Friday January 9, 1998: 6:40am
Well so much for THAT. I just attempted to go for my run, but had to abort mission about 15 minutes through - snow. Now I find this mildly humourous considering I will run in -30C, blizzarding weather in Canada (I draw the line at -30C -- as soon a s it hits -31C, it had better be one hell of a nice day to get me out there) but it seems that here they haven't yet heard about one amazing innovation: the snowplow. It's still snowing lightly now, and judging from the amount of stuff on the ground, i t has probably been going on all night. This will be funny to see how they all handle it.
Now for the stairs up to my apartment. They are slightly reminiscent of the stairs to Jon and my apartment on McLeod - lethal when combined with snow! Except those McLeod stairs really WERE a death trap! I just hope things don't turn to ice here o
r it will be messy, not to mention miserable! On the bright side, it looks so pretty, and I LOVE SNOW!!
Sunday January 11, 1998: 8pm
Talk about power Japanese - I just studied for about 6 hours straight. Well maybe it's because I haven't studied my Japanese for a very (very) long time, I dunno, but I only had intended to go for an hour, but I was making good progress so I didn't really want to stop at all. Neat.
The snow is still here although quite a bit of it melted yesterday. It was a beatiful day, which is much more than I can say about today. Today, all I have to say is "Yuck", with a capital 'Y'.
Oh I read an interesting book yesterday called "Death in Little Tokyo" by Dale Furitani. Surprisingly, it wasn't set in Tokyo at all, but in LA's Little Tokyo district -- a murder mystery. Good stuff, especially if you're remotely familiar with Jap anese customs.
The Waterloo Co-op evaluation forms have arrived - Hirabayashi-san showed me mine (as of yet uncompleted) on Thursday. This, understandibly, made me panic, because that form signals the end of the work term. Yoiks!! Anyway, the worst part was that
he asked me to make a copy of the blank evaluation, and he wants me to fill in that copy and give it to him so that - I dunno - we can compare views on my work. Argh, I hate this kind of stuff! I'd better do it now, before I convince myself out of it or
something.
Monday January 12, 1998: 9pm
Just watching the weather forecast, you know, the visual kind - a map of Japan with drawings of Mr.HappySun, Mr.AngryRaindrop, and Mr.FrostyTheSnowman. No really, they don't put a snowflake up there - it's actually a snowman. Weird.
Speaking of snow though, it really came down today! I don't believe it!!
Tuesday January 13, 1998: 9pm
Hey a new girl started work today, on our team! This is big news! I mean, a Japanese girl, only 22! Cool. Actually, she's here to test the stuff that Hirabayashi-san and I have been making, and as of now she's only here until June (but plans alwa
ys change). Oh, where are my manners! Her name is Ichii-san, I think her first name is Yukiko, but I'm not positive on that one. Anyway, I didn't get much of a chance to talk to her, but we're going to be working together a lot, so the time'll come.
Wednesday January 14, 1998: 6:15pm
So I'm wondering if Hirabayashi-san has a plot for Ichii-san and I to be best buds. Ha ha, I'm only a little suspicious. Not that it bugs me or anything, actually it's a bit humourous. Anyway, Ichii-san is from Kobe originally, and she was there f or the BIG earthquake in what, '93? Well, she said that her house wasn't on the side of the city where the most damage was, but her roof caved in and the tiles on the walls fell off. Scary!!
Speaking of earthquakes though, we had one last night at 2:30 or so - it woke me up and I rushed to my "doorway" - but by that point it had already finished, and I was so disoriented that I convinced myself that it was a figment of my imagination, an d went back to sleep. But actually, there really was one, clocked at about 3 or 4 on the Richter. Or wait, in Japan they use a different scale, don't they? I think so. But, it's not that different anyway.
9:30pm
Ok, so I'm not so sure what it was that I wrote at calligraphy tonight... "smthgsmthgsmthg jitsusho smthgsmthg", so I'm not going to lie and say I know what it means, but I DO know that it is something quite auspicious.
Oh wow, Sensei's calligraphy teacher is some *real* famous dude and no wonder because he is awesome. Sensei showed me his book - filled with his works and stuff and he is truly incredible. And he's the one who gave me one of his peices when I first
met Sensei at her exhibition!!!
Thursday January 15, 1998: 6pm
Hewly Kamewly!! Geez dude, wouldya believe it is - brr - BLIZZARDING out there! No serious, I'm not joking. I got up at 11 (today's a holiday and I'll get to that latuh) I took a peep out the window from the warmth of my bed to see if it was a goo d day for a run. Yeah right. I look out and only see white. Guess that run'll be waiting 'til tomorrow!
Anyway, I *did* venture out today - twice actually - and it is crazy! The snow is, well, VERY DEEP. And although I've mentioned it before, I feel it necessary to repeat these two words: NO SNOWPLOWS.
I rest my case.
My run tomorrow will probably have to be forfeited too, it seems. BUt, I like the snow so it's OK.. for a few days, that is.
Yes yes, the holiday. It is "Coming of Age Day", the day to celebrate how the Japanese realized the beauty in peanut butter and jam sandwhiches. Oops sorry, wrong day, today is actually when 20 year olds celebrate their new adult state. Cool huh. And so we all get the day off - but we have to work Saturday. Hmph, I'm not sure what I think about THAT!
Finished "Tamarind Mem" today (by Anita Bau Badami), and it was OK, I suppose. Perhaps I'm kinda, uh, not incredibly impressed with it because it totally pales in comparison to "She's Come Undone" by Wally Lamb, which I started earlier today when I
finished "T.M.". Wow, this book is fabulous!! Oh, incredible, love it. Later, gotta read.
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