Isolation

I am starting to feel a little isolated out here. It takes me a great deal of will power to get my self to go anywhere other than Gobo. I need to explore Wakayama City and Osaka more. I just need to drive around. I need to get out. I am trying to attend a party this Thursday night, Friday is a holiday. It is Foundation Day, I think that is when the new Constituition was ratified, written, or implemented. I am not quite sure though. I can go to this party, which is in Gobo and some bar/food place, but I won't be able to really drink. Not that I can't hold my liquor, it is just that I can't drink and drive in Japan, not at all. So I need a place to stay. I am still working on that. I guess a last ditch idea would to be to sleep in the car, but that is pretty far out there. The ALT's in and around Gobo are great people and are very nice, so I am sure that I can work out something.
Other than that I had to push the trip to see Saturn at the Kawabe Plantarium from Friday night to Saturday night. I am going to be going back to Kitayama-sensei's house for dinner and a few hours of planned GT4 playing. After dinner we are going to play pool in Kibi.
So most of my nights are kept busy. I try to keep busy for fear of having a melt-down or something. I am not crazy or sad, on the contrary I am happy being here right, I am not just saying that, but I can feel the inkling of a Melt-Down looming in the distance shadows. I don't know why, eventhing is going great. I am worrying about something, but I can't put a finger on it. So yeah, maybe I jsut need to get out. I should be fine after going to Tokyo next weekend.
Last night was spent at Miyoko's house having dinner with many other ALT's. Before I left for Gobo though, I went over to my neighbor's house to give him some pictures of last year's mochi maki. He was one of 3 people throwing the mochi and candy to the large crowd. His wife gave me some coffee and we talked in slow Japanese for about 45 minutes. It was really pleasant. Mrs. Kawai even took a couple photos of me. It was good practice for my Japanese too, which is still pretty shotty.
At Miyoko's I was pretty chill, most of the time I a little nervous around the other ALT's, becasue they intimidate me a bit with their sheer knowledge of Japan and Japanese, plus they are all generally all around pretty smart people that can actually tell great stories. So I usually sit and listen. I attempted receive some audio book files from Seth's MP3 player with my computer, but my computer wasn't reconzing his files, so that was a bummer. So I thanked him anyways. I even brought along some snails fro Ise-Shima that my Jichou gave me a month or so ago. I didn't know if I were to cook them or what, so I asked Miyoko and she said that they were cooked and ready to eat. The snails come in this pouch/bag with some brown liquid inside. They don't look so appetizing, I should have just given them to Miyoko.
I also made a big mistake on Monday night. I had thought that my Japanese tutor, Tesuji, who was on a translating trip in Wakayama-city, wouldn't be back until Tuesday. But in Fact he came back on Sunday, and was expecting to me to come by on Monday night. I just stayed at home the whole night. I should have called him. I feel really bad about it. I hope I can re-gain my worthiness with him and his family. They are really nice people. I just need to be more respectful of them.
So yeah, I got to bed real late last night and it is starting to take its toll. I have shouji tonight and have to eat dinner before hand or otherwise I can't hold the brush still or straight while I write Kanji. I should just go to Mi Mi's before hand and call it a meal. I eat so slow.
I am usually the last one out of the cafeteria at lunch everyday. I take my time. Plus the sticky rice can be a mouthful to swallow quickly.
Before I left to the BOE today I noticed all the elementry school kids outside in the school year holding hands in three big rings, each ring right next to the other one. I had no idea what they were doing. A teacher would then yell something and one ring one just break apart and all the kids would run to another ring. I didn't understand.
I am still thinking about buying a PS2 and GT4. PS3 will be out at the end of next year though. I don't think that it will be backwards compatible though. So it won't play PS1 or PS2 games as the current PS2 does.