31

I am a little disappointed in myself that my last post was over a month and a half ago. January 14th. Really?

There are no excuses.

Today, I turned 31. Well, at least according to the timezone that I'm currently living in. If you were to find yourself in the timezone in which I was born (EST), I would still not be born (but my mother would be going through some early labor pains, I'm sure).

Busy is a word that I would use to describe my day. An almost full day of classes, though three of them were less like class and more like a celebration - a number of last classes for several of the kids I teach. There was a scrabble game / wasabi treat game (everyone picks a cream puff, some of which are loaded with wasabi - deadly!) / brownie-eating class (one of the boys in that class shares my birthday). There was the special student class, where he prepared meals by himself for himself, his teacher, the Japanese teacher of English, and me - a final celebratory meal if you will. And there was the elementary class that didn't go as planned, but turned out to be more fun than what the plan called for.

This evening, I met up with a great group of guys at the Nago A&W, chilled for a few hours, ate two scoops of Baskin Robbins 31 flavors ice cream (this year's goal - eat all 31 flavors for all 31 years of life!), and had a good number of laughs, many of which were definitely not safe for use in public, but such is the benefit of speaking English in a country where English is not well known.

And now, just before bed, I am looking forward to the remaining 18 months or so on the JET Program here in Higashi. If things go well, I will leave Higashi satisfied with my time spent here, an advanced level of ability in the Japanese language, a solid grasp of the fundamentals of karate (and the black belt as indication), and a heartfelt appreciation for the five years spent here and the countless little paths and influences that came into my life before now to make this experience possible.

So with 31 years accrued in this body, I can look back at what I remember and be happy and content. And with, what I hope are, many more to come, I can look forward and imagine all the joy waiting to be had.

PS - Happy Birthday to Shan, my 3/3 birthday friend. I hope you had as great a day as I did here.