In a Bright and Distant Town

This has been my favorite week in Japan in some ways. I’ve gotten to feel really comfortable with Rachel and Brett and I’m not always an embarrassment to myself in public. I loved Kamakura and enjoyed the party and meeting up with friends this weekend. I also am beginning to be able to conceptualize a fulfilling social life for myself here (this is guaranteed to happen right before one leaves a place. Guaranteed).

It’s also been a hard week though. My grandmother recently had surgery and had to return to the hospital due to complications. I hear that she’s doing better now but it’s hard to be so far away from home and I wish I could be with my family.

I’m also realizing I committed an error in putting a friendship before a friend. One thing that frustrates me is how much of the last six to eight years I’ve spent thinking about relationships and how little I’ve spent thinking about how to be a good friend or a good daughter. I think this is worth posting about (and sorry if this sounds preachy) because I think this is pretty common among people my age. I don’t know that the solution is spending more time doing comprehensive social analysis (yeah, mock me for this sentence), but it seems like there was a lot of waste somewhere.