free at last, free at last

nick
Originally uploaded by sillyhapa.

My friend Nick (introduced to me by Emily; they're old boarding school buds...which means he's also friends with Nicole from Pomona...) has officially SAVED ME from the depths of despair, offering his posh Roppongi Hills mansion (that's Japanese for apaato...i mean apartment) as a crashing pad for my last six weeks in Japan. Do you even UNDERSTAND how wonderful this is!? I've escaped from the Kuzumas...forever! And this makes me (drumroll please) both happy AND living in Japan, which are two things I never thought could coexist in the world as we know it.

A little about Nick, because I feel like I haven't given him due press yet (despite his ever-present, um, presence on this blog via comments). He's a graphic artist/business consultant (taking his junior year off from Babson, but should be at RISD) for an engineering company in Shinjuku, and he's here for the whole year (or maybe more...he definitely jives with this place better than I). Whoa man, the parentheses are out of CONTROL here.

Anyways, he and I get along like old childhood playmates (he reminds me a lot of Caleb sometimes?). We indulge each others' artistic/nerdy sides, and we're SO PSYCHED to be roomies it's not even funny. Okay, I admit this may lead to us driving each other CRAZY at some point in the future, but maybe it will be in a good way, and this situation is only for six weeks so...oh well? We have the same ideas about the city life and experiencing Japan, and all in all, I can only say that things are finally seeming to look up.