Yes it is.

As you know, I really like the Calorie Mates here, which I found out about through MGS3, a video game where they replenish your stamina. A few days ago, my friend told me "this isn't MGS," to which I said, "yes it is." Life is like a video game in many respects mostly bacause many games are made to represent life in some way or another. Take GTA4 for example. Anyways, the point is, I like Calorie Mates.

Moving on, I'm sure some of you have at some time or other thought I've been ready to give up on Japan. My being a pessimist doesn't help this. Well, your wrong. Yes, there are times when I can't stand some things here, but even then, my thoughts refused to go down the course of returning until I'm done. I have instead thought of how I would deal with whatever it is here. Even when I've broken, there has still been no doubt in my mind that I wanted to finish my stay.
That said, Japan is, in my opinion, one of the hardest places to get used to. It's a country that has excelled at solitary for hundreds of years, shutting out the Chinese, Mongols, Spanish, Portegese and keeping only minimal contact with England (Anjin-sama) and the Dutch until Perry. Even today outsiders are coldly welcome and seen as different (even I find myself staring at Westerns, they stand out THAT much). It's fundamentally different from the West and there are many ideas and customs that you just have to get used to here.

Anyways, today I had a ten k race near 加賀. Thiswas mostly to check how I'm doing. Over an hour would be bad, under fifty minutes would be great, I got fifty-four minutes and twelve seconds. I still had energy at the end (but I forced myself to a hard pace) so, I'm doing fine I guess. While running I remembered (as I often do even in runs in Canada) about all the people cheering for or yelling at me, as well as those who have run beside me. Thank you to all those people for any past and or present support and I wish you well in all your runs. I hope to run with you in the Fiddler's. Anyways, had a race, did well.