Friday November 7, 1997: 11pm
Aaaah, weekend! Time to catch up on some lost sleep. Time to do a bit o' readin'. Started this book called "Bachelor Brothers Bed & Breakfast" by Bill Richardson earlier on this evening and it's really good. Quite funny. And it's set in BC, so it's nice to hear a couple of Canadian references every once in awhile. Anyway, I'm almost done, but I'm also dang tired. Should I sleep before midnight on a Friday? Dilemma.
Saturday November 8, 1997: 6pm
So when autumn comes around Tokyo, these dudes drive around in pick-up trucks selling some kind of autumn food (presumably a sort of roasted meat, but I"m not sure) - but they drive around *real* slowly (walking pace) and they belt out over loud speakers some kind of "Cccccome and get it!" type thing, which actually sounds exactly like a mosque (which I've had the pleasure of hearing 5 times a day for 3 years, so I'm a tad sick of it).. and this thing is LOUD. I mean, it actually wakes me up! Ok, that's not hard to do, but the fact is, surely you wouldn't be allowed to do this in Canada, it's probably more against the law because of what people may say over the loudspeakers.. but that's not the point. Anyway, OUR neighbourhood pick-up truck guy passes by maybe 3 times a day, and since he's belting out the propoganda so loud, I can hear it for at least half an hour, until he gets out of earshot.
Sensei had explained to me how the sound of the advertisements was another one of those autumn sounds that when you hear you know autumn is around.
Hmm, I'm debating whether or not I should try it (if it's not meat).
Sunday November 9, 1997: 1pm
Currently I am having a stereo war with my neighbours. It seems that he's playing it so loud that I cannot hear mine at ALL. So I decided, fine, then I'll just turn MINE up, which I did, to some unethical volume, so the dude proceeded to turn up his... and now I find myself in a full-fledged war! Ah, little does he know what he's up against! I have a new 3D kick-ass stereo and I'm not afraid to use it... squirm baby squirm.
3pm
Well it is *such* an incredible day that I had to go outside. So I thought I would go to the store... but once I'd done that, I didn't want to go back inside again.. so I just kept on walking and walking... and I saw what seemed to be a beautiful forest so I went over to explore and it ended up being the forest just across the Chuo Line from my place! Cool, because I'd just been walking quite randomly in "unchartered territory" for a good 40 minutes.. and to end up somewhere I know.. neat. Actually, I've only been here once but I don't know why - it's beautiful. So currently I'm sittin' on a bench enjoying the forest, the trees, the crows caw-ing, the birds chirping, the kids down the road shrieking at the top of their lungs.. oh well, you can't have everything! Anyway, back to my walk...
Monday November 10, 1997: 10pm
So today I get this mac put on my desk and I spend the rest of the day crashing it with my applet. Well that's a confidence booster for ya!
Ah, and today was my turn with the hirukai, and since Hirabayashi-san had once requested I do a hirukai on English slang, that's just waht I did. So if you hear a Tokyoite walking around yelling "Hey dude! Whassup? Awesome! Get outta here dammit! Argghgh", then you now they worked at Seiko Epson Hino branch!
Tuesday November 11, 1997: 9:15pm
*What* an awesome day! Everything was fabulous! It was just one of those perfect days. My best news is that Liz said she'd be my aptmnt mate once Levon leaves me (bitterness) and so I don't have to give up my place AND it's Liz! Someone I know AND like (wooo). Awesome! Also, work went really well because I was getting things done! And Jon sent me a full complete run-down of Sunday's X-Files! And Jason phoned! And although I didn't get lots of sleep last night, I was still wide awake! And Mikey told me a story about a friend of his that could've been taken right from a fairy tale! And my dinner was fabulous! And I think I may go to sleep early! Wow, this is incredible!
Wednesday November 12, 1997: 6pm
This morning I saw a woman biking with *3* kida on her bike. 3!! Like, one must be hard enough! She had one in the front basket, one in the back basket, and her smaller kid in a baby-knapsack on her back! She looked... packed. Reminded me of the families of 5 on motorbikes that I see in Jakarta on a regular basis.
Oh yeah, today at lunch they were talking about the Olypmics and they said something about the last Canadian Olympics being Montreal, so I said "oh, well there was Calgary." - "Where?" "Calgary." "Where?" "Calgary! 1988!" "Where?" Ah, it hits me... "Ka-ru-ga-ri"... "Oooooh, Karugari!" -
10pm
So tonight was calligraphy and even though I really just sucked, it was still lotsa fun. I was quite talkative tonight actually - just babbling on. Now in English this is quite a common occurence (as anyone who knows me can testify for) but it's not often that I babble in Japanese, for sure! Anyway, tonight's calligraphy was "huyu no ashioto", which means "the sound of winter's footsteps", which is cool because I could hear the muffled crunch of feet walking on newly fallen snow - dark outside - fresh, brisk air - the thought of being warm and cozy inside and counting the moments 'til your home.. ah, good ol' winter! If I didn't know better, I'd almost think I missed it or something.
Speaking of weather though, it's actually supposed to rain tomorrow, for the first time in about a month and a half. Oh, and it's supposed to get to 24C on Friday. I'm rubbing this in to all the Canadians I know, who are currently being bombarded with snow. Oo, I'm mean!
Thursday November 13, 1997: 10pm
Ooo, how horrible! I phoned "Mikako"-chan yesterday to ask her if she can come along to Nikko on Sunday, but I got her answering machine, so I started off - "Hey Mikako-san! About Nikko.." (I was very Japanese talkative yesterday) and then this morning I looked at my list of telephone numbers on my wall, and I actually READ "Mikako"'s full name... and read "Adachi... Wakako".. WAkako! WA! Man, I've been calling her MIkako!! Oh man. Well actually, since you don't really call people by their first names in Japan, I probably only said it a few times. Maybe only once. But I *definitely* said it last night.. .argh.. So now I'm going to go through my journal (hard-copy and web page versions) and change all references to "Mikako" to "Wakako". Poor girl! [ed note: Um, I haven't done this yet ;) ]
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