Entries this day: AM Noonish Work late

AM

11:28am JST Tuesday 23 March 2004

Today I'm going to 川崎 to meet Tomoko so she can give a letter to Miho. I'll aslo go to ヨドバシカメラ to see about Dan's friend's camera.

Noonish

1:32pm JST Tuesday 23 March 2004

Got the letter to Tomoko (she's such a superawesome friendly smiley person. So kind and giving. I would just love her if I actually spent time with her. She works really hard to speak English correctly and is always helpful to those who ask Japanese questions of her. Wow.), went to Yodobashi Camera to find out that they couldn't tell me anything about the cameras ETA, mailed my friend's (*) letter to Colleen.

(*)

Hey Colleeniebeanie 
I have a friend who wants to send you a letter.  Can you give me your
snail mail address so I, uh he, can send it to you?

- -

Wutup Homey G!! haha well that is very nice of your friend to want to
send me a letter. you, umm, THEY can send it to blahblah Corpus Christi TX.

Special thanks to Akiko who happened to see me looking curiously at the public phone which had its own case (to protect the phone), but not a booth (that would protect a user). She was like, "Rob [what are you doing?]" and I was like, "HI! Do you have a pen ballpeen arimasuka?" And she did, so I wrote アメリカ on the letter, and she offered to mail it for me.

Before that, I had wandered around Jiyugaoka station looking for a post office and ultimately found stamps at the convenience store. They didn't know how much it cost to send to America; I told them I thought it was 110 yen and they seemed all impressed that I knew what they were talking about. Even if I didn't understand any Japanese, it was easy. I was like, "kitte arimaska?" (are there stamps [here]?) and she's like, "hai wakka wakka ?" and I figured she must be asking where's the shit going, or what value stamp do you want. I was like "America" (which is what they say for the US). She was all, "chottomatte" (just a moment) and ran off to talk to her boss guy and they're all scratching their heads, "um er..." So either they were trying to tell me that they couldn't send letters to the US, or they didn't know how much it cost to send to the US, or they didn't know what "America" meant, or the US had been reported missing recently and was unavailable for postal mail. "hyakujyuentomoimas" (it's 110 yen, I think). [surprised look; "you figured out the solution to the problem that we didn't directly describe to you!"]

- - - -

Yah, I guess I do write like a jerk. I remain unimpressed by how much people use their brains. Yes, including me.

Work

5:46pm JST Tuesday 23 March 2004

Just met Kimika, a student who has (now) two more lessons. I taught her two today, and have 1 more (her last one) with her at 4pm on the 26th. After that she'll be moving into her parents house for a month and then her grandmother's house for 10 days and then will go to NZ for a year! She's a bit nervous about the whole ordeal and I told her I totally understood. I greatly encouraged her to get a diary and begin to write. I'm thinking of buying one for her.

6:04pm

I just love how at Gaba I feel like part of the group. Really; everyone is super friendly.

late

1:37am JST Wednesday 24 March 2004

Called Dan on the way home; came over to watch Family Guy with him. Met him and JennyJ at an izakiah in Tsunash and on the way home, convinced Jen to watch "just one" Family Guy with us. She, as we suspected, laughed her ass off and watched three with us. Awesome.

I told her and Dan how awesome Gaba is. I'm realllly happy with working there.