Hi y'all. Sorry I couldn't write earlier, before you guys headed to bed (most of you, at least). There was some troubles with the internet in the building this morning. Apparently like half of the servers went down and so the whole building was running on half the amount and it was going rrreeeaaaalllllyyyyy sssslllllooooooooowwwwwwwwwww....
So we all got frustrated and went for an early lunch. But it's back now! And right now I am suddenly getting a stabbing pain in my left heel. weird.
When I got up today, I felt tingly all over. I realized very quickly it was goosebumps
because it was freezing in my room. The temperature regulation (or lack thereof) is probably the biggest complaint I have about my building (yes, bigger than the cockroaches). I don't know if it's because the system sucks or because the tenants keep changing the temperature setting, but every 5 hours or so, the temperature will shift from being about 20 degrees to about 25 degrees and then back again (in Celcius, mind you). When I went to bed last night I was so hot I laid down with no covers and only my boxers on and I was sweating, but when I woke up I grabbed all the covers on top of me and curled into a little ball to stay warm! It's central air and the thermostat is in the hallway right outside my door. I had never touched it until this morning when I went out and changed it from 20 to 22. It's really ridiculous. 22 is perfect. Basically room temperature. And I just wish people could keep it there. Argh. Or, even, just keep it cold or keep it warm. One way or the other, at least I know what to expect. The fluctuation is driving me crazy!
Yesterday, throughout the day, I somehow developed an awful awful headache, and by the time I got home from work it was so bad I didn't want to go out anymore, so I canceled (I can't believe that word only has one 'l' in it) my plans to go to the Rock Factory and stayed home. Well, actually, I ended up going exploring in my area, which I had only done a little bit of up until then. If you keep walking away from the train station from my place, there isn't much there. I walked that way first and got bored quite quickly. The further you get from the station, the less commercial and more residential it becomes. So then I went back towards the station. Passed up my apartment again, and wandered up and down every little alleyway I could find. I discovered 2 things:
a) There is a Mos Burger! (which, by the way, I caved and ate a Mos Burger last week; so good). I figured there had to be one in my area, but I had yet to find it and now I know where it is. I just gotta control myself and not eat it all the time (which really shouldn't be that hard cuz there's so much other good food around, too).
2) There are way more hostess clubs than I thought there were. When you really look, they're like everywhere you turn. And they have all different themes. I'm sure they have them in places other than Japan, but I've never really seen anything quite like what they have, so I'll talk about it a bit. You can probably guess from the term, but hostess clubs are sort of like gentleman's clubs, but usually there's no nudity involved. You pay by the hour to sit at a table and you can choose your hostess who will not only serve you, but sit and talk with you, etc. (There are host bars, as well, which I believe actually are an exclusively Japanese enterprise; they're basically the same thing for the opposite sex, although I didn't see any in my area). They can--and often will--be themed, too. I saw a sign for one that was beach themed, so all the girls wore bikinis. I walked by an entire strip of Maid Clubs, in which the hostesses are dressed in these elaborate and frilly French maid costumes (there are Maid Cafes as well, which is slightly less shady, in which the waitresses are all dressed as maids--but you don't have to pay just to be there and they're not paid to talk to you, so they generally won't unless there's like nobody else there, or something). I saw an ad for a cosplay club, as well. Cosplay is short for "costume play," and it basically means the girls will be dressed to look like characters from Japanese anime or videogames. Some of the clubs are a bit shady, but some of the clubs are actually quite high-class, and those girls make a TON of money. Ted said when he taught English here, one of his students worked at a nice club in Ginza (where all the really high-class clubs are) and she only worked 2 nights a week, but brought in almost 10,000 dollars a month! Plus, their loyal customers will often bring them nice presents, too. It's so wild. Probably slightly dangerous for the girls, too, though. I would really like to go and see what one is like sometime, but they are just ridiculously expensive, so nope. Not gonna happen.
Anyways, all in all I'd say I live in an interesting area. hehe.
Oh, I have some pictures that Aya sent me from way back when we hung out in izakaya in Akabane. I will post those right after this. Well, my friends. This has been educational. Enjoy your Tuesday. Mine's winding down already...
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