December 14th is my first Peace Boat anniversary!

A year ago today I started my life on the Ocean Dream and began a 102 day voyage around the world ( Read more... )

Reserved plane tickets for June 20th! I'll be in Tokyo for just under a month of the final stretch to boat-time… which also means I have less than a month left in Chicago. As far as I'm concerned, that's a great thing ( Read more... )

I finished Season 6 of HIMYM (I'm behind!) and watching 7 now. Going home early to cook and watch my sitcoms is the best happiness. I hope I don't finish soon, but if I do, I guess it's back to Dharma and Greg.

I also mostly finished a new cover letter/application set that I need to send out tomorrow!

First Wellesley event in months on Saturday, and perfect, my closest professor♥

She remembered me, of course, and asked if I was interested in literary translation. A lovely woman. Talk about Ogawa Yoko's Miina no koushin.

On the anniversary of 3/11, I'm in Tokyo! I spent my afternoon playing basketball with students and adults with learning disabilities as a part of a Special Olympics program and the rest of the day avoiding any kind of tsunami-related dramatic programming ( Read more... )

I took Friday off to spend my weekend in Tottori. Getting off that bus at 6:20am in front of Lawson in the rain before the sun had even risen was exhilarating -- I felt home.Two years of a place is a long time. Everything was natural, perfect, and I missed it so very much. I felt in my element, something I have in Yokohama but not yet in Tokyo ( Read more... )

I spent my morning/afternoon volunteering at a soup kitchen -- assembling food baskets, lifting, distributing fruit. The people in the group I went with were pretty cool, and we had a late lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe (my first time) and talked, and it was fun ( Read more... )

In the stretch since Thanksgiving, I've come to realize again and again how lucky I am. The more closely I look at the people around me, the more I realize that everyone is a bit broken somehow, and everyone is struggling with something. There is always tough shit to deal with, and my life is not great, but things could easily be worse. I'm still ( Read more... )

It's officially Thanksgiving here, and I'm thankful for so much. The past two nights have been really great.
( Sonja! )

nice things people do in America that Japanese people don't ( Read more... )