Wow.

This post is going to be a little long...my mind is in about a million different places right now, and a lot of things have happened recently. Mostly good...some, not so much, but mostly pretty good.

The first one: I had a job interview on Friday, and they emailed less than one business day later to let me know that I got the gig. That means they liked me, I suppose. I start on April 9th. The salary is good, the vacation is spectacular at over 6 weeks (not including the ample national holidays) in a contract year, and the best part is the fact that the company seems to generally give a shit about the people who make them their money. I'm really happy about that. You know what? Screw happy, I'm ecstatic. This job is a rarity in Japan. I'm a little overwhelmed.

The job itself: I'll be teaching first through fourth graders at an elementary school. I'll be reading, speaking, and studying Japanese every single day at work. With this job, the possibility of achieving some real fluency in Japanese becomes a possibility. More than a possiblity. One of my goals here is to become conversant in Japanese, so this job is more than a paycheck and stability and good times with the cutest damn children you've ever seen...it'll help me to accomplish one of the things that I really wanted from my trip to Japan.

2nd thing. I just moved out of Ichikawa into Tokyo proper. My commute time is reduced by about...no joke...3 to 4 hours per day. Yeah. I've been going home in between my split shifts, where I need to kill about 6 to 7 hours, and it's been driving me inexorably over the cliff. Not any more.

My new place is nice. My room is bigger. The bed is more comfortable. My roommates are cool, although my old roommates were (with some exceptions) pretty awesome as well. However, most of my roommates here are Japanese, so, again, I'm presented with more opportunities to improve my Japanese skill. I'm noticing a trend.

The area is also nice, too. I'm currently about 20 minutes, by walking and train, from Shibuya, which is basically the heart of Tokyo. I can make it to my current job in about 25 minutes. I may have to move closer to future job at some point, but I'll worry about that later. I can handle up to an hour without going too insane. More than that might tip the scales, but we'll see how it goes.

3rd thing. I had my first couchsurfer, the girl who I stayed with in Korea. It was all right, but definitely a mistake to host while I was moving. I was just stressed and exhausted and it wasn't really ideal. I couldn't take her out and show her the town like I would have if I'd been operating at 100%. Anyway. Live and learn. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going a little nuts by the time she left this morning, but, hey. You need your space, especially when you've been moving and going to job interviews and watching your current company--lying-ass sack of crap company, that is--blow up in your face.

4th thing. The ex and I had the big drawn out email session last week, as previously noted, and it was good to get everything in the open. It's taken virtually all of my anger way, which is good, but the loss of the hurt and anger has let some of the sadness to float back to the top. Even that is different, though, because I've realized that some of my good memories weren't nearly as good as I'd thought. Not for her, anyway. So the sadness, while still sad, is muted from where it was before.

I brought a rock with me to Tokyo, a bit of red and gold sand-beaten glass or plastic or maybe even actual quartz or something, although I doubt it. It was a small memento from a trip last spring, which now feels like a million years ago. I found it, while moving, and I realized that it didn't mean what I thought it did. I thought that it was a tangible piece of beautiful moment that I wanted to hold onto, but the reality is that the moment just isn't what I thought it was. I can't make it something that it's not. It wasn't that it was bad...I just didn't have the whole story until now.

I put it into my pocket. Yesterday, while walking around my new neighborhood, I found a street that followed a canal, deep and green. I took the stone out of my pocket and climbed up the ledge and I leaned onto the rail protecting the canal from the people, or vice versa. I took it out and I looked at it for a moment, and then I gently tossed it out into the water and watched the pretty red and gold sink down into the green murk of the canal. I'm happy to let it go because it means that I can let go of other memories, too.

Regarding memories, I recommend a movie by Akira Kurosawa called Rashomon. It's an extremely dark film about a samurai's murder, but the film is ultimately not about violence, but about the deceptiveness of recollection and the tricks that our minds play on us. I have my memories, you all have yours, and somewhere in between lies the truth of the matter.