Hot sticky and icky..

Although raining season officially started about a month ago, today is the first day I have felt the true raining season ickiness. It is hot, the air is soo humid it feels like an unpleasant sauna and it is raining in dribbles. I am not a fan of rain at the best of times but when there is a downpour I don`t mind it so much because a) I used to run around naked in that kind of rain when we would visit my Mum`s family in Malaysia so it brings back good memories and b) because it feels like the rain has a purpose! Rain and weather like today makes me want to jump on an aeroplane home! There is no way to be comfortable unless you are cocooned in a nice air-conditioned room! This morning when we were on our way out for lunch (our favourite tonkatsu place gives away free menchi katsu if you go before midday!) I decided to walk down the stairs but when I got to the bottom I was disgusted and distressed because there were lots and lots of caterpillar/ centipede/ millipede type insects on the walls of the narrow entrance so I ended up cutting through the main hallway instead! (thereby defeating the object of walking down the stairs in the first place!) One of the things I will never get used to about Japan (other than the squat toilets) is the insects. They are EVERYWHERE.. we get mosquitoes, cockroaches, hornets (see illahee`s blog for lots of hornet stories) evil poisonous millepedes called mukade (thanks to Corrina for the image!) little lizards called yamori (I kind of like these though). My friend Jenn even found a leech in her house recently. In our last apartment we also had an ant problem and huge numbers of weird and wonderful insects hanging around our entranceway thanks to the light that was on 24/7. I hate insects at the best of times so have been very distressed by the huge variety there are here to stress me out! Thanks to our place being new and on the 4th floor I have yet to see any cockroaches this year (touch wood) When I first came to Kagoshima I had real cockroach problems as my apartment was old. One of the reasons I bought a bed with my first pay packet was that I found one on my pillow when I work up one night and was very very freaked out by it!!! Of course, I was later told that cockroaches can fly but I decided to ignore that fact!!! I have a busy weekend this weekend. Today there is a dinner that I have to go to (I am looking forward to having an excuse to dress up!) and tomorrow there is a JALT conference about teaching children. I am only going for half a day which is a shame because I think I could learn alot but I don`t think J and Daddy would survive on their own for that long! I could be wrong though! If they survive tonight without any problems, I might consider heading to the conference in the morning!!