Beer Garden!

I went to my first beer garden party tonight. This basically consisted of sitting on a rooftop and drinking and eating as much as you could for three hours. This was the first large JET gathering I've been to since Tokyo, so it was cool to see how people have settled in.

It was interesting to observe the different types of people who are out here. Of course, there's the stereotypical crowd of fresh-out-of-university people who are basically out here to drink and hook up as much as possible. But then there's this other group of people who have been here for years and have pretty much built themselves a permanent life here. I met two guys tonight who have married Japanese women and even have kids! This just seems crazy to me. Japan right now is so unfamiliar and foreign in so many ways--I can't imagine ever getting to the point where I feel comfortable enough to call this place my home.

It was nice to get out of Shibukawa for a while tonight. Takasaki isn't huge, but at least it feels like a real city with tall buildings and bright lights. It even has a Gap, J Crew, and a Starbucks. It's only about 30 minutes away by train so I think I'm gonna go back more often. Tomorrow night they're having fireworks there so I might meet up with this girl I met at the beer garden party. Hopefully we'll manage to find each other.

So I guess I've survived my second week here. Time is passing by pretty quickly, but home still feels so far away...