so most of this was written the old fashioned way, pen and paper, while i was exploring today.

so right now i am sitting on a bench in Korakuen garden, one of japan's most famous gardens. Its really beautiful and peaceful. Im trying to get out of the sun though, its brutal. I just finished getting lost in here for nearly an hr (on purpose). I just let myself walk where ever my legs saw fit to take me. It was the most amazing thing, i felt for the first time since i got here utterly content. there was nature around me and i was free to go where ever i wished. now i sit here waiting, waiting for the sun to set and the lights to come.







it seems like everywhere i go in japan i cant help but compare a little to back home. here there and many small streams to cross so there are little bridges, i use the term loosely, because they are more like stepping stones with no rails. back home people would never allow this, someone would fall and someone would get sued. i think japan has us on this one. as i was sitting here writing this, the cutest little girl just past me in her white and hot pink yukata. it made me smile.
so thoughts on life in japan. right now i dont see vast differences. the main difference is being away from everyone and everything that i know. i know that things will get even better as soon as i find some friends of my own. the problem is other than company people its hard to meet anyone. im not a guy, cant exactly go to a bar by myself. hmmmm, ideas???

so while i was on the other side of the garden i thought i was going crazy. i thought i was hearing faint bits of english music. now that ive come to the other side i realize that im not crazy, they really are playing all english music by this stage they have set up. its so weird sitting in a japanese garden hearing random english music. its a bit of a contradiction, but i love it. The sun finally started to set, but i still have while before dark. there is going to be some sort of concert on the stage, but i have no idea what kind.
Eventually, the concert starts and i watched the first performers, but i decide to get up and explore some more. i walked to the other side of the garden and see a bunch of people lined up to go in a roped off area. i was curious so i watched what was going on from the outside. as i was watching i realized it was the tea ceremony and really wanted to go in, but there are way too many cultural mistakes to be made going by myself. so i settled for watching from the outside. i little ways away from me were three japanese ladies. there was some inching going on and eventually one of them turns to me and says Konnichiwa. i say hello and with a little help from a friend of theirs they invite my to join them in the tea ceremony...score! they take me in and show me what to do. i was sooo excited to get to do that. afterwards they introduced me to more of their friends, two of which are around my age. we all walked around the garden together some more and talked, as much as we could with very broken japanese and broken english. they invited me to come back to another tea ceremony next month. yay!!

if funny how things work out...one minute i am writing about how i need to make friends, but dont know how and the next i meet some really cool people.

sorry this entry is all over the place, it was written over the course of like 4 hours.
I just thought this was a really cool picture of the castle and the blue sky that was today!!