around

I'm not moving back to the States this year, and probably not next year, either. I haven't gotten my fill of Japan yet, and I have a long  ways to go in learning Japanese. That said, when I finally do  go back to the States, I will definitely be bringing back some cultural baggage and expectations of what belongs in a home. These things include: kotatsu A kotatsu is a low, heated table with a removeable top so you can drape blankets over it. When I'm back in the States, I will search high and low for one until I get my hands on it, and if I can't find one I will figure out how to make one. What does a person need central heating for when they can wrap up in blankets like a burrito and stick their feet under a heated table? My feet are usually the only  part of me that get cold, and a kotatsu is so effective at keeping them warm. removing shoes before going in the house  I've gone from "Eh, I don't wanna take them off just to get that one little thing o...

I just realized that quite often, I forget who I am. I can't look around and be reminded. I don't see myself in any of the ads on TV, or in magazines, or before Youtube videos, or in movies, or in songs, or on the marketing for in-store products, or on billboards, or in the conversations people have about their lives and relationships. I don't see myself because the world is all about sex, and I'm asexual . The words I use for myself don't exist in the vocabulary of the population at large: heteromantic, asexual, ace, aesthetically attracted. The divisions I draw between romantic feelings and physical actions are seen as superfluous and strange to people for whom intimate love and sex are one and the same. The conundrums I face on a regular basis when it comes to determining how much casual contact is considered casual by others is ridiculous. "Well, can the contact be considered sexual?" I don't fucking know . I just read a fanfiction tonight ...