Back Posts and Forgetting about What Happened.

I have forgotten lots of the things that went on, and so I obviously can't report on those, and those I do remember will probably have a very bad sense of time, but anyway.
Went and met the modeling people, long story short, didn't fit into the clothes, was kinda pissed, went and tried to meet my parents at the airport but was late, while they were early, woke up on the train in the middle of nowhere, hauled ass back to met them.
Fought with my family for little bits of the whole week, tried to see as many people as possible in a short amount of time, but that excludes my family, finished my packing, unfinished my packing, met some more people, refinished my packing, went with my family and the Fukuda's to Hakone, which was amazing, did some of this and that, and didn't want to spend anytime sleeping because I wanted to do a lot more stuff than I possibly could, might have won a bet, had a good bye party, left.

Deep Breath.

Something like that.

Anyway, I am rural Minnesota, and it is rather dull.

My first day back.

I have been in Morris, Minnesota for a little over a day. It is kinda...different from what I am used too. Within 30 minutes outside of the airport, I had spotted dozens of differences just in architecture and planning/design. Who needs roads this wide?!?!? Wait, nevermind, I see why.

Wow, since when did everyone around me get so white and large?!

Anyway, I sat around the house, try to practice calligraphy without a teacher, which will be kinda difficult, but I have everything I need, and I want to get better, so I think I will keep doing that.
I walked over to the university and saw my parents at work, walked over to the gym and got my membership card, went home, and did more calligraphy.

I will start doing backposts for those last 2 weeks of so I was busy, probably sometime this weekend.

I am going back to the Twin Cities tomorrow morning to kill some time in the day and then meet Alex at the airport.


Peter

ただいま/tadaima/I'm home.

Just about to go to bed in my first night back in the USA. I flew from Narita from Minneapolis, and then we drove out to Morris. Doesn't get much more different between Tokyo and Morris.
I will keep things updated as they go.

お休みなさい
oyasuminasai
Good Night

The Last Post from Japan.

Sorry I am have been out of touch recently, I have had things on my hands. Anyway, I leave Japan for Morris, Minnesota tomorrow, which will be a very large change.
I will give a pretty much day by day account of the last 2 weeks when I get home, but right now I need to put the finishing touches on my suitcases, and get to bed. It is going to be a long day tomorrow.

It is over. It had its ups and its downs, and I don't really know what to think about it right now. I have felt in the last month and a half or so that I was living with the Fukudas were a really good feeling for me, and that I want to come back sometime to do something. Messenger? Study Calligraphy? Both? Neither?

Who nows.

But for now,

Peter Loewi, signing out.

あばよ
abayo
so long

Ebisu Miss and Out.

I did another messenger race last night. We met at Aoyama Koen, then moved to Ebisu Garden Place, where the race was. Not a usual alley cat, but more of a race. We would race around Ebisu Garden Place, first with a paced lap, then the first lap, then after the first lap, the last three riders at each lap would be pulled from the race! I thought it was a great format, and place, and all together really sweet, but a crash on the first lap caused the organizers to stop the race. Something happened to someone, but nobody really told me about. I saw a little bit of blood as I was passing the person, but they looked OK to me.

I am currently sitting in a net cafe waiting until I go to meet the people about modelling.

And then. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My family is coming!

Dammit.

That was dumb.

I went for a bike ride today. I rode and rode and rode and rode and rode some more.
I found a nice place for a short rest, and lay down and stretched out. A couple minutes later I sat up with a jolt and spoke outloud to myself (I do that a lot)

"WHAT THE HELL DROVE ME TO RIDE MY BIKE TO THE BEACH!"

I was originally going to ride to Norie's house and back, but I couldn't find my way there, and I saw a road sign that was taunting me. It said "Kamakura Kaido(road)". So, I took the challenge, and rode my bike to the Fujisawa/Enoshima/Kamakura/Shonan area. Except of course Kamakura Kaido doesn't go all the way to Kamakura, so I had to ask at a police box.
Me: I'd like to go to Kamakura but...
Police Officer: By bike?
Me: Yes.
PO: I don't think you can. Its far. Really far.
Me: That's OK, I have all day and I used to race bikes.
PO, touchs my quad: WOW! OK, take route 16, then 246, then ask someone else because its too far for me to know the way.

It was only like 130 kilometers round trip, not super far at all.

Peter

YUI

http://www.yui-net.com/
I was talking around in Shibuya tonight because I was looking for something to do, and I walked into HMV, a big music store, and started listening around. I almost bumped into somebody, and sorta apologized, and saw that they were writing on this display. I was 'what are they doing that for. Wait, the display and the person look similar! Just because she was there, I had to listen to the music that was on display, and I spoke like a whopping 5 words to her, got a sorta 'thank-you' bow as she was leaving a bit of a wave.

Pity I didn't get wait I had gone looking for that evening.

On the other hand, I did get a phonecall asking me to come to model on the 10th.

Peter

Cooler than you.

I just called my old school.

I passed the calligraphy exam.

I also had (have? not really sure on what the teacher was talking about) something displayed in (or in the magazine, or something related to) the Nippon Budoukan.

And I got a trophy for it.


However, none of the stuff has come to the school for me to pick up yet, so I will have to wait another week before I call the school and ask if they have come, and then I can go and pick it up.

How cool is that?!?! A calligraphy TROPHY!!!!

Sore Loser.

I did another messenger race today. First I rode the long way to the start, then I raced my ass off, then I did I second race, and then I rode home. I hurt really really badly.
We had two hours to collect as many stamps from Yamanote Line stations as we could, which was pretty hard, because we had to get off of our bikes and run around the stations looking for them as well!
I am out of shape. However, I know my way around Tokyo pretty damn well!

The main race was kinda sad for me, because I worked my ass off, worked with this one guy the whole time, and we got 14 stamps, which would have put us tied for like 6th place. But, we missed the deadline. I was 2 fucking minutes late. There was this point, with 25 minutes left, to either get to the goal, or try to do one more, and we could see the station from out current location, it was just a ways off. My legs started cramping up sprinting towards the park where the goal was, and I knew that I was pretty fucked. I was, of course, the youngest competitor, which makes me a little proud of myself now that I know that I am pretty strong, if at least only in a directional sense.

Really makes me want to take the job.

The second race the 'double dash' was a quick sprint down from the goal to this bike shop, and we were supposed to find a guy in the park outside of the bikeshop, get an egg from him, and take it back to the goal without braking the egg. I think I took about 10th in that.

There is another race on the 9th, which I will do.

Peter

A great son and brother.

I was on my way to a club last night (it was boring, I left early) when I got asked to be a model. The guy took my picture several times, and said I would get a call in about a week if I made call-backs. If I do, I will skip going to the airport to pick up my family to go to the rehearsal for the shoot, which is on the 20th, the day before I leave.

Leaving. It is now March, the last month I might ever be in country. I told my dad that I wanted to take the messenger job (they told me that they want me to turn 18, but that I definately caught their eye) and he got kinda mad at me. I guess it might be kinda hard to start a job as a bike messenger in a foreign country when you are a high school dropout.
By the way, I am probably the smartest person on the planet ever to quit/be kicked out of high schools on two continents.

School. I should probably go back to school. Ethan Krow (Crow? sorry if I spelled that wrong) and his brother and I were thinking about renting an apartment, which would give me a place to live in Portland as I take my one stupid class at Lincoln, and take classes at PSU via Link, and take classes at Reed via Reed Young Scholars, and work at PDOT. However, I hardly even want to be associated with the people at Lincoln after all the stupid shit that we have gone through. I'm not even sure if I want to speak in front of a class like that. If they don't want to hear what I have to say, fuck em, then they don't deserve to hear what I have to say.
I still have to send out some emails about doing Link and RYS and working, but I dont want to spend anytime doing that because I have so little time left in this country, and I want to make what little time I have left really enjoyable, so that I have a desire to come back.
I thought about taking Chinese at either PSU or Reed, and go to China like Alex.

Alex. My older brother has always been an important figure in my life, and, like most younger brothers, wanted to be just like him.

But then I realized, I wanna be my own damn person, I wanna be me! Besides, Alex is kind of an asshole.

But then again, I'm kind of an asshole too. I wanna be my own person, but I don't really like the person that I have begun.

But I can't really explain why. Even to myself.


I had a pretty lousy calligraphy lesson today. The charaters weren't especially hard, but I just couldn't write anything. When the teacher asked me at the end of the usual time if I wanted to stay and keep writing like I usually do, I said 'No, I should probably end now'. First time I have done that in 8 months.

I am going to the gallery tomorrow afternoon to show my calligraphy, and have it cretiqued(sp?) by the calligrapher who shows his stuff their. I hope that goes well.


Considerally all that I have, and have access too, I am doing a pretty shitty job of enjoying myself and being well off.




ps. Happy 54th birthday Dad. It would probably be a lot more enjoyable if you thought of yourself as six nine-year olds, because they have a lot more fun together than one 54year old. Just a thought. But, people tell me that I think to much.