True Life: My name is Rob Milchling

Another week in Japan. It wasn’t so sunny this week. I wonder if after last weeks post some of you said a prayer for my ginger skin and God responded. I do like the sun by the way. Last week’s post was in no way a complaint. Please feel free to reverse your voodoo magic and send the sun back to the “Land of the Rising Sun”. Whoever thought of that name must have been a Monday-Friday vacationer. It seems like it has rained or been cold every weekend since my arrival here, regardless of what I write on this blog. All week I think about how nice it would be if I could have off on one of these hot sunny days, then like clockwork, as soon as I wake up on Sunday morning I hear the sound of rainfall. Almost as bad as when you forget to turn off your morning alarm on a weekend. I have been adjusting to it though. If I see rain in Sunday morning’s forecast, I make it a point to go out partying until sunrise and then take advantage of the rainy weather by sleeping most of the day away… When Life gives you lemons….

Of course, I don’t let the rain keep me from doing fun things. Yesterday I couldn’t sleep too well, so I woke up after a brief 4 hour snooze and cleaned my apartment. This place is tiny, so it gets messy pretty quickly, despite adapting the Japanese custom of removing my shoes as soon as I walk in the door. I am getting a bit of a system down. Sunday is sleep and cleaning day, then Monday is laundry day. Though, sometimes it is a bit of a nuisance trying to dry my clothes on the balcony when it is raining. I have also been able to venture out on a few weekend expeditions, as you may have read.

This weekend I didn’t go too crazy with my adventures, and ended up staying fairly close to home. I needed to go to get a few basic things for school and my new balcony garden so I went to the dollar (100 yen) store in Nara City. It is easily the best dollar store I have ever been to. It has two floors of awesomely cheap goodies, which automatically takes things to the next level (pun intended). I was able to find almost everything I needed. Some cages for my tomato plants to climb on, a few things to help me stay organized at work, and a bunch of other little stuff I probably didn’t need, but you know how dollar stores are. The dollar store adventure only took me about an hour and I didn’t know what else to do, so I decided to head to a ramen shop one of my students recommended. I looked it up on my GPS and decided just to walk. The rain had eased up and I wanted to explore the area a little more. I found a bike shop along the way and checked out some possibilities. I also stopped in a few other cool places. I didn’t buy anything else, although I was very tempted to make a purchase in a shop that sold high end sake and pickled things. Pickled foods are like the Japanese version of mixed nuts. They are always brought out for munchies when people are drinking. I have tried many a pickled item. None have tickled my fancy. Maybe they have tickled my tonsils though. I seem to gag every time I have try these things, pickled plums, pickled fish, pickled cabbage, and a bunch of other weird things we don’t have in America. I have yet to find any kosher dill pickles though, which is a bit disappointing. Come to think of it there is a serious lack of Jewish influence here. I haven’t seen any rye bread, or lox, and the bagels here are just pieces of bread made into an “O” shape. Which really disappoints me, given the bagel prowess I acquired last summer working at the finest bagel shop south of the Mason-Dixon line (Lighthouse Bagels, of Corolla, NC). Anyway, as I am sure you would assume I was not considering purchasing any of these pickled things which I speak of. I was more focused on the sake. I have been trying lots of different sakes in Japan. In the US I had only tried sake a few times. It was not what I would consider my “drink of choice”, outside of a few special occasions. However, I have really come to enjoy the sake here. It is especially good served hot, on a cold day. The past two weekends, while checking out cherry blossoms in the cold, I indulged in several servings of hot sake. Another thing I hope to bring back to the US and share.

After a straying a few times from the ramen mission for a few fruitless window shopping stops, I started to get really hungry and trucked it the last 15 minutes to my destination. I walked in and the place was busy, but since I was rolling solo, I was seated right away. The servers were laughing at me as I tried to order, but they eventually sent over someone who knew some English and we figured it out together. I got a big bowl of ramen and destroyed it. This is not like your regular cheap old oodles o’ noodles people. This is home made noodles, home made broth, and all kinds of other things tossed into the mix to make a massive bowl of delicious sodium drenched heaven. Very close behind sushi, ramen is easily my second favorite Japanese food. This place I went to is kind of famous in Japan. The student who recommended it raved about it. He is a ramen fan too. He said he would bring in his “Ramen guide to Japan” next class and share his favorite places with me. I look forward to going on more adventures to find good food.

While I was sitting there eating, I was texting my buddy Greg about this awesome place I found. He only responded by telling me how unhealthy ramen is with all the calories and sodium…. Which I decided was a sign that I should go through with my idea of walking home. It was about a 3 mile walk, which took me about an hour. It was dark by the time I arrived at home, but it ended up being a nice night (at least I didn’t get rained on). I was happy to find the way home from Nara and see some places I had not yet been to. When I get a bike, I am sure I will be making that journey quite often. I was pretty beat when I got home. I passed out very early and slept for about 12 hours.

I woke up in time to watch the last 2 innings of the O’s loss to the Red Sox on Sunday Night Baseball. I got out of bed after that only because I had made plans to get lunch with a friend in Osaka at noon. I made it there by 12:30, but we were both late so it was all good. We walked to a very tasty sushi restaurant, then roamed around Osaka for a few hours, before she went to work. I ended up finding a sporting goods store that had some good deals on backpacks. I bought a 60 liter Osprey pack. It was not a cheap investment, but I plan to use it a lot in the next year or two. I have big ideas for a backpacking adventure “on my way” home. We will see what happens though, a lot can change in a year. I will definitely be using my new pack for this hiking adventure next week though. I am very excited for that.

Only 5 more days of classes then I am off for 9 days in a row. It should be a good week. I am not sure exactly when I will be doing what, but I am planning on staying busy every day, and making the most of my time off. I will be sure to let you all know what happens, and yes I will take pictures….. and get the picture page set up sooner or later, I promise. It might be later rather than sooner though, as I am sure you have already assumed. I am happy to say that this blog is not the only thing I have going on after work now. I have been trying to keep my garden tended, which really just consists of me watering the few plants I have. I have two tomato plants, a pepper plant, a red flower, which I am unsure what to call, and a strawberry plant, which I am thinking may have already missed its season. I am also really into reading these “Game of Thrones” books. I am only at the end of the second book, so please don’t spoil anything for me. I plan to watch the TV series after I read all the books. I have been staying off social media on Mondays (EST Sunday night) so I don’t have to read everyone’s tweets and statuses about the new episode that just aired. The books are awesome so far though, except that all my favorite characters keep getting killed off, and all the characters I hate are getting lucky escaping death. I have slammed the book shut on multiple occasions and barely resisted the urge to throw it at the wall. I honestly have lost sleep due to these books. I am always drawn back in though. I definitely suggest reading them if you have not already.

Well I need to get to bed. It is getting late and I do want to read a few pages before going to sleep. Just talking about has made me jittery with rage. I am really hoping someone kills this little punk Joffrey soon. I haven’t hated a fictional character this much since that wolf bit old yeller. I hope everyone has a good week.

Before I go I just have to rant for a second… Please everyone stay away from prescription drugs. This evening I received news about another member of my high school crew dying of an overdose. I had lost touch with him over the past few years, but it really sucks to hear about things like this. The worst part is I know several other friends who I am still close with that still mess with these things. It literally brings tears to my eyes when I say that I wouldn’t be surprised at all if I wake up one morning and hear another story like this about one of these people, whom I am much closer with. There were 6 guys that made up the main crew I hung out with most during my Junior and Senior year in high school. Three of them have died in the past 2 years, because of drugs. Two others have been through rehab. The only one I still talk to has moved out of the state to get away from these things. I am very glad I never got into any of these things. I don’t know what to say except don’t do this stuff! I am no one’s mother. I am not an angel. I have done lots of stuff I am not proud of and would never tell my mom (ear muffs Mom), but I am a friend. I’m a brother. I am  a cousin. I am someone who doesn’t want to wake up another morning to hear the news of someone who has willingly (yes willingly, it is a choice to do this crap) thrown their life away to something that doesn’t care about them at all. I have seen too many people throw their lives away because of stupid drugs. Like I said, I am no one’s mother, I am just tired of hearing about things like this. I am really scared about who will be the next victim of this epidemic. Please don’t put your family and friends through this. I could rant forever about this. Like I said, I have lost 3 friends to  this in the past 2 years. I just want to let everyone know that this stuff is dangerous. It sneaks up on you, you break an arm or something and get a prescription and next ting you know, you are addicted. When my first friend died because of this 2 years ago, I made it a point to call out any friend I saw messing with this stuff. I know some have not taken heed, but I figure since I have become such a huge internet blogging sensation recently, I can get this message to a few more people. I hope the 30 to 40 of you that read this blog read this and understand. Sorry for getting all morbid on yall all of a sudden, but I had to. I hope everyone has a good week. Thanks for putting up with me.

I don’t want to leave yall on such a bad note, so before you go on about your day just do one thing for me and SMILE! Life is good 🙂