I'm back. I did it. I'm back in Japan, but not in the way you would think. Since I stopped updating this blog, I've moved to San Francisco, a city and county on the tip of a peninsula off the coast of America. Japan is no longer in Japan, and America is no longer America. All it took was one jog up the hill, the first time I've walked past that street in the almost year I have lived in this amazing house. The mist started to roll in, and there was a long narrow wooden staircase surrounded by vegetation that I ran and walked up. That's when Japan started to overtake America. America has already been overtaking Japan, slowly, over time. Then, I rediscovered the existence of this, which does exist, and it's effect on me is incontrovertible evidence that I am in Japan again. The thing about Japan is that it is not a geographical place. Geographical Japan was obliterated with the fall of the Empire. It's desire to identify as territorial succeeded in that Japan lost all of its geographical aspects and became an idea. The type of idea that Japan became is known as a way of life. This happened in America earlier, but in reverse. Think of how the Monroe Doctrine identifies with "I am not a racist". America used to be a way of life, but it became territory. As America changed from a way people escaped from harsh, unfavorable conditions into an imposing force that gradually influenced those global conditions, America stopped being an idea and became nothing but land. Japan, The only country founded on a single group of people's identity with land has turned into nothing but an idea. American, The only country founded on an idea now has no shred of it left and has become nothing but land. But luckily, I live at the tip of a peninsula that is off the coast of America. I don't know if I will continue to update this blog, but I should. For the past, my god, almost three years since I stopped posting, I have been stagnating; I literally took a break from life. We're talking sedentary, unenthused, uninspired, careless, without focus, without desire. I made several poor decisions and a few decent ones. I'm extremely happy in San Francisco, especially since I am, in a very definite sense, back in Japan.