a letter to my old friend kristen, who stated interest in what im doing - which is teaching engrish in japan btw -

-

"
good god,

before you get a ticket or a plan or an idea in your head, please wait for me to ride this one out like the eager little lab rat that i am - and please let me advise you bruised and broke from the other end -

because -

it could be bad.

you see

i decided, somehow, that leaving the intimate security of my twin shared apartment in the Lower East Side for a 1950s japanese 2 level house with no insulation or central heat with winter coming located in a small sattelite city of a major japanese city would be fun - especially if the house was stocked with people i dont know well, but i do know that they read semiology and make art and make their own clothes and just graduated from the usually annoying charlottesville pudhouse school of bohemia and

and that working for a man named mark who was a european baskteball league pro who moved to japan and whose ex wife killed their son in a legendary local tragedy that unfolded publicly - working for him would be ok

wait -

wait and see

watch as i

watch as i dance though visa complications, break yearlong contracts, shudder through psychotic company meetings that start with a moment of silence and each employee stating what he/she is thankful for, eye rooms full of silent and shy japanese housewives expecting you to teach them conversational english, eccentric japanese dentists named names like "Dr. No-no" who want you to teach them to curse under their original Warhols

just wait a sec kristen

please just
just dont jump?into anything
quite yet.

love, and vending machines,
for chrissakes,
cem

"