I was waiting...

Some of you may be wondering why I haven't posted in almost two weeks.

I figured if I waited long enough I would get some feedback on my essay.

Katie and Tara are safe.

Some of the rest of you are not.

I think you know who you are. But just in case...

Sarah Elizabeth and Nikki, Katherine, April and Donna (who told my mother she wanted to post about me being crazy, but she wussed out before she did) there are others but this will do for now. I may be on the other side of the planet at the moment, but I will be coming home eventually. When I get home I am going to beat ya'll like you owe me money. I wait for either posts to my blog from ya'll or at least a pitiful email every once in a while, and what do I get...not a sausage. Oh yes, beatings will be forthcoming. Except for Katie and Tara, they get cookies.

As for the guys over at Skeptic Friends...I have seen you all do five thousand words arguing about the wording of one post. Somebody could have read the damn essay and at least posted "pitiful" or "pointless". Kil, Filthy and Halfmooner I am looking directly at you three.

Now that I have gotten that ugly business out of the way.

Things here in Nihon are strange but quiet. I spend so much of my time studying to keep up with my classes that I am starting to feel like a monk. I really only get out and about during my commute. Commute-class-study-commute-home-study, five hours studying here...seven hours there...it all adds up. When I have studied so much that I begin to forget basic survival information (when to eat, how to get dressed...) I take the day off and wander around some of the different neighborhoods in Tokyo.

These excursions have an ultimate purpose (beyond the shopping that I accidentally do along the way.) At the beginning of next month, I have to start looking for an apartment. So far the only neighborhood I am interested in, is this place called Kichijouji. Its not huge like Shinjuku or Shibuya but it is full of tons of small shops and restaurants interspersed with a couple of convenient chain stores (Seiyu for one which is sort of like a Target but with a wider range of services.) I have found out to my dismay that Kichijouji is not just popular with me but with every other human being in Japan. In other words it is more expensive and it is more difficult to get an apartment there.

Since Kichijouji may end up out of my reach, I have started searching other neighborhoods one-by-one. When you don't have a car there are a lot of things that you have to take into consideration. First and most important is; how far do I have to walk to get to the train station? Virtually everything in Japan revolves around what the nearest train station is and how far away it is. Second on the list is; Is there a supermarket in walking distance? I do not mind a twenty minute walk to the station or the supermarket but in some places there is no supermarket even close. Unlike most of my friends at school, I am not happy with the idea of surviving on convenience store sandwiches and onigiri combined with the occasional trip to the ramen stand. I need actually produce, meat and grains in order to remain walking upright. The lesser considerations are the actual apartment itself (amenities, size, whether it has all of it's walls...). Location first, everything else is negotiable.

I am actually looking for a studio. A studio is one room with a little kitchen nook and a bathroom. It sounds tiny, but right now I spend about 90% of my time at home in my room anyway and I have included a picture of my room now to give you an idea of the comparison.

Well kidlings, in the time it took me to write this, I have forgotten 25% of the vocab I memorized this morning...so I gotta run.

I have included a couple of my newest drawing assignments. Katie asked to see my Maneki Neko I won at the matsuri, you can tell how small it is because I have it propped up with a 50 yen piece. You can tell by my still life that I have major problems with perspective.

Missing everbody.
Liz