Two Posts in One Week? He's Mad, I Tells Ya! Mad!

Just some thoughts in this one, rather than my weekly list of misdeeds and misadventures.

Quick note to Dad: The Risk of Being Alive by Brian Hancock. Don't buy it. It may be a present. You should still read it sometime. You'd enjoy it.

This Sunday will mark 4 weeks until I leave for home. As I have mentioned before, time here is so funny. Some nights I'll look up from my work and it will only be 7:00, while other nights I am scrambling to get things done before 11. I feel like I do the same amount of work every night, but I differ wildly on my sense of time. I'm starting to go a little crazy having almost every moment of my free time planned out. I'm a free spirit, man, I have to wander when the mood strikes me. Unfortunately my schedule and transportation situation do not permit me such freedom. The yoke of Japanese University life does not rest easy on my shoulders. The trip to the mountains would have been good for me. I would have gotten a break from everyone and everything, but that's how my chips have fallen this time. I seem to have exhausted my prospects around Kasugai for wandering in and around forests, and cities don't thrill me all that much. The concrete jungle, if you will, holds no attractions for me. I want to walk and feel dirt, reach out and feel trees, I want to be able to bend over and scoop up some earth and smell it. I finally got my birthday card from Grandma today. It was apparently missent to Thailand. It says so right on the envelope. How you confuse Thailand and Japan, I do not know, but it was done. This card has a picture of a compass and a map on it. How I wish I had those two things.

If you would have asked me when I was a child, what I would be doing at this point I would not have guessed this. Not in a million years. Where will I be in 10 years? I haven't the foggiest. I hope I'm happy. I love my dad. He's perhaps the greatest influence on my life. I love to tell people how much like him I am, how cool of a guy he is. How I hope when I'm 55 I'm still doing as well as he is. However, I don't know if I'm cut out for his type of job. A suit everyday, calling on offices day in and day out. Then again, he travels a lot. Almost every day a new place. Sure, it's in the same general area, but I think he has the wanderlust, same as me. Maybe I even got it from him. He is my father, after all. Dad, when you read this, as I know you will; this is for you: Let's go somewhere. I don't care where. I want the outdoors, I don't care when we go, it could be snowing and windy and I would still go out. Nothing can stop the Hurst men.

I made a list today to make sure that I have everyone's present. There are still a few that I need to get. I realized as I was making it, I have gotten myself remarkably little. Beyond food, I don't have a whole lot of things for myself from this trip. Most of my money has gone to gifts. I'm fine with this. I miss my family. A lot. I often wonder if I'll come back changed in any significant way; it is 3 months, after all. However, it's only 3 months. It doesn't seem that dramatic when you look at it in a wide scope. It sure feels a lot longer here on the ground. I haven't done all the things I want to do, and won't get a chance to. I'm only 22 though, I still have a long time to get things done. I might end up back here. By "here" I mean Japan. No more university for me, thanks very much all the same. Missing you all,