On rodents and vermin.
Last week, on Saturday night, I met up with my friend Enagi and his Girlfriend Mari after work for a beverage. We went to a mildly strange restaurant type thing, you sit in these little booths, with doors and walls and curtains, well secluded, but that's no big deal, it was a kind of labyrinth, passages and tunnels and boxes and all. Anyway, I made the mistake of forgetting it was Saturday and planning to get the last train home at 12.40, of course when we got there, there was a guy in white gloves blocking the way in, saying the last train had already gone, then I realised it was Saturday and the last train leaves at 12.20. Side note- One true oddity about a city of 12 million is that after the last train everything shuts down, there are no night buses, only taxis, which cost a fortune for a short trip, and even more to my place. I asked the students why there are no transport alternatives at night and they said "Because Japanese people like to sleep at night". Surely in a city of 12 million, 30 something million including Yokohama and Kawasaki, there might be a few hundred folk interested in some kind of night bus, but no, there is no bus. So I missed the train, luckily, My friends live relatively central, so we caught a taxi to their place, the live in an old house with a spare room I could sleep in. So we arrived and I went to sleep in the room, it was a bit cold, I should've gotten another blanket, but I thought I was tough, I figured if I curled up in a ball I'd be ok. After about half an hour I heard a scratching sound, I thought maybe there might be birds living on the roof or something, they should piss off soon.
It was then that my guest arrived, I lay on the floor trying to sleep when I heard small footsteps running across the floor. Oooh, a rat!(or mouse). Mari's mother works in some chocolate place or something, so they had heaps of chocolate there which they gave some of to me, I put it in a bag with my other things. I listened for a while as the beast moved around, hoping it would soon be on it's way. Then I heard it approach the chocolate, so I jumped up and it ran for cover, then I moved the chocolate closer to me and tried to sleep some more. After a while it returned, scratching and moving about. I was half asleep and kept having these visions of waking up with a rat chewing on my face. I heard it come near me again and I jumped up again and saw it near me, I tried to hit it, but it was gone. It was either a small rat or a large mouse. I've never before wished for a cat, but man, I lay there hoping one would come in through the window. The literal game of cat and mouse continued through the night, until the rodent became preoccupied with some other task on the other side of the room. I figured as long as it was over there chewing and scratching, it wouldn't be attacking me. I spent the rest of the night in a half sleeping state, having these weird dreams of thousands of rats and other animals attacking me, sometimes I knew I was dreaming and thought it actually was near me. It's quite difficult to wake up from that state, but I'd force myself awake and jump up, only to hear it working away over there. Busy little critter. At one stage I dreamt I got up and turned over the mattress and there were bats under it. Eventually morning came and the bastard disappeared. I woke up early, 'cause Enagi had to go to work. Man, I was tired, maybe the worst night's sleep I've had in a while. I told him about my guest, and then we looked at the door and saw the fruits of his labour, as he'd chewed some way through it, I thought if I'd just gotten up and opened it for him he would've gone on and left me in peace.
After I went home and caught up with the sleep that I'd missed out on, and the next day Enagi rang me to tell me he'd destroyed the beast with a simple trap and some chocolate, sorry man, but you mess with the bull, you get the horns. I also went to Kyoto last week for 4 days, it was very pleasant, but that's another story.
PS-The cool thing about this site is the spell checker, it doesn't recognise "Kawasaki", and the alternative it gave me was "sausage", I can see the resemblance.
It was then that my guest arrived, I lay on the floor trying to sleep when I heard small footsteps running across the floor. Oooh, a rat!(or mouse). Mari's mother works in some chocolate place or something, so they had heaps of chocolate there which they gave some of to me, I put it in a bag with my other things. I listened for a while as the beast moved around, hoping it would soon be on it's way. Then I heard it approach the chocolate, so I jumped up and it ran for cover, then I moved the chocolate closer to me and tried to sleep some more. After a while it returned, scratching and moving about. I was half asleep and kept having these visions of waking up with a rat chewing on my face. I heard it come near me again and I jumped up again and saw it near me, I tried to hit it, but it was gone. It was either a small rat or a large mouse. I've never before wished for a cat, but man, I lay there hoping one would come in through the window. The literal game of cat and mouse continued through the night, until the rodent became preoccupied with some other task on the other side of the room. I figured as long as it was over there chewing and scratching, it wouldn't be attacking me. I spent the rest of the night in a half sleeping state, having these weird dreams of thousands of rats and other animals attacking me, sometimes I knew I was dreaming and thought it actually was near me. It's quite difficult to wake up from that state, but I'd force myself awake and jump up, only to hear it working away over there. Busy little critter. At one stage I dreamt I got up and turned over the mattress and there were bats under it. Eventually morning came and the bastard disappeared. I woke up early, 'cause Enagi had to go to work. Man, I was tired, maybe the worst night's sleep I've had in a while. I told him about my guest, and then we looked at the door and saw the fruits of his labour, as he'd chewed some way through it, I thought if I'd just gotten up and opened it for him he would've gone on and left me in peace.
After I went home and caught up with the sleep that I'd missed out on, and the next day Enagi rang me to tell me he'd destroyed the beast with a simple trap and some chocolate, sorry man, but you mess with the bull, you get the horns. I also went to Kyoto last week for 4 days, it was very pleasant, but that's another story.
PS-The cool thing about this site is the spell checker, it doesn't recognise "Kawasaki", and the alternative it gave me was "sausage", I can see the resemblance.
posted by Brett at 22:56
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