Hey All! ひさしぶりね！I've been back in the states for over a week... sadly.
They say traveling makes the heart grow fonder or
yonder, and in my case: Yonder.
Iceland was clean, humans were treated as they should
be: Equal.
Being back in the States makes me feel, as Bilbo Baggins once said: "I feel thin, sort of stretched out. Like butter spread over too much bread."
There was a feeling of fulfillment and calm to being in Iceland that doesn't exist for me back in the states. Sure, I love my job (glorified babysitter), and being within 20 minutes from a monolithic Japanese market (read on for more talk about it)... But I have nowhere to hike, and the days go back to being repetitive.
Between now and moving to the Land of the Rising Sun, my traveling will be few and far between.
I'll be going to Alabama for a while, my best friend Edward moved down there recently, so I'll be driving down at the end of August to see him... And see whatever there is to see in Alabama. Maybe theres a Japanese market or some trees or something... Only time will tell. On the way down, I'll be stopping in the ghost town of Cairo, Illinois and explore a while.
After that, I'll be going to California to see some family members. San Francisco is my favorite city in the US, so I'm excited to be going back for a while, with intentions of blasting this song through the streets...
Theres a few other things I'd like to see in the States that I won't be able to see before I leave, such as the small towns of New England, Grand Canyon, the forest from 'Stand by Me'... but it will have to wait for a few years when I come back for a few weeks.
But in recent news: Today was the お盆まつり (O-Bon Festival), and Mitsuwa Market's parking lot turned into a small piece of Japan for the day. Street Vendors selling Takoyaki (fried octopus dumplings), Yakitori (the staple of Izakaya food), gyoza among countless other foods.
There was an overwhelming feeling of friendliness and happiness, that only feels like foreshadowing my soon-to-be life in Japan. Kids were running around in yukatas, taiko drums pounding away in the background and the smell of deliciousness... Everyone wearing masks on the sides of their heads... Or many, because hey.. they were cheap.
All was well, the weather perfect... and then I lost my car keys. After searching for a while with my friend, we stopped caring and just decided to eat some more food. We called to be picked up, so it was no use freaking out.
As the festival was dying down, I spent some more time walking around, and was talking with an amazing (and amazingly beautiful...) person who moved from Tokyo a few years ago. She was a vendor who had the privilege of selling 2 of my favorite Japanese drinks (Calpico and Oi-Cha).
We were talking (mostly in Japanese), and then remembered: I was kinda-sorta-maybe still without car keys. When I told her that I got distracted by the food and cheer and should be looking for my car keys, she said, "You're way to calm about it, are you sure you're not Japanese?!" Of course, in the midst of laughter I, yet again, forgot about my car keys...
The O-bon Festival is akin to the Dia de los Muertes in Mexico. It celebrates and commemorates the passing of souls onto the next world. I danced, I ate, completely disregarded my situation regarding a ride home... And it only made me wish that I didn't have to wait to move to Japan.
The performances and the food were amazing, and a thank you goes out to The Arlington Heights Police Department, all the performers, the vendors, and the infinitely friendly people who made this event so amazing!
I brought with my camera to take more 'professional' photos... But the picture settings were still set to when I was in Iceland taking some prior photos, and I was too lazy to change them. Oh well.
As for my blog: This may be one of my last posts on it.
I'm setting up a website via Weebly, and it will be a full on website with a blog in it as well as having my own domain name.
I'm loving the website-editor and design tools, and hosting a site isn't very expensive either. I'm slowly putting it together day by day, and will be posting a link and everything later on.
Stay Tuned!
