Putting the F.U. in Funabashi

A mid-sized industrial city on the northern shore of Tokyo Bay, Funabashi, which means "Land of 1,000 Pontoon Bridges" in Japanese, is the city where I will be spending the next 10 months of my life. From what I gather, there's nothing really special about it; another commuter city, home to throngs of office workers whom I assume battle their way onto trains headed for Tokyo every morning. The kind of place where people live arbitrarily. Ala yours truly.

This housing was arranged by my university. My roommate is a 21 year old Japanese guy who has just graduated and is actually starting his first big job on the day I arrive. He told me that the house I'm going to be living in was his grandfather's before he died and that it's "old", though I'm not sure in which sense of the word he means. Hole in the floor for a toilet old (seriously, I would not be surprised), or just not new?

The home is located in Higashi-Funabashi (West Funabashi) and is, from what I've been told, about a 40 minute ride, by train, to my university which is in the center of Tokyo. A commute of this distance is considered pretty good, as even though I'll be living in another prefecture, it will take me less time to get to Tokyo city than it does many people who actually live in the western end of Tokyo prefecture, much like a resident of Bridgeport CT lives much closer to New York City than someone who lives in Buffalo, NY - but on a much smaller scale.

Funabashi seems like a nice place, though I may have to venture to points due East or West for more culturally substantive experiences. Funabashi's most noted points of interest are: Japan's first IKEA, a race track, the country's largest shopping mall, and the site of a 400 million dollar indoor ski slope that went bankrupt and has since been demolished. Way to go, indoor ski slope inventor guy.

But honestly, I can't complain. I'm happy to be living someplace low-key and unassuming. The prefecture of Chiba, which Funabashi is in, is a peninsula that is made so by the waters of Tokyo Bay to the West and the Pacific Ocean to the East. It seems like a pretty nice place, and I've already got ideas for a few day trips down to the shore and the country side in the works.
Also, Chiba city, with a population of about a million, is just a 20 minute train ride to the East and is, I'm sure, worth a visit or two.

To Blog or Not to Blog...

I suppose that's the question. As Bill Shakespeare pukes in his mouth a little, while rolling in his grave.

I can't stand buzzwords, and I find myself reluctant to even mutter this one. It really sounds more like an Eastern European stew than a "high-tech", "cutting-edge" form of mass media that apparently generates rumors and spreads hearsay more efficiently than any old newspaper ever could!
And I should know, because it just so happens that I wrote a fluffy two page paper on "blogs" for an online Communications course just last semester. Allow me to quote myself:

"A weblog, or simply blog, is a web page run by someone who posts daily thoughts, articles or links to be viewed by the general public. These are often posted chronologically and usually have some sort of theme. Many blogs are about humor, politics, entertainment, art or really anything at all."

As you can see, I have a pretty good understanding of what's going on here. I continue:

"Pretty much anybody who has access to the internet can have a blog, which means regular people are given a voice to express themselves and their ideas who would otherwise be left voiceless. This also allows people with interests or views that may not be considered main stream to access a main stream audience. However this is also where questions of content quality may arise."

And let mine be no exception! Finally, my voice can be heard! The voice that was, until now, confined to inane and irrelevant mutterings audible only to the ears of a few fortunate friends. Let me be heard, I say you. Let me be heard!

And I concluded this paper by stating that "blogs should be taken with a grain of salt."
How prescient.
And even though I don't plan on outing gay republicans, exposing Dan Rather or contributing to the journalistic latrine that is celebrity gossip, you should still take what is said here with a grain of salt. Because nothing livens up that bland, tasteless crock of soup like a big ol' heap of the salty stuff. So please, I implore you to indulge.

But for reasons I won't get into here, let's just simply refer to this page as a "journal" or at least a "web log".
The actual reason I'm starting this journal is because I'm moving to Japan in a couple of weeks and I thought this would be a good way to keep in touch with everyone and let them know what I'm up to, or at least a good way to ignore everyone like I do now, except collectively.
So that's the deal - it's here if you want to read it, even comment if you'd like. Though I can't promise that the content will be interesting, substantive or even HERE really. I'm not quite sure how much time I'll have to devote to writing about what I've been doing, because hopefully I'll actually be out doing shit.