Thus A New Journal Title Was Born...

I spent the weekend getting to know Morioka better by bike. I inherited a decent bike from the previous ALT, but I need to get a new battery for the light and a better cushioned seat. I figured out how to bike to the Iwate International Plaza, which has free internet and an excellent library of English books people have left there. There are a lot of good fantasy and sci-fi novels that I was really surprised to see. I`m looking forward to reading them. They even had a short story collection edited by Roger Zelazny that included one of the Amber short stories that he wrote later in life. It put me in the mood to run an Amber game, not that that`s possible. I just want to GM as Dworkin again. I also found a free copy of Robert Graves`s I, Claudius in the free book bin. It`s the autobiography of the Roman emperor Claudius; I`m already a few chapters into it and it`s pretty good. I spent the rest of the day biking alongside the Kitakami River. Morioka has two big rivers running through it that eventually merge into one. Biking down the river was a great experience, with the river and the mountains on one side and the fields and farms on the other, the city\suburbs a little beyond them. I`m impressed by how Morioka combines very urban areas with many more rural-seeming agricultural areas. Wherever you go in the city, however, you can see the tree-covered mountains surrounding it on all sides. By random chance, I eventually biked into a park where a lot of people were gathering to watch a very nice fireworks display. On sunday I biked down the other river and ended up near this big tree-covered mountain, where I found this cool Shinto shrine and Buddhist temple.
I had an epiphany the other day about one of the reasons why I like being in Japan, despite sticking out so much. In Japan, I am quite obviously an outsider, but that`s to be expected. My relationship with most of the people that I see each day is defined mainly by my distinct appearance, race, and language. When I stick out, that`s normal and expected. There`s no way that I can do otherwise. Whereas if I am an outsider in America, and I often feel like one, I don`t have the handy excuse of being from another racially, linguistically, and culturally distinct country. If I`m an outsider in the United States, it`s my own fault and I wish it were otherwise. In Japan, being an outsider is an unavoidable and natural state. In some ways, having my relationship with others so clearly and obviously defined is a comfort. I don`t feel the pressure to fit in and connect with others that I feel in the US. This isn`t to say that I don`t want to form strong connections with people in Japan, but those will be individual ones. My relationship to the majority of the Japanese that I`ll encounter is set, and in a way that`s comforting. I`m not sure if this realization is a good thing.
To lighten things up after that weighty paragraph, I think I`ll be eating a lot of fried chicken here in Japan, mainly because there`s a very cute waitress at the local KFC. If only I could make a move without looking like a complete gaijin jackass. That`s a good name for a rock band, by the way: LIVE FROM MORIOKA! IT`S GAIJIN JACKASS! FOLLOWED BY BRAND!
Given that this post has really deteriorated, I have one last question for everyone reading this. I have to choose between getting DSL or Broadband here. If I want Broadband, I`m going to have wait a month or so for it to be installed, whereas I can get DSL right away. If any of you use the internet to download anime, TV shows, movies, what connection do you have and how long does it take for an hour of half-hour show to download? I was planning to use the internet to keep up with American TV that I can`t watch here in Japan.