life on a stratovolcano ^{oshima edition}

My life is just getting more and more interesting — I don’t know, for some reason I’m in an extremely good mood today. I just had a great weekend in Tokyo (which was more like a day because Friday’s and Saturday mornings’ ships were canceled due to wind), where I ended up going to a Christmas party, a club, and two awesome Italian restaurants (one of which I found on Oshima). We danced our faces off all night long, and had an absolute riot of a time at Muse’s 13th Anniversary Party.

In the past month or so, I’ve been getting a lot more connected to Oshima. Perhaps it’s because I haven’t been leaving the island on the weekends. Maybe it’s because I finally have an “Oshima Family” that I can go to. It could also be because I’m finally able to communicate somewhat effectively. Being able to express myself gives me energy, so I’m really glad to be able to do that occasionally, especially with the students. Even today’s “Hell Class” (2nd year Marine class) was a breeze, and I had all 30+ of them practically rolling around on the floor laughing and speaking in English. Damn, I’m on a high.

My wallet also got a heckuvalot lighter today, too, since I had to pay “shakken”, which is the mandatory vehicle inspection. Shakken is biannual, and it runs about $1200 each time. It’s really expensive to own a car in Japan!

Anyway, I’ve given a lot more consideration to living in Tokyo for a while longer. I’d still need to find a job, but I truly love the city — Chris remarked this weekend that it’s “twelve cities in one”. You really can’t get a better description of the place.

And what the fuck happened to the Hello Kitty coffeemaker in the office?!