on my mind

I have a bank account! The experience was surprisingly difficult. Not that it should be easy for an English speaker to open an account in a generally non-English speaking country. Surprising because I should have expected problems and did not. After all, I had with me a fluent Japanese speaker and bank account holder, Misa. They would not allow her to write my address in kanji on the application form, thus rendering her somewhat useless. She was able to explain my account's 5 million yen limit, which shouldn't be a problem.

We went back to Kurume school after a good 45 minutes of simple account opening. I ate the last chocolate in the box--not because I was really in the mood for chocolate (rarely, actually), but because I just couldn't stand that no one would eat it. "It's very Japanese, I hate it," Misa complained. "Well, then allow me!"

The train smelled like wet dog on the way home. A real treat.

I have created a list of very doable excursions that I would like to finish by Christmas.
It goes as follows:

Karatsu Kunchi Matsuri--Nov 2-4 festival (the pictures look like great fun!)
omoshiro-ichi--Dazaifu flea market (a flea market next to a shrine?? delightfully sacrilegious!)
Tachiarai Heiwa Kienenkan--small WWII memorial museum
Narita-san--climbable Buddha in Kurume (I feel it's my duty to find out exactly how this works)
Hiradoshima Issho-raku--400 year-old erotic drawings (a friend now refers to it as "ancient smut," but I would like to check it out)
Nagasaki--in December there's a Dutch area that apparently decorates a ton of huge Christmas trees... my friend Anna showed me pictures and it looks fantastic! Alex... want to come with? You're like Dutch n shit, right?