Fighting in the new millenium

Remember when the only way to have a fight with another person was to be face to face with them? Well, I don't, always having had the option to fight over the phone, but with the advent of internet there is yet another way to duke it out (mentally not physically)...via email, chat and message forums.

I had a fight once with a friend, all done over a series of emails and it ended our friendship. To this day it is still the most random, idiotic fight I've ever had and I wonder what the hell we were both thinking. I want to believe our friendship was on its deathbed anyway but this might be wishful thinking.

I fought with my mother the same way so we didn't actually speak to each other for weeks. I was overseas at the time and this arrangement didn't make me happy.

The reason this suddenly popped into my head is that, during a fit of insomnia (from which I'm still currently suffering, it's past midnight here) I was browsing on a message forum I frequent and noticed a thread starting to turn very sour. (for internet forum newbies, a thread consists of an original message with all its replies) Now you can fight without even having to hear the other person's voice, much less see their face.

A major problem with internet chatting, messaging and emailing is that tone doesn't come through. What one person intended as a joke, is taken at face value by another. Sarcasm is probably one of the hardest things to express via type and has prompted many a confused reply from friends. Then you send a reply to the confused email explaining what you really meant. Imagine, if you were face to face, or even on the phone, none of that would've happened. Of course on larger message boards some people seem to lurk for the express purpose of dumping on what everyone else has to say.

Perversely, internet is also one of things that keep people in contact who would otherwise drift apart from each other. In the pre-internet days, my mother lost track of her friends in Korea due to a series of moves and general life busyness. She managed to locate them again and now keeps in contact mainly through email. I myself adore email, actually I'm probably unhealthily obsessed with it. Messenger programs are great too, particularly with the addition of sound and video (for free!). A close friend, from my Korea days, and I regularly chatted via messengers and kept up our friendship this way. But I digress...

I can never conclude my posts properly so I'll just say this is the end of it. Oi but I need some sleep. Take care y'all.

Crazy Product

Yesterday, in an attempt to go for a hike, I bought some water to drink at the local supermarket. It was unusually cheap at 58yen. Not bothering to read the label closely I picked it up, duly paid for it, then headed back to the car.

Once in the car, I opened the bottle and took a sip. The flavour was strange considering it was water and after I took another swig only to be met with the same weird aftertaste, I looked at the label. It read "DIET WATER" 0 calories. When in the hell did water ever have more than 0 calories?? Have mountain streams suddenly begun containing sugar or fats? Are they adding calories at the purifying plants? I have no idea but now, in Japan, they have diet water.

There may be some "valid" reason behind it but I think this has to be the most useless product ever made. And also clearly nothing more than a ploy to sell to girls who want to be thinner and avoid all the weight they can gain by drinking normal, fat-filled water. I myself, am always fearful that I'll no longer fit into my jeans whenever I take a drink of the clear stuff. So really, no matter how dehydrated or thirsty you are, be careful. You could be adding inches to your waistline.

'Till I update again. Cheers.

Driving in Japan part II

Everyday I commute to Tokushima City to where I work. I know a lot of you have no idea what this means geographically but let me tell you that there are 50km between where I live and where I work.

Now, this might take me about 40min or so under normal circumstances but the speed limit on the local road here is a rapid 50km/h. So it takes me a little over an hour to get to and from work everyday. On the bright side, I'm slowly becoming a better manual-car driver. There is another road called the Tokushima Expressway where the limit is a resounding 80km/h. No one actually follows this and cars regularly whiz by at 100k+. I took my little car to explore this highway only to find the poor thing just couldn't keep up. It only goes up to a 4th gear and anything beyond 80 was really pushing it. At one point I had managed to push it up to 90 and thought the engine would explode at any time. Not to mention I was the front car of an unintended convoy.

There are some other idiosyncrasies about driving in this country, mainly because of the whole driving in the left-hand lane thing. For instance, coming out of parking lots I naturally tend to veer to the right side but here, that's where cars enter. Pulling up to a toll booth the other day made me realize I really hadn't totally adjusted to driving here. I drifted to the left side, and looked up expectantly only to see a smooth expanse of metal. Momentarily confused, I looked to my right to see the toll booth worker looking at me with a "what does she think she's doing?" expression on his face. He was nice enough to come out of his booth and actually hand me the ticket I was supposed to take from the machine.

And that, my friends, is the end of this story.

My week so far

I should make a list of the things that I did right last week. They'd pretty much amount to 0. If you ask me what I did do last week this would be my answer:

1. I accused Will of taking my keys only to discover that I'd locked them in the car. Since I commute everyday and have no spare this was a problem. So, I called Will and after it was found that my keys were dangling from the ignition on the car, I went into a panic, causing him to have to drive a combined 60min out of his way to unlock the door for me.

2.　Once I got into the car, it was discovered that I'd not only locked my keys inside but I'd also forgotten to put on the park brake (the car is a standard so it needs the park brake). Luckily for me the car wasn't in neutral which is probably the only thing that kept it from rolling into our neighbour's half of the house.

3. On the weekend, I withdrew a sizable amount of cash for both Will and I, and naturally placed it in my wallet. Then, I promptly left the wallet at home on the precise day we'd needed to have spent at least 10 000yen. In Japan, the use of credit cards (particularly foreign ones) is almost unheard of. Cash is the main way to pay for things. I discovered I'd done this once we were at a highway toll booth where cash was very necessary. Somehow, we managed to scrape by on the 6000yen that was in Will's wallet. This included a 3300yen highway fee, 1000yen parking fee and buying some food and water at the raceway. After this we needed gas and had about 150yen to spend. There was a 7-11 that took all sorts of bank cards and spit out some much needed cash for us. I came home to find the wallet peacefully reposing on the kitchen table.

4. Today, at work, while attempting to open the door, I managed to idiotically get my foot in the way and scrape and bruise the hell out of it. After some swearing and gritting of teeth, I examined the foot to find it bleeding and missing some skin.

All of this started on Thursday and it's now Monday. I want to see what else I can do until Thursday rolls around again.

Update

Hey all, haven't updated in awhile. I got busy with work and other stuff.

Just a short note to let y'all (who are actually checking this blog) that an update is coming soon. Hope you'll check back then!

Cheers,

-Yuri-