A few notes.

Last weekend WTF tried really hard to speak to me in English as much as possible. Honestly, her Japanese is much more comprehensible to me than her English, but I was quite touched by her efforts.

There are a series of famous hot springs in Beppu called the Jigoku Onsen (maybe you could translate that as �Hell Springs?�). After visiting one, I bought a t-shirt that says mainichi wa jigoku desu (�Every day is hell�). I don�t usually buy shirts with words on them, but I�ll make an exception for that one. It�s cool.

WTF had originally been planning to buy one too, but she chickened out at the last minute. She said she�d be too embarrassed to wear something like that in public. It�s funny to me that Japanese people suddenly care what�s written on their shirts when it�s written in Japanese� Ah, but it�s not like Westerners are innocent of such offenses, what with this stupid kanji tattoo trend. (Hanzismatter.com has a good collection of stupid kanji tattoos and stuff, but the site seems to be acting weird right now.)

She brought a fan around with her that she had made by pasting clippings from English newspapers all over a plastic frame. (Such lovely hobbies she has.) At one point when I was holding it, a dragonfly came and landed on it. It stayed there for some time. I thought that was a good omen, but WTF wasn�t so sure.

She frequently uses boku to refer to herself. Somehow, I find that dead sexy. (In Japanese 101, they�ll teach you that only men should use boku, but these days many young Japanese women have began to use it, as well.)

Anyway, I�m leaving tonight for another week long vacation. I had originally hoped to use this time to go to Singapore and perhaps Indonesia, but that didn�t quite pan out. So first I�m going to Yakushima. Yakushima was the primary inspiration for the forests in Princess Mononoke (and Nausic�a as well, if I�m not mistaken). It should be a real treat. After that I�ll take a boat to Okinawa and spend a few days there before heading back. I�m not quite sure what I�ll do there yet.

The boat between Kagoshima and Okinawa takes a full twenty four hours. That will be fun. I can pretend I�m a merchant seaman! ARR! (Do merchant seamen say �ARR?� Maybe I should just pretend I�m a pirate. But "merchant seaman" is so much more fun to say!)

I�ve got a ton of little projects I�m working on right now which make me a little hesitant to leave, but� I need to get the fuck out of here for a while. I need some time away. This will be good.

Next weekend I�ll meet up with WTF in Fukuoka.

I don�t think I�ve read anyone�s blog for about a week or two now. Looks like it�ll be another week before I get around to catching up.

stingrays are floating across the sky,

greyarea

Diaryland