Life On Mars

Okay, first off I am sorry I haven't written before now but I have been crazily busy.

Since I have come back to America, there are several things that have really stood out for me. First, Americans are freaking fat people. The portion sizing and nutritional quality of the food here is insane. Everything is WAY too big and fatty. This in turn, has led to me having stomach issues for almost the entire week. I feel bloated all the time and I can't usually finish any of my meals. You don't realize how fat people are here until you go somewhere in which being beefy is not the norm. Upside to all of this, I feel better about myself than I have in a long time.

The second thing I have noticed is that people here are for the most part, jerks. They do not seem motivated to be friendly, they seem to enjoy pissing people off or at the very least annoying them, and they are loud. Americans also use their hands a lot when they talk and I have found this kind of distracting. The quality of service that you get from stores and restaurants is also severely lacking.

Now that I have said the negatives, I really do have to say that I have enjoyed being back in America. I like being able to understand everything and I like being able to find English books readily available everywhere I go. I also must admit, I forgot how good looking some of the women are here. I like the breadth of places you can go out to eat and I like the abundance of cheese to buy. I am still not sure how I feel about driving though. Driving feels very odd to me and quite frankly, doing it has made me very nervous. It could just be the car I was driving but I do not think I am as fond of getting behind the wheel of a car as I once was.

My brother's wedding went very well and I am glad I was able to come back for it. I think he and his wife are also happy it is over; last I saw them, they looked like sleep deprived zombies. I have been able to see everyone that I wanted to see while I was back with the exception of Ben's parents but I just didn't have any time to make it up there. Which means, Ben, you have a package for you at my parents' house.

I know this has been a somewhat scattered post and that is largely because I am not sure what to say at the moment. It has been a good but somewhat strange week. I am starting to feel homesick and will be glad once I land in Osaka the day after tomorrow. Maybe once I am back in Japan, I will be able to look back and analyze the trip a little bit more thoroughly. Right now, just being here and following the schedule I have been has overwhelmed me somewhat and it is hard for me to be very critical.

As it stands right now, the one thing I can say is that I wish I could move most of the Americans out of the United States and move most of the Japanese in to replace them. If I could have an America filled with Japanese people, I would be living in a utopia.