Im coming home sooooooon

Today is the 18th of september and I have a couple days left in the country of Japan. Indeed, it will be sad, it will be strange leaving, and it will be slow in seattle. Everything here is so fast, people never slow down. The part I don`t understand is.... why? I have seen people running to catch trains when there will be another in 5 minutes, seen men sleepwalking on the street because they are so tired, why don`t they just sleep in their bed? It just seems like everybody in tokyo is going as fast as they can to get to the same house, the same job, the same tailor, and probably every night to the same bar. It`s sometimes painful to see so many suits walking around and getting on / off of the train everyday, but that is a huge part of what japan is. It seems like an ancient society that has become too modern for its own good, so modern that its culture is rapidly declining. Wow, does this sound negative? I think so. On a more exciting note, my friends are cool! and I got to see Tsujiko Noriko in Shibuya, talked to a homeless Japanese guy for a long time (he was fluent in english) about problems of Japanese society and culture, mostly the same problems as we have in the U.S. or any country. I am going to visit Kaji and his family tomorrow in Saitama!! exciting. tonight is the last big party night so naoko and I will probably see Aki and his friends and make it a fun fun night. Here`s to feeling lost and happy about it!!!! -tyler tyler tyler (by the way the girl in the picture is aya, naoko`s older sister. we were playing badminton in the park near naoko`s apt. fun!!!)