今週の出来事
Today I went to the grocery store and was looking at magazines when I saw the weirdest bug. If you mated a cockroach, a grasshopper and an earwig the offspring would be this bug. Its body shape was like a grasshopper, but its eyes and head texture were like a cockroach. It did not have the big, powerful legs of a grasshopper--rather earwig or roach legs and the pokey, antennae and fake antennae of cockroaches or earwigs. It moved pretty slowly and surprisingly did not run away when I tapped my foot really close to it.
I stopped a woman who sort of came near me to ask her if she knew what it was, but she did not. She looked at it briefly, said, "Gross!" and told me she had never seen one before. The next thing out of her mouth was, "What country are you from?" Then, "You know, the difference between R and L pronunciation is really hard. How do you distinguish between the two?"
I guess she'd been waiting a long time to find a real, live English speaker to whom ask such a burning question. Except mine was more on fire, I tell you!
Yesterday, when I was getting ready for work, I heard mewing coming from outside the window again. The day before yesterday had been a typhoon so the damn white kitten and its mom were taking refuge from the rain under our wooden steps. I say damn kitten because there are a lot of feral cats in the area and I was conned by this particular cat before! Last time it was winter and fairly cold. The mother cat had wandered off like the cruel thing she is, leaving the kitten on a pile of rocks by the parking lot (at this point I think the kitten was only a few days old as its eyes were not yet open). I had wanted to have the local Humane Society or ASPCA come bick the kitten up, but there are no such organizations in these parts. So I gave it a hot bottle to curl up to and put it in a box for its mom to find later. Which apparently she did. But still, she's not a very nice mom. And I don't support her bringing her brood in any number to my house. I don't want their fleas or diseases. Damn people not getting their pets spayed or neutered here. The End.
Do you see what an exciting life I have when these are the most eventful things that have happened in the past 48 hours?! Feral cats and freaky insects (Actually, I've got the most disgusting insect photo from a couple weeks ago to post when I get around to it. I shudder just thinking about it.). Fascinating, eh?
More exciting than either of those two ridiculous things, though, is that Kevin came to visit briefly before returning to the US for good. It's been over 3 years since he, Dave, and I came over together. That's hard to believe! The past 18 months have flown by especially quickly. (And I've only really managed to make one real friend here in Hamamatsu. Better than none, though, I suppose!)
Anyway, Kevin, Nate and I did some serious damage with our marathon karaoke session. I definitely don't get out enough (or I just don't stay out late) because it never occured to me that some parking lots downtown close before midnight. Or close at all. Suffice it to say that our lot closed at 11 and didn't reopen until 7am. And I didn't notice this fact until 1:30am. I apologize again, guys! At least I got to try every single karaoke song I've ever wanted to do...
We did go to a cool restaurant with really small doors where all the drunk people forget to duck and walk right into the door frame (even though the top of the door only comes to my shoulder). There's a big, head-shaped dent in the door frame (jamb?) of the room next to where we were. That's got to be a lot of head-bumping, because the wood is pretty solid. Heh. Morons. Reminds me when we went to Europe with Mr. J in high school. We were in Lucerne in Switzerland. I think it was a weekend because the business district was shut down. I was wandering around with the Idaho kids and we saw this really tall Punk guy (I swear he seemed 7 feet tall). He had on the requisite full leather outfit with metal studs--pants and either a jacket or a vest. He also had a large, red mohawk and an enormous head stuck on a super-skinny body. He walked toward us, but then suddenly turned 90 degrees to his left and walk straight into a large, square pillar. He took a step back from the physical shock, shook his head from the surprise impact and proceded to walk into yet another side of the column. My friend said he was on heroin. I have no idea, but he was definitely on something. My god, was his head disproportionately large! He would have broken his back if he'd been supping at that restaurant I went to, he was so tall... That was the same day I found the equivalent of 80 USD at the bank/post office and got a reward of about 30 USD for my honesty.
Tomorrow is the start of my O-bon holiday. I have a week off, then one day on, then a weekend, then one day one, one day off, then summer camp.
We're headed to Niigata on Monday to see Nate's people. I can't wait. We'll get to reload on the Best Rice Ever, too. Seriously. I never cared about rice until I ate this particular kind of rice. Now I'm hooked on rice. Not that I'll ever give up pasta or potatoes or bread products, mind you. But now, my life without rice would be a sad one.
End Delirious Rambling. Sleep time.
I stopped a woman who sort of came near me to ask her if she knew what it was, but she did not. She looked at it briefly, said, "Gross!" and told me she had never seen one before. The next thing out of her mouth was, "What country are you from?" Then, "You know, the difference between R and L pronunciation is really hard. How do you distinguish between the two?"
I guess she'd been waiting a long time to find a real, live English speaker to whom ask such a burning question. Except mine was more on fire, I tell you!
Yesterday, when I was getting ready for work, I heard mewing coming from outside the window again. The day before yesterday had been a typhoon so the damn white kitten and its mom were taking refuge from the rain under our wooden steps. I say damn kitten because there are a lot of feral cats in the area and I was conned by this particular cat before! Last time it was winter and fairly cold. The mother cat had wandered off like the cruel thing she is, leaving the kitten on a pile of rocks by the parking lot (at this point I think the kitten was only a few days old as its eyes were not yet open). I had wanted to have the local Humane Society or ASPCA come bick the kitten up, but there are no such organizations in these parts. So I gave it a hot bottle to curl up to and put it in a box for its mom to find later. Which apparently she did. But still, she's not a very nice mom. And I don't support her bringing her brood in any number to my house. I don't want their fleas or diseases. Damn people not getting their pets spayed or neutered here. The End.
Do you see what an exciting life I have when these are the most eventful things that have happened in the past 48 hours?! Feral cats and freaky insects (Actually, I've got the most disgusting insect photo from a couple weeks ago to post when I get around to it. I shudder just thinking about it.). Fascinating, eh?
More exciting than either of those two ridiculous things, though, is that Kevin came to visit briefly before returning to the US for good. It's been over 3 years since he, Dave, and I came over together. That's hard to believe! The past 18 months have flown by especially quickly. (And I've only really managed to make one real friend here in Hamamatsu. Better than none, though, I suppose!)
Anyway, Kevin, Nate and I did some serious damage with our marathon karaoke session. I definitely don't get out enough (or I just don't stay out late) because it never occured to me that some parking lots downtown close before midnight. Or close at all. Suffice it to say that our lot closed at 11 and didn't reopen until 7am. And I didn't notice this fact until 1:30am. I apologize again, guys! At least I got to try every single karaoke song I've ever wanted to do...
We did go to a cool restaurant with really small doors where all the drunk people forget to duck and walk right into the door frame (even though the top of the door only comes to my shoulder). There's a big, head-shaped dent in the door frame (jamb?) of the room next to where we were. That's got to be a lot of head-bumping, because the wood is pretty solid. Heh. Morons. Reminds me when we went to Europe with Mr. J in high school. We were in Lucerne in Switzerland. I think it was a weekend because the business district was shut down. I was wandering around with the Idaho kids and we saw this really tall Punk guy (I swear he seemed 7 feet tall). He had on the requisite full leather outfit with metal studs--pants and either a jacket or a vest. He also had a large, red mohawk and an enormous head stuck on a super-skinny body. He walked toward us, but then suddenly turned 90 degrees to his left and walk straight into a large, square pillar. He took a step back from the physical shock, shook his head from the surprise impact and proceded to walk into yet another side of the column. My friend said he was on heroin. I have no idea, but he was definitely on something. My god, was his head disproportionately large! He would have broken his back if he'd been supping at that restaurant I went to, he was so tall... That was the same day I found the equivalent of 80 USD at the bank/post office and got a reward of about 30 USD for my honesty.
Tomorrow is the start of my O-bon holiday. I have a week off, then one day on, then a weekend, then one day one, one day off, then summer camp.
We're headed to Niigata on Monday to see Nate's people. I can't wait. We'll get to reload on the Best Rice Ever, too. Seriously. I never cared about rice until I ate this particular kind of rice. Now I'm hooked on rice. Not that I'll ever give up pasta or potatoes or bread products, mind you. But now, my life without rice would be a sad one.
End Delirious Rambling. Sleep time.
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