lauren in japan

It's Golden Week!

I'm still not exactly clear as to what that means. I'm pretty sure it's a week off for a slew of public holidays that happen to fall in succession celebrating either nature or people like citizens and boys. The important thing is that I have a week off despite not being a tree or a citizen or a boy.

During the holiday I've accomplished many things so far such as:
-sleeping in
-repeatedly cluttering up my apartment
-tidying up my apartment subsequent to aforementioned cluttering of
-ending my sentences with prepositions
-standing on my balcony and holding my hand out to check if it's raining

The last point is necessary because I can't ever tell. It's normally overcast so that's no indicator. I'm not on the top floor so I have no roof with which to hear raindrops and similarly don't live near the ground so I can't hear there either. My balcony is covered so it's dry and it rains on and off a lot so I probably just shouldn't care but I like to be in the know about these things. It's times like these I wish I had an old battle wound on my forehead that acted up whenever a storm was a-brewin'.

On Saturday I got a cell phone. Shamefully I did NOT follow through on my repeated proclamations of getting the most obnoxious one I could find, glo-colored, dripping with charms, with an insufferable j-pop influenced ring tone. Instead it is sleek and black but I WILL get at least one charm. And I'll make it annoying. Happy? Damn right.

Sunday was spent with very good people and a melange of activities. First an international festival near the bluebells at Uminonakamichi Seaside Park (which means nothing, I just think the name is impressive). Then learned card games (including one with tricks and trumps -- family members, I think I might once again be ready to try to learn pinochle if my previous failures have been forgiven yet). Then to bowling where they were playing the entire NIN video catalog which isn't exactly hooray happy fun bowling time imagery but I liked anyway. The evening ended with my first jaunt into karaoke which is fun and addicting Japanese-style compared to annoying and anxiety-inducing American-style.

Also a drunk Japanese (natch) guy bought us all a bar snack that looked like sea slugs and while I've been very open to trying various foods (intestine soup included) this was just a little too much for the moment so I named the one that I didn't hide in my napkin Harold and thanked him (the guy, not Harold -- if anything, Harold should have been thanking me.)

Yesterday was more low-key. I lounged and read, journaled and didn't do my dishes. The most notable thing I did was go grocery shopping at last. (Why, why do I hate it SO MUCH?) Things to note:
-jelly of any variety costs about 450 (over four dollars) yen for a tiny tiny (like gourmet-sized) jar
-bread is sold in slices of five and it's so thick and glutenous and doesn't agree with my insides -- I found wheat bread that seemed thinner finally but it is three slices for 105 yen (about a dollar)
-apples, while about twice the size of ours, are sold in ones or threes at over 200 yen a piece
-actually all produce is crazy expensive.

I'm not really complaining, I'm sure everywhere has price differences and the produce is likely seasonal, etc. etc. Just logging some differences.

Wait I changed my mind. I AM complaining about the jelly thing. I love jelly. CHEAP, CHEAP, AMERICAN JELLY, THAT IS. God bless FMV. My country 'tis of thee...