Four Days of Relaxation

It seems like everything is coming in fours these days. Anywho, this past week went by quickly and smoothly, which is all I can ask for really. Now, I am rewarded for my travelling and meetings and whatnot. I have today and the next three days off!

Today, I have been getting caught up on all of the administrative work of keeping the apartment in running condiditon. Laundry is caught up on, dishes will be done soon, garbage is picked up and getting ready to be taken out, and I have been cleaning in general. There is still some work to be done but it looks much better now than it did a while ago. The tidiness of my apartment comes in spurts. On the weeks that I have to travel, my apartment tends to get kind of trashed. I usually have to leave earlier and I get home later on those days and I just don't really feel like cleaning on those days. What I have learned is that most of the time, its not teaching that wears me out, it the train rides. The longer train rides I have, the more tired I get. I like riding them but they just gnaw on me after a while.

To combat this boredom, I usually read a book or play video games but lately, I have been going through stuff very quickly it seems. I finished a 430 page book yesterday that took me a total of six hours to read. It was a good book but I was hoping it would take up more time than it did. English books aren't as cheap or as easy to get ahold of here, so when I find them I try to savor them. At the rate I have been going through books lately, my family will get here to replenish my supply just in time. As it stands, I have two books left here that I have never read and I do not think either of them will take much time to go through.

Other than that, not a ton has happened in the past few days. My big meeting yesterday was little more than a friendly social gathering that I was forced to attend. It was actually a nice meeting but nothing of dire importance was accomplished. After I get the place straightened up, I may see if Mari wants to come over for dinner or something tomorrow or Sunday. We'll see, part of me just wants to be lazy for a couple of days.

I talked to both of my "aunties", Mariko and Motoko last night. Evidentely, Motoko's computer is going crazy and Mariko bought an iPod she is not sure how to work. I told them that as a favor, I would come down and help them but I am not sure when that is happening, maybe tomorrow. The thing that cracked me up was the Mariko called me at midnight last night and then her last email to me came at almost 2am. That lady stayed up later than I did. It will be funny to help Motoko with her computer because she will need to translate different things for me while I am working on it. She tried to do that over the phone to me last night but that wasn't going to happen. Between her lack of computer and English savvy and the lack of my Japanese knowledge, I reasoned it would just be easier to go to her.

Oh, I tried a new snack the other day and was surprised by how good it was. They were hotdog flavored potato snacks. They really did taste like a hotdog too, one that had been BBQ'd over a fire. They were really good, or maybe I was just in the mood for a hotdog. I would kill for a Polish sausage with kraut and ketchup right now. :)