Mixing business with pleasure.

Have you ever had one of those dead-to-the-world deep sleeps that are so needed and so completely satisfying that you don’t remember your name or age or geographical location when you wake up? Where in waking up you in fact feel like you are being reborn? Well that was me this morning, and man was it long overdue.

From last Thursday straight on through to last night (Wednesday a week later) I have pretty much been away from home and busier than a prostitute stationed at a naval port near a Viagra factory. I had a business trip last Thursday; had Ali (formerly of Toronto, now of Kyoto) and Niki come visit me for the long weekend; partied on Friday, Saturday and Monday nights; entertained visitors on Thursday and Sunday nights; climbed a mountain on Sunday and did two presentations and helped run a conference for about 200 people on Monday and Tuesday. Yesterday (Wednesday) I came back to the center and then had to help with a Japanese conference on team teaching. If you got tired reading that….imagine how I feel.

In any case I can’t complain really because it was completely fun, totally satisfying and even had me considering staying a third year in Japan (though only briefly, don’t worry, I am not insane).

Some highlights of the last few days? Well let’s see.
-Live music put on by some friends followed by listening to an awesome Osaka band in a Nag nightclub.
-Having to deal with three friends whose sex hormones had gone through the roof (I have heard the word `tittie` so many times that I swear I will be waking up from nightmares about large breasts and yelling that word for the rest of my life).
-Shimabara fun featuring yet another `drinking` contest with Kazuya….who won? Hahahaha. Though I shouldn’t laugh so hard, I had to go hiking with that hangover the next day (but he had fishing at 3 am so really it’s a tough call).
-Crashing a party at a hair salon on Monday night (after the first day of the conference) and getting tons of free booze as well as connections for good haircuts in the future.
-teaching Niki`s Japanese teacher to say the word `cunt` and then listening her use it to greet everyone she met (she was awesome actually, she kept saying `hello cunt` with a completely straight face and in a totally cute Japanese. She also kept drinking other people`s drinks and copying whatever swear words Niki said....which meant she was basically swearing like a sailor all night long in broken English.)
-Having Niki feed me beer from a pitcher even though I was clearly barely standing and then her laughing as I ran off to wrestle a guy friend who seemed rather surprised by my strength.
-Meeting up with another group of people for a later party and being greeted by “hey, are you the Lana that was raised in the former Yugoslavia as a communist and had a red star on her cap??” when I introduced myself. This was followed by sheepish looks from P who had apparently been glorifying my communist past for anyone that would listen (and in fact, at the conference the next day, this was the comment that came up the most).
-Putting on two presentations and fielding questions without killing myself and others (quite an accomplishment, let me tell you)
-For the second day of the conference, changing into my suit in a car parking lot after only two hours of sleep and still intoxicated from the night before. I clean up well though, and I somehow managed to keep it together and survive the day. Others were not so lucky (though a certain friend did look surprisingly elegant as she calmly and peacefully walked to the bathroom to be ill every 10 minutes or so.)

Well that’s about all you are going to get for now. The rest I can either not remember or it is just not fit to post online (trust me). It scares me how quickly my mood can change on certain things though. When I came back to Japan this year I was looking forward to it but more looking forward to going home. Now, even though I know I cannot stay, a part of me is feeling the pangs of regret. At the same time, I know that if things don’t work out for me back in the real world, there will always be a strangely comfortable place for me here in Japan should I want one.

This weekened it`s off to the mountains for a needed getaway....more adventures to come soon.