Entries this day: Day_planning Dreams Fred Morning chat_with_Hitomi get_meeting zzzz

Day planning

8:09am JST Tuesday 27 December 2005

Basically, the idea is to go to Kobe, be herded off and on the ship through customs, then help about 2 or 3 hundred more passengers board the ship.

Dreams

8:31am JST Tuesday 27 December 2005

I'm remembering some dream snippets:

The clothes I had hung started dripping on Carl's bed; I hadn't squeezed them well enough.

Watching a video of some amateur basketball footage, I saw Tony score a winning point, towering out of a melee of people and appendages.

Fred

10:18am JST Tuesday 27 December 2005

This is the day I got up "early" and went to the gym and did stairmaster (because both treadmills were in use) while keying an email to Fred on my cellphone. My knees got tired of the stairmaster so I went to the (small) basketball court ("sports deck") and ran in circles trying to make a line of water along its perimeter with wet shoe prints. There was water on about half of the court and the rest was basically dry. I had a visible line (though not solid) after maybe 20-25 laps and then Fred called back!!

Reallllly great to talk to Fred today. He had helped me with a paypal transaction and told me how it went. We had bounced some emails back and forth about 12 hours previously and this morning I wondered why we hadn't thought of voice communications.. Anyway, he skyped me and we chewed through 7 Euros of skype time in 35 minutes (expensive to call a cellphone in Japan, it seems) and then he called me on his phone card a couple times, but the reception got pretty bad and we ended up disconnected for several minutes so I just went downstairs where the wind wasn't whippingly cold.

While waiting to see if he would call me back, about 4 emails from him came through to my phone, so I read a time-condensed account of the paypal progression from [wtf?] to "PWWWWWN3D!!!!!!!" the meaning of which I have little idea.

I'm glad to get basically caught up a bit on his work and life and stuff.

Morning

2:32pm JST Tuesday 27 December 2005

So far today:

1. Talked to Carla, Yuki, et. al. in my old room; they are bonding quite well. Carla and I went up to chow some lunch (my breakfast) in the Yacht Club. Saw Christina on the way to serve in Topaz Dining. She asked why Francois was naked.

2. Met Aki, who recently retired from a steel plant, making stainless and galvanized steel. He is on the ship enjoying retirement, but his wife couldn't come because she is taking care of her mother.

   Talked a tiny bit with Aki's new roommates as well.

3. There was one cat who didn't say anything; I wanted to engage him in coversation, but am hesitant about my Japanese ability and don't want to open with something like, "isn't the food delicious?" because it sounds to trite.

4. At the same table was a couple keeping to themselves as the GET Ts were all piling into the table, so I went over to the guy and was like, "wazzaaahhh!" (actually こんにちは) and commented on his video camera, [it would be cool if you can video a whale, eh?] and his wife spoke up more than he, but it didn't matter; they were talking and I was glad. Turns out he does video stuff in his free time. His name is Susumo, and her name is Kinuko.

   Re-met Yasuho on the way out. Her name means Peace Walk. She'll only be onboard till Singapore.

5. Walked by the free space and saw a guy doing some 'flair' bartending with a fake bottle and a drink shaker thing. He's got some really phat juggling skills.. well, a large variety of skills, but not polished quite enough to perform on the street, I think. But definitely a huge start.

   He was showing me how to do "claw catch," an overhand catch when doing a three ball cascade.

6. Carl, Karen, Laura, Lisa came up and we were doing silly stuff, me and Carl meeting and greeting each other with the Karen and Laura's hands as our hands. Fun fun times!

   Lisa and I talked about scenes from "Whose Line is it Anyway?"

7. Massaged Rie's shoulders a bit at her request in Sports Bar as we waited our chance to do emmigration procedures.

2:51pm

Right now we are in Kobe, but there is some delay in the emmigration procedures; one cat was really particular (Daniel has to provide an address for where he is going to stay in Japan in APRIL when he gets back. wtf???) about stuff so not all the GET Ts got through before they were like, "aight; too late; we're doing the passengers first," but even so we are not doing them yet and won't even meet up until 3:10pm to help them get loaded.

chat with Hitomi

7:46pm JST Tuesday 27 December 2005

Hitomi is the last person I will likely talk to with this cell phone. I called her last thing as we were leaving Kobe, and I (probably) won't have any more service; this phone will certainly be cut off by the time I get back.

She laughed at my jokes, so I was glad to hear that; she didn't seem so 元気 the last time we spoke. I'm sure I'll see her when we get back to T-town.

get meeting

7:49pm JST Tuesday 27 December 2005

Got the main GET Meeting done in an hour and then talked for 30 minutes and ended up completely redesigning the GET Orientation performance. It's much better than what we had come up with before, but I'm glad that we four had met already and come up with something.

It's dindin time now, but I hope I haven't missed the last seating cut-off time.

zzzz

12:09am JST Wednesday 28 December 2005

Met Tendah's friends Yuki (Erik), A-chan, and Mashu. They met after a PB event in Takadanobaba after which they missed last train and waited until first train.

"If you ever want to make best friends, go to a subway station."