Ah, Japanese ATMs. I was going to deposit some money in my 77 bank account since they're going to withdraw the rent tomorrow. I never used ATMs very much at home, but I don't remember it being possible to do much except withdraw money from them. Japanese ATMs do so much more than that; withdrawals, deposits, updating your bankbook, it will even speak to you while doing this. So I went up to the ATM by the bus stop, only to once again be surprised by another feature of Japanese ATMs: they close at night. So I suppose I'll either try to find one tomorrow after they open or pay cash directly to the office. They might get irritated with me for doing that two months in a row though.
Contrary to ATMs, convenience stores are open 24 hours. After noting that the ATM was closed (easy to see since there's a big door that is lowered in front of it) I went on to the FamilyMart on the other side of the bus stop to pay my gas bill. Got a chocomelon while I was there, it hasn't really got anything to do with a melon except for being dome shaped. Not that melons are dome shaped, but if you cut one in two it is. A chocomelon is flatter though, with lots of sugar and chocolate chips in it. The gas bill was much lower than my two previous ones since I wasn't here during long stretches of last month and also because spring is here. I don't have to heat my room any more :)
It was cloudy and very warm and humid this morning, the kind of weather that makes you want to turn over and sleep for another hour. Which is eactly what I did since I didn't have any lectures until 10:30. The Island Arcs class today was a fight to stay awake. Todays lecturer was talking about the geological evolution of Asia, which was kind of interesting for the first half hour of reconstructed maps of super continents... but by the end of it I did little more than note that he was showing more maps and diagrams and saying either the same things over and over or else things very similar to each other. To top it off the handouts were supremely confusing in their layout and content. But I'm proud to say I at least stayed awake through all of it... at least I think I did.
Then came lunch which was the usual cafeteria stuff.
And after that Kyuudoo! Wheeeeee! Shooting arrows is so much fun! The target wasn't more than maybe five meters away today (since it was the first real class), but that was enough for me to miss it about half the time. But oh the joy when I finally put an arrow in the bulls eye. ARROWED! Too bad we can't practice outside of class.
And then came another episode of boredom while waiting for the kanji class. But at least the teacher was good.
I think the ATM was probably already closed by the time that class ended.