First post.

I've been through way too many blogs in my life, it's true. I've made new ones in a flurry of inspiration, posted a few entries, then deleted them after a couple of months. I'm hoping this one will be different.

I'm a 21 year old Australian girl living in Melbourne. Melbourne's an awesome city - it's got pretty much everything you'd want. However, the public transport here, which used to be called the "best in Australia", is now a heap of shit run by lazy people who don't care about their jobs. Late trains happen to everyone, almost every day, and no-one apologizes for it. But, the rest of Melbourne is nice. I just can't bring myself to rave about it, though, because it doesn't really feel like home to me. Sure, my family's here, my amazing boyfriend is here, most of my friends are here, I go to university and work here... But when I'm here, there's always something missing. I'm guilty of constantly comparing Australia to Japan. I've had a love affair with Japan my whole life. The first time I visited was on a 2008 study tour of Hokkaido and Tokyo, after my first year of learning Japanese. The second time was last year, after a few more years of learning Japanese, and I worked and lived in Tokyo for 4 months. At this stage, I have been learning Japanese for 3 years and still have a couple more to go before I get my degree. I enjoy studying here, but nothing compares to Japan. Arriving in Tokyo last year, for the second time... oh man, my cheeks hurt from smiling. I can't explain the sheer exhilaration I felt. I love everything about that city - the neon lights, the skyscrapers, the narrow streets littered with bars and ramen shops, the humidity in summer, the way it rains, the way everything smells, beautiful girls with their cascading hair and tiny shorts walking around Shibuya, eating homemade curry rice in winter, staying out all night drinking with friends and ending up legless at a random Izakaya, the clean, punctual trains consistently packed with salarymen... My heart skips a beat when I think about it. But it's not just Tokyo I crave... I dream about watching fireflies at rural summer festivals, cycling past bright green rice fields in Niigata, visiting beautiful temples in Kamakura, watching the sun rise atop Mt. Fuji. These things are what give meaning to my life, that inspire me and make me happy.

This blog is for me to reminisce, plan, share stories, practice my Japanese and other such things. If you find any of those things interesting, then hot damn that's great.