So, Thursday's shift was agonizingly slow. Fitting for the last ounce of work before a long vacation. After work I changed in to my Yukata (cotton Kimono), stopped at the convenience store for some beer, and went over to my friend-who-just-moved's house. A bunch of people came and we all partied into the early evening. I headed out a bit early to came home and crash. Eight straight days of work takes a lot out of you.
Friday I got up and had a leisurely morning doing laundry and playing video games. I went to my favorite burrito place for lunch and followed that up with a few hours of karaoke. On the way home I stopped in a convenience store to buy an event ticket for the Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo for my up-coming September vacation. In the evening I went to play Magic: the Gathering at an official event in Nipponbashi. I lost four of five games but still had a good time playing versus Japanese players for a change. I stopped at Hoka-Hoka (a take-out place) on the way home, watched Jackie Brown, and played some more video games before going to bed. Before I fell asleep I realized that my apartment had been so cold at night this summer as the AC was set to 24c not 26c. I slept a lot better with the warmer temperature and the knowledge that my power bill will be slightly less.
Saturday I got up and lounged around again in the morning. Mid-day I headed out to a Lego exhibition in town now called "Pieces for Peace." The main part of the exhibition consisted of various UNSCO world heritage sites made out of Lego. The secondary part was a section where you got a 16x16 plate, a near-limitless supply of ( all off-white) Lego pieces, and 45 minutes to build whatever you wanted. As the sub-theme of the exhibit was "water capital" I built a small segment of canal with a bridge over it (to the oohs and aahs of the surrounding participants. Ego = boosted.) The completed plates were placed in a corner of the exhibit hall to make a 'city' comprised of everyone's individual ideas. In the evening I went to see the new "Total Recall" movie. I thought it was a pretty good film. Not quite a remake of the first movie but it paid homage to it at points.
Sunday was mostly spent at home. I ordered pizza for lunch and managed to not have to put pants on until just before the delivery guy arrived. In the afternoon I took my plastic bottle collection back to the store (there's no deposit, but the grocery store has a large recycling bin.) While out and about I bought a ticket to the Tokyo Game Show (also in September.) This ticket will fulfill a long-time dream of going to this event. I came home and turned the AC back to cold to fight off the mid-afternoon heat. In the evening I made spaghetti for dinner and watched old Simpsons episodes. Once dinner had settled I set out for the Osaka City Sports Center Pool. It was only after I got in the water and did half a lap that I realized that I haven't been swimming in two years and that I'm really out of shape. After and hour of gradually remembering how to swim I got out, toweled off, and stopped in the basement ice-arena to watch a few minutes of the local pee-wee hockey league.
This morning I was woken up at 5:45 by a loud thunderstorm right outside my window. Not being able to get right back to sleep I played video games for a while, finally slept for a bit, and then got up for real. As I like to do on Monday mornings, I called the 'rents to see how things are back home.
This afternoon I'm getting together with a number of friends to play Magic: the Gathering at one friend's house. It should be a blast.
Tomorrow morning I leave for Gifu (a prefecture in the center of Japan.) I plans on spending three or four days up in the mountains to escape the hustle-bustle and heat of Osaka. There are a number of castles to see there, as well as a traditional festival which involves dancing all night until sunrise. If all goes to plan I should have some pictures and an interesting update next week.
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