Sleepless in Tsukuba

I found this scribbled in my notebook thismorning. As I technically wrote the entry yesterday, I've changed the time stamp to correspond.

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Today I pootled off to Tsukuba for the house warming party of Kiera, a friend from Australia, Cambridge and 'the internet'- All at the same time.

I hadn't slept well the night beforehand and was feeling a little rocky, so made the grave error of buying a large iced coffe as a 'pick me up'. Japanese iced coffee is refreshing, delicious and, for one with a caffeine tolerance as low as mine (as well as a predisposition towards insomnia) utterly deadly.

So here I find myself wide awake at 2am, the beginnings of a hangover gnawing at my stomach, sitting on an unfamiliar floor in and unfamiliar apartment in the dark, dark university town of Tsukuba. Seriously, if you ever want to give me a rough night, don't spike my drink with moonshine, spike it with red bull.

The house warming party was great, although I worry the house may have been more than just warmed. The least pejorative adjective I can think of is "individualized", though in the same way one might individualize one's face by smashing it against a lamp post.

On a more positive note, the party did splendid things for my Japanese and I think I learnt more 'nihongo' tonight that in the whole last week of school.

As least, more applicable 'nihongo'. To give you an idea, here are a few words that have been added to my vocabulary from school and revelry respectively.

School: Ningyo- Mermaid
Party: Nohou - better than
School: Takeba- Stilts
Party: Tatoeba - Example
School: Amado- Wooden shutters used to protect a window from rain
Party: Nechigau- To sleep painfully
School: Tataku- to play the drums
Party: Madamada- Not yet

If my stay in Japan had been one big house warming party, I'd probably be fluent by now. Regrettably I'd probably also be dead.

Now! Back to staring at the ceiling!