Other thoughts for the day:

I need to learn that I need to be productive no matter what the weather is like. Gray tends to be an excuse to bundle up at home while bright blue weather is so rare that I just have to get outside.

America is pretty great: today I went to lunch with the chief engineer and two other engineers from the office I'm working in. That'd be like having lunch with kyoto-sensei, the grounds keeper, and some random other guy teacher. Even if I spoke flawless Japanese, I never could've pulled that off in the 'cho.

Stupid cream-colored carpet shows every single hair I've shed. At least I could sweep it aside when I had tatami.