workin' for the weekend

i’m whiling away another friday afternoon at nest, the swanky internet café down the street from my apartment. just finished their lunch special, which was a bizarre sampling of omelet smothered in ketchup [all their omelets are only egg patties, no filling], two small sausage links resting in a bed of sauerkraut, two small ham sandwiches on crusty baguette, tabaraco pasta [tiny fish eggs], salad and onion soup. pretty tasty. i’m working on my second pot of hot tea which may explain the rambling.
it’s getting really nippy here; they’re expecting snow in the mountains surrounding joetsu this weekend. i’ve taken to wearing leg warmers under my work clothes…for function, not simply because i grew up in the flash dance era. my car is currently at the shop getting its snow tires. scary, eh?
i’m glad to have a weekend in town. we’ve been traveling so much to practice for the musical. last weekend we went to murakami, one of the northernmost cities in the prefecture. we drove a back road along the coast [we didn’t know you could get there via expressway due to faulty directions. it took us about 3.5 hours on the scenic route] which passed through a huge forest with hundreds of uniform trees planted close together that formed intersecting lines no matter which direction you viewed them from. we expected ninjas to peek around a trunk any second. there was also a humongous, maybe 50 ft tall, stone Buddha statue standing sentinel over an aging temple. after practice we headed out to a bar called pakistan, which happened to have djs that night, where ellen and i met a few Japanese guys.

after the bar closed at 1 they whisked us away to a karaoke box. so interesting. they had pictures on the wall of each room and you could choose the theme you liked best. one was like a diner, one was all purple, one was black and white. we went for iridescent disco.

then we hit up a 24 hour greasy spoon before heading back to ellen’s apartment. the guys wouldn’t let us pay for anything and even gave us cab fare home [which turned out to be an overestimate so we made money on the deal]. due to the frequency of practices for this musical endeavor i’ve been forced to miss a lot of interesting stuff which is a drag. our school’s christmas party is a weekend when i’ll be outta town dammit. i keep telling myself that the musical is another new experience which to file away. i’ve always been interested in theater and dancing, but now that i see what a commitment it is, i’ve decided that i’ll stick to just dancing in clubs.
on wednesday i finished my vaccinations for thailand. what a relief. although the hospital visits got increasingly easier to deal with, it remains a frustrating task. i went ahead and sprung for a tetanus shot too, something i should have been keeping up to date. i’ll need it anyway if the papua new guinea trip i have in the works pans out.
so you all don't feel like i'm getting left out...they are already aggrivating the bejesus out of me by piping christmas music and displaying plastic decorative crap in every store. even the street speakers, which line the sidewalks of the main roads in town, are playing english carols already. happy freakin' holidays.