Entries this day: Busy Miki Work back_pain

Busy

10:28am JST Tuesday 18 May 2004

Have not written much in the past couple days (written some TR stories, but not in my journal), so I'm writing.

On the train to hang with Miki for a bit; yesterday at work I had 4 classes in the evening and then James called me and asked if I would work some classes in the afternoon and then go to Roppongi to work 3 classes there. I was like yah no problem cause that's the kinda guy I am; can't say no.

So he gave me 2 classes at Jiyugaoka in the afternoon (woulda given me 3, but the last one was at 5:30, and that would leave only 50 minutes between classes (assuming exact stop and start times) to get to Roppongi, a station I'm not particularly familiar with) and then 3 classes at Roppongi starting at 7:00. Cool. Swap a few and turn 4 classes into 5. Fine.

But *then*, as I was leaving for the day I went to check if I got any more classes in Jiyugaoka between 2:30 and 5:25, but the 2 classes had been reduced to 1 class. Fuck. Fuckin' hell where did my class go?

Do I complain? Will it "help" to complain? Should I just deal with what I have and do with it the best I can? I think that's the best option, karmically speaking. (And here's the thing; it's not easy to tell *who* changed the class; there is someone at every branch who is able to fuck with the schedule. I assume it was James or Tetsuya, but I don't know.) So I went to Tetsuya and was like "close my shit out; I'm not coming in [to Jiyugaoka]" so he did, leaving me with three classes in Roppongi starting at 7pm.

So, I suddenly had my *entire* day free to play (that's today), so the first thing I did was see who I can hang out with.. Like I'm desperate for friends. I texted Miki to see if she wanted to hang out and help me study Japanese, cause I know I've not done that in a while (basically since I met with her last Wednesday (not including class on Friday)), and she texted me back pretty quickly and we coordinated to meet at 11am.

*Then* I saw that Hitomi is back at home and I want to talk to her about stuff and things, so I actually would have preferred to spend the time with her, and I considered trying to either (!) cancel with Miki or (@) hang with Hitomi after hanging with Miki, but before work.

Somehow I chose to not try and busy my schedule further; I called Hitomi and chatted with her for 40 minutes. I think she's un-angry at me. But seriously, this is a fuckin' nightmare that I try so hard to keep everyone happy with me. I need some more Slim Shady in me. Not too much, but a bit.

Miki

2:03pm JST Tuesday 18 May 2004

Good fun with Miki. We met at Cinecitta and noticed several TV camera stands around and other AV equipment, so we hung out a bit and ended up being on TV as part of the small audience for two Japanese men, one wearing a tuxedo, singing some Italian opera-type song with the other playing amplified accoustic guitar.

We were being broadcast live on NHK; the smartly dress woman came was filmed coming down the steps to meet them and she did her interview, of which I understood "San Francisco," and then they performed for 5 minutes and then were interviewed and greeted by some other NHK staff-types for a few minutes. During the last minute, they had two people holding up flash cards every 10 seconds, counting down the time. The one guy was also wearing a big analog clock over his shoulder, one that was listening to the atomic clock signal being broadcast from somewhere.

(In the background of the picture, Miki and I are visible above the final 'a' and 't' of 'citta' on the window.)

I considered talking to him to see about getting a job at NHK, but figured realistically he had no time/desire to hire some random cat off the street so I didn't even pursue it. Plus, I don't apparently *really* want a job at NHK or I would have already put forth some more effort toward that end.

So Miki and I said thanks to him and asked him what was up with the clock (that had a digital readout in it as well) and he told her about it. (I was like, "uh, yeah.")

Grabbed some grub from Circle K and ate outside Starbucks. Welcome to Tokyo, eh? When she was like, "what do you want to do," I was like, "I just want to hug you until 1:30." (when she had to leave)

Miki corrected some of my diary and helped me practice it. She sent some good energy to my lower back which has been really stabbingly pained for the past day-ish.

Work

12:56am JST Wednesday 19 May 2004

Did five lessons in Roppongi. Roppongi is my favorite word written in kanji: Ï»ËÜÌÚ¡£

Last lesson was a double lesson with a pretty cool guy who's going to live in Nashville for 2 years starting in August or so. He plans to get an MA in Economics. Wow.

back pain

12:58am JST Wednesday 19 May 2004

On the way to work my back was killing me. Crippling pain forced me nearly (*) to my knees while walking to the train station. Something is fucked up in my lower back.

This happened twice on the way to work and once on the way back. I called Tomoko to see about her coming to my house tomorrow instead of me going to her house, and we talked about the possibility of me going to a chiropractor in the morning instead of us meeting.

I've got a heat thing on my back, and it's been feeling better. If it feels fine in the morning then I'm not going to go to a chiropractor right now.

(*) I would have been on my hands and knees except that I was wearing a suit and didn't want to rip the knees.