January 13-17: Normal work. I'm reading a really good new Stephen King book, and writing here and there.

January 18th: Okay, so I met Kazuaki today. What a sweetheart. We went to lunch, then bowling, then to Nagoya Castle, then to a coffee shop. We got terribly lost trying to get back to Fushimi, but we laughed so much about it it didn't matter. I'll definitely be hanging out with him again.

Then I met Mitsu at the Hard Rock Cafe. I was feeling kind of strange but I thought it was hunger. We drank and chatted, and he gave me a wallet he'd made (it's so cool, I don't know how he did it) and this really pretty perfume. So we were really hitting it off too, and suddenly the stomach took a turn and I knew I had to get back to Komaki and fast. Mitsu was really nice about it.

Here's where it gets icky. I had diarrhea but if I stopped every couple stations I was okay. Then I reached Meijokoen, bailed out of the train and threw up, fortunately not on anybody. The guy who was the ticket taker was so nice about it, asking first if I needed to go to the hospital, and then helping me clean up and get back to the train. While I was waiting, a guy sat down to talk to me, and from a safe distance, made a pass at me. ^^;; I guess I didn't look as bad as I felt. I made the walk to Kamii Ieda and the train ride to Komakiguchi, but I pity the poor soul that has to clean up the six random acts of Kat that ocurred when I got there. This really nice woman--spike heels, fur coat, really dressed up, walked me most of the way home to make sure I got there okay.

The end to this tale is this: I love Japan. At Komaki I was a mess and crying, and everyone helped me, offered to take me to the hospital, buy me a drink of water or juice, walk me home and in general temporarily adopted this mess of a gaijin. This people are so incredible.

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