The Thief

AM

Least: At nearly 8:15am, I woke with an unusually sore throat. The sore throat was combined with a general feeling of fatigue and a minor headache. Clearly, the flu is stalking my cells waiting for the best time to strike. So far this year, I have been in remarkable health, which I put down to a change of job and diet. I suppose when the immune system finally crumbles the swine flu might just be the first ratbag through the door. I just hope I get all possible flus before I go to Malaysia in December.

Most: At just after 10:30am, I peered over the balcony to see an elderly woman being detained by two staff from the Drug 11 across the road. Shortly after, a bicycled policeman arrived to investigate what I assume was a medical shoplifting offence (the pharmacist was holding several boxes of medication). The police began asking questions and taking down statements, then became infuriated at the woman's apparent refusal to cooperate (see above). With the policeman yelling into her face, a police car arrived to take her away. As I watched through the iron bars from the balcony, she steadfastly resisted getting into the car, despite all the screaming and cajoling by the jacks. Finally, another police arrived and prised her from her spot and moved her closer to the car. The woman apparently thought she could talk her way out of it until she was manhandled into the back seat of the police car. Incredible and slightly sad scenes.

PM

Least: At 4:30pm, I made the mistake of visiting Life supermaket on a Sundau afternoon. There were literally hundreds of men, women and children shopping like mad in a storm of chaos. It was actually difficult to navigate without bumping into people or tripping over kids. The incredibly stupid Life theme song, being played on tape-decks scattered through the place only added to the mayhem. A valuable and boring lesson.

Most: At about 1:45pm, I once again visited my favourite conveyor sushi restaurant in Namba. Today, the place was extremely busy and I had to wait to be seated. Part of the reason for the sushi-mania was probably caused by the long weekend, the other reason was that the restaurant was offering three pieces of sushi per plate instead of two. Not one to miss out on a bargain, the locals were going bananas over the sight of  cut-price food. Today, even the whale bacon only made it around one lap before being wolfed down. As usual, I ate one plate too many - but I just had to try the sanma (file photo above)!

The Smells of Friday

 Friday 9th October 2009

AM

Least: At close to 9:00am, I was forced to end my slumber for the sole purpose of lugging a stinking bag of household waste down the stairs. Even though I probably could've waited another hour, I couldn't risk missing the musical blue truck. Missing a rubbish day can have dire consequences in Japan. There are no wheelie bins and rubbish that fails to make the disposal deadline must hang around the house for a few days and putting it out the night before is out of the question. A slave to rubbish.

Most: At about 9:05am, as I dumped a huge pile of garbage in the street, I once again wondered what the sickly post-typhoon smell of rotting fruit was, and why it was there. Initially, I had theorised that it may have been some elaborate after disaster dessert eaten after Melor because it smelled exactly the same as a plum that I met while eating an onigiri a few days ago. A brief look around gave me an east answer, it was all the fruit that had been blow off its branches durng the strong winds. Vaguely interesting.

PM

Least: Somewhere around 5:20pm, I detected a strange and awful odour, attacking my senses. Assuming it was just the fermenting guano pile next door I groaned and went on with my zombie-like participation in an online shoot-em-up. About five minutes later, I had a knock at the door and spoke to my neighbours who were literally being stunk out of their apartment. Despite sniffing the air like a bloodhound, I could only summise that the stench was coming from some malfunctioning factory working overtime to make up for the day off on Thursday.  Within an hour the stink had left as suddenly as it had arrived, though it left a note of rotting onions and decomposing cabbage.

Most: At about 2:20pm, I was riding my gutful of sushi home from Namba when I saw a 30-ish something man being man-handled by police into their car. Not surprisingly it was, about 100 metres from the police station in Nishinari. There seemed to be an awful lot of police patrolling the area on bicycles - maybe something was up or an important visitor was coming to town. I wonder what the man being bundled into the little police car did?

Pokemon vs Cicada

AM

Least: By about 9:30am I was awake enough to sit through some kids anime on TV. They were slightly entertaining, but for the simply awful voices screeching from most of the characters. It brought to mind the discomfort of hearing the shop-girls in Shinsaibashi spruiking for customers. Painful.

Most: Just after 11:20am, Rosie and I went for a walk around the lake. The paths were drenched after last night's storm and, as usual, council workers were tinkering with something - this time paths and drains. The interesting thing though, was the deafening sound of thousands of cicadas screaming almost in unison. Despite a few kids and their grandfathers collecting specimens to take home, the insects were victorious in dominating the park. They sounded like a giant dial-up modem - I wondered who they were calling.

PM

Least: By 9:35pm I had spent nearly six hours doing 40 minutes of work. I spoke to yet another, otherwise lovely student who suffered from the deficit of enjoying Disney characters too much. She had a penchant for Donald and Minnie combined with overseas travel. Her favourite memory was her stay at the 101 Dalmatians Hotel in Orlando (pictured right).

Most: At approximately 10:05pm, I took a turn away from my usual route home from Tezukayama station to pop in to the Family Mart. The dark road that took me there was littered with massive and sprawling mansions. The most impressive were the Japanese-style houses, surrounded by gardens and hedges. The bigger the house, the more barbed wire and spikes surrounded it. Japan appears to be a safe place, but people are still paranoid about crime.