Kunishiwa from Japan

Hello from Miwa, Iberaki.
Japan is pretty awesome.

The plane ride was long. Take the longest you've ever had to sit still and add an extra five hours on top of that. I fell asleep for a while so I'm not sure how long it was (the time difference is too confusing to deal with). I did watch 4 movies on the plane, so it had to be a long time. But I got to see the frozen rivers of Siberia and the Northwest Territories. They're breathtaking when viewed from a few thousand feet.
I'll put up pics as soon as they're developed.

Andrew and his brother, Adam, picked me up from the bus stop in Mito and gave me my new favourite drink - Pocari Sweat. It's very similar to Gatorade except less sugary.
About an hour later we were in Miwa. It's pretty remote. Some of Adam's neighbours raise chickens. One has even has a tanuki (sort of like a bloodthristy badger) in a cage. I'm told he bought it thinking it was a dog. I can see why he would be confused. Aside from the stray mongrels, every dog is tiny and adorned with a sweater or little booties or a hat.

Japan is totally amazing. Aside from the Hello Kitty crap everywhere and sashimi samples at the grocery store, it's also really beautiful. Once I got over suddenly being illiterate I chilled out and just went along for the ride. Most people do speak a bit of English and the signs are often in English. Or Engrish anyhow. The bus from the airport out to Miwa reminded me to take all my junk off the bus with me. Other signs will ask you not to start bonfires.

I still can't get over how clean everything is and how polite all the people are. It's like Canada ratcheted up several notches.
There's even snow!
Unfortunately there's no insulation in most houses...or central heating. The kerosene heaters give you quite a headrush if you leave them on too long. Luckily I have Andrew to snuggle up to.

The roof is on fire.

A really quite minor family battle left things a little bit awkward and me feeling anxious.
We always manage to scream at each other over x-mas, for some reason.

I usually try to get out and give things some space when that happens.
This year my brother decided to boycott x-mas. Since some people bought him presents anyway, he decided to get a few things for some of us. I usually take him shopping since he hates it and can never think of stuff to buy, so he called me and asked what I want. Asking also, of course what to get for our various parent/step parent peoples.

In the end he showed up for dinner and asked me if i'd rather have a girly-bath thing or a big bag of hydro weed. Fuck the bath stuff.

He was meeting a few friends for his 'midnight mass' smoke out in the park and I called him and asked if I could get into my christmas present early. He came back to the house with a spliff and we smoked it while walking back.
He's either afraid I'm going to be a dork in front of his friends, or that I'm going to make fun of him in front of them, the way I did when I was 12. So I turn around to go back home. It is REALLY cold out, but I decide I'll keep walking for a bit, especially since the sky is looking very intense.

Several fire trucks are just screaming by. I think that there's something wrong, but then remember that I'm a little high and it's way more efficient to just ignore those ideas. Especially since there's a fire station a block away, so fire trucks are pretty common here.
Then it strikes me that it IS weird because they're going towards the fire station at full blast, instead of away from it.

I decide to walk a bit closer. The top storey of a duplex is just billowing smoke out the balcony doors and roof. There are a lot of flashing lights and also a fair number of gawking bystanders wearing pyjamas and coats. It's about negative twenty five and one of those perfectly clear and calm nights. The smoke seems to reach up past the moon and, from where I'm standing, it looks like it's filled the whole sky over North-Eastern Ottawa.

I think I was just craning my head around looking when I realize that I stopped next to a small group of neighbours and hadn't even made eye contact with them (it's not hard to do when wearing a hoodie and scarf-wrapped-around-face combo). I smile nervously at one of them and realize that they must have thought I was being creepy. Then I have one of those 'o migod i'm REALLY high' moments that just seem so highschool yet are funny. Then I got those stoner giggles - you know, like when you start thinking about how hilarious your nose is and it feels like you have cobwebs on your face. All of a sudden it occured to me that I was watching someone's house burn down and it looked like I was laughing at it. I headed home before someone thought I was an arsonist. At this point the whole roof was ablaze and the cops were starting to clear people off the street.

I found out the next day that everyone got out ok. That was the same night the tsunami hit. Having your house burn down on Christmas eve sucks, but having your family washed away by a giant wave puts it into perspective.

The new diet solution

Whoa!

It's nice to be back home. Ok, parts of it are annoying, but the food is way better than when I'm cooking for myself.

I gorged myself on a nice steak dinner and then made christmas cookies and chocolates, which entailed eating quite a bit of cookie dough.
A few hours after this I found myself hungry. Now, I've eaten A LOT of food today and there's really no reason for this. Nonetheless, I can't stop thinking about how tasty a baked potato would be right about now.

I reason that it will be ok if I just have a tiny one and don't put any butter on it. I put it in the microwave and go upstairs to grab a sweater.

I was sort of skipping back down the stairs, looking forward to the potato, when I heard several loud bangs. It turns out that the first loud "Bang" was produced by my butt and back hitting the stairs. The other, smaller bangs were caused by my butt hitting each stair as I slid down the better part of the flight. I figured out that I was falling when I heard the "OW!" noise I made. But by that point I had stopped moving.

I got up and tried to figure out how that had happened. I think it had something to do with my socks not getting along well with the carpet on the stairs. That, or getting along too well with it. I used to slide down the stairs (usually on purpose) all the time as a kid. It's that nasty long-haired carpet stuff from the 60's that's not quite shag. It's also a really hideous colour of pooh-brown and it wasn't laid right so it has big bumps in places. My mom has been talking about getting rid of it since she moved here. She's renovated literally everything else in the house but she never got around to the carpet.

I think I'm fine except for a bruise or two. Also, I no longer want the potato.
So the next time you're about to eat a big heap of pudding, see if throwing yourself down a flight of stairs doesn't help. It can't be that much more hazardous than Atkins.

This is pretty nice for the darkest day of the year

I'm finally mostly almost done for this semester. Nearly.

X-mas shopping is the best procrastination device ever. After the internet, of course. And Pantaloons.

Andrew came to Montreal briefly on his way to Japan. No dust on him! But lots of vegan deliciousness in him, thanks to Ali and Jim and their Chrismakah latkes.

I'm going to meet up with him in a week. I'm really excited yet dreading the 20 hours of airplane time. I'll ask Andrew how it was when I next talk to him. He should be at his brother's place by now, I think. It's probably tomorrow there by now, since they're apparently nine hours ahead of GMT. To make it more confusing, they don't do daylight savings time in Japan. Way to not kowtow to the farmers!

People of North America - for too long we have put up with setting our clocks twice a year. The sun is not supposed to set before 5:00! Who gets up at 6:30 anyway? We must overpower our Amish overlords and throw off the shackles of farmer oppression! Viva la revolution!

I'm back in Ottawa looking at the prettily decorated tree and feeling the Christmas cheer. I haven't even dipped into the rum-laced-with-eggnog yet. The cold temperature yesterday broke several records. I'm glad it was colder than ever, because I thought I was just getting really wussy. It's supposed to be much much warmer today. It's also the first day of winter. I always find it encouraging to know that the days will be getting longer again.

Well, off to brave the hordes at the mall. Then all the school stuff will get done. Probably.

Does anyone want a new cell phone?

Yay! My student loan cheque finally showed up. No anal probing for me.

I decided to celebrate by cancelling my old cell phone account with Fido (the phone itself having died due to a mishap with spinach dip).

The lady from Fido didn't take it too well.
She thought everything was fine and didn't know I was unhappy. We've been together for 5 years, why didn't I say something, she asked me.
I tried to tell her that it's not her, it's me, but she kept insiting that whatever it was that I was unhappy about she could change.
I said they had no coverage in the USA and she said she could fix that if I'd just give her another chance (and set my phone to "analog")
I eventually had to break it to her that I had been seeing Telus behind her back.
She pretty much called Telus a whore and said anything that Telus could do, she would too.
I said it was too late for that, I had made up my mind and we should both move on.
She begged me to take her back and offered me a bunch of free stuff.
I said I had to move on, so she asked if I could set her up with any of my friends.
Well, breaking up is hard to do.

If you know anyone who wants a free cell phone, $30 credit and no contract, give me a shout, at my new number, lop-0-nip (that's a zero in the middle, not an "o"). The catch to you is that you take over my old phone number and that if you ever want to leave Fido they will guilt you out of it.

$1000 - may involve anal probing

There's a study on sleep, hormones and circadian rythms going on at the Douglas Hospital. Since I'm doing my stage ("internship" for non Quebecquers) there anyhow, I'm thinking "sweet, I can make a cool grand and wake up in the place I need to be for work, what's the catch?" Well the catch is that "your blood will be sampled frequently and your body temperature will be monitored continuously via a rectal probe that you will install upon arrival in the laboratory."
Schma? My, aren't they forward - worse than Frank Gifford! (No, I am not making this up. )

I'm getting pretty broke. Like pathetically broke, but has it come to this? It is in the name of science....also in the name of my credit card bill.

If any of you 18-30 year old ladies who are not taking birth control pills, need $1000 and who don't mind the indignities listed above would like to check it out, go to their screening questionaire at: www.ugd-dmu.ca/cycles .