The middle of the end

I have now entered that weird time when I feel like I don't have enough time left to do anything before leaving. Sort of like the concept of "lame duck". I don't really want to buy anything, because then I just have to haul it home. I don't really want to go anywhere because I want to spend time with the people that I know here. Nevertheless, it is a fun time here full of parties and partings. And just in case you thought this was going to be a weepy entry full of stuff that you don't want to read about, dear reader; think again. Thats right, you guessed it, upon my triumphant(?) return from Japan, there will be gifts. Oh and not just any gifts. No, these gifts are of the most sought after in Japan. Yes, you are correct in your thinking once again, FROGS! You may remember the frog drawing from the last time I was home. But that is not the best part! The best part is that now, instead of only 8 frog banks, I have acquired 24 frogs of an entirely different (and forgive me) less exciting function. You can now start wondering which one will I get? Snow Frog? Hot Frog? Or even the mysterious Kagamimochi Frog?! That is only three! There are 24 total unique frogs! The possibilities are endless!!! Well, maybe not endless, but there are 24 possibilities!!! Only I know them all, and of those I only know what less than half mean! FROGS!!!

On a side note as I was walking home today I happened to pass a UFO catcher arcade in the covered mall (an arcade inside an arcade, oh the irony. Or is that a coincidence?). Anyhow, front and center in this UFO catcher arcade was a UFO Catcher (or claw game) whose only prizes were large plush breasts, complete with plush nipples. And if you caught two plush breasts you could try again for a large plush brazierre. That way you could protect the modesty of the large plush invisible woman that you could pretend that they belonged to. Its nice to know that after a year here I can still be dumbfounded from time to time.

Let your conscience go to hell

Fun times in Japan, as three birthdays fell in the same week and combined into one giant party this last Saturday. It was like some sort of something that would fortold in prophecy. To no ones great suprise, I got hammered. But thats not news. What is interesting about this night is the strange occurances of the next day. You see I woke up the following afternoon with that horrible I am so late for work feeling. But I check my phone and there have been no calls. My first instinct says: "Mike, just fuck it man, go back to sleep." My first instinct, however, is an idiot, so I don't listen to him. So I call the head office and speak to a confused Canadian dude (actually I have no basis for his nationality, but I feel like this spices things up a bit). Getting ready for work when you are late and hungover is always a strange mixture of horrible sensations, but I do it anyway. After I get out of the shower I see that I have missed a call, and lo a short time later the phone rings again. It is my Canadian overlord calling to see if I have the day off. I reply that I do not (as if I did I would certainly not be calling in late). He commands me to head to work, despite some mysterious confusion. Turns out, by some beautiful miracle of the cosmos, I mean truly the act of a kind and loving creator, I had been left off the schedule that day on a fluke. As such, if I had listened to my first, idiot instinct, I would have not only not gotten in trouble for being late, but also would have been paid for a full day of work that I didn't do. Now how much better of a story would that have made? But hey, whatever, at least I can say I did the right thing. *gag*