The Little Black Bag

Oh Japan, there are so many things about you that confuse me. Like the way people can be really polite but also rude at the same time; or the way no one tells you when you're making a mistake until after you've made it because they don't want to embarrass you but you're still embarrassed either way and you wish they would have just told you before you made the mistake!

Phew.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand and the source of my latest confusion: the little black bag. Well, it's actually not that small, but this one has quite a few things in it. You're probably wondering what's in this little black bag. What's in little black bags in general and why is this confusing Jeannette? What's confusing me, is how the Japanese can be really open with somethings, and really modest about others. Take for example all the explicit and not so explicit sexual nature of some of their anime. Really in your face right? But, when it comes to real life, super modest. What's in the black bag: tampons, but also hands soap and toothpaste. Why do I need to hide all of that? It's not like people don't know it happens and besides once everyone sees the black bag they can almost guess what's in their. I mean, really, it's a bag with punctuation marks all over it. Let's be real, Japan. Let's be real.

Shorinji Kempo...

... otherwise known as, How I Looked Like an Idiot Trying Martial Arts for the First Time in a Language I Barely Understand.

Hmm, I think that sums up my first day of Shorinji Kempo. It was really interesting but really difficult to follow everything. I joined the club with my new friend Hunter who happens to live in DK House with me and some other U.Va.-ers. We didn't know exactly where we were going so it was really fortuitous that we saw one of the English-speaking members of the club. He led us over to this large group where the senpai introduced himself and asked us where we were from. After that, there were some words in Japanese that I didn't understand (par for the course) and then we all started walking. There were two girls in our group and they went another direction while I kept following the guys. I felt a tinge of something in the back of my mind, but decided to ignore it and nearly followed all of the boys into the boys' locker room.

Oh yeah. Talk about a cultural faux pas.

I have a new term for all of these cultural faux pas that I've been making. They're called a gaijin／外人 smash. So gaijin／外人 is a compound word. Gai／外 is foreign and jin／人 is person, so basically a foreigner. And smash, is well, me smashing all of the cultural rules Japan has to offer.

So after I gaijin／外人 smashed the locker room, I gaijin／外人 smashed the appropriate wardrobe for Kempo club. While everyone else was in their white gi (the little outfits they wear) I was in my bright yellow Soffee shorts and a green shirt. Classic.

But all in all it was fun, if not nerve racking, and despite not being dressed appropriately, I got a compliment, some girl saw me and said I had a great body. So that sealed the deal, I'm definitely going to stick with it. Kempo, you can't shake me.

Harajuku and the first day of classes

Oh the infamous Harajuku. Was it as amazing as everyone says? Hmm, yes and no. We trekked to Harajuku on Thursday as one of our last full days of touring before classes started. Once again, it was raining. And once again Teresa, Mia and I were on the lookout for certain items (boots and a bag). Teresa had warned the guys in an e-mail that us girls were going to Harajuku ready to shop, so Greg decided to bow out of this trip but Hunter and Alex figured they could brave a little shopping.

Because we went on a weekday, we didn't see all of the crazy outfits and such. Apparently the best time to go to see all of that is during the weekend, especially on a Sunday afternoon. So I'll have to go and do that sometime, if only to post the pictures here. And once again it was raining. It seems that whenever we go shopping in the rain, we never find the things that we want. This outing was no exception to the rule. I think we went to every single store on the street pictured to the right and we left Harajuku after 3 hours without a bag or boots. Furthermore, I made the unsettling discovery that the largest shoe size in Japan doesn't fit my foot! I'm only a size 9 but the large here feels like a size 8. Not good. This may mean that I will never be able to find the boots that I want here in Japan, which translates to t-r-o-u-b-l-e.

After schlepping through Harajuku in the rain we all headed to our respective homes to prepare for the first day of classes. Teresa, Mia, Greg, Natalie and Jen all had intensive Japanese at 9:15 in the morning for three hours, while Hunter, Alex and I had regular Japanese for an hour and a half at 11. The course meets for 8 hours a week so I e-mailed my advisor to see if I could get credit for all 8 hours and it turns out that I may not be able to, which is really frustrating. See the course covers a year's worth of Japanese, in my case the entire second year. But since I've already taken 201, I may only be able to get 4 credits. I'll have to e-mail my advisor again and see if we can't do something about that because it's a bother and it's 4 hours of class time that I won't even be getting credit for. Plus, if I can get 8 credits for Japanese I won't have to take 5 classes and I can take just 4! Take a moment to imagine how wonderful that would be.

Have you imagined it? Now you see why I'm so frustrated.

I went to two other classes on Friday, one of which I will definitely not be taking. The professor was just awful and the subject matter wasn't especially interesting to me either. The second course, Individual Culture and Society, however, seems really interesting and the professor studied anthropology at Oxford. So I know she's good. Other than that, I'm not really sure what else I'm taking. We'll see what happens with my Japanese credits and then I'll decide from there. Hopefully everything will work out, I don't know what I'll do if things don't.

Shibuya and Akihabara

Phew, a great deal has happened since that night out in Tokyo. And it seems that I've been a bit lax on my blogging duties. Gomenasai...

To start with, I had a couple of days before classes started on the 11th. Weather.com called for rain for most of the week, but I didn't just want to sit in my room and do nothing. I mean, I'm in Tokyo for goodness sake! I wanted to see the sights. So Teresa, Mia and I decided to head to Shibuya. Not only were we going to see what this part of Japan was like but we were also on the search for certain items. Teresa and I were (and still are) on the lookout for boots. There's a whole month of rain in Japan and we just know my Chucks and her Tims are not going to cut it. Mia was on the lookout for a bag for her school books and such.

We went on Tuesday and the rain and the wind were especially intense. A number of Japanese had told Teresa that it felt like a typhoon, but we didn't let that deter us. Instead we went from the station into the nearest department store. (Note: there are no pictures for my day in Shibuya as my camera ran out of battery. Boo. So all of the pictures in this post are from Akihabara.) This was my first time in a Japanese department store and to my surprise they have a very distinctive layout. The bottom floor usually has a food market and/or small grocery as well as some restaurants. Actually, this department store had a floor for the food market, a floor below that for restaurants and several floors at the top of the building for more restaurants. We had a lunch of omu-rice, omelet filled with rice, in one of the restaurants at the bottom-most floor. The rest of the department store had many clothing shops and a really great bookstore where we spent a good deal of time.

After lunch, though, we decided to find a store that was more... youth-oriented. We had to brave the wind and the rain to do so but it was worth it. I was able to find a great pair of sunglasses that actually fit my face and two scarves, one pink and one white, during our day out in Shibuya.

The next day, we all went to Sophia's campus to check out the student clubs and circles offered. Mia and I went to see the Sophia Uni. Concert Band and their symphony orchestra. I'm not sure if we're going to join.... We were told we won't be able to play in the final concert but we weren't given a definite answer saying that we should not join because of this. It was sort of left up in the air. After the concert and lunch, Mia and I met up with Teresa, Hunter and Alex for a trip to Akihabara.

Akihabara is the very famous electronic city in Japan. It's known for its excess of stores housing electronic goods. To be honest, it was bit overwhelming. There were so many stores basically selling the same electronic devices. It was interesting to see nonetheless. Akihabara really seems to be half and half, a tourist attraction as well as a practical location. There were many novelty stores and stores selling video games and such, but there were also many stores selling much-needed electronic goods. Teresa and Mia were on the lookout for a denshi jisho, or electronic dictionary, so finding one of those was our main objective for the outing.

Unfortunately, they didn't find one that they liked but we did get to see Akihabara in all of its electronic glory and splendor, eat some crepes, which were delicious, and I got eye-balled by a handsome sales guy. All in all, our outing was par for the course.

Teresa's Birthday Adventure Part III: Tsukiji

Now it was time for Tsukiji and we were all more than ready for it.

A little information about Tsukiji. Tsukiji is supposed to be the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world, and according to some guy on Wikipedia, one of the biggest wholesale food markets in general. One of our monitors was told that we went and she confessed to never having been. So I think it's more of a tourist attraction rather than something many native Japanese do if they don't have to. And the Japanese that would go to Tsukiji would be those there to buy or sell fish.

As soon as we got off the train we were presented with that lovely image you see at the top of the post, of a large fish on a building. I think that really sums up what Tsukiji is all about: fish, fish and more fish.

The closer we got to the actual market the more foreigners we saw. At one point all of them were wearing Wellies. I looked down at my flat shoes, with their miniscule holes in them, then turned to Jen.



Me: Uh oh, do you see all of those people in Wellies. I hope we're not going to get our feet wet.
Jen: (Looks down at her own flats) Not a good sign.
Me: You know what I only have three rules for this excursion. First, rule 1, I cannot get fish water on my feet. Rule 2, I cannot get fish water on my feet. Rule 3 —
Jen: See rules 1 and 2 above.
Me: Exactly, I cannot get fish water on my feet.

[Later...]

Jen: You know we only had three simple rules.
Me: And we broke every single one of them - and they were all the same!

But even though we got our feet wet, both metaphorically and literally, Tsukiji was really fantastic. We got to see so many interesting things and play human Frogger with the little vehicles that carried the fish other produce. We also saw them carting and cutting huge tuna. It was truly amazing. One guy even showed me a sea pineapple. I immediately thought Spongebob Squarepants; I always thought they made up that pineapple house stuff, but now I know he really could live in a pineapple under the sea!

After an hour or so of making our way through Tsukiji we all decided to head back home. It would seem, however, that the Japanese Rail Line had different plans for us. We made it back to Yotsuya, where our university is, but we waited forever for the train to Shinjuku. Indeed, as we waited on our platform several Japanese came and left us standing/lying/sitting there. The announcer kept saying things but never once did he mention that the train was not running from this platform. At the platform across from us, a train was stopped and had been sitting there with people on it for quite sometime. Fatigue had worn us all down at this point and we were irritated that our train never arrived. Finally we went upstairs to take another line and discovered that all trains were stopped from that platform. Why, oh why didn't they just say that!?

So, we had to take the subway line to Shinjuku and from there we were able to take our normal route home. By the time we got back to the DK House it was 8:30, we were all more than exhausted and ready for a long day's sleep. All in all it was an interesting experience. Will we ever do it again? Eh, possibly, and if we do, we'll definitely have a plan.

Teresa's Birthday Adventure Part II: The Twilight Hours

...And now that we had gotten Teresa her 21st birthday drink, we had the whole night ahead of us. The trains had stopped and now it was time to find a place to settle down and get out of the cold. But where to go and what to do?

What to do indeed. It seemed that the option at the top of our list was karaoke. At the beginning of the night, we had a man approach us about an izakaya where we could stay till 5 a.m. with unlimited drinks for 20-odd (or 30-odd) dollars, but we had declined, thinking there would be better prospects. As it turns out, that was probably a pretty good set-up. When we stepped out of the izakaya we shall never return to, another man approached Teresa about a karaoke bar. This one we also turned down. We were feeling pretty good at this point, confident that we'd find a cheap karaoke bar, cheaper than what these guys were promising anyways. But, some of us were also feeling kind of tired and really just wanted a place to sit.

So after some walking, searching and another tranny sighting, a bathroom stop was needed. We stopped in a Cafe Aya and Mia and I pretended to peruse the menu while Teresa made a quick run to the restroom. I think they were pretty pissed when we decided to leave soon after without buying anything, but we didn't really want to spend a couple of dollars just so one of us could use the bathroom.

After a while, the cold began to seep into our bones and finding a place, whether that was a karaoke place or a Denny's (I kid you not, we mentioned the word and this guy passing by just started going on and on about Denny's in this really stereotypically hip-hop accent) was a top priority. Many plans were put forth, many were shot down and finally we decided to stay the night in a McDonalds. Now, this was no McDonalds like you'd see in the States. This was two floors of clean tables and warmth. There were also a lot of people there, sheltering themselves from the cold and waiting for the trains to start again, just like we were. Unfortunately, about 10 minutes after we got there, the McDonalds started to close. And we were booted out again on to the streets.

The warmth of the McDonalds had undid us, however, and we quickly found another Cafe Aya to settle down in. We whiled away the twilight hours by playing never have I ever, Nintendo DS and, intermittently, taking cat naps before the cafe employees came by to wake everyone up. And even with two cups of coffee in me, I was still tired.

Eventually, 5 a.m. drew nearer and we all decided to make our way to the train station for our last leg of the night: We planned to go to Tsukiji, a Japanese fish market. The scene to the station was like a frame right out from Shaun of the Dead or some other zombie movie. Tons of people made their way as one towards the train stations, tired from their nights out and some still a little tipsy. We filed in with the masses and boarded the train.

Now it was time for Tsukiji and we were all more than ready for it.

Teresa's Birthday Adventure Part I: Shinjuku and Kabukicho

So Friday was Teresa's birthday and we wanted to show her a good night out on the town. The following entries describe the craziness, fun and hilarity of our ill-planned adventure in Shinjuku, Kabukicho and Tsukiji for Teresa's birthday. I hope you're ready for it 'cause we weren't.

Before we could begin our night out, we had to get a few things settled first. Earlier in the day we went to the Warabi City Office and registered for our Alien Registration cards and received our Certificates of Registered Matters. We each got three copies at 200¥ each, priced that way because of the type of paper I think. It was all very official. We then took these certificates to Shinjuku with us so we could get our cell phones at Softbank right outside of the Shinjuku station's east exit. It's that building with the blackish windows and the red 'emobile' sign at the top.

I admit I was a little concerned about the phone-buying process. The customer reps didn't seem like they knew a lot of English and this was one situation where we both, customer and Softbank worker, needed to understand each other clearly. Luckily, Jen and her awesome Japanese came to the rescue. And I may have even asked a question in Japanese. Yay for me.

We all decided to get a post-paid plan instead of the prepaid. With the post-paid it ends being a little cheaper and there are no cancelation fees, so that's a plus. The only fretful aspect of the phone-buying process was the amount of time it took. There were five of us trying to buy phones and the Softbank guy told us it would be about an hour. See, we had already moved our plans with Teresa back an hour from 5 to 6. Now, we had to call her again and move them back another hour to 7. Surprisingly, getting our phones was really easy. I got a blue one, which looked like purple on the box... and the others got green, gold and pink. We were like Power Rangers ready to conquer evil and do good with our mobile phones.

Or call Teresa and apologize for taking so long and find out where she was.

By the time we got our phones (only four of us because Hunter's Visa Card wouldn't work. Visa, you lied. You're not everywhere we want to be.), it was a little after 7. Teresa, Mia, Alex (another homestayer from Pennsylvania) and Tomoe, were already with us as I had to meet them at the train station. We stood outside the Softbank building waiting for one more of our gang and trying to figure out where to eat. As we stood there this guy tried to sell this deal to us from his restaurant. We abdicated in favor of trying to find somewhere else and we did. It was this great place beneath street level that served only beef and surprisingly they were able to accommodate all of us. Most of us had this really tasty curry dish with an omelet, オムカレ−. It was über good and my first taste of Japanese curry.

Then after dinner it was time to take some pictures. I don't know what you call them, but they're these photo booths with different themes. They're timed so you only have a set amount of time to pick 6 different backgrounds and then quickly pose. After you're done shooting the pictures you get to design them, which Teresa and Natalie did, props to them. I'm not a huge fan of taking pictures of myself but it was actually a lot of fun and I would definitely do it again.

Photo-op out of the way, we set out to find a bar so Teresa could have her first drink on her 21st birthday. Just a note here, the drinking age in Japan is 20 so all of us are of age. So we walked and walked. And walked. And walked some more. But we didn't see any good bars. Hunter and I did see a tranny though, and gave each other high-fives for spotting him/her at the same time. We saw a lot of hostess/host bars, which are basically ladies' and gentlemen's clubs, with a lot of suited men standing outside with ear pieces. We also ran into three very sketchy people. The first you can see in the right-hand corner of this picture here. Note his greasy, slicked back hair with the bad dye job; the sleazy suit and the scruff on his jaw line; the sunglasses at night are just overkill and the way that even in the picture he's in the shadows. He just screams sketch. This picture was really just a ruse to get a picture of this guy, just in case we needed to identify him to the police.

After our other two sketchy run-ins, Dan through the medium of Jen, finally directed us to a good bar. Or so we thought. It was all fun and drinks until we got the check. There's a 10% gratuity charge every time a waiter visits your table. We were not happy about this. In fact you could say we were downright pissed. But we had to pay it, what else were we going to do? Needless to say we will not go to that bar again. Lesson learned. And now that we had gotten Teresa her 21st birthday drink, we had the whole night ahead of us. The trains had stopped and now it was time to find a place to settle down and get out of the cold. But where to go and what to do?

To Be Continued…

Out and About...

... in Yotsuya.

We had some free time today after our Japanese placement tests, which were awful by the way, and before the welcome party for all international/exchange students. We met up with Teresa who is living at a homestay instead of DK House and got lunch at one of the cafeterias on campus. We were able to eat on this wonderful roof terrace with a view of the surrounding area.The cafeteria is pretty interesting; like the restaurant we went to yesterday you order your meal via a computerized system. There are a lot of different options and you select which one you want. The apparatus, if you will, then spits out this coupon and you take it to the ordering station. It's pretty neat. I was ridiculously hungry by this time so I ordered katsudon from the machine and yakitori from the a la cart.

After lunch we decided to explore the area around Sophia. Teresa had already done this when she first arrived so she was our tour guide. Our ultimate destination was a garden near the end of the street but we took a lot of stops along the way. Our first detour was this temple off the main road.Apparently, there are a bunch of them off of main streets like this. There was a bit of a barricade blocking the entrance but we stepped past it. I'm not sure if we were supposed to though because not too long after a Japanese man came up to the same barricade, read the sign there (note it there in the bottom of the picture) and turned around. Hmm.

Our second stop was an Office Depot. We were pretty surprised to see it but Greg and Natalie thought it was great luck that we stumbled upon it. They've been searching for mechanical pencils and so far have only found wooden ones. They did find some at the home depot but none in bulk packs like in the U.S.

After some time moseying down the street in the afternoon sunshine we reached Chidoriga-fuchi Park/千鳥ケ淵. The park was full of four different kinds of cherry blossoms. It seemed like a pretty popular place. Many Japanese were enjoying the weather, the cherry blossoms and having hanami. Hanami／はなみ is a term that describes cherry blossom viewing and the partaking of food and sake/さけ, which you could smell a little bit in the air.

There were also a couple of ladies dressed in kimonos. We haven't seen too many of them so far but they looked very pretty, especially the details in the back.


Here are a few more pictures from the trip to Chidoriga-fuchi Park. The tree that looks like a weeping willow was my ultimate favorite, mostly because I have a soft spot for willows. If you want to see even more pics of the park, check out Natalie's blog.

After the trip to the park we headed back to Sophia and the welcome party, which was great. We got to meet more exchange students and Japanese Sophia students. To Teresa's chagrin, most of the students we've met so far have been girls. Akiko, my monitor says it's because there's a bit of a gender division in majors. A lot girls major in English, while the boys tend to major in math and science. It's a gender divide that's not wholly uncommon in the states either it just seems a little more apparent at Sophia.

All in all a terrific day and tomorrow should be even better.

It's a draw...

So I didn't kill the jumping spider. In fact, he's still alive in my room. I saw him right before I went to bed last night and we had another scuffle. Another draw, well, a win for him since he's still alive, which makes this Jeannette: 0 and jumping spider aka Jumpy: 2. As I tossed and turned this morning due to some necessary napping earlier in the evening, I either had a dream or a fatigue-induced hallucination that the spider was climbing up my wall at some point. I gamely told him, "Fine, you win. I suppose we'll just have to live in peaceful cohabitation."

Ha, peaceful cohabitation my ass. As soon as he pops back out again, I'm killing him.

Anyways.
Yesterday I went to an exchange student orientation at Sophia／上智大学 but before we even boarded the train to get there I had a minor crisis. I forgot my wallet at the DK House. While freaking out and thinking I lost my entrance key card, I took my wallet out of my purse to look for it and promptly forgot about it. I couldn't exactly go back to get it but luckily, Greg was kind enough to let me borrow some dough for the day.

The train ride to Sophia／上智大学 lasted about 45 minutes but it seemed much shorter than that as we had to make a lot of transfers. Anyway, that train ride could be an hour and a half and it wouldn't really bother me. This past summer I had an internship in D.C. and I had to commute 2 and a half hours each way everyday. So this commute is much shorter in comparison.

We passed through Shinjuku on our way to Sophia／上智大学 which is located in Yotsuya. I'm very excited to see Shinjuku as it's fairly well-known for it's hustle and bustle. And we found this really great place to eat as we walked towards Shinjuku; and when I say great I mean it met the criteria of cheap, tasty and conveniently located. It's only a block or two away from Sophia.

Spider Update: I brushed back the curtain to see what the day was like and a spider dropped down on its thread. I don't know if it's Jumpy or a new resident but I'm not happy about this. What the heck? What is it about this room that is so inviting to spiders? Is it too warm? I'm going to make this room less hospitable. This is war.
After finding the building where our orientation would be held, we toured Sophia. Note this spiral staircase in the picture. I think we're going to figure out how to get up there. Maybe. Possibly.


And after a long day at Sophia and a boring orientation session, we all got to meet our Japanese monitors. They're basically buddies for us exchange kids. My monitor is a second-year English Lit. student named Akiko. She's super nice and super chic, but then again, all of the Japanese girls here are super chic, so that's a given. I'm pretty impressed by it, I have to say. I wonder how long it takes them to get ready in the morning? I'll have to ask them.

Then it was back to the DK House where instead of studying for my placement test today, I promptly fell asleep due to jet lag. Bleh. If this post seems hurried or not as witty as the last posts, it's because I'm still super tired and this spider business is killing me.

Spider Update: I am victorious.

I'm here! I'm safe and I'm finally showered...

... except that the shower is on the guys floor and I had to pass some guy brushing his teeth when I came out of it in my towel. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

What a long, long, long trip that was. As someone who doesn't like to fly, I had a really hard time motivating myself to get on that plane. Luckily, my dad was with me to and gave me a healthy shove in the right direction. Thankfully, the flight to Chicago went smoothly and then I had a 5-hour layover in O'Hare. It wasn't so bad at first because I had a book with me, but I finished that within a half hour of being there. That's the problem with good books, they never last long enough. So after that, I tried to study but I'm sure everyone can guess how well that went.

I took the time to call my mom, who was really worried about me, and a couple of friends, one of whom I woke up (oops :-/). My mom's main concern was a) that I wouldn't be safe, not out of any fault of my own mind you, or so I'd like to think, and b) that the person I was sitting next to would manhandle me on the plane. On the flight to Chicago, I sat by a guy and my mom wasn't pleased about the fact. Our conversation on this topic went something like this:

Mom: I just don't want anyone to...
Me: Manhandle me on the plane.
Mom: Yes.
Me: I think you underestimate me; I have a really good elbow jab.
Luckily for me, and my mom's blood pressure, my flight to Narita wasn't full. The guy I was supposed to sit next to moved behind me and had two seats to myself and I had the same luxury. Not that it made sleeping on the plane any more comfortable, but it could have been worse.

By the time we arrived at Narita, it was a little bit after 4. I was told that a rep from Sophia University was supposed to meet me before 5. But it wasn't until 5:30 that I was able to pass the foreign passport check-in station and customs. I was sure that I'd missed my person but she was still there after I left customs. Keito, or Kate, is a second-year student at Sophia studying English Lit. and she's learning German too. Clearly, she's really good at languages. She and her friend Hanoko, helped me and Hanoko's charge Mike (I think that's his name...) get to the DK House where I'm staying. We took the Japan Railway train to get here and it was quite the adventure, what with all my luggage (one suitcase, carry-on and my "purse") and the commuter traffic. But we finally got here. The DK House is an international guesthouse that partners with Sophia. I have to be honest, because they weren't, and the place looks nothing like it did in the pictures. It almost makes me wish I was in a homestay or had an apartment mate. It's not that it's not nice, but I lived in a really great international residency at U.Va. and this place pales in comparison.

Unlike my room at the IRC at U.Va., this one is a single and I have a great view of some cherry blossoms from my balcony. It's a pretty sweet view. There are a couple of issues I have with the DK House and my room. First, I can't reach the outlet closest to my desk, which means that I can't plug in the power cord for my computer. I have to plug it in on the other side of the room and it doesn't even reach. So my comps running on its battery now but I charge it whenever I'm not on it. Second, there's no soap in the bathroom. Are people just not washing their hands?! And now every time I go I have to bring my soap with me. No fun. Third, this shower situation is absurd. They should have just divided the halls down the middle and not by floor level because now I have to walk past a bunch of guys in my towel. C'mon, a girl needs a little privacy.

So that's everything so far. I don't think I missed any exciting stories. Most everything is still a blur anyways. I'm still really tired and I got up at 5:20 this morning as my body clock was off. I'm going to try to nap now before I have to leave for my Orientation and what not. The only problem with that is that I saw a spider on my wall not too long ago. We had a small showdown where he jumped, several times, out of my reach. I'm not sure whether I'm the victor or if it was a draw so I have a few reservations about sleeping on that bed. Oh well, they do say the average human ingests around 8 spiders in their lifetime. I guess this spider, if he's still alive and I'm hoping no, might get added to my quota.