arrival

Foreword: I wrote this exactly one week after arriving in Japan.  And today is especially special since one year ago today , I stepped on Japanese soil and called it home.  And to answer the question posed at the end: I *have* grown, it's just everyone else I have to worry about.

It will be a few hours until the one-week mark since I've arrived in Japan.  I hope to celebrate with a bit of alcohol, and the traditional "kanpai!".

But before the beer erases what memories remain, and even if I did so fastidiously document with photographs these last few days, I think a narrative would still be necessary. And so, follows.

We arrived at 4 in the afternoon on the 11th of October, on a Tuesday adorned with an overcast sky and chilly winds.  Narita airport was the same as I remembered it: clean, convenient, straight-forward. And so was the commute.  Tired as we were having barely slept the night before, Karen and I fueled by excitement--of which all men are beset when entering the unfamiliar--stayed up through the 3 hour bus ride that took us from airport to office in Yokohama.

We stayed there for a bit, and headed home to our new dorm in Gumyouji: a restive suburb that, though populated by commercial outlets, doesn't lose its far-flung-from-the-city charm.  This place reminds me of Paranaque--minus the horrid commute, plus more old people.

The succeeding days were sleep deprived.  Between setting up my new room, hanging-out with everyone, setting up the new laptop, and, of course, the long office hours, there wasn't much time left to myself nor to write all the remarkable little details that glimmer with novelty for the newly migrated.

Suffice to say, the dorm-mates are adorable; work is demanding, but not unexpected; and everything that I've come to know and love about Japan is still Japan.

The Japan and work parts--soon to be integral parts of my life and have been subject to much thought and consideration--I already knew. But the wonderful surprise of having such amazing dorm-mates in such an amazing place as Gumyouji still fills me with awe and gratitude.  Loneliness here would not be the uphill battle I imagined.

The food, awesome as ever, also fills me with gratitude, and my stomach with, well, keeps it thoroughly busy.

This is a a new life and an awesome opportunity for something I've been thinking a lot about. I've been playing around with the idea of a "reset": a clean slate to work with all the wisdom earned so far.  It's my acid-test to see if I've grown enough to do it right--life, I mean.

I'll let you know when I do.