Arigato Mr Roboto

It's 2:15AM and I finally have a chance to crack open my Lonely Planet Japan before my 8:30AM flight today. Well, always better late than never! The hecticness of packing (one of my most loathed activities) has finally subsided, as has my shell-shockedness at having experienced the Vagina Monologues presented by the Filipina Womens Network. So much to say, so little time. Ok, first things first.

First Order of Business - The curse of the papercut.
Velly velly strange. Have you ever had something strange happen to you repeatedly over a short timespan? This very phenomenon has struck me today in the form of getting sharp, thin items jammed under my freshly trimmed nails. This morning, as I took my sheets off of my bed to be washed (yeah yeah, I DO wash them...annually), my hand slid under the sheets and a fingernail slid under one of those mattress stickers. The sticker had partially come undone from the mattress, providing the perfect fingernail guillotine. Slice. Blood. Ow. Suck finger for next 5 minutes and whimper. Then, this afternoon, as I grabbed a sheath of papers from my passenger chair, one of the papers got lodged under another nail. Slice. Cry. Fetal position. The third installment of this cruel cruel trilogy just took place as I reached into my backpack to get my Japan tour book. Reach in, get cut up, cry. Indeed, a tough day. 3 paper cuts beneath my nails and some hearty crying. Sweeeet.

Second Order of Business - Vag Monos.
Uber strange night. I'm an open minded person, or so I think. {True, Nancy Reagan has shaped my views to some degree and I just say No all the time ... but anyway, humor me} A bunch of us went to see a local performance of the Vagina Monologues. It was cool to see our friend Jeah perform {we were famous by 2 degrees!}. It was a spirited performance and I was awed that a non-prof group had put together such an ambitious show. It was, however, strange to see the actors read their lines from notecards. Also, about a fifth of the show was done in Tagalog - to the great glee of the native speakers on the first floor -- not so much to the English-only slouches on the second. Ah well. Also, I suppose it bears mentioning that a few of the guys (me included) shared some "Ohhhhhhh-Kaaaay" moments when some women just a few years shy of my grandma moaned and a'hooted and a'hollered about the "down there". Stlange. Very Stlange. Oh, and the fact that they were wearing silky outfits multiplied the "Ohhhh-Kaaaayy" factor.

Third Order of Business - Japanimania
6 more hours and it's off to Tokyo for me. I'm gonna be embarking on a 2 week trip w/ Totters' Kellogg class to visit some companies (Sony, Toyota, the Japanimation studio that made Spirited Away, Louis Vuitton, and an ad agency), check out some sites (sumo wrestling, fish market -- eek, need to wake up at 4am for that one :(!, the Ginza shopping area), and sneak a peak at Japanese life (homestay and a night at a Zen temple). I'm pretty stoked at the Zen temple trip, although the 9pm bed time and 4:30am wake up time is a bit daunting for a night owl like me (this blog, case in point). Anywho. It's vacation, I'm not complaining, and I hope to get out there and buy me a Sony Time Machine so I can go back to 2001 and get my Nasdaq money back. {DOH! how did that little nugget sneak into my consciousness? WAAHHH. ok. done.}

And with that, my friends, I bid you good nite. Hopefully I'll get to visit Fun Alley when I'm out there. Peace out and may your nail beds be spared any papercuts.