3000+!!

Hey pals- you've passed the 3000 mark on views, so thanks for reading!

In lieu of the celebration, I will attempt to keep a theme of threes for the post.

First, I will begin with the number three. In Japan, three is さん, which is romajinized as san but pronounced like sun (sort of). The Japanese sun is a harsh one. I'm not exactly sure why. I could look it up, but I don't care enough. I just know that's what everyone says. Maybe it is pollution? Wakadonai (I don't know). I do know that I went to the beach this weekend and got a lovely sunburn. That was, of course, mostly my fault. I think that every year, at least once, the sun reminds me that I need to reapply my sunscreen. 2013 lesson: learned. In America, I remember commenting with friends on how silly it seemed that Asian people, especially women, would use umbrellas in the sun. Let me say now, that is the least of it. There are cute umbrellas made only for UV protection (I call them sunbrellas), long-armed UV gloves, UV scarves, UV shirts and pants, and big hats. I saw a woman once on the bus with full pants on, a long-sleeved shirt, gloves, a scarf, and a hat on, but fanning herself like mad and wiping away sweat with her handkerchief. So silly. That's something that almost all Japanese people have- a handkerchief. A lesson learned quickly when almost none of the public bathrooms have paper towels or hand driers. I gave in and purchased a sunbrella, which was a fantastic buy. Makes standing at the bus stop half-bearable. But also some of my friends who are closer to my age who are Japanese just don't care about the sun or actually want to get tan. To each his own.

Second, I have become hyper-aware of any three points that could potentially make triangles when I am walking. Why? Spiders. Spiders spiders spiders. It is the rainy season and never before has "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" song felt so true or repetitive in my life. There are spiders everywhere here and you can bet that if they can find a triangle, they will make a web. These spiders are luckily harmless, eating only bugs, but still not something you'd like to walk into...unless I guess if you're really into spiders. I have only seen two real monster spiders, at the beginning of spider season. With their legs, they were about the size of my palm. GROSS. They were both right outside my front door and within about a week of each other. Not the best welcome home from work, I'd say. Mostly though, spiders are anywhere between the size of a pinky-fingerpring to thumbprint. Maybe sometimes a print from a big thumb. Manageable though.

Third, I will point out that I have almost been in Japan for 3 (X2) months! So 6... loosely related to three, but three topics on three was more difficult than I thought it would be. Really though- 6 months. That's half of the time I will be here. Yes, I will announce it- I am officially only going to be in Japan for one year. Although there are many reasons, I think the main reason is that I have so many other places to be a gaijin. My list of places to travel and things to do is ever-growing. But Japan has been and continues to be an amazing and, naturally, life-changing experience for me.