Entries this day: Dream Miki Miki_nihongo akina's_number eri it_seems theft

Dream

4:11am JST Friday 7 July 2006

Carefully watching a home video taken back in WaraWara at the last Nova teacher/student party, hoping to find hints as to where I can get contact information for Akina. She had given me her number at that time, before PB 52, and said "call me after you get back."

Woke up suddenly, thinking I had been sleeping too late, and found that it's only 4am!! I feel totally awake.

Miki

11:15am JST Friday 7 July 2006

Headed to Cinecitta to see Cars with Miki, who I've not seen since before PB 52.

4:54pm JST Friday 7 July 2006

We chowed a buffet lunch (with the smallest selection of food in the planet) for 1000 yen, then wandered around Tokyu Hands (basically Ikea plus toys) and scoped the various goods and bads. Saw an interesting(?) puzzle that I didn't get for Fred because it wasn't easy to use. (It was basically a spherical Rubik's Cube with a marble in one of the 26 outer "blocks", that could jump through correctly-aligned holes in the walls to other blocks when they were aligned correctly. But during rotation, the faces didn't "click" into place, and (especially because it's spherical) it was easy to stop in the wrong place, so turning an orthogonal plane tended to break the puzzle.)

Stopped by Yodobashi Camera where she got batteries and charger (at my suggestion, instead of 20 disposable batteries) for her electronic dictionary, and a photo album for her sister.

Also checked out the new Macs so I could see forward to what I am looking.

A spot of ice cream hit the spot on the way back to Cinecitta where we tossed 40 (net) tokens (free with movie ticket purchase) down the tubes at the game center, then headed to the in/outdoor mall for some snack food at the supa-cheap snack food shop, then got intercepted by a guy working for a hiphop fashion shop where I ended up getting some shorts (hiphop, ripstop, sans top) for 5500 yen including tax.

Not sure it was a good price, but I'm glad to help those cats out on occassion.

The shorts are cool / funny:

cool: the inner band is embroidered with a serial number of two letters then about 8 digits. The letters: RN

funny: On the pocket is embroidered in a L337 sorta way USS-AKIDIMIKS, such that the ID is merged as one character |) and the IMI is actually |V|.

8:08pm JST Friday 7 July 2006

Cars is Fantastic!! I was in fits of laughter so many times; so so so so funny!

And I cried when Stickers went for the drive with the Porche. Perfect.

Miki nihongo

5:18pm JST Friday 7 July 2006

今日美貴と映画カーズを見る予定。私達は１２時に会って、チネチッタ のまわりを散歩している。映画は１７時５０分に始まる。さき、私はヒプホ プショーツを買った。

日本語は大変！

akina's number

9:55pm JST Friday 7 July 2006

Back about 6+ months ago, I went to Wara Wara for a Nova party. I think I only expected to know Carla there, but a few other teachers (Benny, Ali, Brett), staff (___ko, ___ko, ___ko), and students were there as well (Yutaka, Akina).

I was mesmerized by Akina, in the same way when I first met Amanda. Like, ", , , , , , , , , , wow. . . . . . . . HI! . . . . . ."

At that time, we didn't talk basically at all; there was no time (I had arrived late) and we were busy with various other conversations, and our intention-of-conversation had gone on for months (years).

But, I got her digits, told her I would call her after I got back from PB 52.

Tonight: the big night. I finally got my old phone unlocked (I remembered the code, but for some reason the hardware was being silly and staying locked, except for rare moments) and I quickly copied all the phone numbers I wanted out of it.

Standing in Mizonokuchi area, listening to the Peruvian band that Sally et. al. enjoyed twice in front of Shinjuku station back a year ago, debating calling Akina. I basically decided I would have to assume everyone at Nova would know; she could very well be at Wara Wara right now with all the Nova teachers and staff around. Was I willing to let everyone know I called her?

Ummm... yah.

I debated just being outright like, "I'm looking for work; can I teach you?" or "do you know of anyone who needs a teacher?" or perhaps a different thing: "I told you I would call, so here I am," ... and then I remembered why I had been so focused on her suddenly today: this morning I had a dream that I called her.

"I dreamt that I called you this morning, so I decided to call you for real."

Perfect.

The number is disconnected.

eri

10:05pm JST Friday 7 July 2006

I just want a friend to talk to. I called Eri. No answer.

Sigh.

it seems

11:41pm JST Friday 7 July 2006

It seems that Cars made me all wistful and wanting to connect with a woman. The scene where I cried was because she was the perfect companion for him. I want the perfect companion for me!

theft

10:52am JST Saturday 8 July 2006

I have been needing a calendar, but there seem to be none left in any of the stores; the annual cycle starts in May, so I should have been in the market while TJ Bike and I were galavanting around Japan.

I looked at some little notepads that I could use to make a DIM (Do It Myself) calendar, and selected one for 95 yen including tax. I like that it's all paper (save for spring binding) and looks like it may even be recycled paper.

I selected the pad, picked up some chocolate and ice cream and headed to the counter. I suddenly wondered if I could left hand the notepad in plain sight (also holding Hitomi's computer) while my right hand paid for the ice cream and chocolate.

Answer: yes.

Except for my troubled conscious, that was easier than easy.

On the way back, I thought about the US Government and lots of big business practices, plus the cultural norm of lifting things from the workplace. Decided this was small peanuts.