Day 25

It's already the 4th weekend I've been here! o_o

Although I'm sad that I didn't get to go on a weekend trip or travel at all this weekend, at least I can take pleasure in the fact that I actually like sitting around the house sleeping and eating and being lazy. It's instant versus delayed gratification--in the moment I always feel like being lazy, but I know that in the future it'll be worth it ten times over if I get up and out.

I went for a little walk in the rain today, through the park that goes through the Suwa shrine near my house, and I happened to find an old air-raid bomb shelter tucked into a hillside. It was closed, but it's free so I'm planning to go in there next time. There's a museum nearby, too. That park area is an area I could explore a few more times and still find new stuff to see and do. I have to remind myself that even though I badly want to get out of the city, there are still opportunities every day for me to find and discover new stuff in the city. At around 400,000 it's no Paris or NY, so the opportunities are finite, but when I've been here less than a month I think it's safe to say I haven't seen everything yet.

My weekends, at least until the middle of July, are tentatively planned out. :) Next weekend I'm planning to go to Iojima, an island close by (rain or shine), and Unzen, a town along the peninsula which borders Nagasaki. (Inclement weather may change our plans D:.) The weekend after that I want to take a 3- or 4- day trip, most likely alone. (Yes, I just have to suck it up and DO IT and say I did it.) The weekend after that Alex is gonna come visit me here, and the weekend after that Liz and I are gonna meet up in Beppu. Then in August I'll be traveling around for work, though I'm still super in the dark about where/when I'll be going, what I'll be doing, and what my responsibilities will be. I guess we'll see!

I find myself wishing I had a year here. There'd be no time pressure to travel and do-everything-you-can, I could actually integrate into the community, maybe meet other expats, do activities, make friends. It's definitely confirms my belief that I want to do this for at least a year after I graduate. :) Really the only worry I have in that is that I have to use my teaching credential within 5 years of getting it, or it invalidates and I have to start ALL over again. BUT, I don't have to worry about that just yet, so I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.