so, i've really been into reality shows lately. i lurve the amazing race, i think this season's asia version is better than the american. but that one is still entertaining. i'm rooting for chris and her dad. i also started watching the biggest loser. first i watched season 3, that made me cry! and the transformations were amazing! very inspiring. now, i'm almost finished with season 1. i think that if i had watched that season first, i probably would have hated the show and never watched again. they did a lot of things wrong ('they' being whoever planned/produced the show). i will watch season 2, but it seems like they got a lot of things right by the third season.

so, all this weight loss reality motivated me to start moving my body. yoshi brought home 'billy's boot camp', which was all the rage in japan last year. yeah, it's a used copy. i did the 'easy' version (i have taebo tapes from a couple years back, so i was pretty much able to do this right away.) it was tough (my stomach is SO out of shape, but i already knew that.) i can see me doing that for a while. then, with my parents-in-law over for the weekend, i thought i would go to the pool. i have a cold so i wasn't actually planning on swimming, unless the mood struck me while i was in the pool. well, tomorrow is a holiday in japan, coming of age day (seijin no hi i believe.) it used to be the 15th of january (i think) and anyone who had turned twenty in the past year is invited by the municipality they live in to a ceremony at a common hall. the one for munakata is in a compound that includes the municipal pool. the official holiday has been changed to the second monday in january, and cities and towns all over japan have been holding their ceremonies during the past two weeks. munakata's ceremony is today.

i didn't mind the traffic, and i thought the parking would be horrible, BUT, parking for the pool has recently been monitored and blockaded. (heh, that doesn't seem like the right word.) just yesterday i drove by that parking lot when i was looking for a place to stop and nurse tomo. today, however, more cones were up (blocking that parking lot) and an old guy in uniform was standing there. in japan there are people who direct traffic in and out of parking lots (because people just don't know how to drive here, forget about parking) and i call them parking police, because they usually wear these ridiculous uniforms! so anyway, i pull into the main parking lot and see this guy there and the blocking cones. i turn on my signal. he ignores me. i wait. he continues ignoring. i roll down my window and ask (in japanese), 'isn't it open?' he says, 'EH??!' (i think, 'hard of hearing old grumpy fart!') i ask again, 'isn't it open.' and he shouts, while waving his arm in an extremely rude (for japan) manner, 'you CAN'T come in here!!!!!!' (yes, he was really rude and extremely shout-y) at which i became very offended and burned rubber peeling out of the parking lot. yes, i actually did. don't tell yoshi! lol

now i can laugh about it (that happened about two hours ago) but i was SO angry. and offended! don't think it was a race thing, i'm pretty sure he was being rude to ANYONE who dared try to park there. and the rest of the parking lot (which is mainly for the 'sports park' next to the swimming pool/gym) wasn't full, but i was afraid that if i went to the pool, i wouldn't actually make it because i would have screamed my head off at that guy.

when i got home, yoshi asked me how it went, and i told him what happened. i also said, 'i hate japanese people.' which wasn't true, i was just still really angry over what happened. i hate bitter old people, though. i truly hope i never become old and mean. *sigh*