So Long...

I say, "So Long" to Japan. It's been the most fun I have had in my life. Being able to have this kind of freedom, I feel very lucky. Living in another country with a great family, eating great food every night, and stepping out of my comfort zone on a regular basis. I wish everyone could experience something like this, whether just for a week or for years...

Everyday I start to add things to a list of things I will miss in Japan and here are the current contenders...

1) The Class I teach English To
2) Being able to go out late any day of the week and eat at delicious restaurants with friends
3) Speaking/hearing Japanese on a regular basis
4) The lady I see every morning on my way to school. I see her walking a different dog every day, and each one slightly resembles her...
5) Coco Ichiban Curry House (A cheap and delicious unhealthy Japanese Curry meal)
6) My host moms cooking and my host sisters insane cooking...oh man their Kimuchi Nabe is insane.
7) Japanese Toilets (Self heating seats MAKES the difference)
8) The new friends I've made at school. Being able to make friends who don't understand you in your native language is a very interesting feeling. I've made friends from China, Japan, Thailand, Korea, Netherlands, Poland, and Vietnam...I never ever thought I'd have friends all over.
9) The new friends I've made on my trip. It's strange that I came here knowing absolutely no one and now have friends that I consider some of my best friends.
10) My host family. The funniest and nicest host family of them all...

Things I won't Miss/Things I am happy to get back too...

1) Fruit. The fruit here, although much tastier, is disgustingly expensive so it's a rare eat. I'm looking forward to eating fruit on a more regular basis.
2) Better Showers...
3) Japanes Toilets (though the one in my house has a self-heating seat...public toilets are a dread)
4) My Bed
5) My real family (and yes, Step-family is included)
6) My other moms cooking and the food she buys (i.e. bagels...dear god, I want bagels)
7) I won't miss being stared at so hard you can feel it in the back of your skull...
8) Masks...I hope they don't catch on in the USA
9) I miss my guitars...
10) My friends and teachers back home...



The bad toilets...


The good toilets...



Working at the Cram-School teaching english...

Searching for My Mind (As I Am Unsure Where I Lost It)

While the clock is slowly (was to fastly) clicking down to the time I lave. I have a lot to do. I have to get some good gifts for my host family, I have to get hotels ready for my family when they come, I have to hang out with my friends before I leave, I have to register for classes for next quarter at school, I have to finish writing songs that I started, I have to... well I just have a lot to do. This is a position I should never ever be put in. When it comes to taking responsibility to get things like this done, I am not the person to put in charge. There are somethings, that I have extreme interest in, that I will work myself to death trying to finish. For instance, I worked hard on helping produce and get permits for a submission to the Chicago Comedy Television Pilot Competition this year and I worked my butt off. When it came to filling out papers for my study abroad to Japan, I just couldn't get myself to do it. When I want to finish recording a song or finish writing a song, I will lock myself in my room until it's done. When I have to wash my clothes because all of them are dirty, I will avoid it like the plague. Ask my mother, I wouldn't be in Japan if she hadn't helped me out.


I have had to book a lot of hotels lately and it took all the energy out of me. I booked a hotel in the town I live in but they didn't have enough rooms on the days I wanted. They had two rooms open on the 18th, but not the 19th. The other hotel in the city luckily had rooms on the 19th, but not the 18th. This worked out conveniently, though having to switch hotels will be hectic. Yesterday I was contacted by the first hotel saying they have space the second day. So I called the first and cancelled. Starting to get annoying? Yeah, that's just the beginning of it. The same thing happened with my sisters hotel in Nagoya. The hotel in Miyajima, and Tokyo. I haven't reserved a hotel for my second return to Nagoya yet, though I should probably get on that.

In order to relieve myself from the pain of reserving things (I think I just hate to use the phone, especially here because it's harder to understand Japanese on the phone since you can't see any gestures...gestures speak louder than words.) I have been writing a lot of music. I started writing two lullabyes and a small collection of piano solos, kind of jazzy-bluesy-boogie-woogie piano solos. All of them are about the different trains I ride/have ridden here in Japan. One is called the Tsurumaisen Boogie Woogie. Tsurumai is the name of the line sen is "line". The others that are coming are the Meijo-sen, Higashiyama-Sen, Meitetsu, Shinkansen (bullet train), and possibly a small Aonomi-Sen. I haven't really written anything in months and they are just pouring out and it's a great feeling. There's no forcing, writing has never felt easier. It's also nice because since I haven't had a guitar here I've been able to work on my piano skills a lot at home. I can't wait to get a guitar in my hands though, as much as I play piano, it will always be my mistress. Guitar is my true love.

For those interested, I have loaded the Tsurumai-Sen Boogie Woogie (in its current Synthesized Piano, slightly unfinished status) to my music website http://www.purevolume.com/michaelmalarkey feel free to visit and listen.

My older sister arrives in two days, I can't wait. It's a lot like having this weird dream you get excited about so you keep telling people about and everyone just goes "...oooh cool...yeah..." but then you get to finally get to bring someone else into the dream with you. Maybe that's a strange analogy, but that's what it feels like...

Happy Mothers Day Mom and any other Moms or Grandmas who read this.

The Tanjyoubi!

Here is exactly how I celebrated my bithday in Japan...

First, let me say that I wasn't really looking to celebrate my birthday, I didn't really care at all. On the 29th, I actually had forgotten that my birthday was the next day... anyway...

Once a year my host family's extended family from Tokyo comes and visits. This year it was on April 30th. We went out to an incredibly expensive, incredibly delicious Japanese style restaurant called "Hari Hari." We were put in our own small room with a very low table. Under the table the floor is dug out and you put your feet below. My hostaunt, two host uncles, and two host cousins were there. My host mom, host sister, host dad, and host grandma... I guess I could have left off the word "Host" for all of those and you would have gotten the idea, but...it's too late to go back.

All your food comes on separate plates. One small plate with sushi, one with some vegetables, a small bowl of soup, etc. You get ten or eleven different plates of food. It's a lot like eating at my grandma's house where each thing requires it's own plate. (The land where a sandwich, an apple, blueberrys, chips and cheese can never share one plate. Clearly each one necessitates it's own resting area.) I was wished happy birthday by everyone and my host grandma got her mothers day wishes because everyone was around. Following lunch we went downstairs in the building to a fancy cafe/cake restaurant. We drank coffee and orange juice and they brought me out a big cake covered in delicious fruits (not a fruit cake) and then my host-extended-family gave me expensive chocolates and some nice little tea treats. We took some pictures, chatted and then we went to my host familys house. Here we talked, drank tea, I played piano for them, we watched TV and it was nice.

At about 4pm, I met up with my friends and we went to a kaitenzushi (the place where the sushi travels around the little moving sidewalk thingy on little plates.) I ate 12 plates (about 20 pieces of sushi), and a piece of cake. I felt so sick. All of my friends were mostly out traveling so I was only with my friend Lisa and my friend matt but it was really nice keeping it low key. Sometimes it's really difficult to go out here because everyone always wants to come and it ends up being a big a group and everything gets harder when there's too many people. It's not that it's BAD with a lot of people, it's just a little much at times. We walked around and drank some soda. That was it. It was a relatively low-key birthday which is just how I like it. I couldn't have been happier.

Today, however, my friend Jessica wanted to celebrate (she's a very motherly friend) and so she invited a bunch of people out to lunch (The same Kaitenzushi..I could barely eat there after eaching all those sushi last time.) It ended up being me, Jessica, and 4 Japanese girls from school. Lunch was good because we all just talked. They gave me some Japanese Mochi-Ice Cream. After we went downtown to Sakae and they went shopping. How I end up getting stuck with girls who want to shop is beyond me. I've had years of practice though, growing up with two sisters and my mom. I wandered around and watched them all touch various articles of clothing while they considered buying it... it was entertaining. I had fun... but...I don't really think any males idea of a fun birthday celebration is watching girls shop. No offense. I still had fun though.

Thanks for any birthday wishes I recieved from anyone! I will surely see everyone soon (The unfortunate countdown has begun...About 28 days left.) Part of my wants to stay forever but part of me is a little tired of being an extreme outsider, it's a very interesting feeling. It's strange coming from America. I realize now how blind people often are to other people's race because we are so used to seeing all different kinds of people. Again, thanks everyone.

-Mike