Entries this day: Mood_swing Phone Work

Mood swing

8:02am JST Sunday 8 June 2003

Woke up without an alarm. Easily on time for anything. Nice. Easy livin' in Japan.

Hmm. I wonder if Rie will get my message via email and call me. I wonder if I can look up her grandparents in Kikuna. I'll talk to Koko about that. I wonder if Rie's Houston peeps have her number here. No time like right now. Wake up. Call them. Find out.

Left an apologetic message. So sorry to bother you again this is Rob in Japan and the last time I gave you my wrong phone number um if you have rie's number in Japan, please (fuck this message is going all wrong) um, call her or call me um, my number is zero eight zero three two zero nine zero six seven eight I can't believe I'm asking you to call Japan I'm so sorry. Thank you, .. bye.

doh. Sit. Pout. Release. Get over it. Nothing to be done.

Shower as long as I want. Scrubby scrubby. Wash wash. Shavey Mcshave. Rinse-o dry-o done.

Bedroom. Get dressed. I wonder if I can buy short sleeve shirts here. I think I saw Steve wearing one. If he can wear one, I can wear one.

Got everything: tie, wallet, keys, calendar, phone, dictionary, clock, jacket. (computer and backpack are a given)

Outside. Nice day. Cool air. No rain.

Ride bike. Low traffic on Sunday. There's a man standing ankle deep in mud near the river. His sandals are to one side of the mud puddle. Got a picture.

Got my favorite spot in bike parking.

Wait a bit for train. Don't fight for a seat. Stand. Patience. Tadasana. Next station. Wait for train. Stand. Patience. Tadasana.

This is boring. I think the only reason I sound excited about being in Japan is cause of the *idea* of Japan. This shit is fucking boring! I fucking hate Japan. No one reacts to anything; emotions are all kept in check. This is what Chez was talking about - all these motherfuckers are just automatons, expressionless cyborgs with no apparent meaning in life. Wtf is going on here, and *why*??

What am I not getting here? Is this what Benny unconsciously fights with his humor? Am I embracing the culture? Can I go home now? Will you all wake up? What's a guy gotta do to get some attention over here?

Okay, yeah I know that, but what about some positive attention?

And why are all these people smoking?????

Phone

5:45pm JST Sunday 8 June 2003

My phone rang a couple times during work. Well, it vibrated, and I of course may not answer it during class. And there was no number on the caller ID so I don't know who called. I'm hope hope hoping it was Rie, and that she got my message. But if it is her, I'm surprised that there was no number since I assume she's in Japan.

I'm going to hit the internet cafe soon and see if she sent me an email. I'd really like to get in touch with her.

It'd be doubly cool if I can see her tonight and have both of us go to Kimberly's house for dinner and Japanese yammering.

I'm on the train going home now; the weekend business (I mean busy-ness) at work is over.

- - - -

Turns out it was Kimberly calling to say she and her husband got food poisoning and therefore chose not to entertain tonight. I'm like, "oh of course; take care of yourself" etc, and she was like, "are you sure?"

"Yeah; what am I gonna do, come over anyway?"

Work

5:48pm JST Sunday 8 June 2003

The quote of the day at work:

The castle has an elevator in it.

It's a funny castle.

I found out today that Guy does pushups between classes if he has time. Like he'll knock out 50 pushups in a couple minutes. He has daily goals of like 400 pushups. Nice.

I also learned from some level 3 students that the rainy season doesn't begin until June, with June 8th being the average start date. (Today)

According to the weather forecast, the rainy season will start on Wednesday. According to the students, the big storm we had a couple weeks ago was a quite rare occurance.

I told them that I thought typhoons and hurricanes were no big deal.. or rather that they were exciting and not scary. Cause we've got tornadoes (and one of the students finished the word with me)........ I gave them the scary details of tornadoes (plus some vocab): chaotic, 300 mph winds, small, how they can disappate then regenerate, cause houses to explode (so we open windows to protect against that), etc. Two of the students seemed intrigued, and one wasn't all that talkative; I wonder if he'll tattle on me for a non Nova lesson.

Ah well; it was good stuff.