Somewhere in Japan

Dispatch № 27: 2,194 Days

Six years I’ve been in Japan. This last Wednesday was my sixth Japaniversary. Rather than reflect on the occasion in my usual way, though, I thought I’d explore that time through numbers.

Some of the following figures are exact. Some are approximate. A few are facetious. I’ll leave it to you to consider which figures fall into which category.

Six years in Japan, 2015-03-31 through 2021-03-31, described through various figures, presented here in no particular order whatsoever.

  • Days since I moved to Japan: 2,194
  • Days I’ve regretted it: 0
  • Portion of my life now spent living in Japan: 15.3%
  • Small crushes, largely on attractive strangers: 172,956
  • First dates: 55
    • First dates in just the summer of 2016: 36
  • Friends gained from attempted dates via dating apps: 3
  • Dates with known celebrities: 1
  • Broken hearts received: 3
  • Broken hearts given: 1
  • People I went out with more than 3 times: 4
  • Engagement rings purchased: 1
  • Proposals accepted: 1
  • Trips to the beach at Tsujido: 9
  • Calories consumed at GoGo Curry: 72,000
  • Steps taken: 32,400,000
    • Approx distance: 20,380km (12,634 mi)
    • Canvas sneakers worn out over that distance: 19 pair
  • Hours spent teaching: 8,700
  • Amount spent on wine by VIP client while out to dinners together: ¥7,500,000
  • Bikelore cycling events attended: 14
  • Days of work missed due to illness: 3
  • Rolls of film shot: 460
  • Cumulative kilometers travelled on trains while commuting: 54,000km (33,480 mi)
    • Times around the Earth that equals: 1.35x
    • Number of cricket bats it would take, lined up end-to-end, to equal that distance: 62,528,949
  • Cumulative time spent commuting: 4 months, 28.5 days
  • Apartments occupied: 2
  • February 29ths: 2
  • Hamsters cared for: 2
  • Cats adopted: 1
  • Times the above cat has pooped on the floor because he has anxiety: 280
  • Neighborhood cats befriended: 100
  • Cameras, knives, etc purchased at flea markets or junk shops and restored: 5
  • Onigiri eaten: 625
  • Photographs taken: 85,000
  • Kanji learned: 600
  • Notebooks filled: 110
  • Coins thrown into the box at various shrines: 460
  • Lists like this made so far: 1
  • Times I’ve forgotten to send a new post as a newsletter: 1

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David R Munson

David R Munson

Photographer, essayist, wanderer, weirdo. Everything is interesting if you give it an honest chance to be.

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