Many thanks, anonymous giver of linking info. I don't think it actually worked, but I do appreciate the attempt.

It is 8pm, the sun has been down for a few hours, and it is still 24 degrees in my apartment. Whee! (A good 24, obviously, not the soul-sucking humidity-laden 24 of August) I like it when it doesn't rain. Not being constantly damp is quite pleasant.

So, yes. Weekend. Um...well, there was dancing. I don't really have anything snarky to say about this nightclub. It was quite nice. Pricey, as we only got one drink with the cover charge, but nice. The floor was all clean and non-sticky, which made for a refreshing change from Hamboldt. And nobody line-danced to Earth Wind and Fire a la Flyte Time. All in all, a good time was had.

And then people actually came back to my apartment at the relatively reasonable hour of 230, instead of deciding to catch the first train back. I was mildly shocked, actually. This rarely happens. Although, of course, what with all the extra people (4!!) making sleeping people noises, to which I am unused, and sleeping on only one very, very thin futon (because the rest were spread out over the floor to accommodate all the noisy sleeping people), I ended up not getting much sleep at all, hence yesterday's post. And wow, that was the longest sentence EVER! Ok, the longest sentence found outside of a James Joyce novel. Whatever.

The whack-a-mole boy is still at it. Actual conversation today:

Me: Taiga, what do you like to do?

Taiga: *pointing to picture of mole and speaking in Japanese*

Me: Sigh. In English? *prompting* I like to...

Taiga: WHACK-A-MOLE!

Me: Yes. Ok guys, what does Taiga like to do?

Momoko: Whack-a-mole?

Yes. Brilliant. I can see it now...the kids go home and answer the eternal parental question of "what did you learn in class today?"

And later, when I asked what the kids wanted, he answered "A mole". Not the game, a real one, apparently. I shudder to think of it.

Oy. Am tired. Dancing happened last night, and was followed by not nearly enough sleep. I'd be more descriptive, but oy, with the tiredness.

Instead, enjoy the many definitions of Alisa.

href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=alisa"

Oh, for crying out loud. I cannot make a link. However, if you just copy the address and paste it, you'll get there. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I imagine my extreme tiredness is not helping my computer savvy any. Trust me, it's worth the trip.

It's time to start thinking about my summer holidays. We have two weeks off, from August 5th - 20th, and there is simply no way I'm spending 17 days hanging around my apartment during the hottest, stickiest portion of the year. But where to go? This is pretty peak season, so a lot of the ticket prices are quite steep. I think I can count Canada out. After all, I went TWICE last year! I could always go enjoy a nice slice of New Zealand winter (hi Abby!) - well, theoretically. Probably discussing it with the people involved would be the polite thing to do, yes?

However, there is much of Asia I haven't traveled yet. Heck, I haven't even been to Thailand yet. (Of course, it will, if anything, be even hotter and stickier in South East Asia at this time, but hey). So. Thailand. Or Angkor Wat in Cambodia. That's a big one for me. Or, of course, back to Vietnam, up north to Hanoi this time. So many choices!

Any thoughts/offers to let me crash at your house?

I have a shameful confession to make. Today, I saw The Da Vinci Code. I didn't WANT to see it, but Liz came up and she did, and I didn't not want to see it enough to flat out refuse. (Besides, not like there were a lot of other options, although "Check It Out, Yo!" kind of intrigued me, just because of the imperious title. No clue what it's about.)

Granted, I went in knowing the plot, but in a good or even halfway decent movie, that shouldn't matter. The movie should be enough to keep you interested. Not The Da Vinci Code. And long? Oy. There's two and a half hours of my life I'll never get back. I spent most of it idly wondering what the Japanese make of the furor over The World's Most Mediocre Book. A lot of the tizzy comes from the theory behind it, which I'll admit is intriguing, rather than the writing. Don't get me started on the writing. If you're raised in a predominantly Christian country, the ideas behind it are bound to cause some sort of reaction, but over here where Buddhism and Shintoism reign supreme, it's just another story. And yet, there were about 600 showings of the movie today alone.

Almost worth the price of admission, however, was learning during the previews that Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle etc) is making a new movie, out this summer. Continuing the theme started in Howl, he's using the story of a foreign writer instead of an original. This time it will be Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books (which goes a long way to explaining why they're suddenly in all the bookshops). One of my favourite movie makers adapting one of my favourite author's works...I think I may have actually squealed with girlish glee in the movie theatre.

After careful observations made over the past 5 1/2 years, I have come to the following conclusion. Japanese people are waterproof.

No, really. Take today, for example, It is (of course) still raining. After work I went downtown and, in the time it took to get from the bus stop to the shopping centre, the hems of my jeans got completely soaked. I was fairly damp from the knees down, in fact. But as I glanced around at my fellow pedestrians, I couldn't help but notice that nobody else was squelching along. Maybe some people had a few rain drops on them, but nothing like my level of saturatedness. Whereas I can walk out into the mildest of showers and still manage to get soaking wet.

I decided to get Andrew tasty Belgian beer as a thank you. Conveniently enough, it comes in a gift package with all three types (what the difference is I'm not sure, but the labels are different colours), and the official Chimay beer glass. (This beer is so very fancy that not only are you not supposed to swig it from the bottle, you are meant to drink it from the recommended type of glass. Ordinary beer glasses are insufficient.)

Hooray for Andrew! He fixed my computer! He had to take it completely apart and put a new bit in, but he fixed it! Actually, I got it back on Monday, but he forgot to return the cord, too, so I was on battery for a few hours, then nothing. But now we're all good.

During my computerless week, I read three books, watched numerous tv shows (mostly about the Crusades...there was a special on the History Channel. Why did these people think that Jesus would be happy if they invaded his homeland and slaughtered all the people living there? And, in one particularly gruesome incident, ATE them?), did a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle, and even cleaned in my kitchen. Not a lot of cleaning, you understand. But some. My burners are now sparkling clean and all the grunge underneath has been forcibly removed.

All of which makes a rather compelling argument for getting rid of the computer altogether, no?

I only had internet up and running for a month, but in that time, I'd managed to forget how annoying it is to have to use the school computer. Don't get me wrong, it's handy and all, and I'm grateful it's here, but now if I want to check my email or do other internetty things I have to hang around after work, instead of going home and changing into my pajamas. Bah, says I.

Andrew has tried almost everything to get the hard drive up and running again, but to no avail. Which means computer surgery. In order to replace the hard disc thingy, he first has to pop all the keys on the keyboard off, remove the top part of the computer, replace the hard disc, then put it all back together. Preferably with the keys in the right order. This sounds fairly labour intensive. How much beer do you think constitutes an appropriate payment?

I don't understand it. I get along fine with my cell phone. My digital camera and me? Best friends. But me and my computer? Deadly enemies.

Apparently the hard drive is kaput. Apparently, having a kaput hard drive essentially means you own a large, expensive paperweight. Sigh. Andrew is gonna take a look at it, and hopefully he can fix it (or replace it, or sacrifice an appropriate animal to appease it, or whatever it is one does with hard drives). Otherwise...um, I'm not sure. So, in the meantime, I am back to being dependent on the school computer. Which means rather less updating, absolutely no photos, and, worst of all, no more MSN.

For nearly two months I had a computer and no internet access. Now I have internet access, but no computer. I believe the phrase I'm searching for here is "Man, this bites."

I do love me some pretty, breakable things.

A teacup and saucer. It's nice because it's a traditional Japanese teacup shape, but big enough to hold a lot of tea. (I hate those itty bitty teacups that only hold two sips of tea. Useless!)



Two vases that I just couldn't resist, despite never having flowers in the house. Oh well. A person can change, right?



A plate that was actually a present from the Sasakis.



And a candle thingy. You put green tea in the lid, then light the candle at the bottom, and your house soon fills with the scent of...well, burning tea. Which is a lot nicer than it sounds, although it might be more effective in winter than right now, when every window in the apartment is wide open.



The tea burner was the most expensive item at ¥1100. So not only pretty and breakable, but cheap, too!

The Savage Chickens say what you dare not.

Gah. Were you guys aware of how EARLY 6 am is? It's really early. It should come with some sort of warning label.

Today we went up to Mashiko for the pottery extravaganza. (Mashiko is a town about a 3 hour drive from here. It is renowned for - wait for it - pottery. Twice a year they have a massive pottery sale. Pottery everywhere!) We left at 630 in the morning. That's just wrong.

I am reconsidering my views on music in the car. Generally I feel that the driver should be able to listen to whatever he/she wants, and I'm pretty easygoing in regards to my musical tastes. I might not choose to listen to something at home, but I have no problem with being subjected to it elsewhere. Until today. First there was the Muzak cd. Ouch. At least that was pretty bland and allowed for being lulled to sleep. I didn't much like the Muzak, but I could live with it. Then. Oh, then. Then came the yodelling. Did you know they make yodelling cds? Well, they do. Oh dear God, the yodelling. Yodelling does not allow for being lulled to sleep. Yodelling allows for curling up in a ball and mentally whimpering.

I soothed myself with a few purchases of pretty breakable things. I like pretty breakable things. Probably I will post pictures when I get home, because I'm narcissistic like that.

Right, now to figure out how to run spellcheck and publish this before crawling into bed. (Seriously, 6 am should be outlawed.)