I have a little catching up to do. This entry as well as the next one or two are definitely being written ipso facto, about a week after they happened. I've used the correct date for when this entry happened, however.

The worst day of my life since arriving in Japan: started today shortly after arriving at work. The local gas man had come to my work to collect for the gas bill. He's been doing that lately, but that's a whole other story. Anyway, in a nutshell, I paid him 10,000 yen ($130 CDN) and he was off. I then picked up the usual company car keys to get out to my teaching location that day. When I got out to the parking lot, despite the assurances of the school's management that our vehicles had been fixed, the car wouldn't start. Obtaining booster cables was not a problem -- they were sitting happily in the back seat -- their regular home, as this problem wasn't exactly unusual. Unfortunately, there was no one around to ask for a boost, and calling my friend didn't help as he was at home, eating lunch and wasn't too enthusiastic about coming out just to help me start a car.

I thought about my situation for a moment. Acting on my idea, I tried the doors on a car sitting next to mine. Sure enough. Unlocked! Welcome to Japan... There's no crime here, right? Well, only those committed by foreigners and I was about to steal some electricity from another one of our company cars. I opened the hood on the donor car, and then proceeded to push my car around the parking lot into position. Having done so, I easily started the beast and happily drove off, thinking to myself that it might be a good day after all.

Well, my first stop was home. My left contact lens had been bugging me all morning and I really had to do something about it, as it seemed to be getting worse. When I got there and pulled out the lens, I looked at it, only to see it was obviously torn at the edge! Fantastic! I'm supposed to have these lenses for a month and this was day 1. That's gonna coast some cash.

Even after removing both lenses, my eye just wouldn't stop burning. It was almost like something was stuck in there but I couldn't get it out! Eye drops didn't help, so I hopped back into the car and made my way back to work where I parked the car across the street from the office, ran in and told the front desk person that I needed to get to an eye doctor. By this time, I was running late for my first class and knew I couldn't make it on time.

At the eye doctor, filling in forms in Japanese with only one eye, having my translator explain what was going on, I received a phone call from a friend of mine on my cell phone. He wanted to inform me that one of the jobs I've been applying for had been filled so I was out of luck. More great news! Then the eye doctor calls me in, looks at my eye, jabbers something in Japanese and proceeds to drop some burning liquid into my eye that felt like acid was eating it away! Then, through the interpreter, explains to me that I've torn my cornea and that it would take several days to heal, and I would need to use three different types of eye drops, four times a day! More money lost! That one cost me 10,000 yen (about $130 CDN).

Leaving the eye doctor, I got back to the office, only to find out I had been given a parking ticket to top off my day! In Japan, they attach a bright yellow "thing" to your side-view mirror which can only be removed by driving over to the local police station. So, off I went, to do just that. Next thing I know, I'm waiting in a little room for no less than a half-hour, for the only person in the department who speaks some English to get back from wherever she was before -- probably lunch or a doughnut break. She gave me the third degree, demanding to know why I parked where I did, and I explained that there were no signs there prohibiting it, plus it was an emergency. She said that was all fine, but I had been parked for more than 25 minutes, which was apparently contravening section blah-blah-blah of the motor vehicle code, so 15,000 yen ($200CDN) and two demerit points off my license later, I was back on the road, speeding towards the school as not to be late for my second class!

Needless to say, after my day was done I was more than ready to go out for beer and supper, as because of all the crap that had happened that day, I didn't have a thing to eat all day, and my only thing to drink was a single can of generic cola (heck, it wasn't even Coke)!...