This word is brought to you by the following story, which is one of the more crazy things that has happened to me in my life.
I hope that the mosquito madness I mentioned in the title happens once and once only, though I don't think that'll be the case. However, because of this madness, I ended up going to bed at around 5:00 a.m. There was this crazy mosquito who I guess was lonely and wasn't hungry, who was disturbing my rest. I knew he was there when I went to bed, so I covered myself head to toe in the covers, but it just kept buzzing around my ears. It didn't land, and it didn't bite. Annoying little thing.
So I first off tried to kill it. Since I'm a sissy when it comes to dead things, I couldn't barehandedly do that clap-the-mosquito-dead thing. Instead, I grabbed myself a napkin, sat down cross legged in the middle of my room, waiting for him. He did this hit and run kind of thing where he'd come buzzing right around my ear, then shoot off too quick for me to see. Then he'd come back, again and again. When I opened my computer and started reading instead, hoping to make it seem like I've given up the hunt, it fell into my trap and landed on my table. I thought I had it now. I lashed out with the napkin, but alas, it was too fast for me. Darn laws of physics!
So I thought maybe if I slept with my earmuffs on, all would be solved. Wrong again! That guy is not only annoying, but he's also loud. He was also quite persistent as well. Did I smell good or something? This was like, the longest showdown I've ever had with a mosquito, and it wasn't even half over yet.
Thus for the next two hours, I battled with it in various different ways, many times contemplating just sleeping on the couch downstairs. In the end, I wearily grabbed my kindle, shut out the lights in my room, turned on the lights in the hall, and escaped elsewhere to read. I was hoping that I could just draw it out and not deal with it, then hope that it didn't come back.
In the end, I did that, returned after half an hour, put on my muffs, and snuggled into my blankets. By then I was so tired that I'm not sure if he was gone or not. I was dead asleep. When I woke up, I was cramped up in the same position I fell asleep in (fear of a mosquito hiding in your ear can do that to a person). My arm really hurt, and I woke up at 6:30, so it wasn't much sleep. Ever since then, though, I've been hearing buzzing here and there when I'm caught off guard. It's totally my imagination (I hope), but I am so haunted now by this one creature, it's crazy. How am I gonna go to bed tonight?
So on to what my day actually was. After I woke up, I went down to have a nice breakfast. Afterward, I decided that I'd learn all of katakana (one of the three alphabets) in a day, which is quite an undertaking, but I did it anyways! Ayuka went swimming, and Ryosuke went to the library. I did katakana practice most of the day, but I also watched an episode of Doctor Who with Aaron (The Angels Take Manhattan, which possibly might be one of the saddest things I've ever seen) and had quite a nice discussion with Yoshiko about my childhood and how I grew up.
For lunch, we ate pretty healthy. There was miso soup, rice, and a bunch of healthy things like mushrooms, nattou (which tastes nasty, in my opinion), fish, salad, and seaweed. All in all, it was delicious though.
The rest of the day was spent trying to use my newfound katakana knowledge in an effort to read. All I can read relatively well right now is children's stories, like Aesop's fables and the Grimm fairytales. I'm glad that they have these stories, so that I can at least take a guess as to what words mean when I don't know them (like Little Red Riding Hood).
For dinner, we made katsu. I've never made katsu before, so it was nice to learn how to do it and be able to help out. We also made cabbage and tomato soup, which was delicious as always. The katsu is amazingly delicious, though it's terrible for your health. We also made sweet potato tempura, which was so wonderful (though still bad for your health; balances out the benefits of sweet potato). Why is Japanese food so good?
Since I've got some free space here, there's been something that I've been meaning to write about, but have been too excited about other things to do so: the subway system. You guys have already seen the maps of how crazy it is, but I have yet to talk about how cool it is.
First of all, the Tokyo system is scarily on time. They tell you how long it's gonna take to get to like, the next ten stops on the line, and they get there in the exact time they advertise. If they are indeed late, due to a passenger injury or something else, then they change all the times and apologize profusely. I've seen them apologize over two minutes of lateness. It's ridiculous, but very nice when you want to get somewhere on time.
Also, when they're running late, they sometimes pass out little slips at each of the late stops which tells of the reason why the train was delayed. It also often serves as proof to teachers when students come running in telling them that the train was delayed. It's a nice system. It's also like the NYC system in that it also tells you when the next two trains are due to arrive, which is something I always miss when I come back to the MBTA system.
Next is the actual train arrivals. First of all, the train tells you which side the doors open on, what the next stop is, and what the next next stop is — in both English and Japanese. Each station in the whole JR system has its own sound that is played when the train arrives. That way you can sleep on the train and not miss your stop, since you'll be awoken by the noise of your stop. Of course, this only works if you know what your stop noise is.
Finally, it's general train station etiquette. The door spots are marked in the station, so people line up where the doors are meant to stop. Then when it gets there, everyone stands respectfully off to the side until everyone comes off. When going up and down escalators, people who are standing stay on the left, and people who are walking go on the right. It's so clearly defined, and there's definitely a distinct line between standing and walking people. Why doesn't America follow any of these rules? Things would be so much nicer and easier that way.
Anyways, that's all for today. Not that interesting of a day, but tomorrow is back to school, back to learning. Tomorrow is also the day I make my first bento! Exciting stuff!
Cheers & Chocolate,
Maggie
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