Feeling furry...

Have you ever had one of those days where you knew that you should never have got out of bed? No? Neither have I, but today sure came close.

I woke up this morning feeling a little furry (translation - hungover) after the after-party last night. The main event was predictably dull, and there wasn't nearly enough alcohol. I managed to meet heaps of people, and then I managed to forget their names. I was so clearly off my face, rip-roaring drunk, though, that I'm sure nobody will be expecting me to remember them. I have a very vague recollection of sending an email to someone last night in my inebriated state, but I'm not sure to who (and my 'sent box' didn't record the email address) - I could have sent it to either a female friend, or a former university professor... so the contents of the email will be either inappropriate, or really really inappropriate.

So I wasn't feeling the best of British this morning, and when I stood up, gravity gave me a bitch-slap and I sat back down again. My stomach didn't appreciate the sudden descent, and my head started yelling at me. I'm never going to drink alcohol ever again. Which reminds me - my alcohol contribution to the after party were two bottles of beer I nicked from the main party, thanks to my cunning and another Australian's deceptiveness. There is very little I can't accomplish when alcohol is involved.

I made it into university without any dramas (ie: me showing everyone on the train what it was that I had eaten for breakfast). I had to rock up to an interview for placement into a Japanese language course - but it turns out that I was an hour and a half early, so I spent the time wondering around and contemplating what drugs the architect must have been on when he/she was designing the classrooms. Case in point - there is a vanity unit in one of the classrooms.

-----------Vanity Unit-----------

It's a pure stroke of genius! I've lost count of the number of times I'm in the middle of class and I think to myself "Goodness! My lipstick is all a-skew" or "I need to urgently reapply my foundation" and wished and wished that there was a mirror and sink nearby... and voila! There it is... So I'm sitting there in the classroom, thinking about reapplying my lipstick with the conveniently-placed mirror in the vanity unit, when I get called to go into the interview - round 1 (ding ding).

I laughed throughout the entire thing, and so did the interviewer - either I was hilarious, delirious, or my Japanese was atrocious and he was laughing at me - but it was over before I knew it. And so begins another interview - round 2 (ding ding).

It is often said that Japanese speak with subtext, and so allow me to translate the interview for you (subtext included). It went a little something like this:

Interviewer: Hello, welcome, come in and please take a seat.
[Subtext] Hurry up and sit your arse down. You're wasting my time.

Me: Thank you.
[Subtext] Screw you!

Interviewer: So you're applying to take Academic Japanese?
[Subtext] You've got to be kidding me, right! YOU!

Me: Yes, that's correct.
[Subtext] No - actually I'm here to apply to adopt a baby girl from China - you idiot! Of course, I'm here to apply for the course.

Interviewer: What is it that you're proposing to study here at Tokyo University?
[Subtext] Why has the Japanese government thought fit to give you taxpayer money?

Me: Judicial Activism.
[Subtext] Screw you... and the horse you rode in on!

Interviewer: Is that even a word??
[Subtext] Is that even a word??

Me: Yes, yes it is.
[Subtext] No. I made it up. You're still an idiot.

Interviewer: Could you please explain it for me.
[Subtext] BULLSHIT!!!! I don't believe you.

Me: Certainly, it means ....
[Subtext] La la la, la la la, la la la la la (hummed to the tune of Jingle Bells)

Interviewer: Well that sounds very interesting. Now, I read the essay that you wrote in the exam yesterday... and... well... there were one or two mistakes.
[Subtext] I didn't even bother reading it... I used it to line my cat's litter box. She took a big crap on it.

Me: Yes, I thought as much.
[Subtext] There are no words to tell you how much I don't care.

Interviewer: Well, I'll give it some consideration, and I'll be posting the result of your application on the board tomorrow.
[Subtext] There is no way, no how, that I'm letting you into my class.

Me: Thank you very much for your time.
[Subtext] There is no way, no how, that I'm going to waste my time studying in your class.

And that was that. Now its entirely possible that I may have misinterpreted some of the underlying subtext, but its unlikely. I have another interview tomorrow - for which I am grossly underprepared - with my supervising professor. That one should go well, though. Anyway, my final photo for the day is of me standing infront of the main entrance of the university - akamon (lit. red gate).

-----------------Akamon-----------------

----The person who took the photo didn't realise I was more
interested in a photo of me, and not of the gate so much----