Waiter! A carafe of the house misery and two glasses, if you would!*

God o God but I miss Japan.
I suppose the trouble is I want to be there, but I don't want to work there, at least in terms of the Japanese definition of the word work (under which the activity I perform all day at the office scarcely qualifies). My friend over there works as a teacher in an elementary school. Hours are eight to eight daily, plus eight hours of Saturday. Usually she's home a bit after eight, although occasionally she doesn't get back until ten; her day comprises classes plus a considerable quantity of extracurricular activities each day (something to do with tennis, I think). She's fortunate in that she gets the better part of the school holidays off (although last year when I went to visit a week or so was taken up with meetings and other voluntary stuff - albeit voluntary only insofar as it's described as such, in every practical sense it's compulsory, but it's routinely referred to as voluntary and that's important). My Japanese is a little patchy, so I might be a little off in the details here and there, but by and large that's the situation. So perhaps you see my point. But heavens above, I'd like to be there right now. How I miss Takashimaya. The real Takashimaya (as opposed to the one in Singapore) which is kind of like the Death Star of department stores. I'm quite serious. I even miss the subways. But then I suppose I have a soft spot for the Paris Metro too. Anyway. I've just discovered Japanese Amazon.com, which is proving the most potent incentive I've encountered yet for me to practice my Japanese.

I spent most of last week working on interface stuff, which was good. On the last day I did banner ads, and my boss was unusually apologetic about the usual range of continual changes which prompts the unsettling thought that maybe he read me bitching about that very thing a couple of entries ago. Which is a possibility, I suppose. I guess I don't care. The only problem I really have with online journals is having people you don't know attempt to discuss the finer points of your love life with you; but thank god that hasn't happened yet (or at least not really; long story, you probably don't want to know), and so as long as we avoid that eventuality I guess I'm cool with people reading this stuff. It's looking like a long week of banner advertising production ahead, but on Friday I had a Very Good Idea, and I'm still so pleased with myself that I don't really care.

* I'm not depressed or anything. I just think it's a good line and I wanted to write it down somewhere.