February is already halfway over

February Break was a really nice trip. Kendall and I traveled really well together, and it was really great to be away from Kyoto for a little bit. Some highlights:
-SNOWBOARDING. It had been since March 2006, but it only took about 3 minutes for me to remember completely how to snowboard. The snow conditions were perfect for both days, the views of the Japanese Alps were amazing, snowboarding in Japan is way cheaper than anywhere else in the world (perhaps the only thing that is cheaper here), I had the easiest snowboard rental experience ever, and since we were at the mountain on a Monday and Tuesday, we were more or less the only people there (aside from people at ski schools and people training for races).
-36 hours in Tokyo. What a weird and wild city. We went to a Kampo (chinese medicine) seminar, and when Kendall and her friend Masako went to a seminar on Chinese fortune-telling, I explored a street filled with cool old bookstores.
-Staying with Masako--Masako did a homestay with Kendall's family when Kendall was 4 and 5, and I fell apart when she pulled out early 90s photos of little kid Kendall.
-Staying with Kendall's old host family--I can't really describe the Tadama family. They were really great and showed us a wonderful time in Ueda. But they also gave me a lot of perspective on my own family experience.
-When I returned to Kyoto I still had one more day before I had to go back to school. I went on a bike ride to this crazy park/forest near my house and I brought my drum, and for a while I sat in this lookout tower in the middle of some woods near a playground and played drum.

I just got back from a really fun excursion to Osaka. I can't believe I have been in Kansai for five and a half months and am only now discovering that Osaka is actually the best city in Japan. It is so close and it is so cheap to get there and the people are so fun and nice and hip and the food is really delicious and the colors POP. I actually knew this in early October when I went to Osaka for the Radiohead show but did not internalize this, and therefore did not actually learn it. I am remembering other times I have learned something but did not internalize it and therefore did not learn it:
-flossing after Vision Quest
-getting up when you wake up after Alaska
-knife after Alaska
-etc.
I think I need to make more of an effort at remembering the things I learn, and learning the things I remember.