Back in Niigata

I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to whatever, but here I am so let's try and do this up respectable like:

1. Yeah, I was back for Christmas and yeah, it kicked my ass in all the best ways. I just finally downloaded all my pictures and most of them are of Tom looking confused, angry, or elated. I like having a lot of pictures of Tom. This is a picture of Tom with a shirt that says, I'm German, not germane!
2. Yeah, I'm back in Niigata and it's okay. My company kind of has been doing all it can to make me want to up and quit, but I haven't because of my "upbringing." I think Ifm going to stick it out.
3. So now, I'm keeping it as real as I can.
4. My sister was here for a little while last week, which was pretty great. We hung out with my friend, Ishikawa sensei and his wife all day on Saturday. Went up to the mountains and had a bath and stuff. It was nice. Ishikawa sensei is just about my dad's age. We actually just went RV shopping. And then we had a bath.
5. I've been hanging out at the Japanese equivalent of IV which is pretty great. I'm doing this for the expressed purpose of learning Japanese better and strengthening my rather weak faith, but I am also, secretly, wondering if one day I might be called upon to procreate and should that happen, I need to have the right lady on hand to put up with all the nonsense that comes from being my procreating partner. Anyway, the ladies are great, but I can't speak enough Japanese to make heads or tails of their potential attraction or repulsion to the dude. Stay tuned.
6. Today, Ishikawa sensei says to me, "I heard something about you." And I said, "Wha's that Ishikawa sensei?" and he said, "A teacher from Yamanoshita saw you at Niigata airport with a Chinese girl." Well, unfortunately, it wasn't me and I tried to convince Ishikawa sensei that it wasn't me, but he spent the whole time we were RV shopping talking about how me and my Chinese girlfriend could hangout in the RV together. This was all taking place in my broken Japanese and finally, the salesperson was like, "Excuse me, but who's this Chinese woman?"
7. I will be home right about the 25th of July as I decided missing the wedding was just about the worst mistake I could ever make, ever. So now I just need my company to come through and give me some time off and for a couple of hundred dollars to float my way.
8. I'll leave you with this image of me, frustrated, because I lost at Life on New Years Eve. Yeah, I lost at Life. That's pretty damn disconcerting, if you ask me.