Day Twelve: Phones

I really don’t understand my camera, and I seem to have little control over most of its functions. For example, I can turn it on and off, view my pictures, delete pictures, and take pictures. However, I’m pretty sure that I should also be able to connect it to Wi-Fi, turn off the slideshow setting, and control the flash.

I literally have no control over the flash whatsoever. It just turns on and off at seemingly random intervals. It’s never on when I want it on, and it’s always on when I wish it would just turn off. I thought I’d found the control button briefly because when I pushed it, the flash turned off, but that turned out to be coincidence and the button hasn't worked since.

This flash thing was a bit of an issue when exploring some massive mining caves with Otosan, Okasan, their son, and their one granddaughter. Some of the darker corners weren't visible without flash, and some of the pathways became all splotchy with floating dust when the flash was on. As you can imagine, the pictures are an interesting combination of awesome, acceptable, kind of horrible but it’ll work, creepy, and downright awful in an oh-my-gods-did-someone-blow-a-hole-in-the-roof-while-you-were-still-inside kind of way.

The caves- in case you are wondering- were seriously massive. They were like those caverns you imagine when someone says “dark pit of despair”, which is to say they were really large, smelled like rock, and seemed very empty. It was awesome, and I think it would make a great setting for a story. The darker sections that were blocked off and lacked the lighting in the rest of the caves looked like they’d be super-creepy. At the same time, the mines held a kind of eerie beauty, like you’d stepped into an echo of the past and it wouldn't be a heart-attack-worthy shock if a ghost floated out of the wall, waved a mining tool at you and floated away. Like I said, a great story setting.

Once we’d exited the wonderful creepy caves, we went for lunch at a MacDonald’s. I had a chicken burger. Then we headed for the library. I immediately started entertaining myself by typing author names and book names into the computer system out of curiosity. Then, I physically tracked down the books and spent a good portion of my time just staring at them in awe. The books I found that I've read/or own are as follows: Deltora, Those Rainbow/Gem/Animal/Weather/Music/Dance/Literally Whatever Else The Author Could Come Up With Fairy books, Diana Wynn Jones books, Darren Shan books, The Immortal Nickolas Flammel,  and The Guardians of Ga’hoole (okay, admittedly I've no idea how to spell that word) books. I’m not sure what Okasan thought of my book choices when I excitedly pointed out the Deltora books and she pulled one off the shelf to see a rather disturbing monster on the cover. Yes, they’re kind of dark, but they are still some of the most interesting books I've ever read. People die a lot and there are horrible monsters, but the main characters rock and the books always keep you guessing. You’d probably need to read one to understand. Anyway, after I realized which books I’d directed her to, I immediately bypassed the Darren Shan books (seriously gruesome) and pointed out the fairy ones instead as if to say, “See? I’m not all death and horror! I love books about magical sparkly fairies too!”

We returned home to an afternoon of folding old advertisements into various things such as hats, noise-makers, or ducks. I played around a little on their small keyboard and learned that the eldest of the three kids is really obsessed with Frozen. After I played through what I’d memorized of “Let It Go,” she started singing the song over and over (the Japanese version) for the rest of night. I’m not kidding about this. I didn't mind, but I think it started to get on her mom’s nerves.

She was still singing when we went out for dinner to a buffet-type of place and I was free to have all the sticky white rice my heart desired. Unfortunately, I tried out too many other things the first round, and didn't have the stomach space to down more than two bowls of rice. Everyone seemed surprised by my insistence on not putting any kind of sauce on the rice, but I honestly like it better plain. I can’t explain it; it’s just a thing I've got.

On an unrelated final note, this is how I react when the phone rings and I’m the only one in the room and it starts ringing:  Oh crap! I can’t answer the phone! I don’t know Japanese! Run away! Run away! Oh, the ringing stopped; they must have a phone upstairs. I’ll just creep back now like nothing happened.