Gecko: 15 minutes

MONDAY, AUGUST 9

Today was a good day. I didn't actually sleep well last night. I kept waking up, once to rain. As I had all the windows open, I got up and closed the one closest to me before tumbling back to sleep. All was fine. There are eves off the room that block the rain. Unfortunately, I've gotten a bit lazy with my bicycle and it wasn't fully crammed in under the shelter. I did not enjoy the wet seat this morning, although my bento table napkin wiped it off just fine.

As usual, I went running off to work thinking I'd be late, and, as usual, I was 7 minutes or so early. Again, the day started with just me and Kyoto-sensei. Every teacher but one whom I've talked with this semester was gone all day.

But, I actually accomplished a lot. I went though, and made my first lesson plan, read through some more of the lesson plans left by decades of predecessors and found some nice stuff, which I promptly photocopied. I love the photocopier.

I forgot my pink notebook, so I didn't work on my second lesson, but I did work on activities to accompany the book, which is mostly what I'll be running at Koko. At Kogyo and Nishi I have much more freedom. For the first lesson there (after my introduction to ME! lesson, I'll be be doing a “what did you do last summer” lesson with past tense, I hope. Crazy stuff.

I had a new copy of my contract, all however many pages long, with the spelling of my last name fixed on the first page. I double checked it, and confirmed that I have from 12:15-1pm off as a break. So, I made my lunch during that time and slowly ate it, while reading “Memoirs of a Geisha” which I found in my desk. Advantage of reading that one at school is that I can hold it open with one hand, unlike “The Stories of English,” my home reading book, which is massive.

Went on the internet at the end of the day to check my e-mail. Had a few from mommy, who misses me, I think. Also had one from the internet, a 25 page whopper (which they recommend printing out, but I didn't dare. I may start a system of printing 5 pages a day for the next week or so. Or something.) Anyway, it could be another week or more before this thing is finally set up. Keep your fingers crossed. This is ridiculously tedious. (Note from Later: Just talked with Elizabeth. That brilliant girl, when I mentioned the e-mail, had also gotten it. She just downloaded it onto her USB drive. *headdesk*)
I can read my e-mails, but I can't visit Facebook or my websites (I at least try to look like everything I'm doing is official by having my school e-mail up, even if I am replying to mommy or some such.) So, if you need to contact me, e-mail is good. Otherwise, if you facebook message me, or wall post, or some such, I can see it and read it, but I can't reply. Just know that I love hearing from everyone. Alyssum, it was great to hear that at least one person, besides my parents, who don't count, is actually still reading.

Thinking of getting myself a nice birthday present this year. After all, I worked out my new hourly wage on Friday, when I had time, and I think I can afford it. This will probably be -- although I can dream not but realistically probably will be -- the largest percent pay increase of my life.

Elizabeth and I went grocery shopping. She's taken to just wandering around supermarkets in her spare time looking at all of the new stuff. So, today, I tagged along. It was nice having her there as her kanji is pretty good. The trip was good for me as I learned/improved my own kanji. I can now recognize the kanji for “flesh” (or “meat”) and fish.

I'm on a “How I Met Your Mother” marathon. I've seen the beginning of the series and I've seen the end, but I missed the middle, and I've finally figured out where that section starts. Basically, it's the whole Stella saga.

And I am an idiot. I was getting ready to think about washing up for the night when I realized that I am out of rice. I don't have time to make rice in the morning, so now I'm up another hour. Let me explain. Rice in Japan needs to be washed first (three to four times, stirring with your fingers while the water turns milky) to remove the excess starch. So, after stirring, it then needs to sit for 30 minutes before cooking. This would probably be made slightly easier if I had a rice cooker, although I think that would still require me to wash the rice. Luckily tomorrow will be a later morning than usual, as I'll be going to Kyogo for the first time and I don't need to be there until 10:30. But still. I do enjoy sleeping in and lazy mornings.

I don't think I've explained bike locks yet. Let me explain bike locks. In Japan, for the most part, there are no bike racks. Yet everyone bikes. You don't chain your bike to anything, you merely lock up the back wheel. Each back wheel has a little half-circle coming off the fender. With a button, you can pull it around so it completely closes between the spokes and locks the back tire. You then remove the key and go on your merry way, leaving the bike wherever, it seems. When you come back, insert key, twist, and lock snaps back and you're free to ride. As Parker said when I first got my bike, yes, the lock is pretty easy to pick, but it's an honor system that people won't steal your bike if you at least lock it.

And, barring that, this is Japan and everyone is nice. Which is fortunate, as I have forgotten once already. Also, as all bikes are registered, the return on stole bikes is actually something like 2/3, which is impressive for stolen property. Apparently it usually turns up some time later in a rice paddy somewhere, and they get it back to you.

This is a lovely system except for one problem.

I hate keys.

I hate keys. I hate keys. I hate keys. My bike locks at home were always combo locks. My locker locks are combos. Even my college dorm lock was a combo lock (although that was just pure, god-given, lucky coincidence.) I hate keys. I lose keys. I misplace keys. I try so hard not to lose keys that I can't find keys. The first time Parker took me grocery shopping I dug through my bag, increasingly frantically and quite awkwardly for 5 minutes (honest, we were into multiple diggings) looking for where I had carefully placed the key to avoid losing it. (For the record: coin pouch in my wallet, which is now one of my two default locations. The other being my right pant pocket.) I even have a designated spot on my food cubbie so I always know where it is in the apartment.

I hate keys. For just this reason, I actually carry the spare everywhere on my key ring. I'm going to need it someday.

Okay, I thought this entry would be done for the night, but there's actually one more story to tell. I had the rice going, as was sorely tempted to leave the flames on while I ran down to drop of my burnable garbage for tomorrow. But houses (and temples, according to my guide book) seem to burn here. And my floor is made of dried reeds. So, I turned it off. But that's not the interesting part.

Now I'm okay, but I dropped off the garbage, and it's dark and night. And, I was followed. As I entered my apartment, I stopped for an extra second to examine where my name should be for the mailman and that was probably it. I walked in and at the same time, a dark, gray figure darted past me. As it was so dark, I figured it was just a trick of the light. I was wrong. And it put me into a situation I've never been in before.

How exactly does one go about escorting a gecko out of your apartment?

First, and most importantly, no geckos were hurt in the true events that inspired this story. Secondly, which perhaps should have been mentioned first, yes, my camera was the first thing I grabbed: pictures will be on Facebook soon.

Okay, so, here's the scene. It's 11:45pm, you're home alone and there's a gecko in your front hall. The first thing I did (after the pictures, although there were more throughout this story. Just place them yourself whenever there seems to be a convenient pause.) was to run around the apartment and close every door. Now, some, like my bathroom door, don't really close tightly, so I was betting Mr. Geiko (15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance) Gecko, could probably still squeeze through. But it was a start.

I got back, and the gecko was gone. Minor panic. Turns out it had just crawled under my shoe. No, I did not squash it.

So, I set my (conveniently now empty) garbage can next to it in the hopes that it would crawl into the open can, giving me the chance to put the lid on and walk it outside.

Gecko didn't go for that.

To make a long staring match short, the gecko eventually got scared of me and ran toward the door. I walked closer and it ran next to the door. I opened the door and it darted out. Door was closed and, assuming no others have snuck in without me noticing, no dead geckos will be found in my apartment. *knock on wood* I did keep thinking of my friend Erin, who found a dead squirrel in her room. I don't want that.

It's really lucky I don't have a fear of small critters or I would have been in huge trouble. But Alyssum pretty much cured me of any overwhelming fear of crawlies that I might have had when she used to put daddylonglegs on me while I was sleeping. Sweet girl, really, I swear.