Friday October 17, 1997: midnight
Well I just got back from that concert with Mikako-chan and it was so much fun! I met her in Kichioji (she works right around there) and together we headed over to the club "Turning" in Nishi Ogikubo. Turning is in a basement - very smal, maybe only twice the size of my apartment, smokey, packed, mostly a chairs and tables place - and of course with a stage at one end. When we arrived - at 9 or so - there was a 4 person male band playing some half-paced tune, and I was pretty impressed at their skill level. Like, the guitarists were good, the singer's voice was strong and always in tune - plus, you could actually HEAR the guy. I know that when I go to these types of concerts in Canada, you can barely hear their voices (probably on purpose!), but I'm in the land of karaoke here, so the singers are gonna be good. Anyway, after that song they moved into some fast-paced rock, which was really quite good. I liked the stuff a lot.
This band played 4 or 5 songs (we had missed the first half of the act) and when they were done the next band (the one with Mikako-chan's friend in it) started to set up. They're band was really cool - there were 6 members - 3 guys and 3 gals - so quite large, and they had a keyboardist and a violinist. Neat! And yet it was quite fast-paced and funky. The 3 guys were dressed all weird - the drummer as a nurse (short white dress and everything), one guitarist as a doctor, and the other guitarist in striped pyjamas. They looked great!
So MIkako-chan's friend was their basist and also the group's female singer. Wow, her voice is so strong it was fabulous. I was once again really impressed - their music was great!
They musta played for about an hour, at which point the concert was over. Mikako-chan's friend came over to chat with us, and we ended up meeting some of the other band members - they're wierd! Particularly the doctor dude - he was having so much fun saying strange things to me in Japanese... hahahaha! All in all, I had lots of fun tonight! Now I'm going to read - I started "Snow Falling on Cedars" earlier on today and I just can't put it down already! It's a murder mystery, sorta, taking place in the states back in the 50s, but the accused is a Japanese man, so it's very interesting to hear how it was back then - with the prejudice hanging from the war...
Saturday October 18, 1997: 11am
Ohman, I just *completely* blew up my hot water heater. No, I am NOT joking, the little glass window flew off and hit me on the leg, and the WHOLE FRONT COVER was ripped off, all my stuff that had been on top of it was thrown across the bathroom - and this was all accompanied by a HUGE "BOOM!" sound. Man, scared the crap outta me. My heart is pounding a mile a minute - no joke. Dangit, now I have NO hot water whatsoever. This means war!
3pm
Wha, what stunning weather. It really IS like the perfect Canadian summer day, just like last weekend. About 26C, blue, sunny, still. Right now I'm sitting by the Asakawa (Asa River) on an old wooden bench in a little secluded park by an old temple. I've got my walkman going - I think I'm going to study some kanjis... I have to control myself and not read that book, I ended up staying up til 3am this morning reading cuz I couldn't put it down! Crazy.
midnight
Well Jun and I tried out internet phones tonight - cool! First we tried to use Freetel, which Jon had told me about, but it wouldn't set up properly on Jun's computer, so we downloaded Microsoft NetMeeting to try it out, and it worked! It was neat, we just clicked on some guy in New York and suddenly we heard a "hello?" over Jun's speakers, so I grabbed his mic and went "HELLO?!?!" - we had a pretty short conversation - it was one of his first calls as well so we were both just testing it out. And I was so impressed with the speed - I mean, there was a *bit* of a lag, but no more than when you "chat" by typing. Cool! So now I don't have to have a big long-distance bill! Well, I would have to get a computer for my apartment - maybe I can find one at work somewhere.
Sunday October 19, 1997
Well I finished "Snow Falling on Cedars" today - wow, it was really good! Couldn't put it down.
Gee, just when I thought I had missed out on Canada's summer, it comes around the corner. Funky.
Monday October 20, 1997: 10pm
So I guess I caused quite a fuss today with my "blow upt the bathtub" story - which I suppose is reasonable considering the "accident" involved large amounts of gas and a spark. It was fun explaining what happened though - there's nothing like charades of an explosion! BOOM! arms flailing every-which direction, etc etc. I can really play it up.
Anyway, I came home early today because a dude was supposed to come and check to heater out at 5pm. So, wanting to work right til the last minute (uuhhhuh) I planned it so that I'd get home at 4:50. But when I got home, the guy'd already been there - he left a note stuck in my door, dated at 4:40. Sheesh, he was *early*?? 20 minutes? Incredible. Things like this just don't happen in Canada.
So I was somewhat disappointed because these last few days have been pure *HELL* and I am not joking. Except that hell would be pleasantly warmer than my icicle shower, indeed.
I spent the rest of my evening planning what courses to take when I get back to Waterloo because - gack - it's preregistration time!!! Already!! This is insane! Make times see so short.
Tuesday October 21, 1997: 7pm
Ok, so the water guy is supposed to come tomorrow morning. Hirabayashi-san is making fun of me because I'm going to be a translator. And coding is going slow. Dangit.
Wednesday October 22, 1997: 9:20pm
Ok, so the repairman was supposed to come fix my heater sometime between 8:30 and 11 this morning, and I was hoping that he'd arrive sometime closer to the 8:30 mark so that maybe I could get to work at a reasonable hour... so the guy turned up around 10:30 - oh well, so much for work. Hey, I can sacrifice if it puts an end to the cold showers! They're torture!!
Anyway, it turns out to be the same guy who brought me my oven when I first got to Tokyo - I don't know why I remember the guy, but I do - so now I think he's just Hino's "fix-it man". Sure, Hino's small enough for that!
Ok, so I explain to him how it blew up ("Boom!" came up a couple of times) and he set to work. Took him 40 minutes! Wow, I _really_ musta trashed the thing! Way to go Alexa! And at the end of it all, his explanation was "It's old. It's temperamental", which really puts my mind at rest. Oh, and he showed me a *much* less complicated way of turning the thing on. I shoulda known that the instructions on the heater itself would be wrong!
Anyway, on the way to work I popped by the post office to pick up a package from Jon. He sent me candy! Hallowe'en toffees!! Ya know, the ones no one seems to like (except for Jon, John Poole and I that is. Oh, and Mikey, if they're soft) Wowee - CANDY! I was so excited! I still AM excited!
And tonight was calligraphy. When I got there we sat down for some ocha (Japanese tea - the usual) and boiled chesnuts. I don't think I've ever had boiled chesnuts before - quite tasty. You eat them with a spoon, of all things - strange.
And tonight's calligraphy was "banri no kokoro", which means kinda, the heart of someone who is far away from their hometown and yet their heart is still WITH that hometown. Quite fitting, I guess. Fun, for sure.
Those toffees are *chewy*!! OH, the train's at Hino, must go!
Thursday October 23, 1997: 8:15am
That was surely the best shower I've had in a long, LONG time.
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