The last two weeks have felt extremely long, as I have had a cold the entire time. The first week I thought it was just a normal cold, but it progressively got worse. I went to a doctor and found out it was bronchitis. Anyway, he put me on antibiotics and I am already feeling better, so hopefully it is gone for good.
Okay, enough of my sob story. The doctor was really cool. He had lived in Michigan for a few years and been to Wisconsin several times, so he knew all about the Brewers, cheeseheads, and essentially anything related to Miller-country.
Despite being sick the past couple weeks, I have still managed to go out and do some fun things. Last weekend, I went out to Shinjuku and Shibuya, which are two major downtown districts in Tokyo. We went to various places for food, shopping and drinks, before finally ending up at an Irish-themed pub. Before we realized it, it was like 12:20AM. Now if you want to go home via train, you better get to the station around midnight because the last trains leave around 12:30 or so. By the time we got to the nearest station it would have been impossible for me to make it back to the dorm, so my friend offered to let me stay at his apartment. We just barely made it into the LAST train and we had that "Hell yeah!" feeling.
Well, that feeling didn't last long. When we got off of the train, we realized that we never went and picked up our bags. Prior to going out, we put our school backpacks and anything we bought in the afternoon into some coin lockers. Turns out that in one of those bags, was the key to my friends apartment.
That meant we had to wait until 5AM for the trains to start up again. We went to a ramen restaurant, and then walked around for hours. It actually ended up being a really cool experience. Despite being in "suburbia" there were countless things that caught my attention. Shrines, temples, and statues were scattered throughout the neighborhood that we were in.
Here is me and the buddha....
It is a little difficult to see but it was really dark out and we weren't near a street light. Since I have spent most of my time in the busier parts of the city, I have not had the chance to see many historical aspects of Japan. We also stumbled across a temple that made me really feel like I was back in ancient Japan.Upon seeing this temple, an eerie feeling swept through my body. All of the sudden it hit me. I had never felt so far away from home in my life. I had known all this time that I was roughly 6400 miles away from Wisconsin, but what I felt in that moment cannot be described as simply a number measuring distance. It was a mixture of loneliness, excitement, fear, and optimism.
Sure I was with a friend, but I felt lonely when I realized that I could not share that moment with any of the friends that I grew up with. Excitement, because I felt like I had traveled back in time, and ended up at that very spot. The fear was when I understood that this life in Japan is my new reality. Hate it or love it, that fact that I will be hear for another 10 months is not going change. Yet, this fear quickly left as I felt a surge in optimism for the future. I have barely scraped the surface of what this country has to offer.
Okay, my emotional Dr. Phil time is now over.
5AM finally came, and we went back to Shinjuku to get our bags. We parted ways and I got on a train back to my dorm. I fell asleep on the train and awoke to a train attendant telling me that we were at the last stop and I needed to get off. When I looked at the station map I found out I had rode the train 50 minutes past my stop. The most embarrassing part of it all, was that I fell asleep a second time on the next train and missed my stop again. When I finally got home, it was 9AM.
Regardless, that night was a fun and unique experience that further solidified my decision to study abroad in Japan. This weekend I am going to a Japanese festival that has been an annual event for around 400 years.
Hopefully this time, it won't be two weeks until I get around to writing another post.
it better nott be Bro
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