Sendai Busu-ko, Akita Bijin

I went up to Sendai on Tuesday and Wednesday to check out the city, Touhoku Daigaku, and rent my apartment. Sendai looks like it's going to be a comfortable place to live - lots of tree-lined avenues and little shops to explore. Though it's definitely not going to be very exciting. It reminds me a lot of Philadelphia in the way my life is set up there - my school is over the river to the west from downtown, and that downtown leaves something to be desired. After driving around looking at a bunch of old apartments, there were 2 that I liked. One was pretty big with 2 rooms, and the other a bit smaller with one room and a lofted sleeping area. I was pretty stuck, but after talking to mom I realized I wanted the smaller one because (1) it's closer to school, (2) it's newer, and (3) i like that it has a lofted bed area. It's plenty big for my tastes too. Now I only have to learn how to cook :P ...

I also met this year's Sendai Fulbrighter. She was able to give me lots of good advice, and we had a decent discussion of Japanese economics.. but she wasn't .. the type of person I usually hang out with. I'll just say that. We're pretty different.

Last night, I looked at a bunch of pictures and videos of when my relatives here were younger. It was pretty cool - they had some pictures from the 50s, and Tokyo was remarkably different. This house I'm staying in existed at the time, but has been changed significantly since then (most of all, it was traditional Japanese style then and now is very westernized. The streets were dirt in this neighborhood. Amazingly, the park at the end of the block existed back then too, though most of the rest of the block didn't. Looking at those pictures and videos made me think about how I always can't figure out if I should be annoyingly taking pictures constantly, or just enjoy the moment. I haven't really taken enough pictures I think. And whenever an old video of something ended, I would think "if only you had video taped a little bit more ..." But when you're taking pictures of something, it kind of ruins the moment a little bit. It is kind of a bother to people, it breaks the rhythm of things, and removes you from your surroundings. But then when you look back, you have all those memories. So is it better to not enjoy the moment as much? Or to have the memories of that moment? You can't have it both ways - the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle for cameras. Eh, screw it, I'll just take a ton of pictures.

Tomorrow I go to Korea. I am VERY excited about this trip.. especially because I get to see Hyunjoo after being apart for 3.5 months!