ID4.05

Happy Independece Day to all in the land of the free. For me, sadly, July 4th is over. In fact, it is 1:30PM on July 5th now, but hey, the time in Japan doesn't really count when it comes to this particular holiday. Like on most holidays that I hold dear, I had to work yesterday, but it was an easy day as I only had one lesson, so spent the whole day reading. I just wish that the mall that the school I work in on mondays is in wouldn't play Auld Lang Syne for the last half hour before closing. It really becomes quite maddenning once you have heard it about thirty times in a row. To make matters worse, it is the synthesizer version. For some reason big stores love that shit. I know for a fact that I would have gone totally nuts if Best Buy had played some special Best Buy theme song to the tune of When the Saints go Marching in. Anyhow, my celebration of the Fourth was limited in its scope. On my walk back home from the gym I whistled whatever patriotic tunes I could think of off hand. I must say, it is a testiment to how difficult it is to sing the national anthem that when I tried to whistle it my mouth cramped up completely, preventing me from talking for the next half hour. It was raining, so, even though fireworks cost only a small fraction of what they do back home, we couldn't do that. Instead I coaxed my roommates into going to a Japanese style bar, which we only chose because it was very close. Nothing special there, only the service was particularly bad, so much so that I was not even impressed when they offered us free dessert (which turned out to be a clear, colorless gelatin that tasted like grapes). I was going to watch Independence Day when we returned, but got caught up stumbling around the internet. Anyhow, happy July 4th. God Bless America, and all that.