And We're back...

Well there was a longer pause between posts than I expected, but let's not waste time with excuses.
I left off last time with the joy of having my Japanese drivers license. Or, more specifically, the joy of having passed the test and looking forward to the final part of this ordeal. But of course just picking up the license itself is an ordeal, taking just over 3 hours at the DMV. Part of the reason it takes so long is because they shove everyone into a room and show a video about all the great services to the driving bureau provides to the community. Then some uniformed ladies pass around slips of paper with the option to give a donation to the agency so these services can continue. And in return you get a nice little leather case for your new license! After waiting for over 2 hours because they only process foreigners in the same 20 minute span in the afternoon I did NOT feel like giving them MORE money for their wonderful services.
BUT in the end... here it is:

Sorry for the flashspot in the middle, but you get the idea. The Japanese have made it non-Japanese proof by putting the important dates in their special way of counting years by the reign of the emperors. So it says in the corner I was born on Showa 59, got the license in Heisei 19, and it is good through the end of heisei 21. Sure to confuse any suspicious round-eyes.

But before I got sidetracked I was talking about America. Ah yes, America. I really enjoyed my trip back, though perhaps I made it a little too busy for people as small as me and Amber. We have only little legs after all. But I left off in PA. So next up after that was good 'ol New York City. At this point i should also note that Amber has taken a fair number of the pictures I've posted so far, and that will probably continue to be the case. So a hearty good on ya to Amber, in the most steve irwin accent i can muster.

Shortly after arriving in New York we met with Amber's uncle Tony for yummy Turkish food and not quite as yummy strange Turkish drink.
Then we met these hoodlums. Roopali was having a bit of a birthday bash that weekend, so we hit the lower east side for some east village kicks.
And we danced. O how we danced.
The next day me and Amber took a step back. In fact, a step back into my early childhood. Both consciously and unconsciously I basically retraced the steps my family must've taken about 18 years ago. As a 4-5 year old in the city this of course means Central Park and the Museum of Natural History. The dinosaurs looming in the lobby of this building loom even greater in my mind, even higher than the incredibly tall Brontosaurus stood in real life. Memory can play funny tricks like that.
Later that day we caught the subway out to Williamsburg Brooklyn to see a free concert at McCarren park. I didn't really think it through, and my plan of catching the last hour or so of the concert was not a very good one. We ended up spending a lot of time in line, though we did still catch the last maybe 40 minutes. We spent at least that much time or maybe longer waiting to get in though. People watching silly Brooklynites was the only thing that made it slightly bearable. That and I could hear the bands I like playing just over a fence.
That day we also got some great pizza from a man whom my friend swears spends 20 hours a day serving people by yelling at them. And if the customer doesn't yell back, then he'll yell at you to get out of his damn way. Lots of yelling. Very new york.
Here's me and Ambs on Coney Island, our destination the next day.
This is me and Ben practicing Capoeira, that brazilian dance-fight thing. "Graceful" I believe is the most accurate word for our very complex rhythms and movements.
Here's our beach buddies on the subway. Roopali is maturely touching Ben's chest as I maturely catch it on film.
This is how funny Amber thought I was being.
It was Alex's birthday too! This picture makes it look like Ben got this cake for her. But actually his Mom did while we were out eating, and even a little present for her son's girlfriend's birthday. So cute! This is the same mom who let us use her small apartment for a few days, so she's ok in my book.

Our next stop, I don't think I have any pictures of actually. I'm not sure why. Washington D.C. was a fun little stopover, but perhaps I was just not feeling touristy enough to take snapshots of everything I see. I feel Japanese enough as it is. Usually Amber has no qualms with that though, and I wonder why she didn't take any pictures either... Regardless, we spent two nights there at Amber's cousin's place, which happens to be right next to my best buddy's Jake's lil apartment! After some playing around with both of them, and a lovely late night (well not that late) stroll through the Mall and capital area, we began to make our way to the NEXT stop along our way...
North Carolina!
We spent a rather pleasant few days in the Chapel Hill / Raleigh area hanging out with Jake and his buddies (Jake is from this area):I believe Jake and Lindsay told Mikey about the "judging" face that I make, and this is his impersonation. I couldn't have asked for a better face from Amber.
These two interesting folks Amber appears slightly uncomfortable around are close family friends of her Mum's, and are the real reason she wanted to head down this way. I'm sure she'd had enough of me and my friends' antics by this point. Not that this nice couple and their morning beers weren't up to no good either...
Maybe a bit of a highlight of this part of the trip for me was an afternoon at this good ol swimmin' hole that Jake and his friends from home have made great use of. Nice enough on its own, but the real kicker is this awesome rope swing that made the whole experience that much more fun. Even though I look like a doofus using it. Equally fun was hearing the story about how a year or so ago Jacob rode the swing, but got too scared to let go and held onto it the whole way as it swung back towards the tree its attached to, with the predictable result of Jacob and a tree painfully colliding. Well, painful for Jacob. Funny for everyone else.

Our time in the South was not over though! My parents recently made the move to Florida, which you can read all about on my father's blog: http://shrinkwrap-shrinkrap.blogspot.com/ And for someone who insists on ME updating MY blog, I think you'll find that he's not exactly a pro blogger either. But I love him anyway.
My father also posted pictures he took while me and Amber were in Florida here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=40567053508.142242491208.1188578485956&page=1
I'm not sure if that will work though, as you need to sign in and whatnot. Here's a few from the highlight of the trip, when me and Shana were both together in Florida, which unfortunately was only the case for less than 2 days.

These pictures are all from St. Augustine Beach, about an hour and half away from Gainesville on the Atlantic. Nice beach, warm water, and my family who I haven't seen in a while. The contented smile on my face is about as real as it can get.
In fact, about all I could've asked for is more time. I felt I was leaving too early, from America in general and Florida specifically. But then, I felt I was leaving every place a little too early. Of course the answer is, I'll have to come back. (I promise, I will!)
Amber and the Gitlin family's days were also spent tubing down a river, snorkeling in some springs, watching a bunch of movies, eating a lot of ice cream, doing a little bit of reorganizing, petting mookie the bunny, and general relaxing. Again, what more could I ask for (not reorganizing I guess. And maybe for weather below 100 degrees with 100% humidity)? It was tough saying goodbye, a process made more difficult by our 7am departure flight. Yuck. At least amber looked good on the plane:

Well, that was my trip to America. I'm back in Japan now, back to the grind. Amber is currently without a grind, but is in the process of looking for one. Pin the lack of her own blogs on that account. Our minds are perhaps elsewhere though, as we are discussing what is next. All we have down is that we're going to go to Australia this northern winter/southern summer. But for how long? I have 7 vacation days left after failing to make a deal with my boss. Not much of an international vacation I'm afraid. But my mind is pretty made up on this point, and I won't let my less than thrilling job stand in the way of that decision. Or perhaps my boss will give way with a little more pushing? We'll see.

In the mean time me and Amber have been having some pretty good weekends. She's got a friend/acquaintance from Aus who is quickly becoming a mini-star (one of my first conversations ever with Amber came from me asking if she heard this band Gotye, and it turns out to be this guy that she actually does know!) who came to Tokyo last weekend, and we went to see his gig Saturday night. It started super late, too late for us to take a train to a cheaper part of town for accommodation, so a guy from the Aussie embassy who was also at the gig took us in and we stayed at the most palatial apartment I've ever seen, which is made even more ridiculous by its presence in such an incredibly packed city. The next day I felt like a rock star mooch by getting into an all day rock fest for free, and then getting back stage passes for free too, all because of our somewhat loose connection to this guy Wally (aka Gotye, aka the Basics). It was a sweet deal and I got to watch some pretty big (pseudo underground) Tokyo rockers hang out "backstage" (the parking lot behind the venue) and even got to eat their food. Wish I could speak more Japanese though... Incentive to keep practicing I suppose. I also wish I took some pictures, as I don't' know when else I'll be hanging out with Tokyo rock stars. Hopefully someday though.

There is one more thing on my mind before I finish though. There has recently been a loss in the family, which is always disheartening. Even though I'm so far away, my spirit is with those who wish for its company. I'm afraid no words of mine can provide much solace, but I just want anyone who is hurt to know that my thoughts are with them.

Good night

Aaron

Tadaima

It seems there's a word for just about every situation in the Japanese language. Ever wonder what to say when coming home from work or school as you step in the door? Well, Japanese people don't. They say "tadaima." The closest equivalent is "I'm home!", but the English language simply doesn't have a formalized expression for that situation.
The Japanese language of course somehow parallels its culture. The language would not have the incredible number of formal expressions that it has if its speakers did not generally live such formalized lives. Not to say that people everywhere don't fall into group patterns and traditions, but the extent to which Japan as a (very populous) nation is its own singular group is pretty astounding.
I've been thinking about "tadaima" because I've been thinking about "home." This is a pretty common situation for twenty-some year olds everywhere you might imagine, but I honestly don't think that's the case for most Japanese people. Telling my American mates that my Jewish parents have packed up and moved 1500 miles down south is maybe a bit of a surprise, but very easily believable. Telling them that my childhood was somewhat spread out among different areas separated by many hours of car driving is also not such a unique story. But I think both those cases are quite uncommon in Japan. I think the concept of "home" is generally not a difficult one for my coworkers, as I believe every single one of them is from this or the rather close surrounding area. The slightly older ones have their "city" (well, Takasaki) home, and their country home where they are originally from and where their parents still live. If they're young they probably still live with their family. Not much variety in the use of "tadaima." In fact, I don't think the Japanese have a word with all the same connotations as "home," but I could easily be wrong about that...
This subject is running through my head now because I just went home for a month, though I am now back in Japan (another home to some extent). I could go on quite a bit about my trip, and go into pages and pages of details, but if you're anything like me that would bore you to death. So I'll try to be brief and, of course, use pretty pictures. Or pictures anyway.
7/19 - flew to Boston. flight was too long. annoyed amber by successfully sleeping on it.
7/20 - after staying with Amber's cousin for the night, we part ways: her for Newport, then Nantucket, and finally Martha's Vineyard, and me to New York via the trusty Fung Wa bus.
I'll leave what Amber did to Amber's blog. I basically hung out with my friends and reveled in the big crazy city for a few days. Saturday Night was the highlight: the evening started in new jersey where Neal's brother treated us to fried clams (giving Aaron's Jewish and now Japanesey stomach a turn for the worse) and continued in downtown new york, and ended super late in Kathryn's place in Astoria.

Here's Jacob, passed out in the funniest position possible. We all stayed at Kathryn's place in Queens, and she was kind enough to let sleeping beauty take her bed for that night.
Kathryn, Roopali's legs, and Neal ruling over Central Park
Jacob celebrated my arrival with ridiculous facial hair.
I don't know why but the waitress at this nondescript Vietnamese places really insisted on taking our picture. But I think we're lookin pretty good.
Then I went to State College for a few days to visit my baby sister Shmoo. Here she is after a tough evening of watching Scrubs and The Girl Next Door. I also got to see my good friend Nate in nearby Loch Haven and eat real American pizza which made my stomach hurt. I also got a crappy haircut, and bought books in an awesome bookstore.

I made my way back into the city and to LaGuardia to meet Amber, but her flight was cancelled. My uncle kindly took me for the night, and I happily used his brand new couch for the night. After waking up to him coming home with some delicious fresh bagels (yay new york) I got my stuff together to meet amber at the airport. After a brief stop to eat some burritos the size of our torso, we headed to Philadelphia to meet up with Neal, Jacob and Lindsay. yay!
Here's post-Nantucket/Martha's vineyard amber. The camera may make her look pale, but trust me, she tanned herself black.
We made a trip out to Lancaster area to the ol watering hole Lock 13. Unfortunately the water hold part was occupied by some locals, but we had some fun relaxing and hiking.
look, it's Lindsay!
Sunday Lindsay and Jacob had to go back to DC, but me Amber stayed with Neal in Philly, and proceeded to sleep in half the next day while he was at work. Alas the day after that me and Amber moved along. Next stop: a brief layover in New York before returning to the area I mostly grew up in in Pennsylvania. I wanted to make this stop because my friend Maggi was herself making a brief layover in the city and I don't know when the next chance i would have to meet her...
Here's me and Maggi after she made us eat at a sushi place. Turns out the sushi is better in Japan. Who would've guessed?
We spent the night with Amber's cousin Jack in Brooklyn, where's he's currently housesitting.
Guess which is the tall handsome guy with the BBC accent and which is the little American Jew???
Next stop: Wilkes-Barre. No tour of the East Coast is complete without a stopover in NEPA (that's Northeast Pennsylvania for you amateurs, pronounced neepah). Well, perhaps unfortunately for Amber the stop was necessary because her boyfriend spent 10+ years of his life there.

How else could we have gotten our pictures taken in front of Tony Stewarts' racecars? Racin'!
We later took a trip to a local bazaar, where we got to delight in local favorites. In this picture we see some kielbasa, pierogies, and Busch lite, the only beer offered at the bazaar. delicious!
I'm not sure if funnel cake comes from Poland too, but Andy sure looks happy to have some.

Me, Andy, and Amber tried our hands at hitting a target to dunk the smart ass over the tub of water. no good though.
Look at that guy in the background, this must be a hip bar!
And that guy seals the deal. This place is it!

The other part of this leg of the journey worth mentioning was a stop inside a bar/club in Wilkes-Barre which was listed as having an "indie dance party night." In a big city that might sound kind of lame, but I mean, this is Wilkes-Barre. I went in assuming it would worth a laugh if nothing else, but was pleasantly surprised. First, my old friend Bonito was there, dancing up a storm as no other man can. Second, young hip people actually filled the place and were having a good time. Ok well maybe not everyone there was young and hip, but an incredibly high percentage for the area. I was pretty blown away, as I don't think I've seen a sight like that before in a town like that. Where do those people hide? How do they know when to come out? I was and am confused, but happily at least. Didn't take any pictures though, so I hope you believe me.

Ok well it's getting late and I can only keep focus for so long. This is about half the trip though, and I will do the next half soon as I get the chance, but I must leave on a note about today. Today I tried for my Japanese Drivers License for the second time. This whole driving thing has been the biggest pain in my ass, but I really feel its important to getting around in these parts. Anyway stories among foreigners abound, with tales of people taking the test 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, or more times and never passing. And each test costs about 24 dollars and takes an entire afternoon. And it i honestly found it to be dehumanizing and ridiculous. BUT I PASSED. DAMMIT! I am super relieved, but maybe happy isn't the word. I don't think I should've had to take the test in the first place, as the members of pretty much every developed country except America are exempt. But I am happy that something that could've been EVEN worse is over. Well actually almost over, as you can't get the license on the same day, and so I must return tomorrow and get the actual piece of plastic. O happy days.

I'll post a picture :)

Missin' [home] already,

Aaron