04 06 2004

Fri, 04 Jun 2004

Broken records and vegemite

I went to bed early last night, and got up early for the first time in weeks. So when I woke up at 8am, it didn't bother me that my neighbour's alarm had gone off.

I conjecture that he has two separate alarm systems - one with a snooze feature that he repeatedly hits - and another rigged up to his stereo system. The stereo slowly gets louder and usually stops after a while - presumably by my neighbour getting up and turning it off.

Except I don't think he's there this morning.

I went and had a shower, and made some breakfast, and when I got back it sounded like the music had switched to electronica. My parents were always complaining that some of the music I listened to sounded like one monotonous beat when broadcast through walls, and I figured it was more of the same.

But 20 minutes later, I started thinking that maybe the CD had got stuck.

Eventually someone got into their car downstairs, and the minute vibrations were enough to get the CD going again. It played through most of a new track - and then got stuck again. 10 minutes later, it's still going. Thanks, neighbour-san!

I've never actually met the guy - I just assume it's a guy because I hear male voices coming from the walls sometimes. It's polite to introduce yourself to your immediate neighbours when you move into a new house or apartment, though not all Japanese people do that anymore. I never did because I was too scared about my Japanese ability when I first got here. Now I'd look silly showing up about 2 months after moving in to say hello.

For breakfast today, I had a craving for vegemite instead of the usual natto-on-bread affair. In the airport in Cairns, I'd picked up two gift-sized (read: amazingly small) jars of vegemite, at the time thinking it'd be fun to introduce to Japanese people. It still would be fun - but now I need more!

Work, study and going out have been keeping me busy. My boss is getting transferred in a week or two, and tonight we're going out for "shabushabu" - from what I can tell, you get a plate of raw meat and dip it in boiling water (or maybe it was oil? I'm not sure). Either way, it looks yum.

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