already dreading the big move...and it is not for another 9 months!

As I sit in my apartment and look around, I seriously wonder how on EARTH I am going to move everything back to America.  The clothes I can deal with...I can leave them behind if necessary.  I am talking about the things I have collected in the past 2 years and 2 months.  We are talking about things I am not willing to leave behind.  They HAVE to come back to America so that someday my grandkids can be cleaning out all my crap going "What the Hell is this, anyway?"  And then they will throw it away, completely ignorant of the fact that I carried it around the world with me.  Let's face it...I like to collect things.  I always have and I always will.  There is nothing I can do about it.    Just a list here for starters, then pictures.  Some things I have collected:

Manga (Japanese comics).  I have at least 75 to move back.  They are not your normal American comic books, either.  They are maybe 6x8 (I have no idea) and are on average, an inch thick.  That means I have 75 inches of manga to bring home.


Kamen Rider...It is a TV series that has been on in Japan since the 70s.  America gave it a try once, but I do not think it was the most successful show ever, so it stopped.  Anyway, I got REALLY into Kamen Rider, though the current series is NOT good, thank God (less things I will want to collect!) and as a result, I have a decently sized collection of random things: cups, figures, towels, McDonald's happy meal toys (don't ask), and one very large Kamen Rider head.  Yes, a head.  (see picture)

My toy shelf, though this barely touches on the toys.  The top has the Kamen Rider mask.  It is about a foot tall, if that helps to put things in perspective.

Stuffed animals.  Ah, I have always loved stuffed animals, and apparently, allergies and all, I still do.  They are really fun to win out of claw machines and I have quite a few.  My most recent addition is this guy,  Haro, a robot character from the Gundam series.

Haro!  Yeah, same size as my head.  Bigger, even!

Keychains/cell phone straps.  These are legit, because I have been collecting key chains FOREVER.  So, in keeping with tradition, I have been buying a key chain every time I go somewhere new.  I have a grand plan for these key chains, do not worry.  Now, cell phone straps...sometimes it is hard to find a keychain, so I have resorted to buying cell phone straps instead to represent certain places I visited.  But, once I started doing that, it opened the door to general cell phone strap collecting.  The result:  I have a small Christmas tree in my room that has the straps hanging on it like ornaments.  At this point, the tree is no longer visible...

Kanji (this is sort of a stretch as far as "collecting" but.. well, just read on)  As you may know, I have gotten really into kanji since coming to Japan.  I love studying kanji!!  LOVE IT!  As a result, I have accumulated quite a few study books which I would like to have back in America so I can constantly review the kanji I learned.  In addition, I want to continue learning new kanji, so I want to bring books full of kanji I have yet to study.  We are talking 10-15 books here...not too big or anything, just heavy.

Along with kanji study are the kanji notebooks.  They are all pretty and gridded with little spaces to write readings.  And then they have extra boxes to practice writing kanji.  I am not sure if I can get these in America.  I plan to research that, but if it seems to be a no, then I will need to bring a few of these pretties home with me.  Or I could figure out a way to get creative with excel, I guess and print my own paper, but it is just not the same as the beautiful notebooks with cute pictures of baby animals on the cover.

Movies.  Another legit collection (have you seen my DVDs in America?)  I love movies.  I have gotten quite a few over here, too, most of them Japanese movies that I will not be able to get in America.  The problem with that?  I need a region 2 (or region free) DVD player.  A problem to deal with later.  For now, I have to get all the movies back to America without breaking any cases or disks.

Ok...are you seeing the problem here?  Moral of the story...next summer, I am going to be stressed about this.  I think I will start sending boxes home now, but even so...it is going to be a challenge to get everything I want moved back to America.  *sigh*  There is a lesson in all this...from now on, I will not be such a collector of random things.  The keychains can stay, but everything else has to stop!!!!