Visiting Friends and Travel Plans

Nabe the first night with Yukine~

 The end of a busy weekend always leaves me a little sad and at the same time, a little relieved. I love being busy, constantly moving, and hosting people at my house whenever I can. If Japan has taught me anything, it would be that being around other people makes me a happy and healthy individual. But... I also really need those moments where I can flop down on my coach and just breath, play a Mixtapes song on my guitar, eat an unplanned meal made up of whatever is around my house, or toss my clothes on the floor (I mean, who doesn't?). Sometimes I like to think that I don't need those moments of reprieve and that I can be active 100% of my waking hours. But whenever I start thinking like that, I hit a small breaking point where I just get anxious about having to do something. Like last night. After driving Yukine back to the station to catch her 9:30 bus, driving against horrid traffic to take a practice test for the N2, and having dinner with one of my friends who was in "Saturday Night" mode, I just wanted to crash the second I hit home. But I couldn't. I had to call someone back and we ended up talking on the phone for over an hour. Not that the conversation was bad, but I ended up getting so anxious before calling this person back. All I wanted to do was ignore everything and fall asleep.... but for whatever reason, the overly-social part of me wouldn't allow that to happen and only brought on anxiety until I picked up the phone and completed the task.

Me with Yukine and Kiyoko in Ma'chama (as they used to call it)

However, other than that, I had a great weekend with one of my amazing college friends (my itoshii, Yukine) who is finally living over here in Japan too! Since she lives in Mie-ken right now, I showed her around Kochi (and she'll be showing me around Matsusaka around the New Year). We went to see some amazing views at the cape and the top of mountains (went to Katsurahama and Godaisan again, twice in a week!), and also went to visit a mutual friend we worked with who lives in Matsuyama. The drive there was kinda crappy because of the rain, but the misty mountains are always worth seeing along the way, and we got to have dinner with her and take Purikura. I also got my Personal ETC card in the mail on Saturday!!!

What this means is that I can take the highway throughout Japan for wayyy cheaper than I would without it. I may have mentioned it before, but just to get to the other major cities on Shikoku (like Takamatsu, Tokushima, and Matsuyama) it costs about 2900-3500 yen one-way. That's only about 1.5-2 hours driving (at 70mph)!! Ridiculous, right? Well, with an ETC card, I can get to those same places for about half (1200-1500 yen one-way). Still pricey, but with half of my band mates living in Tokushima, it's going to cut my costs down significantly. Which I need, because I bought two plane tickets this weekend as well. :x One to Korea for the holiday (going Dec 26-30) and one for Tokyo in early December (Dec 7-11th). Can't wait to get back to Tokyo for a couple of days! I'm planning on visiting IUC in Yokohama to get the feel for the school and the area along with a lot of soaking in the big city~