Birthday week is officially over. Today was back to errands and the gym and work and washing my own dishes. It's even chilly and raining after a week of bright hot sunshine.

The Ise Shima trip was great. The hotel was very nice, definitely posher than the $8 rooms I was staying in last year. The bathtub was a huge jacuzzi and I considered not leaving it for the entire time.

We took the ferry from Toyohashi to Toba and just barely caught it. The road there is narrow and windy and goes through some fairly countryside places, so we kept getting stuck behind old farmers driving only slightly faster than bicycles, and at one point we were crawling along behind some guy on a tractor. We got to the ferry five minutes before it sailed, but had no problem getting on. Once in Toba, we headed up to Ise Shrine, one of the most famous ones in Japan. It certainly was beautiful, although you could not pay me to go there on New Years. It's a huge area but apparently it gets absolutely packed.

Birthday night was fairly uneventful. We went out to eat, but Yukie was driving, so there was no beer with dinner. I guess I could've had some, but it's not as much fun to drink alone, plus I was recovering from a hay fever attack and was mostly sniffly and tired. We did stop by a convenience store to pick up some local beer for the hotel room, but basically I spent my birthday night enjoying a nice hot bath and an early night.

On Friday we drove out to a lookout point and an aquarium. There were a bunch of schoolkids on a trip, and whoever teaches them English needs to be congratulated, because they honed right in on me with many "hello"s and were able to actually carry on the basics of conversation without freaking out. Once I shook off the kids, the aquarium was pretty cool. Not too large, but lots of different species, and I had fun trying out the aquarium setting on my camera.

Then we went for a two hour massage/facial at a spa. Oof. I could get used to that. The price tag was enormous, but the quality was definitely high, and I found that paying a lot was even more relaxing than the five dollar massages I usually get overseas, because I can be pretty sure that the spa ladies aren't being exploited in any way, shape or form. Also, after two hours I had not yet reached my massage limit and could have lain there for a lot longer. Alas, my bank balance would not have been able to sustain any more damage.

Friday night Yukie's mom (who has lots of friends in the area and so came with us) took us out for sushi. So, so good, although apparently some of what I took for friendliness on the part of the owner was more "here, try this really expensive fish. No, really, here." and the final bill made my head spin. However, I will admit that the uni alone was worth it. Mmmm. We also had some of the freshest sushi I've ever had when the owner tossed a fish into the display case and it was still gasping for air.

Once back at the hotel, we decided to take the money we saved on dinner and buy expensive cocktails in the lounge. I had something green that was utterly delightful and I'm going to try to figure out how to replicate it at home. Wish me luck.

Saturday's highlight was the sashimi lunch at Yukie's mom's friend's restaurant. There was lobster (still twitching on the plate) and giant shrimp and expensive things in shells and just generally far, far too much food, none of which we had to pay for, since they wouldn't hear of it.

Yesterday I met up with Kozue to celebrate our joint birthdays. We headed for an izakaya, since by then I was craving food that was cooked and 100% dead by the time it arrived on the table. After stuffing ourselves with miracle chicken wings (not sure why they were called that, since it's not like they cured my eyesight or anything, but my oh my were they tasty), we decided that we needed some champagne, so we headed to a little French restaurant where we sat outdoors and polished off two bottles, some overpriced cheese and olive plates, and an insanely good creme brulee.

So, while there were no elephants or mind-boggline sunsets along the Mekong or mad dashes through airports, birthday week went off pretty successfully.

Birthday intermission!

Tokyo was much fun, as always, although also as always, I didn't really get out much. I got my hair cut on Monday (feels so much lighter and swishier now, although the change is probably not visible to the naked eye), but mostly sat around Andy's apartment, eating a lot and drinking far too much. We had a Star Trek marathon on Monday/Tuesday, complete with bubbly and brownies. Ah, geekdom.

Got home late last night and have spent today mostly lounging. Did some laundry, repacked (much smaller suitcase now that I am not having to function as a mobile library), made some cinnamon buns for my birthday breakfast, continued the geekfest by watching Galaxy Quest, and tried to fight off an allergy attack. Now I'm off to bed because I have to get up sort of early tomorrow, so wish me luck that I wake up non-sneezy.

Happy birthday to me!

I bought special socks the other day to wear with these shoes (I have them in the grey, but the red also looks cute and OH LOOK A SALE), just a toe and a heel joined up by a strip running down the bottom of the foot, so you can't see the sock at all. It's barely a sock, really, but I don't know what else to call it.

They came with instructions.

This time last year I was a nervous excited wreck as I prepared to head off to Laos. This year? I'm heading off to Tokyo. With, I might add, a suitcase with a carrying capacity of about three times that of the backpack I brought to Laos, for a three day trip vs a two week trip. Mind you, in Laos I wasn't acting as a travelling library/bakery.

Andy has been in a cooking frenzy all day, so tomorrow should be good. If you don't hear from me again, I've succumbed to a cheese coma. I'm also really looking forward to my haircut on Monday, as I've reached the point of shouting "Gah! Who needs this much hair? No one!" on a daily basis as I try to keep it out of my face/food. (It also provides a handy grip for Ewan, but he will go for the ears/nose if there is no hair to grab, so a cut will solve nothing there.)

I ended my work week on a good note. It's a bit strange going from small kindergarten students who have not grasped the whole "Don't pick your nose. And then ESPECIALLY don't try to hold my hand afterwards." concept to discussing the tricky ethics of how we decide what animals are ok to eat with teenagers.

Not that there was much discussion. Nami won't eat certain animals/animal parts, but only for the reason that it is "gross". She was unable to elaborate on that. Isn't gross enough of a reason? Miri, on the other hand, would apparently eat anything set in front of her, even if it was something she had not previously considered as food. Also? If it's ever a choice between starvation and cannibalism, she will not starve. Although she did allow as how she would probably wait for the stew victim to die of natural causes first.

Then I brought up the concept of eating less to live longer and if a longer, healthier life was worth giving up cake and steak (and beer, although I didn't mention that part), with the result being a succinct "OMG. No." At which point Miri revealed that she hopes to die around 40 or 50 anyway, since she doesn't plan on getting married/having kids and will have no one to take care of her in her decrepit old age. As someone who suspects she will live out her declining years in a cardboard box somewhere, I sympathize with her. As someone who is not in high school, 40 is far, far too young to declare your life over. (Nami, on the other hand, hopes to die in her sleep at around 80, surrounded by grandkids, since she is most definitely getting married. After all, is there anything more pathetic and lonely and horrible than not getting married? I didn't think so.)

I'm still not pleased about the general concept of the Friday night classes, but man oh man, do they keep me entertained.

Ooh. I might need to make zombie eyeballs for Halloween this year.

Woo hoo! My new passport came today. Lord, that's an ugly picture. I mean, I now passport photos never actually look good, but this makes the last one look like a glamour shot. Eesh.

It's also depressingly empty. I gotta get on that. Well, the first thing to do is to renew my visa and have it transferred, which means I have to start bugging the boss-people about some stuff. Masami should probably just phone the immigration office this time to find out exactly what paperwork I need to bring with me, so that there isn't a repeat of last time. (Remember last time? When I had to go back and forth six gajillion times and ended up possibly being an illegal alien for a little while?)

I'm leaning very heavily towards Hong Kong for Christmas, although Pauline hasn't been online since she brought it up, so it's kind of hard to plan.

Now I should probably put the new passport in a safe place, yes?

I stayed up late last night watching a movie. (Wolverine. Verdict: good shallow fun, too many shirts. At least the shirts involved were generally tank tops. Hello, Hugh Jackman's arms.) Finally crawled into bed (wearing long pajama pants! Fall! Yay!) and was dozing off when I heard an odd sort of sound. Figured it was probably just the wind blowing the curtains around and then them catching on something. Heard the sound again. Had the nagging feeling that it wasn't regular enough to be the curtain blowing in and out. Opened my eyes and saw a dark spot where no dark spot should be on the wall. "Hoo boy", I thought. "Well, the light is off and I'm not wearing my glasses, so maybe that's just an odd shadow? If that's a roach, it's the biggest one I've ever seen. Oh, please don't be a roach." And this prayer was answered when I put on my glasses and turned the light on, for there, nestling up on the wall, was a tiny furry bat. "Why," I thought "do these things always happen at 3 am? Yeesh." I very carefully closed all the doors to my bedroom and snuck out to the computer, where I turned it on and googled "how to get bats out of your house". Oh, google. What did we do without you? I had vague thoughts that using a towel was the approved method, but that seemed rather risky to both the bat and myself. Luckily most of the tips I found recommended the box and cardboard method of capture (my favourite tip? "Don't use a baseball bat." Right. Gotcha.) I admit, there was a fair bit of having to work up the nerve, but overall the capture went well. Poor wee bat freaked out a bit, then settled down while I carried him outside and set him free in the neighbours garden, rather than just tossing him off the balcony. One of the sites I found said that this is the time of year when the baby bats are starting to fly, and because they are so new at this, they sometimes get confused and end up where no bat should be. Poor wee baby bat. I hope he's ok. I also hope his brothers don't come looking for him tonight.

Because where else would you go to buy Australian ugg boots than a Hawaiian themed store?

It's 3 am. There's a bat in my bedroom.

We are having some nice pre-fall weather right now. Which is actually pretty indistinguishable from a heat wave in Canada mid-summer, but hey. I take what I can get. Things on the allergy front seem to have settled down, thank goodness. Still a bit sniffy but nothing I can't deal with.

Yukie and I have a plan for the holidays, finally. We're going to Toba city in Ise-shima. Her brother has some sort of membership dealy with a fancypants hotel there, so we can get a room for (relatively) cheap. We're just gonna be there for two nights, and do some sightseeing, get a massage, eat sushi, etc. It is totally going to cost the equivalent of two weeks in Laos. And there won't even be elephants. Sigh.

Pauline got in touch the other day to tell me she has Christmas holidays for pretty much the exact same days I do, so I've started checking on some Hong Kong prices and have already found one pretty reasonable deal. So perhaps Hong Kong will happen this year after all! Provided, of course, I get my passport back. It's only been a week and a half, and I haven't gotten any irate messages from the embassy telling me I forgot some important piece of paperwork, but I'm going to be pretty nervous until I am holding my new passport in my hands. At which point I get to start the new visa paperwork, woot.

Good news for my students: it's cooling down enough at night that I think I'm ready to try baking again. Nothing fancy, since I have to wait until the sun goes down, but some banana muffins would be nice, and Smitten Kitchen just posted a granola bar recipe I'm interested in trying out.

Apparently I suffer from fall hayfever now. Oh joy. Luckily it is milder than spring hayfever and can actually be controlled with medication, but honestly. Fall was the one good season left to me.

Birthday plans have not been solidified yet, but one thing for sure I know is happening...I am going to Tokyo and I am getting a hair cut. It has reached the point of driving me absolutely mad. The temptation to cut it all off is almost overwhelming, but my love of low-maintenance will ensure that it remains long. (Also, of course, because it's a Tokyo trip, there will be lots of drinking and eating and book-acquiring. These things are taken for granted.)