there is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled, there is a void in your soul, ready to be filled you feel it, dont you -Rumi

Loneliness definitely set in over the weekend, its not so much not having any one here , it gets lonely because when i want to call my family or friends i cant. So i have to keep busy during the day to stop from thinking to much about home. I woke up with a hangover saturday and woke up way to early. However much to my excitement i figured out that i can make calls back home using my blackberry. At 2$ a minute i couldn't talk long but i was able to call my family who i hadn't spoken too in a week. That really made me feel better, I decided since i was in such a grand mood i would bike around into the mts which my predecessor told me was a very mesmerizing experience. I took my bike out and headed to the mts. Now my town is surrounded by these lush hills full of green trees which tower into the sky. I have never seen such a hypnotic green in my life. There is a paved bike path that weaves into the hills and as i got deeper and deeper in there was these zen like structures hiding in the trees. If you look at my Facebook you can see pictures of some of these scenes. Except for the occasional vehicle, the hills were earily silent and although i was in broad daylight , i couldn't help but feel temporarily spooked out. Well the hills were too much for my simple bike to handle and I decided I would return tomorrow and hike the rest of the way in.

Next on my list of things to do was to return to the bike shop and purchase a bike. I am glad i rode the bike paths first because it changed the type of bike i want to purchase. At first i wanted a road bike, if you know me well , you know that mt biking and rd biking are a favorite activity of mine. I figured since the paths although paved are a little rocky, I would bet a cross bike which had a road bike frame but mt bike tires, a hybrid bike but not one of those dorky looking old people kind. I figured i would walk into the shop and look through a catalog and order. I was previously introduced to the owner and figured despite the language barrier this would be a simple task....well three hours later i finally ordered a bike, i could write another page on why it took so long, but to make a long story short, the language barrier was harder to overcome than anticipated, plus they dont make many bikes in japan that fit a 6 ft 1 185 lb dude. I ordered a GT traffic and it looks good in the catalogue so i am hoping nothing goes wrong.

Last on my list was to go to the grocery store, first time i was going alone. I have a simple game plan while in japan when it comes to shopping, keep it easy. I just need bread, eggs, milk, butter, pbj, and frozen pizza until i can figure out something more extravagant to buy. Well its not so easy even when i need the basics... milk could be cream, yogurt could be sour cream, butter could be cottage cheese, milk could be soy or rice milk, eggs , well eggs are easy. So it took me about an hour to get 4 things and i had to skip buying beer since i am low on funds. It was dark when i left the grocery store and this presented a problem. I had only been out during the day, so i got lost, got scared, mini freak out, retraced steps, found apt by accident, relieved!