Great Day! (APR-21)

Yesterday, as I said, it was COLD! And raining the whole day.

But there was a positive thing that happened yesterday. I left the
laboratory at a little past 7pm, I was standing on the bus na when I
boarded. Anyway, when I got to the grocery, the food I got which was at
Y500 was 50% off na! So I got it for Y250 na lang! I also bought this
different kind of... I thought it was a soup. I think I uploaded na the
picture to http://ronjie.tripod.com/nihon2005food .

But it wasn't soup at all. It had this jelly feel to it, or tokwa feel
(not fried). Tasted great nonetheless. My meal was also quite
good. There was gyoza, sweet & sour & spicy ___ (I think it was pork; I
loved it nonetheless), and sweet and sour shrimp.

I also went to the 100-Yen store to buy more hangers because I've run out
of hangers (they provided only 3), and I need to hang wet clothes (like the
other night when I went home near-soaking wet...) I'll be able to use it
also for drying newly laundry-ed clothes. I also bought a rain coat,
thinking it would be nice to have one most specially when I will ride the
bike on a rainy day... Have I told you I went to the school today via
bicycle? I took this route which was much shorter than going the bus'
route, Koizumi-san showed me the way the other day.

Oh, the rain coat I bought had too short sleeves. They're supposed to be
long sleeves I think, but for me they're just below my elbows. So if I
was riding a bicycle, my watch could get wet. I was also actually looking
for a rain coat that reached the knees. Well, what could I get for 100
yen. Plus, I didn't understand the label. It said "80cm",
"170-180cm". So I thought since I am about 180cm plus in height, this
might be good for me. Well, I guess it should be, and that rain coats were
not meant to be very long-sleeved.

Hmmm, I forgot if I've already mentioned my other Japan picture sites:
http://ronjie.tripod.com/nihon2005apato (it should be apaato,
apartment) http://ronjie.tripod.com/nihon2005tpu and
http://ronjie.tripod.com/nihon2005misc . The last three sites have not
been updated since I last told everyone about it.

Today... I went to the bank first thing in the morning to deposit money
into Mrs. Nakayama's account (I "borrowed" from her before leaving the
Philippines). The bank is in downtown Atsugi. I also made a phone call to
an aunt who has lived here for the longest time after marrying a Japanese.

It is a great day... Sunny day... I went out, figured some things out
myself, asked some people for directions...

Oh, at the bank, the teller was like matigas-ulo, ayaw niya mag-Ingles. So
I tried to explain as best as I could with the little Nihongo that I know
and with some hand gestures. And then in the end, ang tagal na namin
nagu-usap, in-Ingles na niya ako. Sheesh!

Anyway, wrong decision pala on my part. The remittance charge is close to
5000 yen! I should have just asked my dear mother or dear brother to pay
muna in my behalf for my "utang" to Mrs. Nakayama. Well, what's done is
done. Donation ko na lang yon sa mga Hapon.

It's great here... Photocopy all you want for free... Use all the
resources you need (for your work)... Very fast internet access... All
the books and reference materials I needed which were not available at the
university library back in the Philippines, they're here... All the guys,
the professors, the PhD students I'm with are all so nice persons. One guy
looks a lot like this guy everyone hates in the Philippines so medyo
naiilang ako sa kanya, pero ayos naman siya. Hehe. Kamukha lang talaga.

Oh well. Thank God na lang for all of that. Tomorrow again!