winter has temporarily loosened her grip on sanbongi, and the past couple of days have been very pleasant, despite some rain today. it's not hard to see how this area gets a lot of snow. everytime even a hint of a cloud appear in the sky above, it means rainy weather. very few thunderstorms, though, unfortunately. much like a bread sandwich, rain here is helladull. on the street right next to the apartment, men are performing Construction That Never Ends everyday from 9 to 5, shaking the apartment throughout that time. they also fill the holes in the street that they create with tightly packed dirt, a stupid design choice considering the tons of rain that this place gets. biking/walking through that muddy morass both sucks and blows at the same time. i half expect to be suddenly pulled down into that shit, emerging to become a half-human, half-mud creature that prowls the street of sanbongi at night thwarting villians and winning the hearts of japanese schoolgirls everywhere. the good thing about the construction, though, is that it has made the street too dangerous for loud motorcycles to traverse, giving the apartment some peace and quiet at night.
this week has been extremely random. yesterday, i re-read _watchmen_ and finished re-reading _huck finn_. i also picked up the new u2 album in the record/book shop in cowboy...i didn't even know it was out yet. it's pretty good, better than _pop_...there are definitely some weak moments, but the good songs are definitely strong enough to warrant many listens. work yesterday and the day before involved absolutely no teaching...at the elementary school the students are engaged in literary exercises this week (whatever that means), and the junior high took monday off and gave the students a half day yesterday because of the bunkasai (culture festival). today was three classes, but it was the ichinensei, who are always super-genki (enthuastic, rowdy, etc.), and i had fun. i've used the past couple of days to write some e-mail to various folks, but i have a lot more of it to go. i worked out today, and then hustled over to the eikaiwa's halloween party. i was a soccer player. lamest costume ever, i know, but i didn't have much to work with. lots of good food, and pictures were taken. i may get copies, but i wouldn't be surprised if i accidentally drop them into a fire or trash can.
one of the recurring elements in my dreams is a dollar theater that seems to be to the cinema system what W.A.S.T.E. was to the postal system. there are no titles listed on the marquee outside, and previously (in my dream world) it had been located in the same area as fayetteville's sonrise christian bookstore, near a flower shop. anyway, once you get inside this theater, it shows all the titles that are playing, some sounding like random typos i make while writing e-mail, others making use of the letter/number co-existance that _se7en_ made popular. (one i remember in particular is _3illenium_.) the fare usually seems to be weird movies that would usually go straight to video, if anywhere. one featured a really decrepit looking charles bronson as yet another tough-guy action hero. (no, it wasn't _deathwish 9_). another featured jennifer aniston tracking down a random pedestrian and yelling "bleah!" in the pedestrian's ear. pretty weird. will write about my camping trip in ohshima next entry. stay tuned.
been listening to - u2, the violet burning, bob dylan, and the old 97's.