the depression that is tokyo on a rainy day.

the southern island of kyushu has been going through a week of floods and landslides in some of the heaviest rainfalls ever experienced for this period of the year. and we haven’t even had any typhoons yet.

i was so exhausted from the two-day singing marathon that i did not wake up till past 1pm today, whereupon i commenced a round of ferocious dusting and cleaning to a live recording of misia’s ballads and violent sweating. nobody really believes that tokyo summers are more humid than it gets back home – they should have seen the way i dripped earlier.

i had my first cockroach yesterday, a cunning creature that had slipped into the room with me when i returned from rehearsals. it went into hiding at once, cowering in the comforting brown-ness of my winter boots, so it was a simple matter of shoving the boot out the door again and waiting for it to scuttle off down the corridor. i simply could not summon up the courage to whack it to death.

the next two weeks will be round after round of rehearsals, culminating in the festival in karuizawa, so i mean to snap out of my doldrums and get to work on my paper – insignificant molecule that it is in the ocean of academic publications out there.

working late, for me, means several things. one, the inevitable shoulder ache resulting from typing incessantly for many long hours. two, the inevitable snacking resulting from boredom and attempts to stave off sleep. three, the inevitable diarrhea that results from a combination of point two and cold tea. four, the inevitable encounters with creatures of the night.

i walked to the kitchen earlier to get a cup of water, but never actually managed to get into the kitchen. the minute i turned on the light, i saw two giant cockroaches ambling across the kitchen floor, bold as brass, without a care in the world. they were huge, even by asian standards, and would have made a lovely crunch if some cockroach predator had been present (some kind of bird, i presume?). but i had neither the desire nor courage to prey on them, so turned the lights back off in a hurry and left my thirst unquenched. it is a sad day for humans and one of triumph for household pests when a human would rather go without water than risk a close encounter with one of their kind.

earlier in the evening, however, dad scored one for our kind when he unwittingly crushed a baby lizard beneath his mighty foot in our bathroom. going in later, i saw the sad, twisted carcass on the floor and mourned a little. i do not like lizards (though they rank higher than cockroaches on my scale), but dead babies of any kind are always a pathetic sight to behold.

i do not understand why i have to be the sole witness of these creatures more often than not in our household. it must be my retribution for being a pest exterminator in my previous life.

just as i was swimming happily in confused dreams about the female P having psychic powers (she actually was a professional medium and had people coming to ask her things about their fortunes. and she found my lost earrings!), choir uniforms that i had neglected to send for laundry, and living in a big house with a decorative tombstone in the front yard (?)… my wake-up call came in the form of my former manager wanting me to do a piece of work for her. well. so much for the much-needed shuteye. i feel as if i haven’t slept properly, in my bed that is, for the longest time.

a strange creature visited my room last night and scared the wits out of me. it was a flying thing that looked somewhat like a dragonfly at first sight, but resembled a cockroach once it settled. it did settle – on my couch, no less. fortunately enough for me, it decided to stop roving long enough for me to gather my computer and dash to the hall for shelter. i stayed there the rest of the night, alternately working and falling asleep on the cold floor, but at least the thing was gone by morning. so many rooms in the house and it had to visit mine.

incidentally, i am a new fan of eta’s potato chips. there are a thousand flavors (alright, i exaggerate. maybe a dozen or so) but i could only find a couple in the local stores. i have been living off feta and garlic crisps since last night. i will probably try out the garlic aioli the next time pms swings by (although strictly speaking, any time between your last menses and your next is a pre-menstrual phase, is it not?)

but i must really start to curb my diet, and will actually start going to the gym today. woohoo! let’s hope i do not start wheezing and end up using that as an excuse again. i do hate feeling like a piece of fat, going around saying ‘let the fat roll. yeah’.

thunderbird is still acting up. i am so mad. if one of the best email clients in the world cannot work with me, i am somewhat forced to accept that the problem lies with me. that is a sad revelation. cause for more chips-bingeing!