Miho and I are trying to get an apt...we will need about 10,000 USD, or 1, 000, 000 yen...we have about 700,000 yen...So I sent out an email to every member of my family pleading for help...basically throwing myself on their mercy. So far the only people who have replied are my father and mother who said they would give me as much as they could...one of my aunts, my godmother, sent me back an email explaining how at age 19 she moved all the way to Boston and did this an that on her own and all of this is why she can't help me...because I need to gro up and all of the standard stuff I expected to hear from everyone pretty much.

Only truoble with her argument are her main points. She said she moved to Boston and put down a hefty security deposit on her apt...but that wasn't equivalent to 6 months rent, which is standard in Japan. She also said she got a second job to save money...I can't do that because my company, who is sponsoring my visa, will not let me. I have tried several times to get a second job. Third, she said I shouldn't be going to Bali in November...that trip was cancelled the minute Miho and I decided to look for another apt...

Upon explaining all of this to her she suggested I move back to The States...That won't happen anytime soon. Not after how hard I worked to get into the position I am in. How many people go from Roppongi Bartender to corporate sposnsored, salaried, and self supporting in 6 months?? Especially when they came to Japan with absolutely nothing but a suitcase?? I think everyone knows the answer...just in case you don't...

NO ONE...no one that anyone I know or that they know has climbed the ladder as fast as me...I have friends who have been here since the 80's...they didn't get to where I am until they were here a few years...so I'll be damned if I leave and go back to America so I can miserably toil in college to graduate almost 100,000 dollars in debt with a job making less than half of my salary in Japan and be in debt to college the rest of my life...My boss makes more money than he can spend and he is still paying off his college education at the age of 33!!

That will not be me...I am going to wait a week or so to see who responds and who does not and who helps me and who does not...atleast then I will know who I can count on in my family...

Which is a real bitch onsidering I am the only family member who calls everyone once a week...I am in JAPAN!!!! I call everyone on their birthdays, etc...everyone! I made it a point to see as many of my family members as humanly possible when I went to NY for xmas...I missed a few of course...but I tried..it's hard when your parents are divorced. The point is...I am not asking for so much money, they all have huge houses in upper-middle class neighborhoods...they have a few hundred dollars they can all spare. That is all I am asking.

Heaven forbid I am ever happy at the expense of them.