I Did Nothing and It Was Everything I Hoped It Could Be

That is one of the better quotes from Office Space, one of my all time favorite movies. It also sums up what I have done the past four days, almost absolutely nothing. When I said I was getting four days of relaxation a few days ago, what I actually meant was that I was in for four days of sheer boredom.

Japan is a great place, when you have something you want to do or somewhere you want to go. Or if you have a couple of friends that live in the town you do, that also helps. Seeing that I had none of the above, I have pretty much sat around on my kiester the entire time I have been off. I feel lazy but honestly, there was not a lot I could have done. I cleaned my apartment a bit, I did dishes a couple of times, but that was it.

Oh, I have been very good about running everyday, I have been doing that. Though I am not going to tonight. My knees felt kind of odd yesterday and though I think its probably because they are mad at me for running on concrete and not a machine, I figured I would let them rest today. Over the past five days, I have been running three times and each time has been a little more than three miles. Not a bad way to ease back into the habit if I do say so myself. I have found a really cool route that takes me through the whoring district of Fukuchiyama (yup, there's a red light area) and then through a covered strip mall that is closed at night and stretches the better part of half a mile. I like running through there because of the way it is dimly lit at night and kind of creepy. To add to the ambiance, last night when I was going through that area, someone was practicing on their koto. They were playing a tune called Sakura. Think night time, ninjas, and cherry blossoms, and you pretty much have the atmosphere in which a ran last night. The funny part is, when I was looking to see what the instrument was that I heard exactly, I came across this page that actually has the tune that I heard last night as the example of what a koto sounds like. Check it out:

http://koto.sapp.org/dict/sakura/

In other news, about the only other mentionable event that has happened lately was another pair of earthquakes that woke me this morning. To be more accurate, I woke up about one second before the quakes started. I think I have dog senses or something, it was odd. Either way, these quakes came back to back. The first one, was a four magnitude and the second was a three. The keep getting stronger and lasting longer. Its like they are on viagra. :) Sorry, I had to, I just read that last sentence and it sounded so wrong I knew it had to be right. :)

Tomorrow, I start back to class and I must say I am happy to be going. It at least gives me something to do. That and the shopping area next to the class has a little shop that sells really tasty curry ramen. Mmmm....curry ramen....ahhh. Anywho, this week should not be horribly eventful. I will have my language exchange with Mari on Thursday, so I am looking forward to that. My family will be here in two weeks as of yesterday so I am getting excited for that too. I am mildly intrigued to see how they will take everything in. It will be nice being able to show them everything I have told them about, I am looking forward to their visit.

Well, that about does it for now. If something nifty happens tomorrow, I will let y'all know. Later!