Happy New Year everybody (if anyone still reads this).

Here's the deal. As part of my transformation to NewAndImproved 2008 Christine, I'll probably be phasing out this blog. The fact is, I'm tired of it. The "foreigner in Japan observing crazy Japanese stuff" thing is way overdone, and I no longer have the Tourist Mindset that lends itself to that kind of writing.

I need to turn over a new leaf.

Sorry.

So how am I gonna become NewAndImproved? Well, my vacation back to my roots gave me a new perspective and served me up a heapin' spoonful of ambition. Here are my TEN New Year's Resolutions, in no particular order:

1. Give serious thought to my career goals, and be headed in a non-English-teacher direction before I turn 25.
2. Achieve and maintain target weight, without any of that exercising-for-the-sake-of-exercise nonsense.
3. Accordingly, start taking vitamins every day, before I turn into a malnourished empty shell of a human being.
4. Write regularly. Not out of obligation, but because I enjoy it. This blog, having at some point become a chore, has got to go.
5. Cut back on certain bad habits by about 50 percent.
6. Pass the level 2 Japanese test, or at least become able to speak Japanese comfortably without stammering like an idiot or making ridiculous mistakes (at convenience store: "I'd like a bath. I mean A BAG! FUCK!").
7. Experience more live music and art. Talk pretentiously about it.
8. No more pukey hangovers.
9. Stay grounded and don't let certain aspects of Japanese society get to my head (prejudice, rigidity, superficiality, etc).
10. Wash the damn dishes.

In closing this post, I'm gonna include something I wrote to someone on Facebook the other night:

"How is living in Japan different than living in the States?"

How is it different? Let's see... People tend to either treat me like a celebrity or a freak, and I'm constantly self-conscious about how different I look. I have to speak Japanese a lot which often makes simple everyday stuff into a struggle, and I often feel like I'm supposed to be representing my entire country when I talk to people. My apartment is tiny (complete with 5'9" doorways) and has no central heat, no clothes dryer, no dishwasher, and no oven. Television is awful, but cell-phone technology is amazing (well, maybe not so much now that the U.S. has the iPhone). Grocery stores have very little that I like, and people don't really eat on the go, so I find myself not eating much in general.
I've been on TV pretty regularly (a children's show), recorded my voice for books on CD, and I was a poster model for my company last year and saw my face inside trains.
So yeah, I'd say it's a lot different. In some good ways and some bad.
Happy to be back, though. I love my crazy life :)