So today was my first day working back at the university of Tsukuba. Everyone was commenting on how “I had been away for 1 month”, and if I had “enjoyed my long vacations”…

This kinda sucks, because I’ve been to Brazil for only 20 days, and only 10 of those were actual vacations. The first week before my trip was the obon holidays in Japan, and I kept working at the University while everyone was away (since I took my vacations later). And the first week of my trip was work at a neckbreaking pace during the student orientation. But from the point of view of those here in Japan, I “disappeared” for 4 weeks. Oh well…

On the other hand, I had a very cool encounter with a Japanese politician on my way back home tonight. In Japan, politicians try to earn votes by standing in front of stations and giving their sales pitch to people passing by. This one gave me one of his leaflets, and since I was in a talktative mood, I asked him: “hey, I don’t have voting rights, so why are you giving me this pamphlet?”. His answer was pretty cool: “Well, I know you cant vote, but you live here, and you can give me your opinions on what I should do about the problems in our city. Here is my e-mail, feel free to tell me what you think!” (of course, the actual answer was a lot wordier than that).

It was a pretty interesting day.