i am at work for 14 hours straight today. i didn't get enough sleep last night, so as a consequence my vision is starting to blur. also, i had a major fight with satoko. the long and short of it: disliking many aspects of her personality, I decided it would be in our mutual interest if I stopped tutoring her. of course, my japanese not being sufficiently up to the task of subtly nuancing such a thing without insulting her dearly, (and her english similarly not up to snuff) i thought it best to send an e-mail in english to yuki (who started this whole damn mess anyway) telling her exactly how I felt about Satoko, with the idea that she would interpret my honne into an appropriately neutered and meanderingly vauge tatemae, sanitized for japanese consumption. Ah, but my dear sweet friend from Shimane, in keeping with her philosophy of brutally blind dedication to absolute honesty at all times, decided that it must be a good idea to forward aforementioned e-mail to Satoko. Of course when you liberally smatter words like "lazy", "rude" in said e-mail, it is possible to see how problems might arise. Doubly so when the recepient of such mail is unable to detect the nuances of the language and instead just focuses in on the key "bad words" to the exclusion of the other mitigating factors.

Not being a particularly confrontational individual, deciphering the engrish-laden rants of a very angry girl at 9am in the morning (going on too little sleep) over a static-y cell phone was hardly my idea of how to start off the day. It is always frustrating when you run headlong into the barrier of cultural difference, and even harder when you try and seperate bona fide "cultural differences" from "personality". It makes my head hurt to even try. And while by and large I get along wonderfully with Japanese people, there are times when (and all of you in Japan can certainly relate to this) I just want to shake them violently by the shoulders, slap them in the face and scream "grow the hell up....!!! you're not a kid anymore!". And maybe headbutt them for good measure.

Such are the joys of internationalization.

Today is 4-20. Those of you in the know, know what that means. And given how crappy my day is turning out (even if your position is justified, fighting with someone invariably leaves you feeling off kilter for the rest of the day) I may have to celebrate tonight. *sigh*

Now listening to: "Eminem: Sing for the moment" (*sigh* yet another song sampled into newfound fame - yet, as much as i hate to admit it, it does have a catchy rythem)
2:58 pm