冬休み

It's been a while since I've written anything. Like many of what my students tell me, after you start work, you basically sell your soul to the Kaisha (company) and you will have no time for yourself. Work is actually interesting because I meet all sorts of people, but it's still mind-numbing because towards the later part of the day, I'm guilty of simply going through the motions sometimes just so I can go home soon!

I don't have much time to reflect back either. I wished I had, because I have a daily 15min walk to the train station and another 17min ride to my workplace. I'm usually too cold to have anything substantial in my head. It's too easy to become a mindless zombie in Tokyo I think, especially when you start working. Most of my students seem to enjoy their jobs though, which is a good thing, but the Japanese seriously works too hard. They make up for it by getting themselves drunk almost every night after work. It's funny to see drunk salarymen falling down the stairs at the train stations. I know it sounds terrible, but its so common, everyone just ignores them.

So I've been here for 1 month now and how do I feel? To be honest, I'm absolutely freezing my ass off. I got up this morning and it's too cold to get out of bed. Thank god for my winter vacation leading up to the New Year. It's meant to be 7 degrees outside at the moment, but i swear it might be even colder in my wooden house.

On top of having frozen feet and hands, an unhealthy addiction to onigiris and chocolate cookies, I feel somewhat at home at this point in time. (I haven't gotten around to sorting my bank card issue out though, i'll save that for next year!) Unfortunately, I've just realised that I don't really have proper friends here yet. I have people from the guesthouse as friends maybe? Work colleagues are fine, but I don't consider them as friends still. I've met a couple of people from couchsurfing, so that's nice. Adrian for example is a really cool spanish guy and I really enjoy spending time with him. I've also met Adam 2 nights ago for dinner and drinks - I found out that he's going to start a new life in Malaysia, so congratulations!

So despite not having much free time after work, after all the weekly chores and errands which I need to do, I have to reckon with some annoying boy issues. The attention is flattering, but why can't people just be friends? With regards to the young boy, it's been going in the direction of friendly-brotherly relations in my opinion and I don't want to break his heart as much as possible. A also seems keen to see me more than I've expected, so now both boys are annoyed with me because I just want to make everybody happy. Strange situation to find myself in. Why can't I meet a nice Engrish-speaking japanese boy for a change?!?

But anyhow, i had meant to write about my japanese experiences and my comparison of Tokyo with Sg... Obviously i've gone way off course. Next post hopefully. Happy New Year everyone!