status quo

Lucy has been in Japan the last 18 days - so Ive been very busy. I havent bothered posting much, because I know shes taken a whole loads of photographs, which I can steal once shes back home and uploads them. Its easy to remember all thats been going on once I have the visual aids to remind me. Reciting 2 weeks of fun is too much pressure for my slowly withering memory. due to a massive load of panic messages from my parents over the weekend - which has done nothing but stress me out - I apologise for the gap between this post and the last. As I tried to express in a previous post, the more I settle in here and life starts to feel very normal, it actually becomes harder to find things to write about. 

The things which seem so shocking and novel at first arrival really do start to become the mundane - so what I write about in this blog is now more anecdotal than observational. And unfortunately, for my parents, my life isnt exciting enough for there to always be a story to tell. My lack of blog updating is not because I have been kidnapped by Somalian pirates - more likely it means that Ive spent the last week working, studying and watching crap on tv. However, there is one thought I`d like to share. Turning 25 last month gave me a little panic. I feel that every birthday after 21 is bitter sweet. Now that Im not waiting to legally be allowed to do anything - birthdays really do just mean that I am getting older and should be that much more on track with my life. 

 I find it difficult to adopt the mentality that age is just a number and you should just take life as it comes. I started worrying about the future, "how long am I really going to be in Japan for? what am I really going to get out of this? do I need to be here? why am I here? What am I going to do next?" blablabla.... Sometimes it takes the advice of a stranger to give things a bit of perspective. I met a very optimistic 28 year old man over the weekend, a JET from Saitama, who told me his perspective on things and his back story. And now, somehow, I feel really great about it all. I am happy here - thats all that counts. I know Ill figure it all out - I just have to stop pressurising myself to do so. I just got here, so whats the rush to move onto the next thing?