End of school, start of travel

((Last post of the big bunch written on my first bullet train- I hope to post at a more casual rate from now on, with more of the pretty pictures I've got))

School is all wrapped up and I've said my goodbyes to the two months in Osaka. Now I'm writing this aboard a bullet train, en route to one of the longest trips I've ever taken.

Only vague plans so far, with mostly only train passes, a Lonely Planet Guidebook, and a handful of hostel reservations sprinkled over the 17 day span. The first week is focused on going as far south as possible, to Kyuushuu, so that for bragging rights I can say I've been to all four of the main Japanese Islands (there's a surprising number of Japanese people who haven't). Here's what it looks like so far:

24th: Nagasaki (lots of historical sites pertaining to WWII)
25: Kumamoto, (apparently has super cheap clubs with no cover charge. Aw yeah.)
26: Kagoshima (beaches)
27: Beppu (famous for Onsen baths)
28: A single night (somewhere?) in Shikoku. This is vague, because Shikoku is a large island with many many places.
29: split up with traveling partner Gabe. He goes to Yokohama, I go to Kyoto? Or maybe first Hiroshima then Kyoto? For an unspecified number of days? Either way, after the 30th, I lose the magical money saving powers of the JR Pass that gives me unlimited use of the bullet trains, so I'll be traveling at a much slower pace after that.
...
8/3 Takarazuka. I have a ticket for Takarazuka Revue- a famous all female troupe that's vaguely based on Kabuki except transformed into western musicals. The current show is an adaption of the Billy Wilder film, Sabrina. I emailed my professor who taught a film studies course on Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder last semester to let him know this was going on, and apparently he's already super knowledgable about the Takarazuka troupe and recommended a couple documentaries for me to watch on my return. I <3 Ron Gregg a whole bunch. :D
8/4: to Tokyo! This is the point at which I buy tickets for the ghetto overnight highway bus in lieu of paying for lodging and train tickets.
...
shenanigans?
...
8/8 afternoon: board a plane at Narita (Tokyo), 4:10 pm
8/8 morning, many hours after I have left, at 9:20 am of the same day, arrive in Seattle. International date lines confuse me.

~ ~ ~

By the end of these two months, I was very ready to be done with class and my living situation, and a lot of things about the CET program.

The small group of American students (12 in total) had a surprising concentration of divas. Not that there was active drama, but more like continually high maintenance personalities. When I was describing the situation to a friend over skype, he wisely commentated “It's like a soap opera! Except with Japanese roommates and oral hygiene!” There IS a reason for the oral hygiene comment, I swear, its just a longer story. :p

But I don't want this to sound overly negative. There are still elements that were very satisfying, some people who were incredibly warm and welcoming during my time living in Osaka. Chanho-san, who I expected to not be very sentimental, had a hard time saying goodbye when I went to his bar for the last time on Thursday. Squid Ball Granny (I was never formally introduced but always referred to her as たこ焼きばあちゃん) was as friendly as ever when she gave me my last plate of Takoyaki from her stall—nearly twice as much as the amount I had actually paid—and invited me into the gossip circle of all the neighborhood grannies while I waited.

And then there's Mik-kun. Sometimes I'd see his full name (Mitsutoshi) and nobody would recognize it was his name because everyone always called him Mik-kun; it just fit him so well. The “kun” suffix is kind of like a more intimate, buddy-buddy sort of feel for a guy, and it was perfect because Mik-kun always had the most congenial of dispositions.

Example: On his birthday, I sent Mik-kun a brief little phone mail in Japanese wishing him a happy birthday. He sent me the following in English:

Oh~~, Eaton!!
thank you for celebrating my BIRTHDAY (*^_^*)
I'm very happy.
I'm a happy man, now//（笑）

Thank you for sending e-mail.
Have a nice day [music note] ('o')/

えいぶんあってるかな（笑）

Is that not the happiest text message you could ever receive? I would sometimes pull it out whenever I needed to smile. He also spent hours hand-crafting bracelets to give to all the American students at the farewell party, saying it was a memento of how we could always be together. I'm wearing it now and don't intend to take it off anytime soon. Then, he skipped work today so that he could see everyone off. What a chill bro.