Good evening, good morning, and good afternoon to everyone, depending on where you are on this crazy world.  and happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  I especially have much to be thankful for: my family, friends, teachers, and just the fact that I’m here at all.  Brief summary for those that dont read these letters:  went to Tokyo for my B-day, went to Kyoto to visit my sister et al.  schools almost done, the weather is freezing.  write me or I have Charlie and his friend Louisville work your knees over a bit.  skip to shouts.  Now for all of you that have a little time on your hands (those of you are few, so ill try to keep this as dynamic as possible, let me know if these letters are putting you to sleep.  get on with it!):

Imagine Times Square in New York City, at night, multiplied by three.  add this in to the complex street system of downtown boston and subtract the hordes of kids holding TRL signs.  add 15 million people with bulletproof fashion and the money to wield it.  imagine smells and visuals so complex and captivating that you cant concentrate on anything for more than a second or too.  thank god japan is a clean place because you`re definitely not looking down for undesirable things to avoid stepping in.  take all of this and realize that you`re halfway around the world from the place you were born and every person around you is speaking a language generally foreign to you.

Welcome to Shibuya, Tokyo. 

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Konnichiwa minnasan, I apologize for my hiatus (whatever I know you just skim these letters anyway) in writing as well as being lax in responding to individual emails, things have been rather hectic lately.  Japan is a land of eternal busy-ness, and between homework and test preparation, travel plans, the commute, and the constantly slower pace of communication, even finding time to skateboard (my real priorities are straight, obviously) is difficult.  Also, the computers here are archaic and notoriously slow, and many times there are classes in the computer labs at exactly the time I have to write emails.

As of now I am writing from Seoul, South Korea where I am visiting my sister Abby and the other cast and crew members of her astounding and wonderful show De La Guarda.  It has been a good vacation, as these cats live nice: HUGE apartments, heated pool, sauna, hot tubs, game room, downtown Seoul, aka Insadong, aka the Dong, and I got to see the show twice with two packed audiences.  As usual (ive seen it 6 times in NY) the show was terrific and I would encourage any and everyone to see it if you’re in the NYC, London, Buenos Aires, or Mexico City areas.  Check out the websites at the very least, they are very cool.  www.delaguarda.com, or if you want to try the Korean flavor, www.delaguarda.co.kr.  this site can be viewed in English and has pictures of the whole cast.

The most recent Japan adventure that I’ve had was to go to Kyoto with a group of the international students.  Kyoto is the city I lived in for a month during my exchange program in high school, and subsequently derived my interest in Japan from.  While I had seen the sights before (Sanjusangendo, the temple of a thousand Buddha statues, Kinkakuji, the golden pavilion, and Kiyomizu, another massive shrine/temple/old windy neighborhood complex), the real thrill was getting to meet up with my friends and host family from over five years previous, whom I had not until recently spoken to in the past fours years.  It’s interesting and a bit of a surprise to see how much they (and consequently, I) have grown up.  Most of them are about to graduate from college and are working part time jobs.  Being able to communicate in Japanese also threw a spin on things, and even in the brief few hours I was able to see them, I felt as if they could get so much more of an idea about who I was and have become.  For example, before I could not communicate directly with my host family, and had to rely on my bilingual host sister to translate any questions or conversation between us.  Now I can actually talk to the people I spent a month living with, and I think that it became obvious to them how serious and influential a part they played in my life.  Some of my other friends had kept up with their English practice and are now quite fluent, which made catching up a lot easier.

The other interesting part of the Kyoto trip was our accommodations.  We stayed in a very nice Japanese hotel, had an intricate and delicious dinner, and enjoyed the entertainment provided by a Geiko-san (Geisha) and Maiko-san (Geisha in training), who performed and talked to us, and were completely charming.  While it was an incredible and quite rare experience, as normally it is only elite business types that get to meet geisha, and they are becoming less and less popular as the tradition slowly diminishes, I still felt somewhat awkward as a tourist, ignorant and clumsy.  The Maiko-san was only 17 years old, and her formal education was only through middle school.  I asked her if she had any other interests, if she liked to go out with friends to karaoke, for example, and she replied with a perfect smile and laugh that she couldn’t as she lived in the Geisha-house, and her days were filled up learning the intricacies of being what I would guess is the world’s most developed professional personal entertainer.  Talk about cultural difference!  Anyhow it was an incredible weekend, and I can`t wait to go back probably when Abby comes to the Kyoto/Osaka area in late Nov.

OK, that’s the update for now, more to come soon.  Shouts follow.

Family:  its freezing in korea!  the weather in japan as well has gotten quite cold recently, and since my house has no central heating, I’ve been putting my northeasterner layering knowledge to work.   I know you all send your love to Abby I’m so psyched to be here seeing her!!

Mom/Dad: Thanks for sending me some skate magazines, and also the wire transfer went through and I got it on last Friday morning.  Thanks again.

Everyone who emailed me and didn’t get one back:  Im so sorry!  I swear I haven’t forgotten you, Im just so busy.  Seriously, I wish you all were here right now to experience this place.

Maya:  hey good to hear from you, I know Barcelona is rocking.  Ttysoon

Sara P:  hey can you put me on the praxis email list, I want to know whats going on.

Hascy:  any proposals from Italian men yet?

Ela:  phone cards suck.  Period.  Im sorry.

Nigel:  I know you don’t read these letters, but if you happen to read this one, Im coming to Tokyo in about a week and a half to visit a friend and party for my birthday.  I also am thinking about applying to Waseda.  Any chance you could give me a tour?

Tommy:  your costume sounds good.  I was thinking of doing the same, except I’ll go as “token American drunk guy”, or I was gonna be a Mexican soccer player.  Turned out I got up in my sisters show costume and went as her.  Good luck with classes I want to see some art when I get home!

Ela (again):  hey did you get those photos out of the closet yet?

Kristina:  are you winning races yet?  You’re the best.

Bj:  hows the new beau shaping up?

Melissa:  Nippon awaits you. Peace to all, love, and may your days be blessed with many ikebana flower arrangements. D

addendum 06 November 2002:

hey all, sorry for the mix up with the photos and thanks for everyone who wrote me if only to complain.  please keep in mind that these are merely cell phone snap shots and so the quality and size are a little lacking.  “real” pictures have been taken.  speaking of such, i am planning on scanning the 35 plus rolls im expecting to shoot (already about 20-22 down) to CD, and then after a thorough editing, i will be posting them to my website circa early january (ha, i almost wrote “japanuary”) for our collective viewing pleasure (or displeasure).  until then heres a little taste of japan.