Slammed

I think I'm going to be okay.

This week was by far the most stressful on my body and mind. Starting with the indescribable stomach pains I had on Tuesday (a day off nonetheless!), I forgot to mention - did I? I can't remember that now - that I had injured my foot last week at a secluded swimming spot in southeastern Kunigami. I also had a migraine on Thursday and caught a cold on Friday. None of this, however, prevented me from taking full advantage of all that was going on, including attending a sports day last weekend, heading to Nago on Wednesday to practice with Higashi Junior High for their rikujo, or track & field event (which occurred yesterday), doing karate on Friday, actually heading to the track & field event on Saturday, and then of course following it up with a night of drinking with some teachers from Takae.

I slept in today, Sunday, and am blessed with the Japanese decision to make tomorrow a holiday for the purposes of Health and Sports Day. Ironic that on a day celebrating the fitness of the human body, I'm wallowing in its weaknesses. Though the nature through which the body heals and maintains itself is simply amazing, so I take the day off knowing that by resting, I'll eventually get back into a shape that will allow me to be healthy everyday. Yay, optimism!

To kick start that healthy trend, I did manage to go shopping today and loaded up on fruits and vegetables. Fruit is expensive here. Vegetables seem to be priced appropriately - at least they didn't make me stumble, like when I saw a watermelon for 1280円, or a little more than $10. By American standards, it would have seemed quite small. Regardless, I went for the cheaper stuff and browsed for the 20% items, fruit quite fit to eat but blemished in such a way as to make it undesirable. Items that "expire" within a day are also marked down quite a bit, allowing for major savings if one is willing to purchase and cook or eat items the same day. Why not?

Despite the illness, the news in Higashi-son is good. I've got plenty of food and tea for a relaxing evening, my first Japanese movie rental (review to come), and a book or two to finish out the night. Nah, scratch that. I'll be studying after the movie. I only have to learn about 14,030 more words to have a vocabulary considered on par with fluency. Grammar and sentence creation are a whole separate issue. And then there's the kanji 漢字 (for your reference). Waisu desu.