At Least I'm Not Wearing a Chicken Suit

Tuesday 27th October 2009

AM

Least: I opened my eyes at 7:00am to find my phone alarm blaring at me. Through some mystery, the alarm had been set for two hours earlier than usual. By the time I drifted off to sleep, it was less than an hour to the next alarm. The tiredness from the early wake-up dogged my every hour until midnight.

Most: At about 11:30am, I rode towards the supermarket on a lunch mission. In one of the bigger gardens of a Tezukayama castle a team of gardeners were trimming a hedge and sculpting a couple of pine trees. The neatness of Japanese gardens is amazing, but so must the cost of keeping them that way. The Japanese seem to have an obsession with controlling nature, and it can be seen both in gardens and on mountainsides where tree growth has been carefully stage manages. An unconscious reaction to the uncertaintly of earthquakes perhaps.

PM

Least: At about 2:55pm, I discovered that the train to Sakaihigashi was not running. I had to reach the school before 3:30pm, so I made the crazed decision to hail a taxi. Over 2000 yen later, I arrived at work on time only to discover that the staff at the school had not bothered to set up anything for the special lesson that I had to teach. The staff member in question was actually chowing down on McDonald's in the very room where the class was to take place. Boring.

Most: Sometime after 4:15pm, after I had recovered from my rushed start to the working day, I noticed that one of the staff had dressed in a full body chicken suit. The outfit had oversized shoes to match and seemed so yellow that it lit up the room. The boss had chosen a cat costume with a red ribbon and a bell around her neck. I settled for a takoyaki headdress, then later a pretty onoffensive pirate hat. When you're in the same room as a women dressed in a chicken suit, anything seems normal.