i already miss cheese

my first trip to izakaya (japanese bars that serve food). i meet the two other american girls (kara and emily) who live in kumano and see their impossibly cute apartments--smaller but cleaner and in better shape than mine. we have chocolate martinis and meet yoshi and drew, friends of emily’s. i like yoshi’s feet. emily and kara live more in central kumano...only a few minutes to their house on my new bicycle (which, by the way, is a pretty damn nice bike for 80 dollars--even they agree). we walk to a little bar and have drinks and food--fried potatoes, fried tofu, chicken, salad. yoshi understands english and speaks an aussie version. he makes me laugh, and i feel an instant affection for him. toshi is my supervisor mika’s husband. they are the cutest couple ever. they both speak great english and have been to places in colorado and oregon (even the tillamook cheese factory--my disneyland!). talking with mika and sitting in this bar, i feel really happy for the first time in japan. i can’t stop smiling. later kazoo (another aussie-english japanese guy) shows up with tears still in his eyes after watching hotel rwanda. i begin to think i can handle living here, and maybe even enjoy it.