Tubby Hasaam Wantsa Skinny

Day #72
Michael is getting SO FAT!!!

I noticed this fact and felt the extreme need to share it with you all. I have put on enough weight since I left to really bother me. No I did not manage to do the stairs every day like I hoped I would. And as always I refused to leave any plate with food scraps on it because I don't like to waste food. And Christmas/New Year's rolled past, I spent those with white people. It's okay to spoil yourself a little for the holidays! Classic fatty mentality.
Now I've been living with elderly Chinese people who spoil me and always cook more than you're supposed to eat cos that's how courtesy works here, not to mention our holiday season rolling straight into theirs (Chinese New Year next week, "Little Year", the warm-up to CNY, happened a couple days ago) ... I look at my belly everyday and meditate on self-control. The last two days have gone alright in that respect. But I'm still going to have a bigger gut than Miki remembers, and she knew me when I was still running around and riding my bike everywhere! She's gonna LAUGH at me ...

Oh yeah, I'll see Miki in less than 10 days! That's exciting!!! Gonna be in Japan on the 28th, hitting Fukuoka. Haven't seen Miki since Year 12, so a bit over 3 years I guess? Nearly 3 and a half I think ... It's a shame I'm seeing her first thing actually, because my Japanese needs a thorough warm-up and after a month in Japan with their brutal exchange rate/prices I will definitely lose some weight. And once I settle somewhere I hope to maybe get a bike or something.

Ahah, the plans for settling ... well complications have arisen since I decided to try and come back between the Uni semesters. This means that I get Febuary to muck around with Shannon and whoever else, then March-May I wanna be earning money. (At this point, if I can afford to go to Taiwan just for a month, that'd be awesome. If not, a couple more weeks in Japan through June'll do me.)

Most contracts for places I've seen advertised online require year-long contracts and Mr Conscience here doesn't wanna sign one of them knowing that he's gonna skimp out on it. So my new challenge is to see if I can survive working part-time jobs and such. A mate in Osaka says I can crash at his for an indeterminate amount of time, which is awesome, and my friend in Nara (less than an hour away from Osaka) might be able to help me as well. Having checked out couchsurfing.com I'm more than a little encouraged (I will always have a back-up place in the event of an emergency), and depending on how well I do tutoring English, and how quickly my Japanese recovers/improves, I may be able to find enough part-time work to at least survive in hostels and such.

I'm thinking I can definitely get enough for FOOD day to day just by tutoring English (according to my research if I do an hour a day I can afford food) and if I can stick to my plan I will have just enough cash in the bank for my ticket home in the event of an emergency. The challenge is to not touch my savings again after Feb is over.

Oh and another challenge for during Feb: I've decided I have to busk in every Japanese city I live in. Therefore, Marcello is coming with me =]

Can't wait to see Aoi either ^^