Going Home

We've been getting the details hammered out on Saki and my trip to America, and it looks like we're nearing the final stages. I'm lookin to be home from the 5th or 6th of August, for about two weeks. We're going to fly out together, and she's going to go back by herself after 4 days. It really sucks that you have to cross the international date line, cause you basically lose a day to travel. So, she has to leave America on Saturday to arrive back on Sunday, which essentially kills both days. Shitty. But we're close to having it all worked out, and I'm really excited about that. Now I just have to think about what we're going to do when we're there.

There are a lot of people I wanna hang out with and see, so I have to figure what to do when Saki is with me and what to do after she's gone. I'm gonna have to take her to the tourist places, so she can see the, you know, fabled beauty of Oregon, la la la all that stuff, and then take her to see what my life is basically like out there too, so it's gonna be a busy time, I think, while she's there.

Sucks that she can't have more time to be in America, even one more day would make it worth it, but I don't know if she can take 6 days off. 5 it seems is pushing it a bit, so, I'll take what I can get.

I keep thinking of all the different things that are going to happen that will be funny. Last weekend we went to Hakone together, and most of the trip was in Japanese, as we were in a pretty traditional area and we tend to default to Japanese in situations like that, even in our private time. But America is going to be all English all the time, and not only that, but, it's gonna be weird for people having us walking around speaking in Japanese. At least in Japan, hearing English isn't the end of the world, but I don't think it's nearly as normal for people to hear Japanese of all things when they see two people walking down the street. So, that will be funny, I'm just worried about the times when her language barrier might cause problems.

Overall though, I'm excited to see America from her eyes. It really intrigues me to think about America from the point of view of an outsider. I know the twists and turns of life there, I know all the cultural things that make life easy, like the makeup of menus at restaurants, and the way things are generally organized, but she doesn't, and I'm curious what things will be confusing to her that are easy to me. That's when I'll get to see what parts of my life there are just autopilot.

Gosh, it's gonna be so weird having Saki there in America with me. My relationship with her is entirely based around Japanese life. The balance of power in our relationship if centered around the fact that at times I'm quite powerless here, she has a lot of chances to really excel and lead things. In America, however, that will be completely opposite, especially because my Japanese is much better than her English. That's not to say I don't have faith in her ability to get by, but, I wonder just how much she would be able to do there without my aid. I have faith though, I have to, she's a smart woman, she can handle her own. Honestly, I'm looking forward to her seeing me in my element, in a world that I know precisely how to navigate.

Anyway, other than that, work's fun, yada yada yada I'm happy.