Well, before anything else, Happy Birthday Dad! ^^

The week so far has been a bit odd. Since language school hasn’t started and I don’t really have any responsibilities in my lab yet, I’ve been at a bit of a loose end with myself trying to adjust to being here in any meaningful sense. The start of the week was characterised somewhat aptly by the weather turning to complete rubbish, some heavy rain and general storminess going on. Tuesday was particularly bad, actually.

Mostly I’ve just been chatting to people online, or mucking about on my computer (did you know that Microsoft is now doing peer-to-peer file sharing?) in between making runs to get food, or supplies from the 100yen shop. While it’s been somewhat nice to just vegetate for a while, it doesn’t feel like it’s really coming from any sense of need for rest like it usually does. More like, my brain just refuses to accept what the hell I’m doing here and do anything productive, despite my having the time for it. It’s made me feel quite disconnected.

I have had moments that punctuate this doldrum, however. I had some dinner with Mark on Monday (Japanese curry) and I’ve run into Stefan a few times on my walks. Yesterday I actually went to Shinjuku with Stefan for a good portion of the afternoon, but the weather was rubbish the whole time, so it wasn’t really terribly exciting, despite some stellar examples of Engrish. Today’s notable events included actually going into university, having my graduate school orientation, a library tour and attending a lab meeting. I got to hear everyone’s reports on what they’re currently doing, mostly in English, then chat with people afterwards for quite a while. I also had dinner tonight with one of my labmates at the main university cafeteria, which was kind of cool. ^^

In other completely unrelated news, I got to see the photos from my friend Jenny’s wedding in Seattle yesterday. It made me extremely happy and sad at the same time – I am very happy for her and for the happiness that is so obviously reflected from the photographs, but also sad that I couldn’t be there to share that with her. It’s hard being in a different part of the world from the people that you care about, unable to share in their lives in the way that you would were you in the same city. I know that as I get older and visit more places, have those significant connections with more people, this problem is only going to get worse. Being in a long distance relationship doesn’t really help with that feeling either, it’s a constant reminder of exactly how intense the feeling of missing out on people you care about’s lives really is.

Still, what can you do?