I would have blogged a lot earlier, but I seriously have been that busy. Those few spare moments I have had, I have been resting. Though, due to recent events, I don’t think I will have that problem anymore. It seems the major reason I have been so tired is my bike. Today, I got a flat tire. However, it seems to have been developing for a long while. I have been really struggling to bike to work and I put it down to being unfit and exhausted most of the time. However, now that I have had the bike fixed (by a very nice man who served me after his shop was closed) I’m bombing along. With the tiniest bit of effort I’m at warp factor 9

Infinite improbability? Not quite, but I’m hoping to pass through the universe where women don’t wear clothing and all look like Mai Nishida any day now. So, where I thought I was really unfit, I am probably 3 times as fit as I was before because of all the extra effort to pedal on a deflated wheel. It’s not a bad way to build strength, but as terrible as it got today, I was starting to develop back pain. So, I’m glad it’s finally fixed.

The other reason I have been so tired is because of everything else going on. My junior high school has 2 festivals on this weekend. The first is a chorus festival where every class (except the one that was sent home and quarantined because a third of them had the flu, which is very sad because they were looking forward to it, yet at least their nice teacher needs some comforting too....) has to sing, and they are pretty good too. That’s tomorrow and will only take up the morning. I asked the vice principal today and he said I could take my camera, so I’ll take a few photos and maybe some vids. The second festival, I’m not sure about. It seems to be inside and seems to take all day, but I haven’t been able to find out much else as everyone is running around trying to sort things out. Should be fun to investigate, though I am sorely going to miss my lie in.

Finally, I got paid at last. So no longer do I have to eat only rice and the veg. my friends has been bringing me from her mother’s garden. I’ve spent most of my free time running around trying to pay all the bills I need to pay, buy all the things I need to buy and buy the things I want to. I treated myself to a slap up meal, a book and a couple of CDs. The rest has been spent on NHS bills, groceries and a heater for my apartment. I don’t need it yet, but it already feels wintery here and it’s only October. I’m expecting regular visits to freezing once it gets into winter.

Anyway, I think that briefly covers all my exploits. Though one other cool thing that happened, and again shows the kindness of Japanese people, happened after I bought my heater. Not long after I got home from buying it, my phone rang. It was the man at the electronics store. He told me that I had left some change. I asked him how much. He said, “3 yen”. Those not up to date with exchange rates should note that 3 yen amounts to about 2 pence in UK money..... So I asked him if he wanted me to come in. It seemed he did. Luckily, I was planning on heading back that way anyway to go to a nice restaurant there (where the waitress outfits are pretty much identical to maid outfits). So I stopped in and got my 3 yen. However, that wasn’t all, he gave e a free gift of some bath salts by way of an apology. Seriously, the salts must be worth 200 times as much, at a minimum. Crazy.