Mo' Bugs

Today, the teachers at my base school also told me that the next time I see one of those kabutomushi bugs (see previous post) that I should definitely capture it and they'd buy it off me, and then I could make money on the side.

I told them it was impossible, and we laughed. Seriously though, doing that is impossible for me. Even if it were dead, I wouldn't pick up the thing. One of the teachers pointed out that it looks like a cockroach (which was why he didn't like them). They both have hard shells, it's true. They both make that sickening crunching noise and feeling if you step on them. Gross.

I had another interesting run in with some bugs today. Spiders, to be exact. So like, I've been seeing these little round cocoon things all around my house, outside the windows, etc etc, and I've just thought that they were cocoons that the spiders had spun around their dead victims to save for... a rainy day or something. I don't know why. It never occurred to me that there could be living things inside of them.

Well, it turns out there are. I got my full sized refrigerator back today, and when I went to open the door, I noticed this like... swarm of small bugs in this spider web. I knew about the spider web. I had seen the spider there before - black, round body with white spots. I was kind of like, okay spider, you can stay there so long as I can still walk out the door. But I bent down to look at the small things - I thought they were ants or small gnats that had gotten caught in the web - when I realized that these tiny things were actually moving. Along the spider web. And they weren't flying bugs. They were mini spiders. At least a hundred of them (it's so tempting to say hundreds, but that's probably exaggerating it a little bit). All crawling around.

Disgusting.

If they were on the outside of my house... maybe it would have been different. But inside my house. Ew. Do not want. Especially do not want to wake up and find them crawling around in other places, so I asked people what I should do.

One of my cool JTEs told me about this bug poison that you can get at drug stores. Apparently though, it's like... super strong poison. The strongest. Which is saying something, because Japanese poisons and bug sprays are really strong to begin with. Like, they generally won't sell you the bug poison just over the counter (he said). Actually, he advised me that if I wanted to buy them, to tell the person that I have cows and I need to keep the flies away or something. Me. Cows. I kind of giggled at that, and he was like "no I'm serious."

Yeah though, I found a much better, healthier solution that involved a little bit of grovelling and humiliating myself in front of the old lady who works at the dormitory cafeteria. I thought about asking one of the students, but she just came out and was like "are you okay?"

So I asked her what I should do about the tiny spiders, and she recommended getting a broom and just sweeping them away. I gave her, I guess, a look, and she asked me if I was afraid and I was like "yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, ONEGAISHIMASU." So she came and I gave her one of the old brooms and she just briskly swept them all away. They didn't jump at her or anything, and she just kept sweeping until they were allgone.

yah, I need to buy her some nice present or something. She's always really nice. And by always really nice, I mean she's said hello and we've had a little bit of smalltalk conversation.

Thank goodness for that though. I mean, if there had been a way to remove them and place them far far away, I'd totally be down with that.

Oh! So for some good news, I tried my hand at planting zucchini the other weekend. THERE ARE GREEN THINGS GROWING IN MY BOX. O_O Like, actual plants and stuff. I was kind of shocked and astounded. I also planted them wrong though, too close together, and too many in one little hole so now I'm like "ahhhhhhhhhh what should I doooo?!"

I know absolutely nothing about gardening. The internet has only been minimally helpful. It told me that I should thin out my plants (thin! Earlier on I was trying to think of the word and all I could come up with was 'cull') buuuut it said "the weak looking ones". To me though, they all look the same.

Even if they don't actually end up growing zucchinis, I will be happy they sprouted in the first place. :) For so long I was like "nah I'm not going to do a garden because I'm afraid of bugs" (and I still am) but then I found out how much zucchini cost out here... and I do enjoy cooking zucchini. They also said zucchini was really really hard to kill. So I'm hopeful. It's my first time gardening though, so I'm like Ahhhhhhhhh! I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO.

Also, I'm not sure if the old man who comes and keeps my lawn tidy (he's the school gardener) is watering them or if it was raining, but the soil was moist when I checked it today.

Yeah, I'm still super happy about the leaves. :3 My tiny basil plant also has leaves! Though it would take three or five of those to actually get enough basil to actually cook or do anything with other than use them as a garnish or something.

Basuketoboru

Today has been highly productive, I think. Many things were accomplished, and I feel relatively good about things. One of the JTEs (Japanese teachers of english) is coming over to my place later to help me out with the internet. HOORAY. I'M SO HAPPY.

Plus, I have the day off tomorrow. Granted, it's a forced vacation and really, I'd rather just go to school (and play kyuudo) but oh well. Tomorrow will also be my "get stuff done" day. I have plans. Mostly housekeeping things, like getting my re-entry permit since I can visit things during daylight hours.

I also want to go back to korakuen garden. I've wanted to see it ever since Paul & Ava put up pictures and told me it was in Okayama. It's actually really really pretty, and I even bought a year pass to the gardens. I want time to go down there by myself and just relax, enjoy nature, and think. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's cool with friends, but I've always found something peaceful about gardens. Same thing with aquariums, during non-busy hours. It's just peaceful.

I had no idea I liked gardens and stuff so much haha. I mean, I know I love aquariums. I will pilgrimage to a city that has a great aquarium, just like how I'm planning on visiting the aquarium in Osaka as well as the aquarium in Okinawa. I'm really really excited for that one! X)

But gardens... as someone pointed out to me, I really like them haha. I won't quite make the trek out to find that awesome garden, but if there's one in town, there's an 80-90% chance that I will want to see it, and make the trip out to go visit it. It's weird. I don't... love flowers or grass really. But gardens are peaceful. In Panama, I even went out on an adventure to try and find the botanical gardens near Panama City. And holy crap, was that an adventure. We ended up going to this park area, hiking, finding red ants, taking a taxi out to the real botanical gardens, found out that it was more like a zoo with lots of green leafy things around it, went around and looked at the animals, saw wild monkeys, debated about taking the (supposedly dangerous) bus back, couldn't figure out when the bus was, ended up hitch hiking since we couldn't speak spanish and had no idea how to find a cab since it was kind of in the middle of nowhere, hitchhiked back to NOT panama city, ended up in the City of Knowledge, found other members of the scholar ship, and hitched a ride on the bus back with them to our ship.

Yeah that was an adventure. And an awful sentence and poor display of English. Oh well. :)

The point is, I like gardens, and some of them have given me very memorable... trips.

Oh yeah though. I got kinda sidetracked (something that is quite rare for me...). I finally got the nerves to ask if I could join the girls in practicing basketball! It took the foreign exchange student, Axel Lee (who was born in Singapore) to get me to follow him to the gym and shyly ask the girls team if I could practice with them.

Also, note to self, don't run without shoes for prolonged periods of time. It is painful. My feet sting, cause I was rebounding for them for a little bit and doing some of the drills with them. In my nice work clothes too haha. That wasn't smart. I think I'm going to have to start bringing an extra pair of shoes and change of clothes. Sigh... just when I thought things were going to get simple, I have to go and make it complicated.

I'm really excited though, because it's finally a way I can exercise. I'm horribly out of shape. Kyuudo club is also going to lend me one of their rubber bows (gomuyumi) to strengthen my arms with. Hopefully, between kyuudo and basketball, I will slowly yet surely get back into shape. I hope.

It kind of makes me think though. As JET participants, part of what sets us apart from others is that we're suppose to not only teach, but also... what's the word... propegate? Encourage? Encourage the exchange of culture between our own and Japan. That means joining clubs, because not only are we learning things, but, we also get more exposure to the students, and can start building relationships. Part of the whole cultural exchange is building relationships with Japanese people (and other foreigners!) I think. It's an important part of what we do. God my feet hurt right now. But the more that we can do, I think, and the more we can "hang out" or whatever outside of class in the clubs and stuff with our kids, the more... we're actually working.

This basically means, that unless we're staying in our houses all day, really, we're always working. Depressing thought? I'm not sure. But I mean to have fun with it. :)

That being said, I need to LEAVE WORK. X)