August 06, 2002

Wow, in review, last night's post sure was… interesting. I swear I had not been drinking, doing illicit drugs, or beating my head against solid objects when I wrote that (I had however spent about an hour learning how to use a really wicked playing card throw, and had gotten about half a deck stuck on the ledge by the ceiling).

So today was all about cleaning out the apartment and getting it spic and span for inspection. That wasn't so bad, because aside from my room, I cleaned the kitchen (I don't know why, but I really like cleaning kitchen's, either it's a result of my domesticity gene, or the brainwashing I received while working at Taco Bell), while Rev did the bathroom. Now I stepped out to take out the trash, and when I got back, the place reeked, bad. Horribly. I wanted to yak it was so bad. I wondered just what the hell he had done in the bathroom to make that smell. Did he go and dredge the sewer pipe?

It turned out that he had won some goldfish at a festival about a week or so ago (I had forgotten about them at this point) and shock and surprise, they had gone and died. He had been keeping them in a large tupperware box, and so just threw the lid on them and forgot about them until today. So after he cleaned the bathroom he decided to flush them. So he went into the bathroom, opened the box, and well, nearly blew super chunks all over the freshly cleaned walls.

Half an hour later it still smelled like the worst thing ever in there. Fortunately, is there is one thing that Japan does not have a shortage of, its incense, and boy did we burn a lot of it. Of course I find incense horribly cloying, and headache inducing, but that was a small price to pay in order to get rid of the Worst Smell Ever(TM).

I ran into a problem returning my bike. Somehow in the past few days I've managed to loose my lock key, which means not only am I out a lock, but I also get 2000 yen deducted from refund for the month.

I also used my credit card for the very first time today. Deciding that I didn't want to push my luck any farther than I had too, I carefully counted out how much money I had so I knew exactly how much I could spend on dinner and breakfast, and still have a comfortable margin for exit taxes etc. Proud of my foresight, I then went to Lawson's to get some really cheap stuff for dinner, leaving all my money sitting on the desk.

So when I reached into my wallet and found no wallet, after a brief moment of panic I pulled out my never been used VISA and asked "Cardo wa daijou desu ka?" (Is a card okay?) And glory be, it was, and so I got my soda, sandwich, and roll. I wonder what kind of exchange rate I'll get on that (suddenly gets the shakes imagining someone translating '643 Yen' as '643 dollars').

I think that I need to go lie down now…

My next post will be after I get home, and I give my final thoughts on my whole experience here. So, for more pseudo intellectual commentary and observation, tune back tomorrow, same Doug time, same Doug channel.