7月31日 (土) 11:17pm JST
The second day of work went as expect. T---- got sick and took off early. I stuck it out to the end then missed a train, which made me wait fo r e . v .. e … r. Toyama-ken isn’t into the whole train frequency thing.
I went shopping and completely exhausted myself. Got to bed somewhat early but tired.
Today, I went to Saty to buy spoons for cereal, then met Kana and Okâsan in Toyama. They got a hotel for us all here. It’s fairly nice but reportedly pricey. They took one of the oh-so-infrequent trains to Takaoka and proceeded to clean my apartment. It was very nice of them, but I ended up missing a welcome party for the new Toyama JETs. Oh well. We tried to go late but couldn’t find it. We just ended up buying some chuhai and drinking at the hotel.
It seems that Okâsan has a trip to Shikoku planned for mid-August. All of her other host kids are in Japan and able to go. She’s such a mother to me, it’d be a shame not to go. Their advice on my apartment was basically to throw everything of my predecessor’s away, and I essentially agree. Tomorrow, another trip across the street to Sati is planned, before they go back to Osaka.
8月2日 (日\月) 12:41am JST
Today, after “Viking” hotel breakfast, the host family continued the process of throwing away my predecessor’s things and buying new things to replace them. All of it was very kind of them.
After they left, I worked on a long email home then went out drinking with the other JETs. Apparently, Takaoka celebrates Tanabata nowabouts, so there were people about. At a bar, I had a ¥500 bottle of Tateyama, and that basically did me in. Left early for a long ofuro. Still feeling fuuuuu.
8月2日 (月) 11:30pm JST
After school today, I was exploring Takaoka a little. I saw a cicada on a tree, humming. (Or as my coworker’s predecessor says, a “moth” “screaming.”) I batted at it just to watch it fly away, but in retrospect, I wished I had taken a picture.
Later, I saw a dragonfly with one wing hung up on a spider’s webbing. It was hanging off a lamppost, and I threw my new Snoopy sweat handkerchief at it until I knocked it free. I looked at it resting on a bush and told it, “You owe me, big time!”
Later, I thought about how dragonflies probably only live a short time. So he only has days or weeks to pay me back. It’ll be tough, but I’m sure he’ll try his best. That’s all that matters.