Second full day of being in Japan. Feeling pretty good physically except some heartburn I might treat in a bit if it doesn't settle down. I wish I'd eaten somewhere other than Hamazushi for lunch - didn't seem like the right choice but I was hot even at 11:00 and it seemed like a convenient choice where I was. I like that I can have a booth to myself and not have to stumble through talking to anyone except for saying "Thank you." I just feel like I've been on a pasta kick since I got here. I went there mostly for udon soup but with iced Coke because it was hot but I love warm udon and cold soup is still gross to me. Yesterday, I ate pasta at Gusto with a small salad and their drink bar. I'm going to have to eat again today; still haven't made up my mind. It seems stupid to spent 300 yen on going back to Shonandai to get anything, so the easiest choices are Matsuya or McDonalds. I suppose only time will tell.

I'm kind of extremely bummed out that they moved the only coworker who was near my age. Last semester, I worked with a man who was probably near 50, a woman who was definitely over 60, and a British guy who was 23. My British friend was much more outgoing and active and liked to drink more than I ever have, but we got along and would go out to dinner sometimes. After work or we met in Yokohama once to eat Chinese food together. I really like him as a person. He's funny, and he sings all the time without shame. I think I love him in a way, but it isn't a romantically inclined love. I mean I think he'd think I was too plain and boring, but I know from the get-go that we would just be desperately unhappy with each other's preferred lifestyle. He did ask me for a sham-wedding so he could get a greencard once, though.

I'll miss him terribly. I'll see him tomorrow at orientation. I really don't know why they moved him unless they blamed him for the thing where we met students after the final class despite it being against the rules that some student who felt bummed out reported (apparently) TWICE to the student support center. See, if they would've just let us openly have an end of semester meal after hours (we did do a sort of party thing for them during the day) with like idk documentation or even our supervisor coming along... that would make it so much less of a clandestine and forbidden operation? But they're very torn about the amount of friendship they want between instructors and students. It's like they want us to be best friends but then never, ever speak to each other again.

And now I feel that way about them taking my coworker away from me. I don't think that's the intent. I kind of get the impression they don't want any one instructor staying in the same place too long. I think they put him in Saitama which is like an hour and a half or two hours from here according to Google Maps. The thing is, though, I don't know if he would actually want to hang out with me given the barrier and the aforementioned fact that he is more outgoing and drinks more than I do. I need him as a friend far more than he needs me, I think.

It just feels like a cruel twist of fate. Heaven forbid I have an easily accessible friend.

The 50 year old-ish dude decided not to come back to Westgate. He ended up taking an EFL job elsewhere. He was confident enough to go to less developed or scarier-for-Americans countries, and he was on a year sabbatical from a job at an American university.

So of course, that left me with the older woman. Don't get me wrong. I don't hate her. I care about her general well-being. But she is so out of my range in terms of casual friendship. And she's a vegetarian who "goes by her own rules" so it's like she'll occasionally dip into vegan territory or make the most occasional exception for meat broth or whatever but only on HER extremely specific terms. And that's fine, but it's like if we're in a group and it is suggested that we get something to eat, she'll actually kind of derail the whole plan instead of either going and sucking it up or walking away. She actually let us go yesterday but kept our supervisor over the time she actually needed to be there to ask a really stupid question about the bank. She gets really fixated on stuff and refuses to accept that anything negative is ever her real responsibility. She's STILL talking about her unfortunate upstairs neighbor for last semester. Even my supervisor quietly said to me "Hopefully she won't have a problem this time," and laughed.

Sound of head hitting wall.

In other news, I started actually reading the Good Omens book. Bought a copy at the airport. It is the furthest I've gotten in a book in a long time, and a few times it has made me laugh out loud. I think that it is interesting how in some ways the Prime series is lifted straight off the page, and in other ways the characters (especially Crowley and Aziraphale) have been altered to fill slightly more desperate personas. That's fine, though. I love thinking about different adaptations as parallel universes? At least potentially.

Crowley and Aziraphale love each other in any universe, though.

Now I'm torn about writing fanfic. I felt like I was gonna, but now I feel compelled to finish the book first. Damn it.