Last night in Tokyo.

Tonight is my last night in Tokyo. I'm driving up to Sendai in the morning and moving into my apartment (though I'm hoping to come back to Tokyo like once a month or so).

I spent the day today running around buying things for my apartment. It is a blessing and a curse to have my relatives here. On the one hand, accomplishing tasks like renting my apartment, setting up my cell phone and bank account, and physically moving to Sendai are made much, much easier by them being here. And I've been given tons of free, used appliances and bedding by my relatives and this girl Aki-chan who works for them. That has saved me a lot of money. I am so grateful to them because setting up life here has been so much easier for me than it will be for the other Fulbrighters. But it's a curse to have them here in a way because it feels like they won't let me try to do anything on my own - even simple things like buying kitchen utensils for my apartment. And they don't seem to think I am capable of living on my own at all! They were even shocked when I said that I had used a rice cooker before (both because I knew how to do it and because I said we use a rice cooker daily back home - which they know since they've all stayed at my house before). Maybe it's because men here are so dependent on women for doing things, I don't know. But it's exhausting. Oh, and one more complaint - everyone keeps asking me the same questions over and over! For example, I think I must have explained at least three times now that everyone in Fulbright is American, that they are going to different cities, that there are both guys and girls, and that I'm the only one in Sendai. I can't figure out if they haven't been paying attention? Or have poor short-term memory? Or are just trying to make small talk and that's all they can come up with? I don't know, but it drives me crazy. Okay. Phew. Got that off my chest.

Today there was a nice and lightly funny scene at my grandpa's sister Aiko's nursing home. She doesn't really remember anything and kept asking if I was Rio's dad and saying Rio was fat. It reminded me a lot of the circular conversations my family has with my grandma back home. I snapped a nice picture of Aiko-obaachan, Kazumi-obachan, Yukari-chan, and Rio-chan (four generations of Wakano women, or Shimizu women I guess) all together. Then tonight, when we went out to eat dinner after leaving Aiko-obaachan, I FINALLY managed to pay for something for everybody. During dinner, I snuck away and told the waitress I wanted to secretly treat everyone and she helped out. Then when I went to pay suddenly everybody saw me (the restaurant was small) and there was Kazumi-obachan trying to stop me. But ultimately, I prevailed. The last few moments of paying were so stressful and rushed that I was all shook up afterward with adrenaline - just from successfully paying a bill. I know, I am lame.

But I can get lamer! Because I just finished building a huge, complicated, beautifully-formatted spreadsheet in Excel for the purpose of tracking my expenses against my stipends. It is truly a work of art. And now here is the off-the-charts dorkiness - I enjoyed making it. There, I said it. I like building spreadsheets. You can blame Wharton. Hopefully some of the other Fulbright kids will be interested in using it.