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.