Wall painting at the Happy Mexican. Awesome Fajitas!

Came back to America on the 8th of December, and I am unable to do roughly half of the stuff I set about to do here. I am a person who likes to get their money's worth. And so far I can't justify the cost of the entire trip to America yet. I am keeping a tally of any value of whatever it is I am doing here.

I had one hell of a welcome home though! When I left Osaka the weather was pretty warm I was able to wear shorts on most days, and the skies were clear and sunny. When I came back to Memphis the weather was cold and dreary, and it rained hard my entire first day. Also I got sick on that first day, and I am still sick right now. I decided to not let the rain keep me from seeing my friends, I only had a few of their numbers written hastily on a napkin. And almost all the friends I called said they couldn't hang out either because they were working or because they just didn't feel like it. WELCOME HOME!

Actually it wasn't all that bad my mom meet me at the airport with Hummus and Pita Chips yummy. But she also told me some ridiculous news. But Hummus trumps all, especially spicy Hummus.

The things I wanted to do while visiting America, (Basil said not to say "visit" since I am America more on him in a later installment) are take my new projector and PS3 back with me to Japan, see my friends, eat food I can't easily find in Japan. Upon coming back I realized my new Projector is pretty large and there is no way I could take this on a plane with me, so that is a failure. I can still take the PS3 with me so I am probably saving like $50 - $100 shipping that to Japan, still doesn't make up for the cost of actually coming to America. And as far as seeing my friends, we will just get to that later. I have been able to eat some food that would either be impossible to find or needlessly expensive in Japan, so that is a success.

Now as far as my friends. Of course they change over time, people change in general it's part of life. But they have changed dramatically this time around. And just because change is a part of life, doesn't mean I have to like or accept these changes. The most striking change is that for the most part most of my friends have become angry alcoholics, there is a fine line between a fun loving drunk and a bitter alky. And frankly they aren't straddling that line very well, at least in my eyes. But allow me to elaborate on this, so I won't just be "whining" like my friends said I was (lol).

So since I live in Japan I decided that instead of just letting the stuff I leave behind sit around and collect dust why not let other people use it and get enjoyment from it. I let friends borrow tons of video games, DVDs, thousands of dollars worth of hi-end audio equipment, my old DLP projector, clothes, and shoes. I mean you name it, and I probably let people borrow it while I live overseas. In fact I have lent out so many things, to so many different people that I have lost track of a lot of it, and it doesn't bother me generally. Another thing that doesn't bother me is when some of my stuff is accidentally misplaced or broken. I learned in college that stuff will get broken a lot even if you take great care of stuff, electronic equipment will still break down or malfunction it happens. So why am I bringing this up? Well there is a difference between accidents and malicious actions. And this time around I am facing malicious actions.

This time when I returned I decided to get back a few of my games and DVDs to take back with me. No problem, I mean I actually knew who had the things I wanted back. I meet my friends and Huey's and told them that I wanted some of my stuff back, they told me they had pawned it. I laughed because I thought it was a joke, I mean why would they pawn it? They had both gotten new jobs and were making more cash, so it's not like they were struggling, plus Memphis is a cheap place to live. So we went to chill at their apartment, and I was like alright jokes over were is my stuff at? And guess what they actually did pawn MY stuff!?! I asked them why they pawned stuff I let them borrow, because it made no sense to me. One of them immediately started yelling at me, and his logic was that over a year ago I accidentally took their copies of two games. Which I apologized for years ago, and even gave them some gifts from my old city in Japan. So what did they do in return they got bitter over something insignificant, and instead of accepting my apology for a genuine accident, they decided to pawn my stuff off just to be dicks. And as if that wasn't enough they demanded that I replace the two games from a year ago. What I did was an accident their actions were deliberate.

And it doesn't end there either, they alluded to violence to get their motives accomplished. They explained how 1 year ago (that's one full year ago) they were going to beat my ass for a genuine mistake I made, on the information that I received from another friend. If they were going to beat anyone's ass I would say fight the guy who told me that they were my copies of the game. And it isn't even like I broke into their house and stole this shit either, one of the guys was there and I was like I think these are mine and he was like yea okay. So they were alluding to still trying to fight me today, which is crude and silly. I would expect people to automatically escalate things to violence in Atlanta but I was disappointed to see this kind of thing happening amongst my own "friends" in Memphis.

And then of course there is the shit talking that comes with excessive drinking. Several of my friends including some of the friends previously mentioned have decided to just flat out talk trash to me. Why? Because I refuse to just get shit faced drunk with them, and it's not like I won't drink with them at all, I will have a beer or two, but I don't really want to just sit around and drink a whole handle of whiskey with people who are bitter about their job but at the same time trying to impress their co-workers (who are usally around now too) at my expense. Talking shit to me to impress your co-workers is pretty low, in my book. I still have about 4 or 5 friends who are still the same easy going people I remember so that is great. But these days it seems that my really good friends are my friends in Japan. I appreciate their open mindedness and acceptance of all lifestyles. Only in Japan can I be a part of a large group of people consisting of: heterosexuals, bisexuals, lesbians, alcoholics, smokers, non-smokers, businessmen, hippies, people who don't drink and bar tenders. I would never dream of hanging out with such a varied friend base, ALL AT ONE TIME, in Memphis. Perhaps in California something like that is possible but not in Memphis, I have to keep separate groups of friends to avoid clashes whereas in Japan friends of my friends are my friends by default.

But this trip has some redeeming factors I am enjoying this time sent with my family. So that is value added! But man I would be super pissed if my family wasn't here showing me the love they are. There is more I want to say in this especially about all the chaos that is happening in Japan since I am not there to handle shit. But I will save that perhaps for later, getting ready to hit the gym.