Typhoon Season

I don't have pictures at the moment because the camera's battery is still charging. But its damn crazy here. After getting completely soaked the other day, I decided to wear swim trunks, a jersey and some flip flops to ride my bike (I finally bought a used one) from my host family all the way to the school. It takes almost an hour so it seams. After riding in the rain, without an umbrella it was like taking a shower while going to work.

Today was the day of my interview too. Luckily, thanks to my weather proof chrome bag, I was able to keep my office clothes dry for the trip. Ive been pretty tired these days, waking up early, then sleeping before midnight. Rather than stretching my brain and studying Japanese like I should be doing, I find myself eavesdropping on German conversations and every now and again making an interjection with the skills I learned from my one semester at SDSU. I find myself using English less and less too, with the exception of course when lending my ear to the Danish guy who finally has someone to rant to about the Germans.

Life is pretty busy already and about to get busier. It looks like ill be working on this blog on the weekends as I spend most of my time biking across this city while most people would just take the bus, train, or subway. However, Im on a fairly tight budget.. so bicycling it is!

Peace!

Round 2 begins..

After 29 hours of flight time and stop overs I finally made it to Japan, alive and well. Taking off from SFO at 1.40 am and flying through the darkness for 13 hours, the plane made its stop in Taipei just in time to watch the sunrise. Ive never been to Taipei before so I tried my best to look for the famous Taipei 101 building that was apparently the tallest building in the world at one point in time. After a few hours, the connecting flight took off for Fukuoka.

Luckily I got a glimpse of Taipei 101 from the plane.. and it doesn't look like much but yes, its that tall.

Before landing in Fukuoka, the pilot decided to make a couple of loops for some reason. After being on such a long trip my mind was starting to freak out.

After leaving SF on Thursday I finally made it to Fukuoka the next day at 12noon. I remember telling myself that I would come back within a year or two, and I did it!. Naturally, I would have met my host family and crashed on the floor to sleep the moment I could get myself in the door. However, the days adventures decided to keep me awake as my host family was apparently MIA. I met a lot of students at the asahi nihongo school were the majority of my new acquaintances were the Germans. Thats right, I said it.. The Germans. I proceeded to make my way to the first convenience store in search for banana milk which unfortunately is out of season. Over the next few hours I made my way around the immediate surrounding area of the school and found myself a few interesting sights and a ramen shop.

Later around 7, considering that my host family was still MIA, the school hooked me up with a hotel for the night. In fear of messing up my sleep schedule, despite no sleep for almost 48 hours, I made my way to the "international bar" with my new german speaking friends. However, after a combination of being fully away the day before my flight and no sleep whatsoever the entire trip, I began to feel like a walking zombie. I didn't need alcohol to feel the way I was starting to.. So I made my way back to the hotel where I tried to listen to songs for the next time I ever karaoke. Finding that I couldn't even pay attention to entertaining myself.. I passed out. Now. moving forward, this the start to the next chapter in this life?

There was a mini fridge about the size of a shoe box in the room. Cute!