Ohh, so tired... Why didn't we climb Mt. Fuji like this?

Ahh... once again I'm waiting for results so I can justify blogging. I suppose a description of my typical day at home in the lonely land of almost-Nara is in order, given that I'm leaving in two weeks.
7:45. Alarm goes off.
8:15. I actually get up.
~8:56. I go for a brisk morning jog to the bus. Sometimes, for even more exercise, I jog all the way to the next bus stop. I love jogging.
9:15. I get to work. Whether I ran to the bus or not, I'm covered in sweat by now. I love humidity.
12:00. Lunch. Usually in the dull cafeteria here, but occasionally fine dining with Mike down the street or my boss in Nara.
5:45 PM. My work day officially ends so I walk over to say good night to my boss. But he starts a conversation I can't get out of, until...
5:55. I miss the bus back. When I'm done chatting with the boss I come back and surf until the next bus.
~6:20. I get home, survey the fridge, and if I'm feeling particularly adventurous pick a recipe. (But with my discovery of frozen dinners I can usually avoid this.)
7:00. Having finally finished deciphering the kanji in my recipe I trek down to the supa to go wander around until I find everything, or a sympathetic-looking clerk who can show me where stuff is. (They'll never just tell me the way they will at Kroger. I know I'm just a gaijin, but really, I can handle things like, Aisle 5 on the right.) I love shopping in kanji...
8:00. The soothing chords of Auld Lang Syne (better known here as the Just Go Home Already song) start wafting through the store as it closes. By now I'm hopefully at home, starting to cook.
~8:30. Dinner, candlelight, and Naruto. Except without the candelight. (Or the Boyz II Men, eh Karen?)
~12:30. I fall asleep after some Simpsons.

Tell me, just why does this site exist?
Learn to use toilets

This is why I love Japanese TV.

Tonight I started the yearlong second big set of goodbyes in my life. Insert wistful thoughts about time, impermanence, suffering, cessation of suffering, and dharma here.

I got my first piece of personally addressed junk mail today! Unlike the standard fare of apartment offers and call-girl services, this had my name, handwritten (since their print templates probably can't deal with a massive name like mine). This is how I know I've been living here too long.

If other blogs have kanji of the day, Japanese words of the day, and even bio jargon of the day, I can be geeky too with my GRE Word of the Day: erudite ("learned, scholarly"). Whee...

So after the ladies changed into yukata, I rejoined them, clad in traditional T-shirt-and-shorts, to go to the Hirakata fireworks. Which were sweet, although they paled in comparison to PL of course. Afterward we wandered around the matsuri, where we saw people dancing the bon odori Okano-sensei taught us back in Japanese class. I never thought I'd actually see it in person... And we ate Doraemon- and Hello-Kitty-shaped castera. Mmmm...Doraemon...

Oh good, California's election was looking a little too credible:
Vote chalupa!

Sunday I went to the beach with Audrey and her host sister Aya, Audrey's coworker Emma, half of Northern Ireland who knows Emma, Karen, and these two male coworkers she brought from Okayama. I shall say no more about the two of them, except that they persuaded her to ditch us for both lunch and dinner that day... The beach was lots of fun, eventually leading to contests to see who could do the most acrobatic dives...

After the Okayama posse hurried back for dinner and we bid the Irish farewell, Audrey, Aya, and I went back to her homestay to meet up with a friend of theirs so they could change into yukata while I sat around making small talk with her host father, who came in and greeted me with, "So, is this a strip show?" What am I supposed to say, "Yes, I'm watching a strip show with your daughter in it"?