…is that the time?
I’ve somehow lost a week between posts and I’m not sure how it happened. That’s time for you eh? A massive cunt. Have that time.
I’m feeling nostalgic as I got a congratulations on spawning a child message from an old friend from many years back, during my high school days in fact. It brought back memories of the halcyon days I’d almost forgotten, a time of little stress, a little money and a lot of pub quizzes. It’s funny how few of the bad memories float back up to the top – there probably were loads, but outside of the time I lost my phone in Leicester city I don’t recall many. Also I had a lot of crappy managers … but that seems par for the course in retail.
So its as hot as monkey ass here in the mountains again, and that has meant the purchase of an air conditioning unit. Now, an ethical man would use this great power wisely. However, I feel like abusing the great power thats been bestowed on me for a couple of days, it’s beautiful living here in the frosty command center that is my room.
I purchased (provisionally) a car the other day to replace the current lease mobile I’ve been charging about in. You’ll notice the absence of any adjectives like “awesome”, “cool” or “new”. It was however cheap and in great condition. It’s a 7 year old Suzuki Wagon R, a car I’ve had an affinity for ever since I got one as a loaner a couple of years back. It’s one of the more spacious and comfortable of the “Kei Jidousha” (Light car) range which have the same amount of power as about 3 hairdryers. But, they are cheap to run and don’t break down easy – and that’s all I need, with a kid to look after, flash cars fall waaaaay down the priority list. Anyway, here’s a pic of the model I got (not the actual one)
The long summer vacation kicks in on Friday this week, I am hella looking forward to it – I guess I can spend a lot more time with Raiki and Mayumi, it feels like I’m slacking on the parental front a lot as I can only visit Wednesday evenings and weekends assuming nothing else is happening.
Not sorry to be getting full nights sleep though. Not regretting that at all.
So the summer holiday has arrived with typical Japanese promptness. How is it going so far? Well, like black and white really.
Friday: Went to Theo’s after school, played a game of AGoT that last three hours. I lost 15-12 in the end but it was a really close fought match and Theo came right back into it from 12 points down to win. A thoroughly entertaining game. Dropped round Mayumi’s parents house afterwards where I was given various gifts for no particular reason.
Saturday: Mayumi has to do parent/teacher interviews at school so she has no holiday. I go to hospital to get my toe looked at again (recently had the nail removed because it was ingrowing for the 4th time) and then go to Wakayama city to try and pick out some summer clothes. Uni-Qlo yields nothing interesting so I make a move to go further out to Garden Park (a mall about an hours drive away) to look in Muji and have a browse round a few other stores. I get there, I enter the car park and then a batshit loco Japanese “lady” drives past a stop sign coming out of the car parking lane and ploughs directly into the side of my car. Leaving me with a wheel hanging almost completely off. Of course the Police can’t come and judge who was wronged as they’re like to do because it’s a “private area” which means it’s left to the insurance companies. Always irritating as there is bound to be arguing from the opposite persons side about how much they pay, the fact that the person driving ignored right of way, stops signs and was the person to “hit” the other car not withstanding, I doubt they’ll really want to pay 100% of the repair if they can possibly avoid doing so.
Here are a couple of pic links to the aftermath (the other person having removed her car because we were in the way of hordes of traffic and one of the store staff was getting shirty).
So, after an hour and a half wait I got my car towed back to the garage I lease from and the owner had prepared a replacement car for me. So aside from the general inconvenience of having half my day spent waiting for someone to take my car back home there was really no major knock on effect to my weekend. The weirdest thing about the whole incident was. The person that hit me was a crossdresser. I swear I’m making no joke. He had a man’s name, in his driving license picture he was bald, yet in meeting him her had an obvious shoulder length womans hairstyle, he was also wearing womans clothing complete with makeup and earrings. All the time he/she was speaking in an over the top womans voice as if her were in a pantomime or something. I was expecting Ashton Kutcher to jump out at any moment to punk me.
Sunday: Conversely, Sunday was one of those “perfect day” days. Mayumi and I had the day off, we watched Forrest Gump in the morning (one of my all time favorites), went to a brand new shopping centre in a different city in the afternoon, I found a bunch of well priced summer clothes I wanted. We ate lunch at an awesome sushi place. Came back to Kimino, went to the river because it was baking hot for a swim,(swimming in the river in Kimino is a bit of a thing here as the water is so clear it’s like glass) the river was deserted save for us and the water awesome. We came home had dinner and watched a movie. Damn near perfect.
I am left to wonder however if there will be a pattern emerging as to how my days will procede from this day forth. I certainly hope I got rid of all my bad luck in one go.
