waiting...

Saturday night was a goodbye party for my 'mate' Neil, a British friend who I have gained a good deal of admiration for as a funny, cynical and good-hearted guy. He came to Niigata to be closer to the koi carp industry (he is a fish biologist), which got nearly completely wiped out in the earthquake. He is leaving JET early to go back home and we went to the beer garden on the top of a hotel in Tokamachi and we ended up causing trouble around town after that. Made me realize I'll have to say goodbye to other friends soon too as their contract expires and mine is extended for another year.

lately I've felt stuck in a kind of waiting-pattern type feeling. Just waiting around for things to happen I guess. Waiting for an air conditioner, waiting to get my Japanese drivers license figured out, waiting to make more Japanese friends, waiting for my trip to Okinawa and Tokyo, waiting for the results of the essay contest I entered, waiting for the heat to hit, waiting for the turnover of the new JETs and saying goodbye to my good friends who are leaving.

Nothing all that exciting has happened lately, just because things have slowed down to normal finally. I guess I got accustomed to really extreme things happening all the time, strange weather, out-of-the-ordinary experiences, earthquakes, new people, and I guess I'm just waiting for something new and strange to happen, and things actually being busy but normal is like the most boring thing in the world. Maybe it means that I'm sort of finally adjusting to life here.

I feel like I'm waiting for a 5th season or something, like I know summer is starting now but I'm expecting some season that I haven't experienced here before, full of things I've never seen or felt before, just like the past 4 seasons here have been. The Japanese are so tied into the seasonal changes and maybe I just find it strange to be entering into a season that is familiar to me, something I've already experienced. Makes me feel like I've been here a long time.

So, I guess I can go out and try to make something unusual happen, or just keep waiting around.