Happy New Year's!

Happy New Years! I am headed to Seoul, S. Korea and don't know if I will have the opportunity to post from there. So - enjoy - have an awesome new years and I will update when I return on January 4th.


I love my life in Japan. Things are getting better and better by the day. Today I got paid to study Japanese for 3 hours and speak to a teacher in Japanese for 3 hours. I had dinner with Yumie and her family. Her 80 year old grandfather told me he never imagined when he was in high school (during WW2) that he would ever become friends with an American - especially 60 years later. Incredible. These experiences are ineffable.

I don't even want to write or talk about it in worries that something will go wrong. I mean my ipod broke on me on Monday and today - the day before I go traveling it starts working again. Someone up there loves me, afterall. For now - just know - I am at the right place at the right time in my life. I love Japan, I love the people here, I love the feeling of success by getting through all the daily struggles.

"Certainly travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on deep and permanent, in the ideas of living" - Miriam Beard