And so my time here comes to a close.

In about 29 hours, my jet lagged self will sit itself down in a bed at the holiday inn. I doubt I'll sleep much, as that will be noon Osaka time.

This blog is drawing to a close as well. There will be a few more posts of stuff I never managed to get up here (mino, farwell party's, karaoke, along with a handful of other things), but that will be more to put all my thoughts in one place than anything else.

So in closing, I'll leave this with 'things I'll miss'. Alot of these won't make sense to someone who's never been here, so if you're curious, just ask me and I'll tell you at least a mildly interesting story :)

I'll miss:
Doors that push open.
Trains.
Katsudon.
The bakery across from the post office with the super nice people.
Hot chocolate out of the vending machine, that is indeed hot.
raiding the fare adjustment boxes.
singing and breakdancing like no one was wathing them.
sushi ro.
japanese maples. there's no color they don't turn.
kyoto.
my labmates. all twenty of them.
engrish. 'hair is fiber'
living in the future.
convenient convenience stores.
heated seat toilets.
souvenirs.

I'll miss a few phrases, too:

"I will try"
"maybe,,"
"so des ne"
"victory!"


in closing, I'd like to ask anyone who's reading this to add a final quick comment,, I'd appreciate it,, so I can have a record of everyone who read my Japanese story.

Thanks all- be back with you guys soon*,

joey


*by soon, I mean I leave 1:15 P.M. tuesday (local time), and get into columbia around 10:15 p.m. tuesday (local time). The time change creates the illusion that there won't be nearly 24 hours of airplanes/layovers :)

Kobe Beef.

I'm trying to come up with a way to explain this. I could say that it's the best meal that I've ever had. I could say that I will never have meat of this quality again. I could say that this changed the way I think about food, and that it was a nigh religious experience. I could say that it was a hundred dollar meal that was worth every penny of a hundred dollars.

And while all those things would be true, none of them really describe the meal I was served this afternoon. Words fail to translate into appropriate feeling and flavor. I can only say that out of any culinary niche you may encounter, this is unique, and I encourage anyone who is ever in Kobe to prepare their palate, fork out a lot of money, and take this experience into your life.

This is Dennis, from Belarus. We met on a bus tour the international student office here sponsored about a month ago.






















Last night we went out to the bar* and talked politics over good drinks. That's definitely something I've missed here,, all the great discussions I have,, none of the people I have them with are available to me here. It was a great night, and it was so insightful to meet someone from the other end of the world, and see firsthand the political views and landscape that is only otherwise available to me through secondhand and thirdhand media reports. I think he felt the same, that is was insightful to talk to an American about their views, rather than try to guess what it meant that the american government is now split between two parties. He's a wonderful and generous guy, to boot- great company.

I'll miss him when I go.



* it is 'the bar', rather than 'a bar', because it's far and away the cheapest. Most of the staff there is also very forgiving to people that don't speak Japanese.














This last picture doesn't have anything to do with anything,, it's just from the bus tour. It's supposed to look amazing at sunset (if you have the right angle, the sun sets right in that little cave), but it was still pretty cool at midday.