Bullfrogs and Butterflies

I gotta say...today was a good day. For no one reason in particular. It was just a good day. On the surface, that may not seem like much of a miracle, but for comparison...I would like to direct you to a passage I wrote just before leaving work yesterday. Here goes:

START

Sometimes I think this country is going to be the death of me.

We’ve had people come to our apartment 6 times to fix our shower...and now they’ve decided there’s just nothing they can do for us. Period. It looks like I’m just going to have to proceed with the always-tantalizing freezing and scalding of my sensitive areas. Maybe I should burn some skin off of one of my limbs...then sue the landlord, the water company, and the gas company for dragging their collective feet and not getting anything done on this.

The Internet company came today to deliver the modem (’cause obviously we can’t just pick something like that up at the store) and, after 3 weeks of sitting on our application, apparently we STILL can’t use our account. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow now because they have to activate our phone line. “What,” you ask, “have they been doing for the past 3 weeks? Is that not enough time to flip a freaking switch at the phone company?” Good question, you...good question. Well, the answer my friends, is “I don’t know.”

All I know is there’s an ever-growing ball of rage festering within my being...whose flames are fueled by this requisite waiting period put on everything because of the incredible, indescribable bureaucracy wrapped around every facet of life in this country: a process which is only compounded by the Japanese decision-making process that turns even the most menial tasks into tedious group projects.

Oh yeah...and even if they do decide to turn on our phone line tomorrow (doubt it...there WILL be problems...I almost guarantee it), they neglected to include a Mac disk with the modem...so we may not even be able to get it to work. Normally, such an oversight would be forgivable. Macs aren’t all that common in the U.S...and they’re even less common in Japan. The thing that really pisses me off about this is...when we applied for this account (I repeat...over 3 weeks ago), we made it very clear that we had Mac computers. “Would they work with this service?” “Will you send Mac drivers?”

Oy. Give me a friggin’ break!

On a not-entirely-unrelated-note...I’m thinking about taking up boxing at school.

END

So, that was me yesterday...bordering on crazy. Last night when I got home (not 2 hours after I wrote that passage) I decided to just plug in my computer and try it out anyway. Maybe I'd get lucky and it would work. Or maybe something got lost in the translation. Who knows...it was worth a shot. And, what do you know...it worked! I didn't really have anything to look at online, but I must say...just knowing it's there when I want it is such a relief. No more crossing fingers or holding my laptop over my head, looking for that ever-elusive neighbor's signal. FINALLY they'll let us pay for their services.

I also found out last night that some messages had gotten mixed up concerning our water situation. It turns out the gas company has given up on us, but the water company hasn't. It's just a waiting game from here on out. Another guy came today to check it out...said he'd try to get the garbage out of the pipes...see if that helped the water pressure at all. But...after about 5 minutes of inspection, he declared them clean and took off, big wrench in hand. He'll be back, though...he's not sure what he'll do...but he'll be back. It's just nice to know that someone is still trying. I have issues with abandonment.

Oh yeah. I also got to record a song last night (something I haven't done in far too long).

Another new development: I'm really starting to enjoy reading. It's such a nice passtime at work. Almost every morning, I have an hour when no other English teachers are in the room (which basically means there's nobody sitting around to look on with disapproving eyes). I've read over 200 pages in the last two days. Anybody who knows anything about me knows...that's quite an accomplishment. By the end of the week, I'll have read two books in the last 2-3 weeks: a feat accomplished only once before...on the dawn of the fifth book in the Harry Potter series. Unless, of course, you count Dr. Seuss.

Classes are going well. Not much to say in that department. They've slowed down a bit (as predicted), but I've had the chance to do some of my own lesson planning...and even got to be in charge of a class for an entire period while the teacher was dealing with an injured student (I swear I didn't hit him that hard).

We now have 2 1/2 channels on our TV. Channel 12 comes in really well and it's full of entertaining, informative shows. Every morning and afternoon (the only times we ever watch TV), there's a series of kids shows a lot like Sesame Street that I like to watch. There's: Nihongo De Asobo (Let's Play In Japanese), Eigo De Asobo (Let's Play In English), and my personal favorite Karada De Asobo (Let's Play With Our Bodies). Channel 5 (or 8...can't remember) is boring. It's all a bunch of news that I can't understand. No pictures, just people talking...it actually looks a lot like CSPAN. And Channel 3 has had continuous coverage of this month's sumo tournament. That one only comes in about half the time, and it's too fuzzy to see any great detail...the skin of the wrestlers mostly fades into the sea of faces in the stands. To see who's winning, you just have to watch the diapers flying around the circle...something I'd prefer not to do while eating breakfast.

It's hard to believe that we've been in Japan for 5 weeks now. Usually it seems like less. Sometimes it seems like much, much more.

On the way home from work today I was feeling a little faint (hadn't had enough food), so I wanted to stop off and get something either really sugary or really fatty. Either one, I figured, would sustain me long enough to get home. I decided to stop at the next shop I saw, and lucky me...it just happened to be a bakery. I grabbed one of the first things I saw (a walnut coffee roll) and bolted out the door. For a very brief moment I struggled with both the logistics and the manners of what I was about to do. You see...it was raining, so I was holding an umbrella...and it's apparently pretty rude to eat while walking in Japan. After weighing the situation for 3 steps, I balanced the umbrella on my head and gave Japanese etiquette the big, proverbial middle finger. It took a few seconds to get into the box (packaging is so complicated here) but once I did, there was no stopping me. It was 2 fluffly layers of cakey substance, sandwiching a creamy center and, in turn, sandwiched by two layers of light, whipped frosting. Sitting on top was a piece of walnut.

A piece of the frosting was the first thing to go...I wanted to test the waters, see how feasable it was going to be to eat this thing while I walked. Heaven. The next thing to go was the walnut...but not down my throat...off my thigh and into the gutter. I never saw exactly where it went. Seems in my haste to get a bite of the cake, my hands, shaking in ecstasy weren't cooperating fully with my mouth. The rest of the dessert is a blur. I scooped it up like a child at his first birthday party and tried not to get too much of it in my beard (that's right...I'm growing a beard...partly 'cause I want to, partly in silent, unrelated protest to the condition of our shower). After I was finished, I did a very thorough job licking all of the frosting and cake bits from my fingers...and some from the back of my hand. I'm sure it looked pretty revolting to all of the cars sitting at the stoplight, but...I have to tell you...I don't really care. That cake was delicious.

So, there you have it...my last week in a nutshell. We're settling into our routines...doin' our thing while we do our thing (for all of you fogies...that's an allusion to a rap song, not a typo). It looks like from here on out, we should have pretty smooth sailing. If not...I'm sure you'll read about it here.