these three things

1) i moved yesterday...finally. except that i havent yet set up or unpacked anything, as everything is still in suitcases and bags. so is life. i started around 1 in the afternoon and after two trips back and forth finally brought everything over. truth be told if i hadnt had loads of help from amanda with the move then id probably still be doing it now, as lets just say im not ever going to win any house moving/cleaning races in the near future. im glad ive got golden week to set things up and buy what i need because no matter how you cut it the actual act of moving sucks. but i figure by the end of the week it should be fine.

2) ive made my first baby steps towards beginning to tackle learning japanese by working on hiragana. for those of you unfamiliar with written japanese, they use 4 alphabets: hiragana (used for japanese words), katakana (used for foreign words), kanji (borrowed from chinese to represent all sorts of stuff), and romaji (basically how japanese looks/sounds in english). so im starting to learn hiragana and i feel like im trying to decode some puzzle thats right before my eyes and have no clue how to unlock. that said i think im picking up on it fairly quickly and its exciting to look at something and know that it says udon or sushi or whatever it says. it also helps with my pronunciation which up until last night was absolutely horrid...now i at least have some clue about how japanese is supposed to sound like. ive generally failed at learning languages in the past (ie: french, czech) so im determined for the same not to happen to japanese.

3) a bunch of us took a day trip today to inuyama, a town about 30 minutes north of nagoya thats known more for its castle (oldest in japan) than anything else. highlights:
i) seeing actual trees, water, and mountains (more like hills)
ii) the castle itself, complete with samurai gear, great views, and the steepest steps ever
iii) lunch at an udon joint complete with 2 old ladys singing enka kareoke (cheesy japanese pop)
iv) knowing i dont have to work tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day, ect...
v) did i mention the udon?

more later.