Crazy Awesome

But first, an actual update:

I've had a minor issue that developed since I got here, and that is my hair falling out much more rapidly than it ever has before. After freaking out about it, I boiled it down the other night to a few (possible) reasons:

1) dryness + coldness

2) different shampoo (Japanese)

3) low protein

the reason why I actually ruled out the water here (as I never had this problem living in Takadanobaba and the water here definitely smells and tastes like chemicals) was that my body hair was not really falling out much, just the hair on my head.

So, I bought a humidifier for my room, bought a different shampoo and (hopefully) better conditioner, and hope to put more protein in my diet (start exercising again and drinking my muscle milk, as well as just eating more meat).

AND NOW FOR THE CRAZY AWESOME:

In all of this shopping, I also bought something that I saw originally in Japan over 2 years ago. Here's a quick description:

1) It's called a Homestar Aqua (Homestar. Like homestarrunner but has nothing to do with the greatest flash website of all time).

2) It's blue.

3) It projects constellations onto the ceiling of my bathroom while I take a shower.

If you don't understand why this thing was essentially MADE for me, then you don't know who I am. Here's pictures:

IT'S SO FREAKING COOL

My New Pad

This is what my room looks like now. It's bigger than my place last semester. Notable additions since I took these pictures are: a sweet, temperpedic-type mattress on top of my futon (which is black, but the comforter is still pink), and on Friday Don Quijote will be sending me my chair. That's a store, not the Spaniard who fought giants. And the reason I'm getting a new chair is because I bought one, lugged it all the way back to my place only to find that it was missing a piece. It was more than a little irksome, especially because it drops to around or below freezing outside at night and I had to walk for about 20 minutes to the place and 30 minutes back because I was carrying the 25-30 pound chair (in box form).

In any case, this is my new place! I like it, and I like living in Urawa. It's in Saitama prefecture. For those of you with no reference as to where this is, this is where this is: http://tinyurl.com/4fflxqf

The place with the red car in front. Zoom out to see where it is in relativity to everything else.

Decided to do this after all.

Here's a blog.

Let's start with a pretty summary of my first day back in Nippon:

My fingers were worn and dry from the cold and travel, so two of them started to bleed around the nails. I failed to notice this until I got to my new place. Sans bandages of any kind, nor any towels - paper or otherwise - I rinsed them in a sink and used a receipt as a makeshift bandage to keep them from bleeding anymore into the pockets of my jacket where I needed to stuff them as I went shopping for 1) bandages, 2) gloves, 3) paper towels and other household necessities.

In any case, I need more bedding for my bed to be actually comfortable enough to sleep, and be prepared to see "Ambien Adrian" over the course of the next week or so as I attempt to readjust to living in the densest city in the world - both in population and in social permeation.

Wondering whether or not I should have just gone back to Takadanobaba (where I lived last semester). Friendlier town, easier access to stuff, the room had everything I needed. Oh well, this is only my second time living alone after all. You live and learn.

Beers, good times, cold, adventure, loneliness, dry skin, adventure and beers are in the near future. I'll be sure to keep you posted.