Little Earthquakes

Welcome to Sick Town, Sickmusshire, Sickonia. Population: Me.

Please forgive my absence gentle reader, a malady befell me and I have only just begun to wrest myself away from the villain. As a peace offering, here is the other part of my post I should have given you a week ago:

Blossom season is a very famous time in Japan, with good reason! I'm going to Kyoto this weekend so hopefully the sakura (cherry) blossoms will be out by then, but I have a feeling we may be a few days too early. Considering how ugly Japanese cities can be (no joke, mine especially), I thought it only fair to show that some parts can be absolutely breath taking during certain times of the year.

Yuuki Shrine:




I also went to see my friends nieces, how's this for cute? (err, ignore me, I am terrifyingly un-cute in this picture).

The first thing I did at my desk this morning was accidentally knock over a cup of water, thereby soaking a form I have to fill out and almost (but thankfully not quite) soaking the back of my laptop.

Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come.

I have things to keep me awake today! Nothing work related (don't be silly), but some beautiful pictures from my insanely busy weekend, so there's something for you all to look forward to.

I've got to make more of an effort to keep updating this blog. I was recently re-reading my blog from Sweden, and it makes me remember things that I'd just lose otherwise. I've been far too lazy.

Work is gouge your eyes out boring right now. I work at a senior high school and I'm a somewhat under utilised ALT. It's exam time right now so unless the teachers are directly involved with the exams (which I am oh so not) they have a little more free time. I've been filling this time with Japanese study and chatting, but the weight of all the time is starting to press on me, and left to my own devices I'm doing less and less. Inertia breeds inertia, and the thought of cracking open a textbook is enough to put me perilously to sleep.

Time has slowed to a crawl.

I'm going to Nagoya tomorrow though! My friend has to get a re-entry permit put on her visa so I'm bumming along for the ride. Anything that gets me out of school for the day right now is a good thing. I want to go to the foreign book store and foreign food store, but at some point I need to go and do all the tourist-y things, the castle, the shrine, the robot museum and so on. I might head up there after Kyoto at some point, I bet the castle would look beautiful around then.

I got a delivery from theflyingpig.com yesterday, hurray for a multi-region DVD player and various snacks!

However, I seem to have misunderstood exactly how much I was ordering as everything is monster truck size! My apartment now makes me feel like a tiny person.

The thick acrylic cups I ordered (because God Almighty if I smash another glass in my sink...)? I can just about wrap my fist around half of one side because they hold 24 fluid ounces of water.

The package of brownie mix? A six pack wrapped in a giant cover box.

The dried cranberries? (that looked perfectly reasonable in this picture) weighed in at 850g. That's a lot of Craisins folks.

The danish pastries I thought were a mini selection pack? CAME IN A BOX THE LENGTH OF MY LOWER ARM! Containing 12 cartoonishly huge, head sized pastries.

The poor delivery man nearly had a heart attack getting it up the stairs to my second floor apartment ("amoii, amoii" he kept saying. All I could manage was "gomen" and little half bow as I took the box from him. He seemed mildly affronted that I was able to carry it).

But all is good. I also (intentionally) bought some cans of beans so I can make chili without having to soak them overnight, and I set up the DVD player with no problems.

The hovel is a little bit sweeter tonight.

Spending the day at 'work' IMing one of your best friends about the trip to Kyoto your planning for the long weekend at the end of March,

Sneaking out of work an hour early,

Walking home in the sun,

Stopping by the supermarket on the way home to find almost everyting you wanted is reduced,

Forgetting that you did a Big Clean on Sunday and being surprised by a spotless apartment when you open the door.

What's your happiness today?