Grand Reopening

No, your eyes do not deceive you. Of course, by saying that I make the dangerous assumption that there are any eyes to see. I have been gone a long time.

And before I go any further let me say: I am sorry. It was not right of me to up and leave the blog for three months without saying so much as a word or giving an explanation. But to make up for it I'm going to give you an explanation right now. Even if it means coming dangerously close to revealing my secret identity.

As some of you already know, I've been a graduate student for these past few years. You know I study Japan and some of you may even know that I'm in Japan right now. These things are all puzzle pieces in the reasons why I haven't been blogging. Here are the specifics, in bullet points:

• First of all, when I moved to Japan at the end of August my apartment didn't have the Internet. The building is really old (which is why the doorways are all too low and I keep hitting my head) so it wasn't easy to get it set up. Finally it happened, but the damage was already done: I got used to not blogging.

• Secondly, I am currently attending an extremely intensive Japanese language program. This is the kind of thing that barely gives you any free time. Hell, if I didn't find the time to sleep I wouldn't get any of that. Still, I would've had time for blogging if it hadn't been for...

• The third problem. See, I'm currently between my MA and PhD degree. Originally I'd planned on staying at my current institution. But a few weeks before I left Japan my academic adviser dropped a bombshell on me: he was retiring. Which meant I had to apply to other schools. While in a super-intensive Japanese language program. In Japan.

So you can probably see why I haven't been around at all. But here's the thing: the applications are due on December 15, but I finished them today. Which means aside from the crippling homework I am free! Gloriously free!

You may also be interested to know that today, December 13, is this blog's Sixth Anniversary. All things considered, I'll hope you'll forgive me for a three month recess out of pretty continuous posting for six years.

What I'm saying is: I'm back. I probably won't be able to post every day, and maybe not more than twice or three times a week while the program is on. But I will post. Again, thanks to everyone who has stuck with me over the past six years. You can't imagine how much it means to have people read my writing and sometimes even comment on it. I hope to keep this up for a long time to come.

Oh, and as for my co-bloggers? I don't really have any idea what they've been up to over the past three months. Though I wouldn't be surprised if they show up soon...