Illiteracy Rules!!

Saturday, June 28, 2003

I missed posting on Saturday. Sort of. If you don't consider 3:30 am technically Sunday then I am okay. In reality, I missed posting on Saturday. It was a long week. Getting up at 6 am builds up during the week, not to mention the fact that I bike virtually everywhere and that I literally walked for 10 hours on Friday in Tokyo. Well, I don't know if you remember, but I will remind you anyhow. Meikei has school on every other Saturday. Guess which one. I had to get up at 6 am on a Saturday. And I wasn't even doing anything cool, like going hiking or anything. I usually depend on Saturday to catch up on the week's missed sleep. Not this time, buddy. So, after going in, going to lunch, then browsing in the shops for a little while, I came back home. I was tired and I wanted to take a little nap at about 4:30 pm. I figured I'd wake up around 8 or so and go to dinner, then come back and get to bed at a decent hour. I woke up at 12:30 am. 7 hours later with no dinner. The bad news, no Waffle House!! I have yet to find a place open past 10 pm. Not saying it doesn't exist, but I have not found the local detox center that I am accustomed to having at home. I am going to need some serious therapy from Mary Welch Rogers when I get home.

The Japanese call this place the "Land of the Rising Sun." I now understand why. I couldn't figure out why I kept waking up at 5-5:30 every morning. I was probably not really thinking all too well at the time due to that whole half awake/half asleep thing that happens when you awaken from coma-like sleeping. But when I woke up at 4:45 am, it finally clicked. The freaking sun rises before 5 am. I have always thought that the whole Daylight Savings Time we do in the States is a stupid idea. "Let's fool nature and change our clocks ahead so we can have daylight hours during normal business hours." Well, now I am starting to appreciate it. You probably are sitting there saying, "Why don't you just close the blinds or close the door or figure out some other way to make it stay dark." Well, the blinds ARE closed and if you have checked out my pad at all, you would notice that the "bedroom door" is really one of those Japanese paper doors that let the light through. Some other clever people are probably thinking that it might be one of those further north, more daylight hours during the summer phenomena, but I am one step ahead of you so I'll save you the time of looking it up. Tsukuba is pretty close to the same latitude as Nashville, TN. Not too far north of Atlanta. No, I'm just beginning to understand the superiority of Americans. Afterall, the greatest invention of all time came from America.

Take, for example, their currency. If I had my camera with me in this library I would take a picture, but instead, let me direct you to a website. As of right now, $1 US currency is the equivalent of about 120 Japanese Yen. That puts 1 Yen at a value of just a little less than a penny. So, 100 Yen is 'almost' a dollar. Well, it you looked at the link I provided, you will notice that the first printed bill is 1000 Yen. About $10. $12 if you want to get technical. Now, think about the types of bills that most Americans carry around in their wallets and substitute them with coins for anything less than a $10 bill. How much 'change' is in your pocket now? If you're not like me, either a millionaire or prone to carrying tons of cash around, you probably don't understand my dilemma. Let's just say that I hope I don't fall into any lakes or rivers anytime soon. I guess my main concern about the money issue is for the aspiring young actresses and models that are just 'making ends meet,' whatever context you would like for that to mean, dancing the nights away in the showbars in various states of disrobe. In the US, it's easy to slip a $1 bill or two into the garter. But for the girls here, I mean, I know there's a change slot and all, but isn't that just a little too personal??