I don't think that I'm a particularly talkative person, maybe compared to the people I normally cross paths with at home.  But since I've been here, the low levels of interaction that I normally get are missing, and the effects are surprisingly strong sometimes.
 Typically, people voluntarily take on a vow of silence, and usually see them through in special rural retreats, far away from civilization.  I am gagged in a way, being here alone like this, but I'm also surrounded by tons of people who gawk at me from a distance, probably assuming I can't communicate at all, and probably thinking it wouldn't be a very good idea to try regardless. I'm not always impatient or intolerant, but there are moments when this really drives me nuts. And having nothing really going on, there's too much time to let it get to me.  I'm disappointed that I didn't think to come up with a backup plan to ensure that I wouldn't be here with nothing to do for 4 weeks, to avoid this.
 I have nothing but free time right now, and am always restless, so I spend most of my time walking. If not running.  This means I spend too much time on the sidewalks.  Here, where they are actually separated from the street by a curb (narrow side streets just have a dotted white line on one side most of the time, if anything), they're split into a wider side and a narrower one - the wide side is often painted red and marked with signs for bikes.  Everyone rides bikes here.  Everyone carts their infants/toddlers around on bikes, while text messaging...  and all the other kids ride their own bikes.  No one wears helmets (I'm mostly thinking about the kids here), no one sticks to one side or follows any kind of rule even though there are apparently some in writing somewhere, seeing as how sidewalks are clearly separated into two different sections and someone spends all the money to make them that way.  It's a free-for-all, and I guess the only reason it works is because people don't freak out here at the drop of, well, a foot.  They get in each others' way constantly because everyone is just careening around, weaving all over the place.  Any of my friends from downtown can probably imagine how psychologically draining it is for me to even just watch this kind of a shitshow, never mind wade through it.  It's also a major reason why I'm actually afraid to get a cheap bike and ride in traffic here, in addition to the whole left-side-of-the-road thing.  It will be good to get up to Sasayama and field work next month, despite the 100-degree, 85% humidity kind of weather that's coming.

I was just looking over some writing that I tried to do in Tokyo last week- just thinking-out-loud stuff that I thought I would edit a little and then upload here.  I'm kind of glad I didn't-  it's pretty bad.  There are things I would like to remember.  There are things I would like to describe to other people who have never been here.  But I am completely disorganized and haven't taken a writing class in years, so being able to control what I'm trying to get across is not something that comes naturally.
The first week was strange - the hotel I chose happened to be in an area with a lot of students but no tourist attractions, which was good but not very photo-worthy.  Jet lag was a bitch - my legs were screwed up for almost 10 days, though fortunately I was able to do a little running despite the marbles in my calves.  Coffee is really expensive - a 20 oz cup (yeah, big, I know) from Starbucks here is over 5 dollars.  That's just regular coffee, no fancypants stuff added.  Being a vegetarian narrowed things down a little, but having no kitchen and then on top of that trying not to spend $25 a day on food meant that I was under-eating pretty hard.  I have to admit that feeling wobbly from hunger was at least a twice-a-day occurrence until maybe 2 days ago (there's a small kitchen in my room in Osaka, and I finally started cooking a little).
 There are large chain stores out here, of course, but small businesses of all kinds are everywhere, so now that I'm here, I can get bananas or oranges as cheap as at home, eggs, avocados, tofu, pickles, and stuff like that at normal prices, from several different spots outside of the local supermarket.  Rice is expensive, but it's Japanese rice, so what can you expect? I could also get my teeth looked at within 2 blocks of my room. Or see a doctor or a chiropractor. Convenience stores are everywhere, and way too convenient. They carry more 'real' food than ours do, so they're a lot harder to avoid.  Most of the time they're pretty cheap, too.  I have yet to go into a Mister Donuts, but it's only a matter of time.  Have you ever seen the Japanese version of donuts? Dear god...  There are cafes, izakaya, bakeries and tiny food stalls everywhere - okonomiyaki (which I recently found out I can actually eat, if I'm careful) udon and soba, takoyaki and yakitori, gyudon, katsu, and all kinds of stuff I can't eat, and sushi of course. and vending machines, damn them all. 
Anyway, it's difficult for me to have so much time off.  I'm always happier with something to do, which is why I decided to spend a month in Osaka taking a class instead of hopping around volunteering at different places, or finding something completely new and different to do (as long as it's cheap).  Now that I'm here, I've realized that the class isn't really a good idea. It's further away than I thought, prices have gone up, and the trains are ridiculously expensive. So I'll save some money by not taking it, but I have already paid for a month in this 'guest house', so I can't just take off and do something else without wasting a lot of money on rent here. So if the class is out, I need to find other ways to try to get speaking practice in.  But I'm here alone, so I spend most of my time, well, alone.  I can't usually just strike up a conversation with any random person on the street.  A few people have come up to talk to me since I got here a couple of weeks ago, but it's still pretty rare.  People mind their own business here just like they do in Boston, for the most part.  Sure, I get stared at pretty often, but again, I'm not in an area with a ton of tourists, so I do kind of stick out, tattoos or not. If anything, though, it makes most people want to talk to me less, not more.  Most of them assume I can't speak any Japanese at all, probably.  I've heard that's a real obnoxious problem for foreigners that actually live here long-term and are pretty fluent.  I can imagine it getting old after a while.

creeping around jinja is so much better at night

relatively sure those are all grave markers

sanmen daikokuten - three headed great black heaven... or something similar. originally a warrior god, these days god of farmers, food and good fortune.  the shrine was very ominous-looking, especially in the dark. 

bridge on the long path to meiji jingu

I don't remember whether I noticed it in Tokyo or not, but soon after I got to Osaka I started seeing a lot of plastic bottles, full of water, outside houses along the side of the road.  I think I assumed the first one I saw was meant to weigh down a sign or something in case of strong wind, but they're all over the place. Apparently, people put them out to keep cats away.  The cats see their reflections on the side or something, and are freaked out, is what I was told.  I think I remember reading or hearing about this somewhere else - pointing more towards cats' intense dislike of water, which makes more sense, though how full, sealed bottles are going to do the job is such a mystery that this must be crossing the line into superstition.  Most of the bottles are a little too dirty to be reflecting much of anything, anyway.
So why would cats be such an issue?  Don't Japanese love cats? They star in almost as many cute photos and Youtube videos as rabbits, definitely.  If not more.  With pancakes and things on their heads.
 The internet proves that there are plenty of pampered house pets in Japan, but alongside that - I definitely noticed in the park in Tokyo where I would go running that there were what seemed like a lot of outdoor cats hanging around. Usually I saw them because they were being fed by people who were sitting at a little bit of a distance, as if the cats would be easily scared away.  I was only in Tokyo for a week, though, so I didn't see all that much.
The alley/street that my guest house in Osaka opens into has several hanging around all day. Normal, right? But then, down south a couple of miles in Nagai Kouen (Nagai Park), where I am going to try to run while I'm here... well, you know how in Boston we have squirrels?  In Osaka, apparently, they have cats. I'm being completely serious.  I saw several people feeding them while I was doing laps, but there were others, all over the place. Just hangin' out.
I also noticed several tufts of sparrow feathers on the sidewalk that looked like they were not naturally shed.  I bet there isn't much of a rat problem, though.

so today i took the train over to a neighborhood called akihabara, which is famous for its electronic/otaku stuff.  that means, well, you can guess i'm sure.  the easiest way to tell the difference, from a distance, between the aisles full of manga for teenage girls and the aisles of manga for pervs is the particular shade of pink.  the porn is a much lighter shade. although honestly i saw a lot of pretty suspect imagery on the shoujo covers as well.
 so watch out. there are multiple stores that have MULTIPLE FLOORS of manga.  And then there are the ones that also have toys.  And Then, there are the ones that sell used toys like an antique shop/flea market. I wish i could have taken photos in some of these places, but i'm sure i would have caused a scene.
i spent way too much money on natsume merch and my pile of manga is getting taller... and i haven't even gotten to osaka yet.  i have a few pictures, but for some reason this trip has been very un-photogenic so far. i think asakusa was just an easy target, and these neighborhoods are going to make me work for my pay.
maybe the longer i'm here, the less conspicuous i'll feel, because i'm not a photographer- so blocking the sidewalk to take pictures just seems like such an obnoxious tourist move.  i need to get over it.

also experienced my first earthquake a couple of hours ago.  it was over in less than half a minute and didn't actually seem very strong, but i was in my room and immediately started throwing all my valuable crap in my bag, about to run out the door when it stopped. the hotel owners said one of that level is a very common occurrence.  it spurred a train of thought that is perfectly simple and pretty obvious, but which had never occurred to me before that moment - i can't really wrap my brain around how profoundly it must shape the development of a culture when the earth moves under their feet like a living thing, on a regular basis... never mind the actual disasters.  we certainly don't have that going for us in the northeast.

also, in most recent news/disappointment, a friend of mine from new york has been touring with his band (asobi seksu- the singer is japanese) and they just happen to be playing a show in shibuya right now. i mean that literally.  i planned on going, but i thought it started later, so i totally missed my window.  that is completely ridiculous, and it's completely like me to waste such an opportunity, isn't it?  i was too busy sitting in a tiny cafe drinking a tiny cup of coffee, eating a very messy croissant, and studying to bother to come back to the hotel early and check the show times.  oy vey.
on that note, the oxford comma is dead!  long live the oxford comma!

upstairs hallway in the ryokan

entrance 

made it in one piece, everything's fine - my major first-world problem right now is that i'm surrounded by restaurants but i can't really afford to spend much on food. a medium coffee at the starbucks here is well over 4 dollars. so i'm in more of a regular neighborhood this time rather than a world-famous temple, so good pictures aren't quite so easy to take. i need to get my photographer mojo going or something because there are good opportunities for photos here, but it's going to take a little more work than last time. also, this is not a very touristy destination so i feel like kind of a wanker taking pictures of everything. maybe when the jet lag subsides i can get my act together, because the few photos i've taken so far are pretty awful...

36 days?  ha!  try 89!

...honestly i'm feeling more than a little overwhelmed, anticipating this.  it's mostly the plane, though.

wish me good wireless; will try to update from tokyo in a couple of days!