autumn tactics

So it seems that already this plan is working (two blog entries in two days), but as with many things, consistency is far more deserving of credit than intensity. Making movements to keep a full schedule and will myself to a productive and balanced life, I started the ball in motion this morning to meet with friends, both this weekend in Tokyo and at the end of the month back in my “home” of Nara.

I will try to spend some time at lunch today looking at my maps so I can get a firm idea of the zones in which I’d like an apartment, so I’ll be sure to have a good sense of where to hunt for real estate offices on Saturday.

Although it seems a little white-collar bourgeois, I can’t help but feel energized and pleased with all of the potential I possess right now to make a healthy and profitable life. Fascinating how strong and impulsively my spirit crests.

This is my first blog entry using my Handspring, it’s a little strange because of course in being “universal”, you give up some degree of comfort and customization. I have the PDA on a little stand (barely staying on), and at about a 30 degree rotation so the IR sensors in the keyboard and Visor are within line-of-sight from each other. I guess I’m thankful I don’t have fat or stubby fingers. It’ll take some getting used to, especially the spacebar, but since I don’t really have to look at what I’m typing; just get the main idea down, I think I can lay the PDA sideways and just go at it. However, it looks that I’ll need a sizeable book or folder to put the keyboard on. Cool! Isn’t vanguard technology wonderful in a, quirky, inconvenient sort of way?

Kotoshi mo youroshiku onegaishimasu!

It’s 2004, year of the monkey, year of me starting out full in Japan, year of me being 24, year of mae-yaku (before bad luck). That’s a lot of years. Japan is all about hitting the ground running, and it’s appropriately explemplified by the first thing we’re doing for work today is going directly to temple to pray for prosperity and unity in this year. I’m generating a list of all the stuff I’m going to storm in the next 360 days. Of course, I’ll feel bashful if I don’t accomplish hardly ANY of these things this year, but as I read in the advice column of the Free-Lance Star while home at my Grandmother’s, it’s better to let people know what you’re trying to accomplish when it comes to life changes, because then it’s more firmly resolved in your mind. So, without further ado, here’s my top six (in no particular order at time of writing, but that may change).

1. Get a living domicile with ample room, privacy, comfort, creativity, and conveniece (of culture and closeness).
2. Develop a consistent and healthy diet
3. Develop a consistent and healthy exercise regimen
4. Enhance my art in one way greatly or several to a lesser degree
5. Attain a business level of mastery in the Japanese language
6. Be appreciative and supportive of my friends, foreign and domestic

Best of luck to you! (and to me…)