Gonna make a lot of money then I'll quit this crazy scene

I have decided something. I'm going to try to be out of Raleigh - or at least on my way out - by this time next year.

I have never liked Raleigh. It's one of those cities that sprawl has destroyed, and I thought my impression of it would get better once I had my own car and my own place, but...no.

(1) I don't have a place. In Montreal, I had St. Denis street, the boutiques and the CD stores, I had my anonymous chain bookstore; in Nagasaki, I had the harbor with the glinty sun on the waves, and the big mall there with the Kinokuniya; in Carrboro, I had Weaver Street Market. I need to get out of the house, especially given my lack of furniture--and I spend a lot of time hanging out at Borders, but it's really not mine that way.

(2) I am so sedentary and so dismayed with that, and I try, but there's a part of me that really doesn't like working up a sweat and not getting anywhere. I am so much happier when I can take a walk or ride my bike to where I want to go. I get out of my own head, I get the endorphins and so on.

(3) Even if I try to do things and join things, I'm working on weeknights either until 7:00 or 8:30, which really hurts my ability to do sociable things. That would be solved if I got a job at a different library in the area, but if I'm going to go to the trouble of changing jobs I'm sure not going to stay in Raleigh...

So I am going to:

(1) Throw myself at academic jobs that involve dealing with Japanese, and academic jobs in general that are in a place I'd like to live;

(2) If that doesn't work, throw myself at public library jobs in places I'd like to live;

(3) Research places I'd like to live because yes, I love New York, yes I know that I could maybe afford it if I didn't have my insurance/car payment/gas to pay, but I should keep an open mind.

I just heard the statistic that about 5-10% of Japanese library school grads are managing to find jobs in the field, which is pretty depressing. You'd think there would be some nice bilingual or international library that might want to hire somebody with my skills...

The return of imaginary biking!

(Recap: imaginary biking is where you do real biking, but you pretend you're actually getting somewhere.)

Picking up from where we last left off in Arihata, 107 total miles, and the town of Shichinohe in Aomori. Its main industries are yams, garlic, dairy products, and racehorses. There used to be a castle, but it looks like not much remains. They have azaleas that look really impressive in May. The local specialty is called 'pony' steamed buns, but they do not have real ponies in them. As far as I can tell.