Sutorenjaa In Japan

Weekend Update: SNAFU

Yae, it is always pleasurable to behold the coming weekends. Filled with promise and excitement, i heart weekends. Though this weekend left something of a bitter sweet taste as it seemed this was yin & yang weekend for moi. And unfortunately, I am not talking crunk-tacular, to the win-dooooooows, shakin like a salt shaker weekend. This was more of a Newton's 3rd law-ish weekend... every action force is always opposed by an equal and opposite reaction force. YEEEEEEEEEEEEAY-YUH!

Friday: Yippie ki-yay...
Fridays I have half day (because I work longer hours the other 4 days of the week... awesomeness). So in my rush to get the heck out of school, I forgot my computer charger & mail that had to be sent. I must learn not to rush around at the last minute. Never seems to work out for me. Went to Bell to get a pair of shorts I wanted but didn't end up getting (cute, but not cute ENOUGH)... missed softball practice (traffic was awful... awww, felt a little like being home only with even crappier drivers!) and so, to drown my sorrows of a few too many missed opportunities I went to another store and got some pants & a skirt (yes... shopping is my drug of choice). Spent the rest of the night watching movies... and discovering the AWESOME-NESS of the Die Hard movies. 1 was OK. A decent start, perhaps? Alan Rickman is damn cool. Die Harder (what a cle-ver title!) = WAY Excellent. This is what sold me on the series. A few twists and turns of plot...OMG and AIRPLANES AIRPLANES AIRPLANES, and James Evans.. a double crossing ex-military Major?! WHO KNEW! So it was around 3am when I started #3 (what happened to "Die Harder-er"?)... with SAMUEL L.ook what I did BEFORE "Snakes On A Plane" JACKSON! So unfortunatley my eyes let me down half way through... damn the physical limits of this mass of meat and hair!

Saturday: Roosah
Woke up bright and early to have breakfast (french toast) before playing softball with some other JETs. We missed the local train so bought regular faire tix, and hopped on the express instead (we're such badasses... oh yeah, regular gangsters... take THAT, Japan Rail!). The one time being a foreigner comes in handy... train people try to tell you you need to pay more, you look at them like you don't understand (as they always do to YOU when you try to speak Japanese) and keep awn walkin.
Played softball ... it was grand. I pulled a muscle in the first inning (forgot to stretch & took off kind of badly on my way to 1st) so i was hurtin the rest of the game. BUT I will proudly proclaim that I AM a super duper trooper and played on. Happy to report I was pretty consistent... made it to 1st every time I bat... BUT unfortunately I didn't score... furthest I got was 3rd base. Blast. Our team didn't win but it was still good fun.
After softball we went to an all you can eat place that was FANTASTIC. Went to this place 2x before during boarding season... little under $20 and they have a GREAT selection of food and TONS of meat you can grill at your table. The lamb is dericious. After dinner, went to the river to chat and shoot fireworks. It was a good day, despite the small injury.

Sunday: Beach Fun... and you can't spell 'fun' without 'f' 'u'!
Woke up early again to go to the beach! It was such a beautiful day on Saturday that we thought a beach trip was definately in order for Sunday. However, it would seem that luck had left the building... thankyouverymuch. It was cloudy & over cast, and slightly sprinkling when we got to the beach. It was warm though so it felt kind of nice to have small drops of water hit us as we lay out tanning (there was still enough sun to get a little brown). However the way back was the REAL adventure.
My car was getting worked, with 4 people (crazy heavy for the likes of my tiny little kei car) and no new oil (yes, I know... bad, bad, BAD Tina) and lots of curves and gradients. It finally gave up the ghost somewhere between Takefu and Tsuruga. We were able to push it to the side and wait for JAF (Japanese AAA) to rescue us. And rescue us he did!!!
JAF-man came roaring up in a flat bed, jumped out, ran down the road and sparked at flare, all in one smooth motion! I now see that the way of the ninja has lived on through JAF roadside assistants. After assessing the situation & determing that my car was a definate no-go (the clutch was dead), he towed up my car, we all got in and rode, in my car on the back of the flatbed, all the way back to my mechanic's. It was awesome. Truely a wonder & one of the best displays of Japanese efficiencies I have seen.

So, after all that, today I biked to school (not so bad really... I will never complain of my "commute" again) and will go to sign the deth certificate for my car after school. Yes, my car will soon be scrap metal. We had some great times but 50000 yen is my trip to Tokyo in 2 weeks... so peace out car! Thanks for the memories...

Car... a retrospective.

WTF at first sight...

Memorable moments:
it was suggested that an 'H' gets added to the beginning 'Opti' (the car model name) as hooptie was apparently a more appropritate description









Stuck in the middle with you...

Memorable moments:
Getting my car stuck in the gutter in front of my building. Damn gaijin traps.



The snow...

Memorable moments:
None. It was a pain to clean and shovel every day, I won't lie... I do not wish to remember ANY of it. IT was cold and I was miserable every morning. I will glare very very very angrily at anyone who even mentions "character building".

posted by KidBach @ 2:52 PM