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I’ve been back for about a week and a half now. Things are pretty good. I’ve already gotten into a decent routine, and jetlag never got to me too bad. I didn’t really have a chance to be jetlagged, since I had to start work the Monday I got back, and I don’t think it’s possible for it to catch up to me now. Even after I had been back in the US for only a week, it felt like it had been a lot longer than that. Not in a bad way at all – just that there wasn’t much transitioning at all. I just kind of came back and everything went along smoothly. Almost too smoothly, if that’s possible.  Hard to describe. I knew I wouldn’t really have too much “reverse culture shock” but I thought it would at least be a little more weird, having been abroad for 4 years. But it’s not like I never came back home, and it’s not like I was disconnected from the world outside of Japan. If this were 50 years ago it would have been a different story (disregarding the fact that everything else would be so different it wouldn’t have been possible for this whole situation to occur) and there would have been a much higher chance of being totally reverse culture shocked. But no, I’ve kept pretty darn well connected over the past four years thanks to technology. With Facebook I’m in the loop about things my friends and family are doing, and also strangely very aware about what most people from high school have been doing too. Thanks to Bittorrent I’ve kept up to date on current American TV shows, being horribly disappointed by Lost and Heroes just as much as anyone in America.   Daily news, memes, pointless time wasting YouTube videos, and pretty much everything else also has been brought to me via internet.  There are of course small things that I’ve missed out on, but they’re so minor that it doesn’t really matter.  For the record I don’t think I knew until about a year ago who Hannah Montana was.

Someone mentioned to me a few days ago that my last blog post made it sound like I was depressed about moving back.  I didn’t really have that intention when I was writing it and I don’t think I really felt like that anyway, but looking back on it I can see why some people might think that.  Nah, things have been pretty good this whole time with the packing, moving, and getting re-settled in the US of A.  Sure I’ll miss hanging out with people in Japan but it’s not like I’ll never see anyone ever again.  I’m sure I’ll think of some kind of scheme in the near future.  OK it might just be something as boring as going on a vacation over there but who knows.  But yeah don’t be reading this and thinking I’m sitting here weeping over having to come back to the land of awesome pizza.  (I do really wish I had some good sushi though.)

I really need to get to sleep but I figured I should at least try and get some words out to form a somewhat readable blog post, since I already have WordPress open and everything.  I guess one thing I’m happy to be catching up on back in the US is books.  TV, music, and movies can mostly be “obtained” online or through more traditional methods (like paying for them) even while living abroad but books, at least to me, always seemed a bit more difficult.  Sure I could probably find PDFs or eBooks or some titles online but for me a book is still something that should be on paper, held in your hands, and read either on a couch, recliner, or toilet.  I now have a literal giant stack of books to get through, many of which are newer books that I didn’t have access to (I guess I could have spent a lot of money to get them over there) when I was in Japan.  Also I went to this used book fair over the weekend and got a whole bunch of other books to add to my stack.  I’ll be doing a lot of reading over the next few months, which is a good thing.  I think.  I mean, it’s better than doing something psycho like strangling little animals with my toes or building a scarecrow made out of tin foil.

That’s about all for now.  I’ll try to write something more coherent over the weekend.  Good night America.

I am writing this blog in the presence of Ashley Thoms, who is a retard.

I read my first book of the summer on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, Dave Barry Does Japan. Nick suggested it and let me borrow it, and it looked pretty funny from the description on back, so I read the whole thing in less than a day. It’s short, but pretty funny, even if you aren’t that interested in Japan or anything. Pretty much, he scammed his way into getting a free trip to Japan for 3 weeks with his family, and wrote a book about it. This guy is like my idol!

I’m not going to really review the book, but I will suggest it to anyone who wants something quick to read. The Amazon link is here. I will, however, post part of the book (don’t sue me Dave Barry), that shows how Dave Barry explains business negotiations in Japan. It’s pretty dead on, I’d say.

It’s the first weekday of spring break (not counting Friday, which I always have off), and here has been my schedule for the last 13 hours:
4AM-8AM reading
8AM-1PM sleep
1PM-5PM reading

I just finished The Da Vinci Code in 2 sittings. Why? I have no idea. I haven’t actually read a real book just for fun in a long time (maybe since the last Harry Potter book?), and I guess I just wanted to finish this one. It keeps stuff moving pretty fast, which I guess let me read it all like that. Still, kind of strange. I’m tired but know I shouldn’t go to sleep now, since it’s evening time. I’m starting to feel a little sick, so hopefully I can shake this off in a few days. Maybe I just wanted to stay up since it’s spring break and I can do it?

But yeah, overall, a good book. Definitley not a classic, but I’m glad I was finally able to see what all the hooplah was about. If you haven’t read it yet, you might as well give it a shot. Oh ya it’s funny that I’ve had this book since Japan, I think I got it from Trevor or someone. And I think he stole it from Molestache. Oops!