愛してもいい？

Getting ready for Japan. I'm not sure the enormity of my summer has yet hit me. I leave early Tuesday morning, to fly 8 hours back in time and magically jump forward 24 somewhere in there.

OMG I'M EXCITED!!

HILLARY IS UNCOMFORTABLE!

In preparation for the freeform city exploration I plan on doing in Japan, I had myself an adventure today in Seattle. I live in Spokane, and have been visiting my sister in Seattle before my flight leaves from here on Tuesday. As a warm-up of my city exploration skills (some skeptics would say that I actually failed at reading the bus map) I walked from Pike's Place market to the U District, with no map, no notion of the city layout, and no knowledge of any of the streets between my destination and target. What shouldn't have been that long of a trip become 90 minutes (i knew I was supposed to follow 15th avenue but was very displeased when apparently they put a lake in the middle of it) but it was awesome. I enjoyed the day, the city, the cities, the hobos (actually I didn't very much enjoy that hobo that chased me). Exploring and seeing things and watching people with nothing more than a light pack and a waterbottle is awesome. I can't wait to do this all over Japan, hopefully with a bit more courage to ask for directions.

Adventures led me many places, including the UW chapter of my fraternity Sigma Chi

In lieu of actually studying for my placement exam, I've been reading through Making Out in Japanese and other such books that deal with casual spoken forms more so than the polite textbook forms. I also learn such invaluable phrases like "By the way, how much do Japanese weddings usually cost?"　ところで，日本の結婚式がどのぐらいかかる？ This will be useful for all the Japanese marriage proposals I expect to receive.

Unrelated: most hilarious billboard ever (you may have to enlarge it). I will be sharing lots of hirarious engrish that I find in Japan.