Amidst My 5-Day Weekend

Well... with a National Holiday and two cancelled days of work... I'm currently in the middle of my 5-Day Weekend. I don't have to work until Thursday... so, hopefully I survive this week... heh heh.

Good thing is that I should be getting internet in my apartment on Tuesday... so, it'll ease things a bit. Other than that... I basically don't have much to do... which is why I take naps when I'm really really bored... heh heh...

Anyway... onto yesterday. Went to my school from this week to watch the boys volleyball tourney. They did really well during their first game... but, had a challenging match with the second team. I really wanted to join in to help them out... heh heh... not that it would've done much... but, I could've used my height to stop that other team's kid from his killer spikes.

While watching the game... I hung out with some of the boys from the school and cheered along with them. It was really cool... and very fun. When you're stalling for conversation... always rely on video games with the boys... we mostly talked about that the whole time... but, it was really cool because they tried English whenever possible and I tried Japanese whenever possible. One of the kids invited me to return tomorrow... but, I felt bad since I kind of had plans to wash clothes... and, we were told not to make plans with the kids... I felt bad... but, it was cool and at least I could say I've bonded with some kids on my own... and not relying on Gabie's picture to extend the Gabie Fan Club... heh heh.

I then went home to make some curry... which I'm really good at! I ate... and then napped... and that was about it for the day.

Today, I woke up and went straight to prepping for washing clothes before my laziness kicked in. I made my way to the coin laundry... and oh man... I wasn't prepared for the hecticness that would proceed just to BEGIN to wash clothes.

The coin laundry I went to... had machines that all said HOT WATER. I figured it was cool that that was an option... but, just to be safe, I asked if the machines were only hot water. A lady told me that they were all hot water... so, I asked if how to use cold water. Yeah, she went on to explain a lot of stuff I didn't understand in Japanese... but, I did get the gist that these machines were specifically hot water and gave me some directions to another coin laundry where they might have cold water machines. It was weird though... I never heard of a coin laundry that was specifically for hot water machines only. And people wash color clothes there... so, do they not worry about the colors bleeding?

I made my way to the other coin laundry... but, I was hesitant since her directions... as simple as they sounded... were in Japanese. So, I drove slowly and miraculously made it to another coin laundry. I went in and approached the machines... they seemed safe enough. Then like two minutes later... the same lady from before walked in to make sure I made it safe and to make sure they were cold water machines. That was really really nice of her... she probably lived nearby... but, I still think it was awesome for her to check up on me. She didn't have to do that at all... but, it goes to show how nice people in Ofunato are.

However, whilst in that coin laundry... regardless of it being in Ofunato... people can get a bit vicious. Never knew washing clothes was like some sort of competition. Washing the clothes wasn't a big deal... drying them was the tricky part.

I was there waiting for the next available machine so I could put some clothes to dry. I waited for a good 10 minutes and realized that this machine had 2 minutes left. So, while patiently waiting... this other lady just walked by past and though noticing me... placed herself squarely in front of that machine. As soon as the clothes were done, she jacked the machine from me... that PUTA!

I let it go since another machine finished right afterwards... so, I used that one instead. Then, while waiting for the next machine to be available... an elderly lady came with her little bundle of clothes on wheels and placed it in front of my machine. I figured... hey, no biggie... I'll just let her know that I'm not done with it as soon as it finishes. However, this little PUTA then spotted the other machine that I was waiting for and was in front of. Did that stop her... no... little PUTA dragged her bundle of wheels without acknowledging me... though she knew I was there... and put her clothes in it. Jeebus!

I let it go again since alas... another machine was finishing up. I took it and loaded the rest of my clothes. While loading though... a couple spotted my other machine finishing up... and the placed their shit in front of it and were very eager to unload my shit as soon as it was done. I had to be like... uh... mine! The lady looked at me all weird and I just gestured to myself saying mine and not finished. It might have been a bit rude... but, apparently that's the game you play when you're drying your clothes. They went to another machine and I managed to finish drying my clothes.

Man... what craziness it is to wash clothes here... heh heh.

I then went home... ate some of my leftover curry... and passed out from exhaustion and boredom... heh heh.

I came here as soon as I woke up and ended up running into some of the girls from the basketball club that I hung out with earlier in the week. They were excited to see me... and I felt a bit bad since I was in bummy clothes... but, it's the weekend... I'm allowed some bummage. Like 8 girls were around me trying to talk to me... but, the girl to my left kind of ran her hand and played with my recently shaved head. Though a bit cute... it was rather weird and kind of inappropriate... but, I tried not to make a big deal out of it. She then proceeded to run her hand along my arm... basically the whole same deal with my hairy arms compared to the Japanese... heh heh...

The girls then went upstairs to celebrate their good work during their tourney (ended up getting 2nd place) and their sponsor showed up... who happened to my JTE... the one the girls tried to hint towards us going out together... heh heh. We talked a bit before she proceeded to join the girls upstairs. It was cool running into all of them... especially outside of the school setting... so, it kind of shows that I exist outside of school... heh heh.

Oh well... I should be leaving soon... been hogging this computer to myself. Plus, I want to eat more of my leftover curry... YUM!