I finally got around to ordering a new kindle cover. Mine is cracked and falling apart and generally not in good shape anymore...when I first got it I needed a case in a hurry and didn't have a lot of options in Japan so I just bought a cheap one that shipped quickly from Amazon.jp. It was a pretty good case for a while and it still does the job of protecting my kindle, but I figured it was time to get one that looks a little less shoddy.

My choices are still limited in Japan as the kindle keyboard was never sold here. Eventually it pretty much came down to a choice between ordering from the US and paying through the nose for shipping, or else just going through Zazzle.jp here and limiting my choices. By this I mean the actual type of case and the cost was all the same, but there were about 283902092820 different designs to search through.

After nearly going cross-eyed trying to choose a case, I eventually settled on one and ordered it. However, it appears I needn't have gone to all that trouble, as the case that was eventually delivered to me was not only NOT the one I ordered, but, and I went back and checked, not even one that is available on the website. Which means it is probably a custom order, which means that somewhere a 12 year old girl with a love of horses and questionable taste is sobbing because she didn't get the kindle cover of her dreams.

Don't worry, little girl, I'm sending it back. But maybe you want to reconsider anyway?

I knew this was going to happen. I have become dependent on the AC. I held out for most of July, only using it sparingly, but come August I caved. (It didn't help that the country is trying to break heat records.) I still have it set to 29 as that seems to be a comfortable temperature (especially since it is a good 10 degrees lower than the rest of the apartment). It's a good thing my electricity bill comes out of my bank account directly so I don't have to look at it.

But seriously. We've had an average daily temperature of 35C for two solid months now. September is coming up soon so hopefully something will give before my birthday. That's right, folks, all I want for my birthday is the ability to sleep comfortably. Well, that and an elephant. Also a Fluevog gift certificate. I'm a simple girl with simple tastes.

So I've been pretty much trapped in my living room. Not that I normally roam about the apartment but even doing things like running errands or going to the supermarket are just not happening. It's more efficient to do those sort of things on my way to or from work, that way I cut down on the number of times I need to shower and change clothes.

This leaves me plenty of time to work on my next holiday. I was going to go to Adelaide to visit Liz and finally meet her little boy, but then she remembered that her in-laws are coming down that same week. So Australia has been put off until next year and now I have a week to fill up. For the past three years this would have resulted in me emailing my brother, telling him to stock up on the beer, but they are back in Ottawa now so that is less practical. (And I'm sure they are very very sad about that, too. "Oh no, no more Alisa showing up for a week or two and taking up our precious couch space and eating our food and drinking our booze. This is tragic and sad. Sniff, sniff" is what I am sure they are saying to themselves right now.) In a way, the lack of Australia will be a good thing as it will allow me to save money for Christmas holidays, for which I am trying to make Myanmar happen again. The key that, I think, is planning. Last year we wanted to go but were hampered in our decision-making until the last minute at which point things just got too complicated. But right now tickets are cheap (and there are direct flights from Tokyo to Yangon rather than lengthy layovers in various Chinese airports) and there is enough time to sort out the money issue. I hope. (They are very picky about the money you can bring into Myanmar. $100 US bills, crisp, not folded or creased or torn at all, and I think you also have to watch the serial numbers. In other words, not something I can just saunter into the bank and get at the drop of a hat.)

So instead I am thinking about staying in Japan. I still have never been to Osaka, but I just found cheap flights to Hokkaido, which sounds tempting. So many choices, so little time to make them in!

Sometimes the English language takes new and surprising turns when used in a non-English-speaking country. Imagine my surprise when I checked Facebook this morning and saw that Masami had posted some pictures of Liam headed off to a three day camping extravaganza, captioned "Spare the rod and spoil the child". After I asked her about it this morning ("Um, why are you sending Liam off to punishment camp?") she said that she had been looking for a quote about how sometimes you have to do hard things in parenting for the good of the child, like a less dramatic "If you love your child, you have to let him go" (since, after all, he is only going camping and not being sent off on a spaceship to live his life among strangers) and this is what she found in the dictionary.

So, good news, he will just be getting dirty and exhausted from all the fun and not being beaten by strangers. Phew.

What I Did This Weekend

Huddled in the living room, mostly, because in the bits of apartment without an air conditioner, this was happening: 

Tonight's junior high textbook involved a dialogue about warning people about dangers.

Careful! Put on your helmet!

I'm sorry. What did you say?

Put on your helmet. You might get hurt.

Oh. Thanks for the warning.

After practicing a couple of different dialogues, they had to write their own. Most of them decided that variations on "don't touch" would allow for ultimate hilarity. "Don't touch me!" "Don't touch the pig!", etc. One boy settled on "Don't touch her" with the "her" in question being the one female student in the group. However, when it came time to do the dialogue with another student, he ended up with her as his partner. He is pretty good at English and a quick-thinking young man, so he knew he would have to change the pronoun. And he did. And so...

"Don't touch yourself!"

I immediately donned my best poker face. S-chan countered with a slightly bored "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"Don't touch yourself! You might get fly!"

At which point I lost the poker face and raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him. Get fly? Again, he thought quickly and corrected himself.

"Don't touch yourself! You might fly!"

A part of me knew I should stop and find out exactly what he meant, but it was overshadowed by the part of me that went "Well, it's grammatically correct. MOVING ON, NOTHING TO SEE HERE, NEXT DIALOGUE PLEASE."

So far August is not as hot as July. Yay? I have taken to using my AC more although I still keep it at a cool and breezy 29C. It's not on right now, though, since I am baking a cake and I can't run the oven and the AC at the same time.

Yes, I know, I am a crazy person, but I am a crazy person who will show up with cake to your bbq.

Last weekend was the Abekawa fireworks so I went down for some explosions and baby cuddles. Zuzu was a bit frightened at first but soon got over it, but poor Aaniyah was pretty much terrified the entire time. She was not having any of it. It was noisy and the sky was on fire, why were we just sitting around calmly instead of running far far away?

Zuzu has reached that very entertaining age where if you ask her to do something she will. Not things like "eat your vegetables" or "stop running around like a lunatic", of course, but if you tell her that you could really use some music she will start singing Beatles songs for you. Together she and her sister are just the cutest things ever. (I will admit to coming home to my empty and quiet apartment with a sigh of relief, though.)

This weekend I am finally (after three weeks of rearranging the date) going out for Mexican food with some friends. I am very excited to eat a food that isn't salad. Tomorrow is the beach clean (hence the cake) and Monday I guess I need to do some cleaning in case Hiedi and Shawna decide to come back to Hamamatsu for the weekend after the Fukuroi fireworks on the 10th. I did just clean out my fridge but I doubt that's enough.