Friday March 13, 1998: 11:30pm
Oooo am I ever M-A-D Mad!!! Last night at about 9 I got a call from Hirabayashi-san saying that they'd found this bug of mine that really needed fixing, so could I possibly come in today and take my holiday later? Now although I'd already been cele brating the beginning of a long weekend, I didn't mind going in because I could just bump my holiday until Monday. I *really* need all these holidays though because I have *so much* to do - first of all I have to prepare the Beppu seminar stuff because I may have to get some part sent to a translator. Since the seminar is 3 days, it is going to take a LOT of preparation. So there's that. Then, there's my work term report which I really want to finish by the end of March. This means I have to learn al l about JavaBeans, and get completely comfortable with using it in two weeks - outside of work. And then there's writing the actual report. I'm almost done C&O so at least that will be out of the way. THen there's packing, closing bank accounts, transf erring money, getting tickets, etc etc... not to mention Alex will be here in a week and mom and dad in 3... in short (yeah, really short!) I NEED MY HOLIDAYS.
Ok, so I had a good day anyway - I honestly didn't mind going in. One thing that really bothered me though was that the bug they had called about last night (THE whole reason I came in today) was actually a mistake on their part - it wasn't a bug!! They had copied over the wrong code!! How annoying. So anyway as I'm leaving today Hirabayashi-san looks at my schedule and says "Oh so you'll be here on Monday!" and I'm like "uhhh, well, when do I take the day off instead of today?" And he tells me that it may have to be postponed for awhile! What?!? Like, until *when*? There IS NO MORE TIME!! And I know perfectly well that there is nothing urgent for me to do on Monday, and that I certainly dind't have to be here today, and that if he had his w ay I wouldn't have any holidays at all. But I earned these fair and square, as a matter of fact, I should be getting 2 more days than I asked for! I could really use those dayas, but I figured that I should also work. Man, that made me SO MAD. Anyway I'll be in on Monday, but I intend to tell him that I'm taking Tuesday off, and Wednesday I already had off from other overtime, and I'm taking both days in a row.
Have I complained enough yet? I've heard it's good to vent. Hence, the last two pages.
In other, better, non-related news, I went to Shinjuku tonight to pick up my plane ticket. I have it! It exists! Yay yay yay.
Oh and I talked to Simon tonight, he's in town. We're planning on doing something tomorrow, but we don't know what yet exactly. Guess I'll find out sooner or later.
Saturday March 14, 1998: noon
Weird, some political party is broadcasting propoganda over loudspeakers from *a helicopter*. Yeah really! I mean I've mostly gotten used to the vans that drive around at ungodly hours blasting the stuff, but a helicopter?!? That's definitely a ne w one! And certainly an idea that doesn't make sense because the whir of the helicopter pretty much drown out what the lady is saying...
And I think it's worth mentioning again how Japanese men wil totally take a leak anywhere. Anywhere. Anytime. In the last week I've gone by at LEAST 10 guys doin' their business. It's just so weird to me because they *honestly* don't seem to care at all who sees them. I guess that's obvious because they make no attempt to conceal themselves. Strange!!
10pm
Oh so I talked to Simon and we bumped the "something" until tomorrow - we still don't know what we're doing but we at least know where we're starting off.
So instead I went in to work to type up some of the English lesson for the Beppu seminar. I had intended on mostly finishing it up, but after 6 hours at it I decided to call it quits for the day. I'm close, but not quite finished. I still have to make a detailed teaching plan, and also figure out what to teach them about life. Like I would know!!
Oh today is White Day! What's White Day? Well, it's kinda funny I think because here in Japan, Valentine's Day is the day when gals give stuff to the guy they like, adn White Day is the day when the guy gives the stuff to the gal he likes!! Like,
they have 2 different days!! Weird, if ya ask me. It makes it more of a gift-giving affair. It also gives lonely people a whole other day to be depressed! Hahaha. Ah no, it's another day to eat chocolate!! Yeah! not like I got anything anyway thoug
h!
Sunday March 15, 1998: 7:30pm
Today was weird. When I got up it was a bit cloudy, but not looking too bad, so I headed out for my run. BUt after about 10 minutes or so, all hell broke loose. Real dark clouds moved in, and then the wind got *incredibly* strong, the rain started to whip sideways.. then came the thunder and lightning - fork lightning to boot! I haven't seen fork lightning in ages. It's so nice and scary. And since I run in fairly open areas, I moved over closer to the trees when I saw it! It woudl be just my luck to get struck by lightning... Anyway within 40 minutes the storm was gone, and by the time I'd finished my run it was on its way to being a beautiful blue-skied day!! How weird.
So I made my way over to Kichijioji to meet Simon and his friend at 1 o'clock. We bummed around CD stores for the next hour (got Jesus Jones' "Perverse" for only Y350!! ($4)) then headed over to Samrat, the Indian restaurant. They have a special lu nch deal where you get ALL YOU CAN EAT NAAN!! All you can eat naan!! Heaven!! So we go there. Ana-chan, Erin-chan (Simon's two sisters) and Ike-chan (Ana-chan's friend - met her when we went to play mahjonng back in, what, October) joined us in a few m inutes. We stayed at the restaurant for 2 hours almost! I ate lots of naan, it was TASTY. Manohman I love naan! Service was a leeeetle slow, but in the end, I survived.
Ok so next we wandered around Kichijioji for a bit - there are some pretty funky stores around there - and then we went to do some.... KARAOKE! Cool. 2 hours of singing in style! It's really hilarious. Simon's sisters are a hoot! I wish they had
karaoke places like that in Canada!
Tuesday March 17, 1998: midnight
*whew* am I BEAT! I really shouldn't be though, considering I got an obscene 10 hours sleep last night. I got to take my holiday today in the end, actually, I'd just decided that postponing Friday's holiday to much later wouldn't be so bad (after a ll that complaining I did on Friday!) when Hirabayashi-san suggested I take today. I said I could postpone it, but he said it was OK today - I think he wants me to finish this JavaBeans report by March-end too! So, I worked a bit on that, but not nearly as much as I would've liked. Instead I did a lot of sleeping, and I went for a great run. Wow I was peppy, musta been the bee-yoo-tiful weather, it's really stunning. A bit too windy though.
Hm what else did I do... I can't remember. But at about 4:30 I made my way over to Hachioji by foot. I did a bit of window shpping when I got there, to pass the time until 6:30. At 6:30 I met Wakako-chan. We window shopped a bit more (we saw THE funniest shoes, I swear..) and then went up to the restaurant floor in the department store, and tried to pick a place to eat. It took awhile, but we finally decided on the Soba restaurant, where we stayed for 3 hours! Let's see, I had zarusoba (that's the usual kind) with mountain vegetable rice. Mmm. Oh and instead of just having the wasabe (that *spicy* green stuff) already in sauce-form on the plate, they actually gave us part of the plant (it looks a bit like a root) and a metal spiky tray so tha t we could make it ourselves!! Cool, I'd never seen that before.
So this dinner was fun! I hadn't seen Wakako-chan since before Xmas - we've been trying to get together since January but we've both always been busy! Actually, she just quit work last week so now she's got lots of free time. She quit because her mom has gotten sick and is in the hospital so it's just her in the house. Oh and also, she said that she's thinking about getting married!!! What? So I say "Married?!? TO WHO?!?" and she says, "I dunno yet, but it's probably about time I think about i t". Wah!! How, uh, Japanese! I had to laugh.
Yeah, so I spoke lots of Japanese, and taught her a couple of English things - wow, she knows some pretty complicated stuff! I wonder why we usually speak in Japanese! For example, the difference between "having an influence on" and "having an impa ct on" ... ??? That's not easy to explain!
We left the restaurant at a bit before 10, adn for some really silly reason I decided to walk home... a different way. Now considering that the Hachioji-Hino route is the scene of the infamous see-Alexa-get-lost-on-bike-in-rain-numerous-times, I wou
ld've thought I'd learned my lesson! And I just thought "I'll follow the tracks".. .duh!!! Does this sound familiar? Do I ever learn?!? Obviously not. Two hours later finds me dragging my slightly acheing feet up the stairs to the apartment.. well at
least I had my walkman to keep me company - today was 50s music, so I was doing the mashed potato along the way. No, that's a lie, because I actually have no idea how to do the mashed potato, but I was doing something that I would describe as a mashed p
otato... anyway so now I'll get started at the JavaBeans - I want to get a bit more done tonight..
Wednesday March 18, 1998: 9pm
Yeah so I fell asleep over the JavaBeans book last night and woke up at 10 this morning with the lights on, stereo going and - uh - water still boiling on the stove... but the water had long since boiled away.. oops. I guess I was tired!
Anyway today was another faboo weather day. I walked to Tachikawa in the afternoon and did a bit of wandering around, then headed over to Mitaka to find the hospital that Sensei is at. Took me awhile, but I found it by 4:30 or so, and I found Sense i's room. She was surprised to see me!! I brought some flowers but on the walk over they got a little windblown!! Anyway, the reason she's in the hospital is because of her face - since October she's been having these strange skin reactions - so finall y the doctors wanted her to come in for tests -- she's been there for 3 weeks already! But at least she feels very fine because her problem is a surface one - it's not like a serious body illness. And shhe'll be out on Monday. She's happy about that! She finds the hospital to be a bit boring. And oh, Love (her Labrador) died while she's been in the hospital, that's so sad. He was lonely I think because no one's home all day except Sensei.. awww.
So we had tea, and chatted for awhile. Then at 6 or so I went back to the station. Oh and earlier in the day I'd made the discovery that I had a bit more money than I'd thought, and so I did what any level-headed Alexa would do - I went shoe shoppi
ng! I went back to the place in Hachioji where they had the weeeird shoes, and bought one of the "normal" pair. Neat-o. And now - uh - something else. Tomorrow I'm back at work, so maybe I should get some sleep. The last 2 nights I've slept like a lo
g and I'm not too sure why I'm so tired.
Next Episode -->
<-- Last Episode