Gomen nasai!

Have neglected blog dreadfully, and am thoroughly ashamed. The roof has caved in and cats are yowling everywhere over clawed-up couches and dusty surfaces. Yes, in my imagination, I am a crazy cat lady with old furniture.

Not so good lately. My parents just finished their visit to Kumamoto, and left last Saturday, so was a little weepy then. On Monday, ate a Bento From Hell (otherwise known as Hokka Hokka Tei, fast food bento place) and had mild food poisoning or something. At any rate, I threw up four times, twice at work during a low-level class. The poor students look appalled, but at least my green face gave clear signs as to why I had to run and leave the class so suddenly.

Spent my two days off recovering and lying about. Sucks ass, because it's Flatmate Maggie's belated birthday party tonight and I really don't feel up to going....but I want to! And stupid company loyalty is causing me to feel qualms about calling in sick tomorrow; I'm not sick enough to not be able to teach, but sick enough to want to stay at home one more day to recover, dammit.

Other than that, things are okay here in Kumamoto. Went with parents to Kagoshima ("The Naples of Japan"...whatever that means); saw the city aquarium, which was awesome, and then travelled down to the tiny town of Ibusuki (famous for crazy hot volcanic sand baths, and fabulously opulent onsen).

Have been meeting with a language partnet (Masako) for a few weeks, eating at a family restuarant called Jolly Pasta (hee!) and asking each other stuff like, "How do you say 'I'm hungry'?" (my question) and "What's the difference between 'house' and 'home'?" (her question). Needless to say, her English is worlds better than my Japanese.

Got a bike a few weeks ago. It is orange, it is tiny, it is foldable, I love it. It's name is Mongo and it rocks. Unfortunately, Mongo's handlebars are a bit loose, so I need to find a proper screwdriver to keep them from collapsing on me and rendering the brakes completely useless mid-tumble.

Work is work. I've had to explain such things as what a squirrel is, when to say "Actually,...", how Canadian's cope with snow, what a snowplow is, the word "speculate" about four times, how bad I am at skiing, and what a loonie is.

Weather is now cool, verging on freezing indoors because of the lack of central heat or decent insulation. Am ruthlessly beating my futon quilt into warm squishiness, instead of cold-letting-in stiffness.

Also, have caved and now have a Facebook account. Add me!