Oh, Japan...

I'll be honest with you. I need encouragement these days. Especially about living in Japan. There are just so many things that are on my mind right now, and I cannot share them all, but I will say that the strictness in this country sometimes drives me crazy.

We are renting an apartment but we cannot even put up a calendar or family (or wedding) pictures on the wall, because we are not allowed "to put holes in the walls." So the whole place is white-walled right now, and while that isn't all that bad, I wish we could put more things up. Sigh.
The other one is what happened to me last week... one careless mistake, one small parking violation, and my "perfect record" is blemished for 8 years. That is crazy. If you live in Japan, you know how hard it is to drive 8 years without accidents or violations, too.


Ah well, I am here, I guess I ought to make the best of it. And the good news is that my ¥15,000 fine for parking in the wrong place, it will go to the country's national treasury, which will then go towards rebuilding northeastern Japan (where the tsunami and nuclear plant meltdowns occurred). So my bad parking job is serving as a way to "make" me contribute. I don't mind that part of it.