Well, my dream of having internet at home may or may not come true today. I’ve got the time off of work, the confirmation and password letters at hand, and my computer configured to be in Japanese (so the guys can set it all up for me). The only thing I DON’T have is the modem, which was supposed to come in the mail.

Arrrgh, Arrrgh.

In awesome news, this morning I was at the vending machines, pondering my breakfast drink. “Oooh,” I thought, “Milk Cocoa sounds good.” 110\ later, I was pulling a HOT can out of the vending machine. HOT CANS!! HOT COCOA FOR ME!! Will wonders never cease? Thank you, Japan! Despite all your quirks and paperwork, you provide me with hot cocoa in the morning! That’s pretty good on a day when you have your internet hopes dashed.

I’ve survived this long without it, of course, and I don’t really NEED it. But it would be nice to be able to set up my overseas money transfers and purchase my plane tickets from the comfort of my own home.

This past weekend, I did essentially NOTHING. I lay around and watched the clouds. I biked and walked for hours, all the way to Japan’s IKEA. All the way to the shipping docks and the seagulls and the tired old boats. I drank jelly and kicked my heels against a brick wall. I wrote letters and lay on my balcony and read books and ate dinner out there in the breeze. I finished watching Roman Holiday and took a bath, I cleaned house and wore comfortable slippers. Biking down the arcades at 11 pm, I watched the breakdancers and partygoers stumbling around. Conveyer-belt sushi. Boxed lunches  and cheap markers and the view of the mountain and felt witch hats, they were all mine.

So really, I did everything.

Off to see the wizard,

Emily

PS, I also almost got scammed by some weird IRS thing. They wanted my bank info and so on in order to verify that I was a non-resident alien so that I wouldn’t have to pay extraneous taxes. The vague instructions combined with poor grammar (and my own utter confusion and fear of the IRS) led me to the internet. Apparently, it’s a scam targeting JETs. Yipe.