Oh my god you guys

Posting from work; absolutely must tell you all this while it is fresh in my mind. So terrible, I know.

We had an adventure to get rid of this horrible gigantic black leather couch taking up space and sucking out soul in my apartment, and by we I mean George, myself, and the cable guys. Details to come. THE POINT IS.

We drove through a tunnel in the mountains to get to a different 'cho', a small town/village-type block just one over from our own. This was where the nearest large-garbage dump place was located; it also has a middle school and elementary school bearing its name to which I will be going when they are back in session. We were driving back toward the heavily-forested mountain, impassable save for this tunnel, and you can't really see our cho from the other side of it. Or indeed any others. Each of these cho is in a little pocket in the woods/mountains, connected only by tunnels, coexisting with different features in each: a Town Hall in one, a dump in another, a department store in maybe two. Schools in most. And so we drove up to the mountain tunnel and it hit me.

You guys.

I am living in the first half of Earthbound.

Couch story

George came by to help out with the cable guys coming in and connecting my apartment to the rest of the wired planet. I asked him how to get rid of my 2m x 85cm (i.e., gigantic-ass) ugly black sofa-bed. He said 'well we might as well do that now!' and enlisted the cable guys' help in hauling it out. Getting it OUT of the apartment was itself a feat of engineering and human ingenuity. Getting it into the Japanese van? A miracle.

People are so very nice here. One of the cable guys has a son in elementary so we chatted about this new initiative to put English in elementary schools. He asked how many years I've been in Japan, which appears to be a strong contender for Most Oft-Posed Question in my life, and I don't know if I'll ever get tired of being able to say something like 'Oh, it'll be two weeks this weekend!'

I have a living room now, and I can even use it. Plus, Japanese cable. \m/