Day 19

Yesterday I woke up to the realization that my residency is coming to an end. I only have a week left! And most of the days before leaving are booked full, so there will actually be a thousand things I haven't done yet and won't have time to do! I haven't climbed to that one shrine up the hill, I haven't visited all the second hand shops I've found online, I haven't visited all the clothing shops I've found online, I haven't put out cat food for the neighborhood cats, I haven't seen where the stairs that go up the hill next to our road go and I haven't tried all the ice cream flavors I was going to. I've just been puttering about and spending way too much time sitting at the house and being online. Of course there's no amount of time that would allow to me explore absolutely everything, but the panic of leaving soon is setting in and I'm trying to just take everything in.

Leaving is made a lot easier by the endless, giant parade of bugs though. I guess the "cold" - I never thought there'd be a day when I'd call +25 degrees Celsius cold or even fresh - is driving them inside houses and we've had a lot of horrible visitors lately. Some time ago we had a huge cockroach and yesterday in came a really effing huge spider with horrible, long, white, fat legs. Today, there was a humongous centipede with legs like the bloody eyelashes of a serial killer, twisting about in the shower. It's actually still in the shower, because we gassed it but can't get it out because it's totally wet and can't be vacuumed up and none of us will touch it even through a tissue because DEAR GOD IT'S DISGUSTING.

All the previous bugs and sick creatures have been found by Charlotte or Preema, which means I'm the only one in our house who hasn't yet been the one who has the first contact. So I'm pretty sure I'm the next victim. I'm afraid to move around anywhere and I have to sneak into each room like a really scaredy ninja because I know they're watching me. They're waiting and watching. I'm next. I want to go home. Though I also want to stay but I also miss home and I miss a place where spiders are tiny enough that you actually can step on them with your shoes and they will actually die, not devour you whole.

I'm really starting to understand the whole Godzilla / Pokemon thing, and also the giant robot thing because I really wish I had a giant mecha I could hide in and stomp all the bugs flat. We live right in the middle of forest-y mountains and I often see military helicopters flying around, so it's very easy to imagine these being just the kind of area where the mountain will open up and bring up like an EVA or maybe a Jaeger. Godzilla can come visit too, but not Muto. I'm pretty done with creepy, bendy legs and slimy skin. Ick.

Well, here are a few pretty pictures of Fukuoka to take your mind off all of the creepy crawlies we have here.