Nakano

This is my street. Right now I’m working on moving the [UCM][1] over to its own subdomain, and while all the huge numbers of files are [flying through thin air][2] and my ceiling is doing its leaking thing, I went outside to get a Pepsi. Outside my building there’s a shirtless young guy talking cheerfully into a phone, and as I walked by I noticed that right now our environs smell a lot like 611 Marsh Street, the house wherein a large number of fond memories were created during my freshman year at [St. Norbert College][3]. Ryou from Japan, Philipp from Germany, Benoit from France, and, ah, a Spanish guy all lived at 611, and we used to have huge international-parties at which over a dozen nationalities would often be represented. I was known for always having a Pepsi in hand rather than partaking in the abundant reserve of beer. Tets and I also used to go over there every Friday night to play mah-jongg with Ryou and Eri, and that was pretty much my first exposure to real Japanese culture. We’d play for hours straight, and I’d do my best to decipher the weird foreign language I’d never really heard much of before. We’d make Japanese meals and I’d try to brave all the weird foreign food I’d never tried before. One night this girl Hiroko showed up, but that is an entirely different story. *^_^* So those memories, the laughing guy on the phone, and the perfect weather all came together in about one instant and just felt really dang good. I’m in Japan, it’s summer, everything’s cool. My biggest immediate worries are how I’m going to move all of my sites over to CSS and have them conform to HTML 4.0, and how I’ll find enough time to read all my manga and play all my video games. I’m doin’ all right. [1]: http://ucm.metalbat.com [2]: http://www.apple.com/airport/ [3]: http://www.snc.edu