Sick Again

The scope of this blog may be too wide. I feel a bit too out of it to give a proper update; this will just a couple of non sequitors about what I've been up to lately.

Last weekend, I went into Akihabura. I felt as if I'd gone to a totally different world. The contrasts between my rural town and Akihabura are vast; one a small agricultural community on the one hand, and a multiracial, neon-light-populated technological wonderland on the other. For those of you not in the know, William Gibson's depiction of the super-modern Japanese techtown must've drawn heavily on his experience in Akihabura. Nigel needed a new computer, and so we kicked around Akihabura and dodged around a crowd of people that never seemed to die down to look at used computers. I have never seen so many shops. Easily, within a couple blocks of the station, there were a few dozen if not a hundred electronics stores. ...It was a practical sensory overload.

The greatest thing about Akihabura was the food. I was mentioning to Nigel on the train how much I missed Middle Eastern food now. I haven't eaten hummus or falafel in months now. I was really missing it desperately, and as soon as we stepped out of the station, there was a kebab place nearby. While...it's not exactly falafel, it was in a pita and tasted awesome. I am really so happy to find things like that where I'm least expecting them here.

And today and tomorrow;
Nigel and I are at a conference for our job with other English teachers from around our prefecture. Of course, I became miraculously sick the night before these conference. It isn't too terrible, but I'm realizing how weak my body's defenses are here. All the germs are different from the germs back home, and my body hasn't been itnroduced to any of them before.
"Single White Gaijin, prepare to be sick all winter!"
"Aye aye, cap'n."

Anyway, the conference was fine today, except I was sick. I am sure that right now, there are 100 English speakers blowing off steam in some fashion or another, but I got coffee with someone before hurrying home to sleep for three hours and relax. Eh. While the situation isn't ideal, I gotta look on the brightside. Maybe by coming home early today, I freed myself up to hang out a little tomorrow. Maybe.

I gotta find something to eat, and eat some medicine. Thanks for reading, I miss you guys.