Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Just a quick one...

Just a few quick notes, some cultural, some personal.

What`s up with Japanese groceries stores? They are, all of them, hilariously named. I wish I had photos. Let`s see, there`s the Blooming Bloomy at the Kounoso station and the GigaMart (which sounds like some kind of Power Rangers villain) in Metsuyama. Those are just the two that I go to regularly. There are all sorts of Headias and Welcias around as well.

Speaking of photos, I don`t think I brought my battery charger for my camera. I`m incredibly bummed out about this, obviously. I distinctly remember packing it when I had used it in Tokyo...but, it was probably lost somewhere along the way. It`s hard enough to get something like that to replace a lost one in the states. I might give it a shot and just bring in my battery itself, learn a couple of vocabulary words for charger and lost, and see if they can figure it out. The photos that I have already taken, however, will be online as soon as I get the internet at my house. Monday makes week 5, and I can`t imagine it lasting longer than the 3-6 week estimate I was given.
Since we`re on the photo tip, I`m gonna mention the personal photo experiences. Before I left Japan, I let some people leave videomessages for me on my laptop that I could watch when I was lonely. I watched them all for the first time last night. My older brother`s was by far the most touching of them all - I don`t believe anyone believes in me as much as he does. For someone who used to hit me often and with gusto, he`s certainly changed his tune in the last couple of years. And his sentiment just seems to grow stronger. I hate to I feel like I may have taken his lesson overt encouragement for granted in the past. I just won`t take it for granted anymore. My mother left a message just as meaningful and deep as my brother, but it`s different to get such a message from my mom. I always joked when I was younger that I may be an emotional mess, "but my mom thinks I`m a real catch." My friend Eric left a really great message, too. He said that Japan has a lot of history - and now I`m part of it. And it`s true and amazing, even for just one year.
There was another video, one that I will probably watch hundreds of times in the coming year. Laying on a couch with someone, kissing her forehead, and her kissing my shoulder. Brief, silent, but simultaneously disheartening and emboldening. Geez, I miss her sometimes.

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