First Week of Classes

It's hard to know where to begin. Zora has probably covered a lot of it in her post a little earlier so I'll try to talk less about the great time we had last night and more about my own classes so far. For the record, last night was a blast despite the hearing damage at Solus and having to do a lot of walking to get groceries so we could cook.

I'm getting a lot better at knowing my way around and it's taking me less time to get places. I do feel a lot more at home here than a week ago. The buildings themselves are all mazes of lab spaces and major lecture halls. There are a lot of labs for the record and most but not all of them are well appointed. Some are total crap. As a rule though none of the floorplans make sense so it is hard to find your room most of the time. You just have to budget at least ten extra minutes if you aren't sure where you're going.

I'm lucky on Mondays, no class till 1:10. Monday is Environmental Case studies, an examination of eco law and planning from a UK geologic perspective. Its not really my area of expertise but I'm enjoying thinking about how to merge the legal and scientific in a format your average councilman can understand. Like all of my classes, I have a paper assigned, though this one is my favorite since we're worried about trying to solve a case study and not some abstraction/ demonstration of a concept.

Tuesday is busy, Marine Conservation 10-12, animal senses, learning, and cognition from 12-1 and 4-5. Marine is a little hard to read but I think it will be a good time and within my ability. The animal bio class was a bit below me, very psych 150ish so far. I'm sure it will get more difficult but at least the first lecture I could have given myself.

Wednesday is my roman religion course 10-12. Awful and I want out. It seems like we're not going to learn about roman religion so much as how to research and discuss it, which has its place, but I would like a little content please. The prof just talked about what ancient writers she liked and that she wanted us to only use traditional theories, nothing "duff" which seems to mean Greek or anything controversial.

Thursday, today, though I nearly missed class trying to find my room, was animal physiological adaptations 9-10 and 2-3. Seems to be a biochem class in disguise. I knew enough chem to understand this first lecture without having to think too hard, mostly enzymes and misc aqueous reactions. Once it gets more difficult we'll see, but today it was basically the whole "enzymes make reactions easier" lecture, so nothing mind blowing.

As a side note, professors here, except for my history and animal phys prof, seem to be a lot more jokey and casual/ are fine with you being goofy because its your time and your grade you're hurting and so don't care. Generally they have been welcoming and ok with me needed time to get things figured out. I'm not too far behind in anything though I don't have as much background in some areas as I wish I did. Some have made fun of me, but I don't really mind.

Going to curry night later. All my best to everyone back home. Send me an email sometime.

Going to class, going out, going crazy

Classes have officially started, and I've been to all of them at this point. It's a lot to get used to. Mosy classes here meet one or two hours a week, and expect you to do the rest. That being said, somehow I'm going to have to wrassle up all the books they want/ recommend for us. I am starting all three of my science classses 2 weeks late. I have missed up to 5 lectures for some of them as well as practicles (labs). They very much build classes on a year to year basis, so just the fact I haven't been taking classes here the past two years puts me is awkward positions. Like having a GIS based project. I have most definitely not even touched that program, but every one else has. Some of my profs have been really understanding about me being late and lost, but others just kind of shrug and say catch up. Luckily that one is not my concentration credit course.

I'm taking 7 modules here, which is a lot more than the 4-5 I was expecting. Again, 3 of those are meets once a week for one hour, but it's still a lot of papers and projects I'm going to have to figure out.
My classes as it's ended up (it was a scramble to even carry "4 credits"):
Marine Conservation: Based on a lot of British policy and wildlife, but I'm already in love with it
Sedimentary Petrogenesis and Stratigraphy: (a mouthful) I missed the petrogenesis part, which stinks as it's important and came in for delta and estuary processes, which is total review from Coastal Geo. Ah well.
Terrestrial Ecology and Pedology: UGH. Half a credit. SO NOT WORTH IT. So behind, so not my subject. So screwed. But very interesting lectures.
Geier's Technology Course: I don't think he understands how much work he's given us. It's more than most peoples' other classes combined, and so far, not all that interesting.
Welsh Lit: So much poetry, not sure how this is going to go.
Welsh Language: A room full of Americans making silly noises at each other. What's not to love.
Welsh Folklore: I really think I'm going to enjoy this one.
So we'll see, I'm more than a little overwhelmed, but it's only about 16 hours of class a week, which is about normal right?

So last night was the first time I went out with my flat. John and I made (basterdized but tasty) Pad Thai for 9 people. We also made Tollhouse Pie. They seemed to love all of it, esp. the pie. Spilt to get ready for the stop light party at the student union (required buying tickets, strange). They started pregaming, and I hid in my room until John forced me out. I was so self concious. Pretty much about everything. Mostly the fact I was the only one in jeans that night. I just don't have the going out clothes. But it all worked out. We played a few games, and everyone started asking us about America, most of them want to visit at some point. We all got a lot closer I think, I just hope all the stuff they said about really wanting to be close friends wasn't just the Strongbow talking. I also gave TC his very first bite of Hershey's chocolate (sacrificed one of the cookies and cream bars I brought for Tris). Lewis said it was possibly the best chocolate he'd ever eaten. It was really cool.
We eventuall piled into two cabs (having aquired a few more people) and went to the party. IT WAS SO LOUD. I don't think I've ever been to anything that loud. Chest and bone vibrating bass. A few people pushed their way to the bar for more drinks. Eventually all piled onto the dance floor and spent the next 3 hours or so dancing it up. It's funny how much American music they played, I only didn't know a few things. It was mixed well and despite my utter lack of dancing skills had a lot of fun.
Funny things that happened:
Lots of glowstick exchange
Lots of girls falling over because they were drunk and on 4 in heels
I'm pretty sure I can drink most of my flat under the table, and feel a lot better about it in the morning
Got hit on by a creepy guy when John was in the bathroom, despite my obvious red glowsticks
Got invited to share a stall with 2 of the girls we came with. They do that here. Don't want to stand in line for the bathroom for a long time? Pack as many people as you can into one stall and swap out. I'm glad they're cool with sharing with me? But I conveniently got "seperated" from them in the line. When it comes to dropping trou in front of almost strangers...it's going to take some time. I was out of there way faster than they were anyway. Walked home around 2am, got up for my 11am practical. All was well, except I think I'm getting shin splints from all that walking.

Miyajima (宮島)

My first stop in the country was the island of Miyajima, aka Itsukushima, which is home to the famous torii gate in the harbor. Before I get there, though, there were a number of things that were new and exciting to me along the way. First of all, it was the first time Sarah and I had stayed in a hotel together, and second, I was receiving my intro to Japan: My very first night there, we went to a combini (コンビニ), which is a convenience store, sort of like a gas station grocery, minus the gas station, and my first exposure to Japanese bread. There are lots of appealing-looking Japanese breads there, the surprising part is how many of them have hot dogs inside of them, or things like that. Much to my chagrin as a vegetarian, Japan likes putting meat in everything. EVERYTHING.

The next morning was an introduction to some more food, as our hotel provided some breakfast, and that morning, we were up early enough to eat it. There was passable, but different, french toast, tea, rice and other things I can't now remember. Then, we walked across the street to the train station. This is where I first experienced the efficiency of Japanese public transportation - you put money into the ticket machine, and buttons light up for the stops you've inserted enough money to get to. Then, you get a tiny ticket, which you slide into the turnstyle as you walk through, and it punches a little hole in it and pops up waiting for you at the other end. At every stop, the conductors (all in matching uniforms with gloves - something I'm still not completely used to) preformed the same ritual of checking that nobody was still trying to get on the train - complete with hand motions - before getting on and going to the next stop.

From the train, it was a short walk to the ferry, and from there, just a ten or fifteen minute ride to the island, with the o torii in view from the boat for the last few minutes. It was a short walk to the beach that the o torii is in, and there were plenty of other people there to see it, many of them seemed Japanese and this was my first confirmation that Japanese people do make the peace sign when being photographed. I still don't know why, but, it seems to just be part of the process. The gate itself is quite impressive, and was only a little diminished in my mind when I found out that the Japanese government has replaced it a number of times when it was damaged or destroyed in storms. Any which way, it's quite pretty out there in the water. On the land in front of it, sits a building that is mostly on stilts. The tide was about half out when we were there, but when the tide is in, the building also looks like it's floating, which must be quite neat to see. Apparently, one little building in the complex was a stage for No plays, so the audience would sit on the walkway and look over the water to the stage ten feet away. It sounds like a pretty way to watch theatre. It all made me think of how rarely I've seen things in America accommodate nature, building to fit it, rather than landscaping it to fit the construction afterwards. I really liked the effect, and wish I saw things like that more.

The island is, like many places in Japan, famous for one thing or another - in this case, it is famous for the rice paddle and manju (まんっじゅ). Manju are little maple-leaf shaped cakes that have a filling. We tried a couple while we were there, but I can't remember what flavors other than the kabocha (かぼちゃ) squash one. This is perhaps a good time to mention the deer. When you sit down in Central Park to eat a soft pretzel, you attract the attention of lots of pigeons. When you sit down on Miyajima to eat a manju, you attract the attention of the free-roaming, sacred Sika deer (しか), who are like pigeons in the area. That said, we also saw one pigeon.

When it came to finding other things to eat, we were rather lost, as the island boasted a lot of things with fish or meat in them; a trend I was going to learn to be really annoyed by. Eventually, we settled on one of the two places in town that offered hyatokeki (ホャトケーキ), better known as pancakes (hotcakes).

One last note on the Island of Miyajima: Apparently, this is where the rice paddle was invented. Some buddhist monk came up with it, and started sharing it with people. Because of that, they have what I like to call "The Fuck-Off Huge Rice Paddle," seen here:

Week One

So this bit is from Chicago:

And the adventure begins! Or a very long day of rushing and waiting. Didn’t bother going to bed last night, caught a ten minute cat nap, mostly out of exhaustion, but I was too geared up to stay asleep. Got to the airport at 4am, just to find the American apparently doesn’t have anyone working any of their desks that early in the morning, was stuck in a huge line, waiting for people to show up. By the time I got my baggage issues sorted out (booking my tickets separately confused them), and cleared security (which was also understaffed), it was 5:15. Saying goodbye to my parents was easier than I thought it would be, we all held it together pretty well. I guess we’re all getting used to me being away so much. Still kinda stinks, feels like I just got home, despite the really long break. Writing now (to be posted whenever I first find internet), I’ve got 30min till go time, considerably less till boarding I’d assume. I’ve got a couple of hours in Chicago before the London flight. I wonder how many hours I’m going to spend sitting around today?

The flights ended up being pretty boring really. I had the entire row to myself on both flights, so had some room to stretch out on the way to London. Food on the flight was decent. Landed a little late (thankfully), customs went so incredibly smooth. The guy didn't even ask me for my support letters from the schools, just rubber stamped me and sent me though. Then was the mindshatteringly dull 7 hour plus wait for everyone to show up. Got a lot of reading and people watching done. Once everyone showed up we piled onto the bus for the 2ish hour ride to Cardiff, our bus driver Dave narrating along the way. I saw more sheep in that 2 hour ride than I have in my entire life. True story.

I can't even begin to list all the stuff they've had us doing since we got here. We've had a tour of Cardiff Castle, which John just exploded the blog with pictures of. Tons of orientation to this or that talks. Etc. I've had my first 2 Welsh classes, the language isn't quite as hard as I thought it would be, but certainly not easy. Lots of strange new sounds to try to learn, which don't easily fit in your mouth.

My flatmates TC (Tom), Louis, Luke, and Sam are all really cool. There's two girls, but they won't be here till later today. They've opened up all their pots and pans for me to use, as well as found me a cabinet, a shelf in the fridge etc. They don't eat together often, so I'm totally on my own for food. The flat is basically one long (smelly) hallway, and each of us have rooms off of it (set up for 8, but there might only be 7). The kitchen is at then end by the door, smallish but very usable. The guys have a tv and game system set up in there, so unlike some of the other flats, people hang out together there. There's no other common space. My room is smallish, but really cozy. The only challenging thing is the bathroom (I have my own). You look in and all seems normal, but then you notice the shower. Just kinda sticking out of the wall. The whole bathroom is your shower stall. It's situated so that isn't a big deal but the floor is awash every time, and you have to be careful not to get the tp wet.

People go out almost every night, more so in the week than on weekends because it's cheaper. The girls are ridiculous. It's been pretty chilly (with LOTS of rain) here, and they go out in tiny tiny dresses and TALL heels. Even the Colgate girls were shocked and are totally out of their league. Of course for the guys, jeans and a shirt will do. Ugh. I'm a little scared to go clubbing or to anywhere that isn't my dorms pub. I'm going to stick out regardless, but you all know how much I hate dressing up, or in this case getting naked and walking several miles to be mass groped.

There is a ton of walking to do. Class is quite a hike from the dorms, and some of the class buildings are pretty spaced out. My new shoes are holding up and keeping me dry, but I'm also getting blisters, and discovering angry muscle groups I didn't know I had.

Yesterday was a big class trip. Why Geier scheduled an all day trip on the first weekend I don't know, but he did. We went to Raglan Castle, Tintern Abbey, Monmouth, drove through Cearwent and Penhow, and stopped in Cearleon, where they have the ruins of the only Roman barracks in Europe, as well as an ampitheater and baths. They also have a museam which we went to, but the baths closed just as we showed up. I took literally 200+ pictures, which many of will be posted. Needless to say the ruins were amazing and gorgeous. As tired as I was, it was an incredible experience.

Overall, I'm falling in love with this country. Everyone has been so nice and welcoming to us. I have a feeling I'm not really going to want to come home after this is all over. But I'm also missing everyone back home, sorry we couldn't be there for your 21st Kevin. Hope it was awesome.

Some Cardiff Photos-Cardiff Airport Welcome Sign and Cardiff Castle in the Rain

The First Few Days

Okay, so many of you reading this can certainly understand what the first days of basically starting again in a new city at a new university are like. It was been a big adjustment and a lot of information has come our way very quickly. Both Zora and I are starting to learn our way around the city, and due to one of my very awesome flatmates, I was out clubbing my first night here. We're certainly enjoying being able to go to pubs to eat and drink. I've seen the Colgate group a fair bit, though our orientation events do not always match up. Slowly but surely all the little details of getting life started in a new place are coming together. Course selection was today, it was rocky for all, Zora more than I. I will get three credits from here I hope that Colgate will take, probably leaving one left for my minor (PSYC) and taking care of the organismal studies requirement for my ENBI major. Senior year will be a close call, but I think most of us face a similar challenge. In my case the only question is working in a re-certification class for my EMT-B license. Though whatever state I'm in next probably won't take it I don't want to loose it.

Getting away from senior year worries for a minute. Cardiff is a fairly compact city, and I'm starting to know my way around it pretty well. I have gotten lost a few times, but I can get around in decent time now, or at least to areas that are withing 20 minutes or so of campus (campus being 20-30 minutes from my dorm). It rains every day here and is cold, but not bitterly so. Many of the buildings on campus are old, and with the backdrop of Cardiff Castle (no way to put in to words how detailed and beautiful it is though I took a few cellphone pics during our tour that I will post a littel later on hopefully) this is not an altogether bad looking place. The grey skies and strange ability the rubbish bins here have of vomiting their contents on everyone's miniscule lawns does keep you in reality. The city is a good balance of old and new, and most people are firendly. Dealing with Americans, or maybe just with me, has turned out a few bad apples but 98% of the people I've talked with have been wonderful and made me feel very welcome. We become full students tomorrow since we'll get our id's. Classes will start soon so I'll try to post then, or maybe sometime over the weekend if anything interesting goes on.

First Day in Cardiff

Got here finally at about 10pm last night local time. Had a really nice cabbie on the way in (always talk to cabbies if you can). Skyped with Zora and tried to sleep, but was kept awake by hall noise and the general ache this is my body after the over 24 hours on planes and in airports. I ended up falling asleep just before roomservice knocked on my door. I fell back asleep after breakfast. Eventually got up and showered (the shower refused to turn off but got stuck on cold so I spent 30 minutes in freezing water trying to punch the dial in to the off position).

Getting a phone was a nightmare since the first place I went to wasted my time with a trainee, and couldn't get their system to accept an American address and credit card, not to mention I had to wait 3 days for the phone to become active. The second place I went took a little more song and dance but was more straightforward (read few options when paying with cash and just a little not legit but the phone works so so). Got stuck with a Blackberry sadly, which I'm thinking of taking back since it doesn't pick up the net very well. I'm hoping it can tap in to campus wireless somehow once I'm closer, although Cardiff's is an urban campus so I expect wireless will either stink or not be very global.

My dorm is about 20 minutes walk from campus, maybe a bit more depending on where you're going and the traffic. It is in a lower rent part of the city, a bit more crowded and dingy. Lots of roadside trash etc. Little mini mart close by, as well as the dorms where Zora is living. Probably within 15 minutes or so. My room is actually pretty nice. I have a desk, bed and table, a small wardrobe and some other shelves. The bathroom is tiny but has a normal shower, toilet, and such. I think all my stuff will fit fine, and I'm not worried about that too much. Haven't tried the internet or the bed out yet.

My roomates are a different story. Those that were home either couldn't hear me over their music, or didn't want to come to the door. The dishes needed to be done, but so did ours at Newell usually so not too big a deal there. Fridge was stocked, fair amount of longbow and men's magazine clippings on the wall. At this point I just really want to meet them all and see how the people and the apartment match up. It's probably all in fun so I'm not ratting anyone to the Inquisition yet (nor ever really, I'm not a narc, unless it gets to remind me more of Stillman). I just want things to get started so the mind melting experience of orientation can be over and I can start to find a groove and deal with any adversity that pops up. As of now, I'm exhausted and sore and headed to bed.

Moments of understanding

I've always been impressed that people could ever understand each other at all. It seems like we, to this day, understand so little of how language works, but, have managed to teach each other most of the ones we've come up with. Yesterday's moment of understanding was brought to you by the word はっしん - rash - which is what we went to Sundays (a drug store) about yesterday. Thankfully, I have Sarah to handle most of the translation, though, I'm slowly learning the words to deal with some of the allergies it seems I have to things here. This is rather surprising, since I didn't really have anything I was allergic to at home, but, two days after I got to Sarah's apartment, my mouth swelled up and was itchy, and I was quite uncomfortable to varying degrees after that. I seem to also be allergic to fish - something I didn't plan on finding out because I don't eat fish, being a vegetarian, but Japan and the Nomura's had other ideas.

My great moment understanding for this adventure was when the pharmacist at Sundays was picking out a rash cream for me, and was miming rubbing it on his arm. (Miming is a rather important part of communication here) Just to make sure he was getting the full picture, since I didn't want anything that would make my nether regions more unpleasant, I gestured to my crotch and said "ここです" - "it's here."

The look of comprehension on his face was beautiful.

Sarah assured me his parting "get better soon" was really sincere...

Soo, remember when I said all was well in JFK?

Yeah, so that didn't work out too well. My flight ended up leaving almost four hours late, so I obviously didn't make my connection in Amsterdam. Luckily I managed to get myself pre-booked on the next flight from Amsterdam to Cardiff, going out this evening. The downside is I have about six hours of nothing to do, and the city center seems too far away to bother leaving security. All you can see from the airport (and you can see a good ways since the country is so darn flat) are large fuel storage tanks and a few office buildings. Though this shouldn't have surprised me so much, its so very euro here. I feel like I've wandered in to a movie, except this is the real stuff that the movies are trying to show. Along with that, I realize that I don't like like a lot of the people here and don't dress like them. I've caught a few looking, though I certainly am doing my fair share of people watching so I don't really mind. If playing "Spot the American" brightens your day then go for it! Also, Ian, you have a twin and he needs to loose ten pounds and shower.

Flight over wasn't too bad, the crew was just as pissed with the messup as we were. The flight attendants switched in to a mode of not really caring, which made service a bit patchy. They mostly just talked to each other or were herded by their boss. I asked the guy next to me to wake me up for dinner, mistakenly thinking that since he was reading an English newspaper he understood me. He nodded so I figured I was covered. I woke up to no food. He leaned over and said "I ate all your food". He was nice enough though, handed me my bag from the overhead. I can't really ask for more. It was a little hard to sleep since a lot of people stayed up, including the teenager behind me, who decided kneeing my chair in staccato bursts would help me relax. It actually did feel nice once or twice, like a crappy, unwelcome massage chair.

Well, siting in one of the general lounges, the gates are closed areas with their own security so I don't plan on heading there till closer to flight time, maybe 7pm or so. I'm sure I don't look so hot and that I smell funny. Oh well, so do you Ian's evil twin. Go find another lounge man with the terrible stink! I really wish I had some euros, and knew more than a few useless words of Dutch. Anyone that wants Amsterdam souvenirs should probably let me know in the next four or five hours. It will take me awhile to get it to you of course, but shopping would give me something to do.

So the photo is of some of a fairly large contingent of scientologists in JFK who apparently are sending a mission to Hati. As it turns out they have a lot of water, go figure since they don't use meds I guess that's as good a donation as any. They were giving out t-shirts if you listened to their spiel. I wasn't bored enough and didn't want a "volunteer minister" t-shirt. Kind of all for people using lifesaving drugs and getting life saving treatments and counseling. A lot of EMT's are here going to Hati too. Some politics about letting more civilians down there. Its a messy public health situation. Vaccinations and the like are not common in Hati, so little problems and injuries quickly get worse. I wish them luck.

So far I've avoided all of the Terminal 8 fiasco, in case anyone cares. We sat on the taxiway for about 20 minutes but that wasn't too bad. It was cool to see NYC at night from the air, pretty, but really massive! I can't imagine all those people but then again I'm a small town guy in comparison.

Well, more later. Flight isn't until just after midnight!

Countdown: 2 days

While John is either in or on his way to the airport, I'm still admiring the formidable pile of stuff on the other side of my room which is questioning me as to how it's going to fit in just two bags. But I'm not overly worried about it. That's what space bags were invented for. My list of things to do is getting ever shorter, which is good since I'll be rolling out of the house at around 3am to make my 6am flight to Chicago.

Sadly that is going to be just the beginning of a marathon travel day. I have about a 2 hour layover there, which will only be stressful if I can't get American Airlines to check my bag all the way to London (I had to book the first leg separately from my ORD-LHR trip). Then it's a long flight to London. I'm not actually sure how much time it's going to take, since I'll be flying forward in time 6 hours plus travel time, but I'll be landing in London around 10:45pm. Then I get to wait. And wait. And wait. Till sometime after the 6:20am landing of the rest of the study group. My only other option of landing was after they arrived, and I certainly don't want to find a way for me and my luggage to Cardiff alone. I don't know the exact time of the bus trip either, but we'll be arriving in our home for the next 5 months sometime around lunchtime. In theory they will have a luncheon waiting for us as soon as we drop our stuff in our room, and a very busy day ahead. Not particularly looking forward to all of this, as I'm pretty sure I'm going to be exhausted at that over 24 hours of travel mark.

It's been a long break, but I still can't believe that I'm leaving in two days. I'll certainly be missing everyone immensely.

Pre-Semester Abroad

While I am going abroad next semester, I am lucky enough to have started my travels abroad before I need to start taking classes. Since Sarah is living in Japan, I got to come here to Japan and visit her! I'll be going to the Universität Freiburg after this, but, I still have a bit to go before that.

Last Thursday, I got to JFK at 7:30 AM EST and checked into All Nippon Airways flight 9 to Narita International Airport, Tokyo. Sometime around 11:40, we pulled away from the gate, and I left the United States for the next 7 months, and the ground for the next 14 hours. 14 hours. It takes forever to get over Alaska. Being from the mainland, I don't really think about the place much, but we were over Alaska forever, it seemed. On the flight, I watched Public Enemies (in Japanese - I'm sure I missed a lot of the plot, but, I learned the word 'ginko' (銀行) which means 'bank,' from all the bank-robbing and -robbers. I also had the time to read Logicomix and to listen to a whole bunch of The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe and didn't really manage to sleep at all.

Finally, we get to Tokyo, and my name gets announced over the PA. My first thought is "Oh no, nobody asked about my one-way ticket and they're not going to let me into the country" or something similarly irrational. Turns out, an nice All Nippon rep was waiting for me and told me they'd found a flight to Hiroshima leaving out of Narita instead of the one leaving from Haneda that I'd booked, which is altogether a lot easier to handle, what with Haneda being an hour and a half bus ride away, and it being just about 2am EST at this point (around 16:00 Japan time). So, I was led through a maze of Narita, into customs lines and drug-check lines, by my very polite and efficient guide, who utterly failed to point out any of the forms I needed to fill out before sticking me on the lines for handing them in. Eventually, though, around 17:30, I was on a bus that took me out to the little plane that would take me to Hiroshima airport at something like 19:15 - about an hour before Sarah knew to come and get me.

After waiting an hour, I had a mind-shatteringly-awesome reunion with Sarah, who took me out into the rather chilly, Japanese world outside the airport. Cars are boxier, drive on the left, and we parked in some sort of magic car-elevator/storage system at the toyoko inn in Higashihiroshima-sho (東広島). Here's the view from our room!



I think I've been at this long enough now, so, Miyajima and further shenanigans will come in their own time.

-Matt

Packing my stuff

So I could swear that my things are breeding on me. I think everything is packed and then some little item gets found tucked away in my room. I almost have everything in a bag at this point. Several massive, heavy ones, but I'll survive. I just hope my duffel doesn't get lost since it holds about eighty-percent of the clothing I own. That would be a bummer to have to replace. Well, I leave Saturday, so you'll get some international posts soon. More later when I have something interesting to say.