surprised to see me wearing a towel (a.k.a. "sweat rag") around my head at all times! And I'm thinking about hitching a ride to work for the next month or so, since I'm now arriving at school dripping in sweat! And that's no fun!Another gross part of the summer: Cockroaches! I spotted one in the kitchen last night. A big one at that. Ugh! I hate cockroaches. The guy who lived in the apartment before me told me he'd never seen a cockroach in the place in the three years he spent there. But last year I killed two and now I've seen number three. Do I do something to attract cockroaches? I hope the bastard takes up my offer of free accommodation in the roach motel I left for it.
Naturally, there are also plenty of other bugs, such as moths and mosquitoes, flying around. And I know the cicadas will soon be out in full force, making a ton of noise. But the beetles seem to be most people's favorite. My supervisor caught two beetles a couple of days ago and another one this morning. What does he do with the beetles? He gives them to his son! Kids absolutely love the suckers!
Oh, by the way: According to the two thermometers I have set up, the temperature outside my apartment this morning at 7:30 was 27.5 Celsius (about 82 Fahrenheit) while the temperature inside my apartment was 30.5 C (about 87 F). And to think that in the heart of winter, the temperature inside my apartment dipped to about 8 C (46 F). There must be a more energy-efficient way to construct buildings.
I also just checked the temperature inside the teachers' office: 29 C (84 F). From what I remember reading, I'm pretty sure someone is supposed to turn the air conditioning on if the indoor temperature reaches 28. But those machines are still in hibernation. Actually, today doesn't seem as bad as yesterday, humidity-wise. So I'm okay with the air conditioners being off. For now. But if the situation gets out of hand, which it inevitably will, I sure hope we can turn those puppies on! At least there's a fan blowing cool air my way!
Don't forget the mantra in these parts, however: Suffer, suffer, suffer!
One good thing about the rising temperatures is that we can finally use the swimming pool at school. Yes, that's righ
t, the swimming pool at school! I have a feeling most schools in Japan, even some elementary schools, have a swimming pool, and lucky for me, my school does, too. So after a boiling hot day, it's nice to take a refreshing dip in the pool.It's too bad, though, that the Japanese don't have Freibäder (public outdoor pools) like you find all over Germany and Austria, for instance. But the Japanese are pretty darn conservative, so I can't really imagine seeing a bunch of them in bathing suits in a large, public area. And the bathing suits that most Japanese wear are invariably anything but revealing.
And now the sports headlines: The mini-triathlon that I mentioned recently is coming up this Friday. I can't exactly say I've been training for it, but I have been practicing. And I've done some scouting and research, because I'm trying to figure out what it'll take to win the darn thing. Heck, I'm a competitive guy! So I have the winning times from last year, and I've sized up the competition while they've practiced.
The mini-triathlon is actually for the fifth-graders, who are the high-school juniors. But three teachers and I are also participating. I'm confident that I'll beat the other teachers, and I'm pretty sure I can beat most of the 17- and 18-year-olds, too. So my goal is to finish among the top 5 overall.
Of course, I'd love to win the race, but I don't want to get my hopes up competing against kids! They are so much younger and have so much energy! Besides, I've actually been told by some of the higher-ups that I'm not allowed to win. True story! They said something about it not looking good or not being appropriate or whatever. Come on, people! What would be wrong if an old fart like me beat a bunch of kids? As far as I'm concerned, I'm out to win the race. And if I do, well, they can manipulate my time to have me finish second for all I care.
Some more notes about the mini-triathlon:
The boys will be swimming 400 meters. We have to zigzag back and forth across the 25-meter pool from lane 1 to lane 8, climb out, run back over to lane 1, and do it again. (I wish we could swim the 400 meters without exiting the pool.) Then we climb out of the pool, put on our shoes and shirts, and run over to the bikes.
We bike for 8 laps around the school grounds, which makes for a total of about 8 km. I'm going to use the same exact type of mountain bike that the kids are using, meaning it's a bit too small for me. I moved the seat about as high as it goes and it's still about 6-8 inches too low! But I don't have much of a choice, since I don't own a bike. But maybe I can borrow a bigger bike from someone. The other teachers have their own bikes, which must be an advantage. But that's life.
And after we finish with the biking, we have to run 6 laps around a soccer field, for a total of about 3 km.
I'm hoping to finish the race in about 42 minutes, including the transition time. Breaking that down, it comes to about 9 minutes for swimming, 21 minutes for biking, and 12 minutes for running. Based on my practice times, I think 42 minutes is a realistic goal. But with all the traffic, especially in the pool and on the bike course, I anticipate being held up here and there.
And now for our nutritional news: Check out the lunch we had on Friday (see the first picture), and the lunch we had yesterday (see the second picture). Notice how the two meals are rather similar, except for the fact that the entree is missing from Friday's meal. What's up with that? What is the lunch lady thinking? And today's lunch (the entree was some sort of konnyaku/quail egg/potato/daikon/tofu/mystery food concoction) wasn't good, either (see the last picture), to say the least, especially since I gave up practically my entire entree as well as the mochi that took up half of my bowl of soup. So if you've been wondering why I'm always bringing snacks with me to school, now you know!
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