Shakespearian cold showers

I know exactly when and where I was when I caught this cold. I was greeting a group of Senior-level kids at the door (at Nova when you get a group of kids you're supposed to kneel down to their level and introduce yourself, and get them to say their names). This one little fuck named Rei had his surgical mask pulled down and proceeded to cough his germ-infested ass off in my face. He then created a thick atmosphere of disease in the poorly ventillated kids' room in which I was trapped. So I woke up feeling like crap. But I compensated for it by calling in sick and coming downtown to use the internet and read. I actually just feel guilty about calling in sick because I feel fine at this point. I also had Voice today (where you just sit and chat with a big group of students who are usually upper-level on Sundays) which are easy lessons.

Brian and I are unsure if the water heater in our building crapped out or someone turned off our hot water, but we've been reduced to taking cold showers. Before this morning I hadn't showered for about 48 hours because of it. The water here is fucking cold. Swimming in Maine cold. At least Kelly Reed, Jarod, and Luke must know what I'm talking about when I say Maine waters are cold. But I'm sure you can imagine. So since I shaved my head again last night I was forced to take a shower before leaving the house today. I turned it on and let it run in the tub and then stepped in. My feet instantly lost all feeling and turned blotchy red before settling on deep purple. It was almost unbearable. So since I'm reading Macbeth right now, I used that for some inspiration. I was trying to put things in perspective and if he could make himself kill his own king and forsake his soul then I could take a measley cold shower. So I was successful and proud of my accomplishment but my balls have yet to return to their orignial shape.

Lou asked a good question in the comments section of my last post. If you don't want to make the trip way down there to click on it, then here's the gist of it: since religious devotion tends to be inversely proportional to technological and economic growth, how does Japan measure up? Something like that. Well, I'd say religion here is just like it is in America. People go to temple and pray but most do it out of a sense of duty and not because they have any real sense of faith or whatever. That was the impression I gathered from a group of students in Voice when we talked about Shintoism and samurai spirit (forbidden topics but Nova is too cautious I think). I told them that eastern religions are increasingly popular in America because a lot of people are unhappy, despite their high standard of living, and feel like western religions (or whatever) have failed to produce happiness in a tangible way. They said people in Japan go to temple or pray only when they really need something and very few people are religious like they were in the past. The only two people who admitted to feeling religious said it happened after they had kids. So my impression is that the people here resemble those in developed western countries and probably go to temple to maintain their cultural roots, out of a sense of duty, or to ask for help when they have nothing else. I don't know if anyone actually believes in Shinto creationism, but I imagine the Buddhist elements in Japan are more important to those who do feel religious. Does that answer your question at all Lou?

I'm not qualified to even give an opinion though, since I'm so isolated from the rest of Japanese society thanks to the language barrier any my beautiful blue eyes. Which reminds me: I got my first compliment about my eyes. The mother of one of my younger students was checking me out and when I made eye contact she told one of the Japanese staff that my eyes were gorgeous. Hells yeah, J-MILF.