Caterwauling
Thursday and Friday were our crappy Mid-Year Conference days which basically translates as miss school, meet up with the 240-odd other ALTs in Hyogo and be buried in seminar and lecture boredom and Japanese you-are-ambassadors-for-your-country pomp before escaping to the pubs and bars of Kobe.
Last night I got very drunk. I sorted out a few things with people; cleared the atmosphere, forgave and forgot, started afresh. Well, that's what I hope. Until the next bitchy misunderstanding.
Did karaoke until 4am, and somehow managed to get two Japanese guys (perfect strangers) we invited along too to pay. Sometimes this sempai/kohai inequality thing works out to our advantage (ie. they were older than us and men therefore the onus was on them to pay).
Came home on Thursday after Midori had gone AWOL for 36 hours to hear a distant, muffled but spirited wailing coming from the plot of land next door. I followed the noise and was alarmed to realise my dear little cat was on the other side of the neighbour's garage door, trapped. It was gone 11pm and the house was dark so (once enough time had passed for it to dawn on me that this is Japan and no one locks anything) I pulled open the door enough for her to squeeze out. Poor thing. Damn neighbours. Mystery: did they not realise she was hiding from the wind or, dun dun duhhhn, did they lock her in there?
No harm done. She's still a few decibels higher than before I left her in Steph's flat for a week (she wailed constantly, I'm told) but I'll try and train her out of that. I woke up this morning to find my damp hand being tickled by a fuzzy cat tongue. As thanks, I guess.
Today is Saturday! But it feels like Sunday! Mum sent me the Grease DVD. Oh yeah; I know what I'm doing tonight.
Last night I got very drunk. I sorted out a few things with people; cleared the atmosphere, forgave and forgot, started afresh. Well, that's what I hope. Until the next bitchy misunderstanding.
Did karaoke until 4am, and somehow managed to get two Japanese guys (perfect strangers) we invited along too to pay. Sometimes this sempai/kohai inequality thing works out to our advantage (ie. they were older than us and men therefore the onus was on them to pay).
Came home on Thursday after Midori had gone AWOL for 36 hours to hear a distant, muffled but spirited wailing coming from the plot of land next door. I followed the noise and was alarmed to realise my dear little cat was on the other side of the neighbour's garage door, trapped. It was gone 11pm and the house was dark so (once enough time had passed for it to dawn on me that this is Japan and no one locks anything) I pulled open the door enough for her to squeeze out. Poor thing. Damn neighbours. Mystery: did they not realise she was hiding from the wind or, dun dun duhhhn, did they lock her in there?
No harm done. She's still a few decibels higher than before I left her in Steph's flat for a week (she wailed constantly, I'm told) but I'll try and train her out of that. I woke up this morning to find my damp hand being tickled by a fuzzy cat tongue. As thanks, I guess.
Today is Saturday! But it feels like Sunday! Mum sent me the Grease DVD. Oh yeah; I know what I'm doing tonight.