The bucket list

Here's a confession: One of the biggest challenges in writing this blog has been finding ways to share personal experiences in a way that isn't overtly personal. To this point I have been fully committed to the practice of prudence and a "less is more" approach. I have been fully committed, it turns out, until now.

Here's a truth: When I first arrived in Japan, I created a tweny item laundry list of things I wanted to accomplish by the time I leave. The list is exhaustive but meant to be flexible, and in my three months in Japan I have been fortunate enough to have already put a good dent into it. That said, every once in a long while, an opportunity comes along to cross an item off the master list, the great big one in my brain and heart that I began to write from the time I could first tell my parents what I wanted for Christmas. It so happens that this weekend provided one of these moments.

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted - nay, craved - to see a monkey outside the confines of the public zoo. I wanted to see it, to pet and high five it, to have it steal my hat and do something funny like crap in it and hand it back to me. I won't go into too much detail here (the pictures do modest justice to the experience where my words could not), but I can say with a certain modicum of earnestness that my time spent Saturday on Shodoshima Island scratched an itch in long need of relief. It made me believe, however briefly, that perhaps someday I can empty my own bucket list.

Please enjoy.


my first sighting!


that's one smart monkey


hmmm....this is awkward...


enjoying a family moment


"check"