i think i'm bad luck for myself. after joking yesterday about the "emergency cock" on the bus:



(and assuming that it was referring to a drain cock of some sort, like to release the pneumatic pressure and allow the door to open), today i got to see it in action. i was riding the bus to school and then the bus just sort of died in the middle of the road. the driver tried to restart it but it wouldn't start. so then he tried to open the door to let us out but that didn't work either. so he had to open up that little red door and open the valve to release the pressure and let us off the bus. obviously he didn't charge us. he said we could wait at the next bus stop for the next bus, but i figured ehh and just started walking. its a good thing i pay attention and know which way the bus goes, so i knew how to get to school. still, it ended up being a 40 min walk so maybe it would have been smarter to just wait for the next bus :)

what's ironic is that when i first got to the bus stop, there was a number 3 bus right there, but it was the one that doesn't drop me off right at the school (there's two routes for the number three bus, one which stops right in front of the school and one which stops about a quarter mile down the road from it). i decided to let the bus go and wait for the next one so that i wouldn't have to walk that quarter mile. how deliciously ironic.

yesterday my host mom's friend from college came over. my host mom knew how much i like skylines, and her friend had just bought one, so she came by to show it to me. they took me to a temple nearby, which was very pretty. i noticed the five white lines on the side of it and asked if a member of the imperial family had lived here, and she said no she didn't think so, and i said "oh ok", she asked why, and i explained about what williams-sensei taught us about the five lines. then she gasped and said "oh yeah! you're right, a member of the imperial family DID live here!" they were very impressed that i knew that, and said williams-sensei is a very good teacher, etc. then when we got home they told my host dad about it all as well, hehe.

when i mentioned that this temple was near Alia's house, they asked me why they only hear me talk about girl's names, hehe. they wanted to know if i was a womanizer :) i explained that no, the problem is that in the states, guys who like japan tend to be sort of... strange. they laughed and said that then, was i strange too? i said yes, of course, and they laughed at that as well. we get along great.

we had dinner with my host mom's friend and her hustband. they all got a bit ... happy. (beer + wine + sake does that to people). i was the only one who didn't really drink anything. so it was interesting watching them all be drunk hehe. my host dad started slurrily trying to speak english and i couldnt figure out a thing he was saying, and then the topic of conversation turned to the words for poop and pee in various foreign languages. she asked what they were in spanish and i said pipi and caca and she laughed and said in japanese caca (well, kaka) is a kid's word for mother. haha. oh also, earlier in the evening, they were discussing how different cultures say "cheers!" before drinking. i didn't know how to say it in spanish (aside from "'pa 'rriba, 'pa bajo, pal centro, 'pa dentro!" hehe). she said in italy they say "chin chin!", but she said don't ever use that when drinking in japan, because in japanese, "chin-chin" refers to something that boys have and girls don't. language is fun. anyway, andy complains that my entries are eleventeen pages long so i will shut up now. moo.

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Café Tacuba - La Ingrata