were something like 4 stories to it and countless bicycles everywhere.  At that time I was working for a company called American English School.  I had done a phone interview with them while staying in a 고시원 in Seoul, and set up the job before coming out to Japan.  They set me up in their kinda reception house there and I started training soon after.  I don’t remember much of that time except one of the trainers teaching me how to order sushi at a nearby shop.  He told me to say “hitotsu” if I wanted one or “futatsu” if I wanted two.  Somehow that stuck.

I was anxious to get into the actual life I would lead, so as soon as possible I made my way out to a company apartment that was waiting for me in Ayase, Tokyo.  Coming from Chiba, I got completely lost in the area between Oshiage and Kita-Senju – an area that I now know to be one of the most confusing sections of Tokyo trains.  Eventually I made it out there and settled in for my new Eikaiwa job (English conversation school).  A few days later I found a roaming Brit on the streets, and the next few months were spent discovering that area, taking the Chiyoda line to Harajuku for late night walks, and drinking in the local park until the wee hours with my new Brit friend.  I also discovered 24 and other US dramas during that time – I remember spending many days in TV marathons.  Not so long after, I had my first Japanese girlfriend and I was experiencing a very typical eikaiwa teacher life.  Go to work from afternoon to evening, go drinking after, hang out with your Japanese girlfriend, pick up some Japanese here and there, travel around with your gaijin friends on occasion, hang out in Yoyogi park on weekends, etc, etc…  It was great, but somehow unfulfilling.  Just wasn’t my thing.

I was doing a great job at the school and every time I had a trial lesson, the students signed up for the school.  The only downside to that was that I wasn’t getting paid any extra, but my lesson load was increasing significantly.  Not cool.

I discussed the problem with company staff and my school’s manager, and the general consensus was that it’s tough, but that’s how it goes.  I asked for more money or less hours – they refused.  I said that’s not cool, so I’m gonna leave.  They said ok.

In the end, it was a really cordial split.  I gave them one month to find a new teacher, moved to a roomshare house in Kita-Senju, and started planning for what I’d do next.

I was full of spirit and excitement – fully confident in my abilities as a teacher and ignorant of most everything else.

Around that time, my girlfriend went to the US to work a job she had been hired for a year before at Disney World.  We knew it when we started dating, but just had ignored it mostly.  In the end, the long-distance thing didn’t work out, and we broke up.  The Brit friend that I had spent so much time with got a girlfriend and turned out to be one of those losers that just ditches everything as soon as he has a girlfriend, so I didn’t keep much contact with him.

I found myself once again alone in Japan, with nothing but two roommates I’d recently met, skills for teaching English, and a visa that wouldn’t run out for about 6 more months.  I was loving it!

I tried all kinds of things.  I decided I was gonna kill the middle-man that took all my money.  No more working for schools that take huge amounts from the students and give me crap in exchange.  No more working for companies that just give you more work if you do a good job without any added benefits – pay the same to crappy half-drunk teachers as professional ones.  I’d had it with that world.  So I made a website and put on my good suit and went in front of the station to hand out fliers.  I was as polite/formal as could be and spoke in the broken Japanese that I knew, but not a single person responded.  The website wasn’t getting any hits, and my saved money was quickly disappearing.  It didn’t seem like I was gonna succeed that way, so I started signing up for online sites that connect private teachers with students.  At the same time I was signing up like mad to acting agencies around Tokyo to try to get back into the acting world.  I’ve always loved acting, and the thought of getting paid to do it was really exciting.

After about a month of working my head off every day and getting absolutely no inflowing funds, I finally got my first student through an online site called Teacher-Student.com (my profile).  I was to teach a young, newly married Japanese lady English at a large Dotour cafe in the heart of Ginza once a week.  I’ve lost track of time now, but I’ve been teaching that same student until now – almost 3 1/2 years I guess?  Don’t know if I should be ashamed or not, but she’s one of my students who has improved the least.  She comes at least 30 minutes late to every lesson, and doesn’t really get much into studying.  I’ve run out of ideas of what to do to teach her many times over the past 3 years, but we still meet every Monday morning, and I’m glad to say that I still teach my first private student ever.

After I got my first student, a very very slow trickle of students started coming in and I started to build up myself as a private teacher here in Tokyo.  I worked hard to teach the best I could, always tried my best to make it to lessons on time, thought up creative new ways to teach, and most of all developed relationships with students, managers, agents, and everyone else I came across.  I quickly realized that the only way to succeed in Japan on your own is to build relationships.  Some acting jobs came in, but those turned out to be just crappy extra jobs with huge packs of foreigners – many of which were the lowest scum of the gaijin barrel.  I didn’t find a lot of fulfillment from those dinky acting jobs, so focused on my teaching mostly.  That’s where I was really building something I could be proud of.

After about the second month, things were starting to flow a little, but I realized that it would all be meaningless unless I could renew my visa when it came back to that time.  So I started searching for something that might help in that department.  I found an agency that outsourced teachers to different schools around Tokyo.  It wasn’t an ALT system, where I would simply be an assistant to the “real” Japanese teacher like most of the school jobs in Japan.  It was a real teaching position, where I would have my own class, make my own curriculum, and be in charge of everything.  Of course that requires a lot more responsibility, but I was up for it.

The pay wasn’t nearly as good as what my privates were bringing in, but there were paid holidays, and most importantly – they agreed to sponsor my visa!  I had hit the jackpot.

I negotiated a little hard with them.  They wanted me to teach at 3 different schools, for 4 full days a week.  They were desperate for a qualified teacher, and the school really liked me.  They needed a teacher who could start teaching literally the next week.  Finally they agreed to take care of my visa and let me teach only a day and a half a week at only one school.  I didn’t ask details, but they said they’d take care of the visa. Three years later when the company went bankrupt because of some kind of tax issues, I wasn’t too surprised, but very grateful that they had put themselves out on a limb to help me out just when I needed it.

That job started one week later, and before long the privates started rolling in.  I don’t know how long it took – maybe 4 or 5 months? – but the next thing I knew I was overwhelmed with requests from new private students.  The agents at the company had gotten to know me and liked me it seemed.  They’d left good references, and suggested me to new students.  I raised my fees up twice to a price that actually I personally thought was a little high, and finally the number of incoming requests became something I could handle.

After just over a year in Kita-Senju, my roommate got a boyfriend and decided she wanted him to move in.  She kicked the rest of us out.  I had never really liked the way she ran her house – like an angry landlord rather than a roommate – so it was fine with me.  At first she wanted us out right away, but we convinced her that was a little over the top, and she gave us some time to search for apartments.

Not long before, I had met a Korean girl online through a language exchange program.  I was interested in trying to maintain my Korean and maybe pick up a little Japanese along the way, and after a year of not having a girlfriend, I wasn’t at all against the idea of meeting girls for lunch every now and then.  At first we didn’t hit it off amazingly, but enough to keep in touch for a while.  Sometimes we scared each other by saying the exact same things or weird stuff like that – there was some kind of odd connection.  One evening, she had invited me over to her place as she was gonna cook me Bude-chige, one of my favorite Korean dishes.  I was really looking forward to it, but she was running a little late.  Then I got a phone call – she’d been hit by a taxi two stations over.  Her boyfriend found out and freaked – breaking up with her almost immediately.  Suddenly this cool chick that I’d become friends with became the center of my free time.  For the next couple months, anytime I had free time, I made my way out to the hospital to hang out with her.  We discovered that that odd connection we had was even deeper.  It was the kinda connection that if nourished the right way develops into one of those few, rare lifelong friendships that are almost impossible to come by.  Despite having just met a few months before, all of a sudden I felt like I’d known her for years, and I couldn’t think of anything more appealing that the idea of finding an apartment together and making a ‘home’ in Tokyo.

The apartment search process is a long, stressful, tiring bit of my Japanese history, so I’ll spare the details.  There were MANY roadblocks along the way, but eventually a few months later, I found myself in an amazing 2LDK apartment in Takadanobaba with my new best friend chatting until wee morning hours in the living room, waking up a few hours later to work my head off with the huge amount of privates, acting jobs, school jobs, etc… that I was managing at the time — loving every second of it!  That was basically most of 2007.  It ended with a bang when my brother came out from Switzerland and spent a few weeks in Japan and Korea with me.  The three of us had a great time in Tokyo, traveling through Kansai, Korea, and a little bit of Kyushu.

Looking back at that year, I have to say it was one of the best of my life – definitely one that will always hold a special place in my mind.

2008 rolled around and things changed.  Life is always flowing like a river, and the flow moved on to different places for myself and my roommate.  In Spring of 2008, she moved out and I stuck around.  Another Japanese guy moved in to fill the empty room, and another year of excitement and Tokyo life passed.  That year seems like a whirlwind now – I almost don’t know where it all went.  I met a group of mostly Japanese people that love having parties.  They basically revolve around one guy that calls himself “party animal” and is always organizing some party or another.  I got to know a lot of them at parties, and soon my circle of friends was multiplying rapidly.  All of a sudden I went to parties with 150 people and I knew pretty much everybody there.  They’re all really great people – some of the nicest people I’ve met.  I hosted house parties myself or helped host some of the other parties.  Working like mad, partying with good friends when I wasn’t working – the year just flew by into 2009…and now it’s almost halfway through!

But within all that, there have been some really big things that have happened internally for me.  I decided 100% that I will pursue a dream that I’ve had for a long time.  It consists of 2 parts: I want to travel around the world, and I want to meet people doing good everywhere I go.  That became the focus of my life – the goal that I reach towards no matter what.  Throughout all the craziness of Tokyo life, clinging to that dream gives me vision and keeps me from getting lost in the whirlwind that threatens to eat me up.  It would be so easy to wake up from a party one day and realize that I’m 40 years old and still in Tokyo, still doing the same thing I was 15 years ago.  I see plenty of aging foreigners out here in that group, but that’s not gonna happen to me. 

In my mental planning for my dream, I’ve come across two things that have become my main hobbies over the past year or so.

One is video.  I decided that I don’t want to only learn about people doing good, but I want to also share that information with others.  I can read and see pictures of places all over the world, but there’s something about a well-made video that presents the place that gets across a believable message in a short time that words and pictures never can for me.  I think there are probably many of my generation that feel the same, so I decided I’ll learn the art of making video and use that skill to tell the stories of the people I will meet.  That adds a lot of cost and difficulty to my trip, but I think it’ll be worth it in the end!  Now I’m on the path to becoming somewhat of a traveling journalist, roaming the world making videos everywhere I go.

The second thing is a website that I stumbled across in my research.  It’s called Couchsurfing.  Couchsurfing is this amazing community that connects people with each other all over the world.  It’s basically a pay-it-forward system where people host travelers, and there’s the prospect that you’ll be hosted as well when you travel.  If you’re interested to know more, visit the website or watch this video.

So….now I find myself on the anniversary of my 4th year in Japan.

I’ll be here for just over 1 more year (as it took 2 months to make a visa when I got here, I’ll leave just before my visa expires at the end of my 5th year here).  I’ve gotta work hard and make the most out of this next year!!

I don’t participate in much that can be considered larger than myself.  My selfish, independent nature tends to keep me out of things like that.  At this point, the closest thing I have to anything bigger than me is the school I teach at 3 hours a week.

I know that I’m very skilled at the basics of being a teacher – getting knowledge into students heads, teaching them how to learn, and motivating them to learn more on their own.  However when it comes to being a team player, sacrificing my time/desires for others, and taking my responsibility as a role model seriously rather than just being a friend to my students – I think I fall hopelessly short.  In some areas, I think I’ve immatured since I’ve lived in Asia.  It’s so easy to get what I want without having to work too hard that I start focusing on what I want and putting that before others.  Rather than focus on one thing, I spread myself thin and don’t put too much effort into any one thing – they all end up working out pretty well none-the-less, so what’s the problem, right?

Our principal gave a few words of encouragement to the students today.  Usually I don’t have much respect for the principal…he’s a shy, mousey, middle-aged Japanese guy who doesn’t seem to do much and always seems really shy to talk to me or in front of students.  My lack of respect for authority hasn’t changed much since I was young.  But today, his words struck a cord.  Maybe because of the atmosphere of the moment, I was more receptive.  He said that each person takes their own path through life, but the most important thing are the partners that you go through it with.  He explained that the word “partner” (said in English) includes a friend, a ‘nakama’, and also a coworker.  All of which I am deeply lacking, and none of my plans for the future include such a partner.  I’m the go-at-it-alone type.  Robert Kiyosaki would put me in the “S” quadrant for business – I can do the job better than anyone else, so even if I work with people, I’ll end up just pushing them away and doing the job myself.

All of these qualities have pros to them as well – I’m not bashing on my personality.  In fact, I think I’m a pretty decent guy when it comes down to it.  It just made me be introspective and see that one of the most essential things in life is missing from mine.

Something about the living-abroad lifestyle makes having a “partner” as our principal put it a very difficult thing.  People come and go.  You come and go.  There’s no stability to the process whatsoever.

Another thing that the ceremony impressed upon me was my general selfishness.  I truly do wish only the best of success for my students, and I want to do everything I can to help them succeed in their dreams.  But when I think about the way I speak to them, and the casual attitude I treat them all with, I realize that my desire for everyone in the world to like me often surpasses my desire to truly help them.  I’d rather they like me now than be truly taught by me.  Both are often possible, but at times it’s not, and when I have to choose, I think I falter on the side of “like me”.  What a shamefully selfish attitude for a teacher to have.

Recently I’ve been going through a particularly nerdy phase – reading Harry Potter in Japanese and watching a sci-fi program from the US called Battlestar Gallactica.  I hesitated to ever watch Gallactica because the nerdiness of the name was enough to put me off, but after seeing how many awards it won recently, I thought I’d give it a chance.  I won’t go into detail about the program, but one character that seemed appropriate today is the admiral of the ship:  Admiral Adama.  The admiral is one of those silent, thoughtful types who is the opposite of the “like me” type that I so often fall into.  One episode that stood out is one where he is having a particularly rough day.  He’s going through his morning routine and has a young private serve him tea.  He asks the private his name, and then about 10 minutes later, as he’s hard-faced and walking through the halls, he’s mumbling to himself the private’s name.  In another episode, there’s a mutiny on the ship, and as a low level soldier is taking him off to be executed, he calls the soldier by name and touches him on a personal level – successfully pushing the soldier to change his mind and help the Admiral rather than execute him. 

All of that seems nerdy and unrelated, but it stood out in my mind today.  I could only remember a handful of my students names – some of whom I had taught for 2 years, and even had quite personal conversations with.  I try to tell myself that I didn’t teach them this year, so I haven’t had them in class for over a year.  There’s just too many of them.  Nonetheless, I’d like to consider them my “大切な生徒” - valuable students.  But do I deserve the honor to consider them that when I can’t even remember their names?  Again part of me wants to call them my valuable students because that makes me their valuable teacher…but such selfishness is not becoming of someone who would call themselves a leader.  It’s not becoming of someone who would call themselves an adult…it’s really childish.

I should spend less time watching nerdy sci-fi dramas and attempting to meet every person in the world and make them like me, and spend more time valuing those who I’ve been blessed to have placed under my care, putting their dreams/desires before my own sometimes, and if nothing else, at least memorizing their names.

Hopefully today was a graduation ceremony not just for my students, but also for me.  I hope I can graduate from many of my childish ways, and not waste the precious time I’m given each day.

It happens sometimes – you just wake up and nothing flows right.

It wasn’t a bad day by any means though.  I woke up at about 5:50 and was getting ready for my first lesson at 7:30, but just after a rushed shower, I got a call from my student saying she couldn’t make it.  It really was a shame because today was to be our final lesson.  She’s been transferred to the US with her company, so I won’t be teaching her anymore.  Of course, there is a small part of me that is totally cool with getting paid without working, but another part of me just really loves my job and was disappointed to miss a lesson.

Then I went to another lesson – but today our location had changed.  The new location was in my schedule, but not in my head, so while I sat waiting for my student at Starbucks, he was in Denny’s one station over wondering if I was lost.  In the end, we got in touch and just decided to skip our lesson for this week.

Eugh – an off morning.

The rest of the morning and afternoon were spent hanging out with an Aussie friend of a friend who’s traveling through Tokyo now.  He was friendly, but I still felt off…like that feeling of saying something because you think you should, rather than especially thinking it’s an interesting thing to say. That feeling that you should be saying something or listening to the other guy say something at all times, or something’s wrong.

But good times, good ramen, and about 4 hours of walking around, and then I had to head back to my evening work.

I came home, crashed out for about 10 mins, and then got my stuff and headed out.  My first evening lesson was with a student who kinda reminds me of my mom.  Maybe ’cause they’re about the same age…

She’s got a daughter who married an American and lives in Chicago with their 2 year-old son.  So my student decided to learn English so that she can communicate with her son-in-law and grandson.  Cute, right??

Some lessons don’t go so well, but this wasn’t one of them.  I knew exactly what to say to help her communicate.  I clearly explained points where she was having trouble.  There were light-bulb moments.  There was even one point where I explained something seemingly trivial, and she thanked me profusely saying that she had always struggled with that point, but now she understood it completely (something about how you don’t need an article before a gerund in a situation like “Thank you for your helping”…probably couldn’t explain it again, but I was right on at that moment).

After an off day where everything wasn’t clicking, I left that lesson feeling happier than I have in a long time!

I haven’t found much joy that can beat helping people or doing your job well – especially when it’s a job that helps people. 

I guess I’m just wired different in some ways like that.  The typical foreigner out here hates their job and lives for getting drunk and clubbing on the weekend.  I struggle through hip-hop clubs when I’m dragged to them, but I couldn’t be happier than hanging out with my students and watching them learn.

Then, as I rode the train to my next lesson, I was reading through some blogs on my iPhone.  I read a bit of my landlord’s wife’s blog.  If you don’t know, I am on really great terms with my landlord, Kobayashi-san.  In fact, that family is one of the most amazing groups of people I’ve met anywhere in the world!

Sunday I spent about 5 hours hanging out at their place: playing with the kids, talking with the dad, watching soccer videos, etc…

Kobayashi-san is really into DIY stuff, and he was rebuilding an entertainment center around a new huge TV that he bought recently.  He repainted all the wood and rearranged all the shelves.  On Sunday, he was still about halfway through it, and their living room was a little messy because of it.  Though I don’t really know the proper etiquitte for stopping by unannounced in Japan, I knew he was having a tiring weekend, so I bought some Häagen-Dazs on the way home (he loves ice cream).  I thought I’d stop by to try to give him some energy.  My “stop by to give ice cream” turned into the 5 hours of play. 

Anyway, back to his wife’s blog.  She was away that day at a concert, so it was just dad and the 4 kids.  She keeps a great home, and it’s usually spic-and-span with a cup of tea and some kind of Japanese snack waiting for me anytime I come over.  But that day I saw a little bit more of the “real Kobayashi-san” house.  It was nice…felt more relaxed.  I mentioned that to him, and he told his wife, and it all ended up on the blog.

Her words: 「ま、家族同然なので、いいですが」

“Well, he’s family, so it’s no problem~”

What a wonderful thing that I can have a family here in Tokyo too! 

(and the kids in this family are cuter than the ones in my real family anyway.  )

Working hard, doing a good job and helping my students, and developing bonds akin to blood with some of the best people I’ve ever met — I LOVE living in Japan~!!

I finished lessons at about 5pm, rushed home to prepare a bit for a house party my friend was having. I made one of my mom’s dishes that I got the recipe for recently – tomate farcie.
It’s a really simple recipe that anyone can do – just brown some ground beef, mix in some brown gravy and whatever else you want. This time I added some chopped grilled onions and random spices. Then you hollow out a tomato and fill it with the meat, and put it in the oven until it looks done (my cooking is never much of a science).

The party was nice – they had gone to a brewery to handmake beer about a month ago, so last night was a get-together to try out the fruits of their labor.
In the end, it was a kinda sweet beer with a head like a cappuccino – a little unique, but not bad.

The party was fun, and I should have known to leave well-enough alone, but it was a friend’s birthday, and she had invited us to join her, so we went out to Shibuya to meet their group at about midnight. In Tokyo, going out at midnight means you won’t be back until morning.
I didn’t have work the next day, and it’s been a while since I had a taste of Tokyo nightlife, so one friend and I headed out to meet them.

Not sure how we ended up there, but the next thing I knew we were in the McDonald’s basement and one guy was passing around tequila shots. Tempting – but I passed.
When we finally moved on, we ended up in a kinda sleazy hip-hop club. I was with nice folks, so it had potential – thought I’d give it a shot. I spent about 30 minutes trying to go with the flow, and then about 4 hours thinking “what is fun about these places?” as my soul slowly rotted away.

After about an hour of trying to leave but not being able to because our coats were all in one bag, and I couldn’t find the guy with the right number, I caught the first train home at around 5, but wasn’t sleepy when I got home…just generally annoyed. Tokyo life didn’t seem so nice anymore all of a sudden.
Woke up in the same mood – that kinda “why am I waking up?” mood.
But I had stuff to do – had to transfer money for bus tickets for tomorrow’s magical mystery bus tour (more on that next time). Having stuff to do can be such a life-saver sometimes.

Got up, took care of that, and then watched an episode of One Piece.
It was an appropriate episode – about a guy surrounded by friends, but nothing seems to go how it should. At the end, he looks at the beautiful sky and is just super-happy to be alive despite any problems (did I mention he’s a living skeleton? You just gotta watch it…).

Then I loaded the new version of iLife onto my computer and took iPhoto for a test run. This new faces function is AWESOME! It automatically goes through all your photos, recognizes people’s faces, and organizes all your pictures into folders based on who’s in them. So now when I miss my Mom, I can just click Mommy, and see every pic in my computer that she’s in.
It even has Facebook compatibility, so every picture I take from now on will be automatically tagged!

Sifting through all my old pictures of my wonderful family and friends did wonders for my mood. Maybe my brother knew? ‘Cause he messaged me just as I was gonna hop in the shower. By the time I had to run off to work, the sun was a smiling companion again and the sound of passing trains was once again enough to make me happy.
A day that was bound to be gloomy turned into a great Sunday – and as usual, I LOVE my Tokyo life. ^_^