What Planet is This?
I'm irritated. It's a luxury I allow myself a little too often. I really ought to just count my blessings, especially in light of my recent emotional serenity... but the very fact that this unpreventable, extremely bothersome quandaries have come up right IN THE FACE OF MY HAPPINESS just pisses me off. I'm not just irritated. I'm REALLY irritated.

-My new, out of the box, 15GB iPod is making the SAME bad-disc noises as the last one. When it's on, when it's playing, when it's paused, when it's OFF... the hard disc makes a spinning, clicking, whining noise. It's not a bomb, it's not a clock, it's an IPOD... so it should not be making these noises. I'd settle for the fact that it might be a manufacturing defect but I'm a tech an I know better than to let a hard disc make noises. Hard disc noises mean CERTAIN DEATH. And quite possibly worse than that, hard disc noises when iPod is off means VALUABLE BATTERY TIME IS BEING USED. I wonder, even though I KNOW it's not possible, if my computer (software, files, hardware connection, magnetic field?!?!) has somehow caused the problem to reoccur in this new model. Just... WTF?

-I am fixated, FIXATED on whether I should have waited to buy a big Totoro plush until Yamashiroya toy store got in the grey variety. Instead, I bought the green one. I already had to return the one I got in the Ginza (ooh, a Japanese taboo!) that same day because the Yamashiroya variety was just SO much better quality. But now I keep wondering... do I actually want the traditional, dark grey variety over the forest green and cream variety? Which would better match the blue chu-totoro and white sho-totoro? What would look nicer with my sheets? Am I just an obsessive-compulsive freak??

-If my host family doesn't clean the ofuro soon, I'm going to be seriously grossed out. I've already vetoed my desire to take a bath the last two nights because of the slimy feeling on the bottom of the tub. They're emptying and refilling it but NOT removing the sludge that's growing on the sides. Watching the grey, dripping ring-around-the-tub growing darker day by day is enough to turn ANYONE'S stomache. UGH.

-I put on a few pounds over break, in spite of all the walking. I estimate, with my muscle mass loss from not lifting, that I porked up about 5 pounds. I had a helluva time eating all that AWESOME food and feeding my friends Japanese treats... but I look UGH with a gut. I should NOT have had a Big and Small Chu-Hi tonight. As much as I hate the Waseda gym, I look forward to going back. If I can't control what's fed to me, in what quantity and when, at least I can get rid of some of the endless carbs flowing into my mouth. Less food= more energy= better body. Get with it Kat, your love handles are disgusting.

-Today I went to the STA Travel in Ikebukuro to set/reserve my travel date on my plane ticket home. Why? Because I set the original date in June of the year before and could only set it a certainly period of time (less than a year) ahead, thus requiring a change in flight date. Therefore, I chose to fly Air Canada, which only has a $25 fee for a date change. So I was told. I later found out that Japan charges $37, just for shits and giggles. First irritation.

Secondly, today I learned that by saving $30 on my ticket by purchasing the STA Travel International Student ID Card, a $25 worthless piece of shit, my status was relegated to (I kid you not) "Z" class and thereby makes me the equivalent of livestock as far as my priveleges for seat reservation.

I was informed that I cannot make a reservation for my return flight back because there are no "Z" class seats on my connecting flight from Vancouver to Seattle. Nor are there seats on that flight from any date between June 20th and July 8th. Not even to Portland or Eugene.

Now, I know for a FACT that some of my friends have changed their seats ALREADY to fly to Portland or Eugene. The agent didn't quite seem to believe me but concurred that this means either one of two things. A) the in my class have all sold out or B) the airline, as retarded companies sometimes do, has yet to release all the seats. He explained to me, no matter how many times I asked him to try, that he could not find out which one was true.

IT GETS WORSE.

According to STA, because my flight goes through to Seattle and does not layover in Vancouver, I cannot return to the United States unless a seat is available on a Vancouver to Seattle flight. I cannot fly to Eugene or Portland. I cannot stop over in Vancouver. I cannot even fly TO VANCOUVER ONLY and have a friend pick me up there EVEN THOUGH THERE ARE "Z" CLASS TICKETS FROM TOKYO TO VANCOUVER.

Unless... unless I pay ANOTHER $37 in addition to my date-change fee.

EXCUSE ME? If I'd known it would have prevented me being treated like yesterday's rotten refuse, I would have just skipped buying the WORTHLESS $25 ISIC card to save a total of FIVE DOLLARS on a plane ticket. So now I'm stuck doing what he told me I have to do, waiting until mid-April to find out if more seats are released or if I am just SCREWED. Believe me, both STA Travel in Eugene and Air Canada will be hearing from me quite angrily tomorrow because I refuse to resort to building a raft from Pocky boxes just to get back to the states in time for the Fourth of July and my friends' wedding.

I just hope I don't have to play phone tag with too many mindless monkeys in order succeed in nothing other than racking up a long-distance bill more expensive than a new ticket back home.

OK, so that last one is more than a "small irritation" in my mind. It's something that I do not want to, nor do I feel I should HAVE TO deal with. What is WRONG with companies these days that they refuse to give information to customers? UGH. I am so NOT SATISFIED with STA *or* APPLE right now.

The evening was made a HUGE bit better by ramen in Ikebukuro with Chris, and then a walk all the way from there to Shinjuku, where we met with Ian, proceeded to Central Park, and drank a bit while looking at yo-zakura (night cherry blossoms) with a horde of other people. The conversation was refreshingly unrestrained and raunchy and toward the end of the night, the guys ended up playing sumo with a bunch of Japanese teens dressed in nothing but their underwear. Actually, Ian took a bunch of inebriated pictures, I watched, and Chris took off his shirt for one round of sumo with a weak-armed Nihonjin he promptly threw out of the ring. Then, (for my sake?) two of the Japanese guys finished off their night wrestling BUCK-ASS-NAKED in the middle of Shinjuku Chuo Koen. Yeah... the mythos is true. Those were some scrawny, tiny guys. But I laughed hard and that's what counts.