sticky all over

It's hot here. Not as hot as it can get here, but still. And I did spend all day in the airconned office. But, still. My apartment can be an inferno sometimes.

The neighbor's daughter has agreed to collect my mail while I'm gone. Now I have to figure out what a 9-year old girl would want from the States.
My other neighbor is going to give me some of her homemade umeboshi to take to my mother. They're really delicious.
My other neighbors I don't really talk to at all, except for their children. Who are all adorable, by the way. Which makes it that much worse to me when I see the parents driving around with the little kids up and about inside the car--no booster seat for the 3 year-old, no seat belts for any of the kids. It's only required by law that you buckle up in front. Once when Nick and I went out with our Japanese teacher and she got wasted so I drove her home in her car, she sat in the back seat and we told her to put on her seatbelt but she really flipped out over that and would've gotten violent if we'd tried to do it for her.

I'm taking the driving test tomorrow. Based on what everyone has told me (other ALTs, that is), I think I am doomed to fail the first go round. It sounds as if I'm supposed to have magically memorized the driving course (yes, course. no, no road driving). Maybe if I ask they'll tell me, but maybe it's really just a cash cow. Erich remarked that it's no wonder the Japanese are such poor drivers as they're tested on a video game course. I guess that those simulation games at the arcade aren't accurate practice for the real world, then, huh? We'll see how it goes. There is only one driving center in the whole prefecture. Which means I have to drive at least an hour to get there. Ugh.