Day Twenty-Two: Dog Whisperer

If I were Otosan and Okasan, I’d be very worried about me. My absent-minded clumsiness has to date caused me to trip, randomly lose my balance, back into random objects (just wait until it’s one of those short fences), and nearly gotten me run over. Several times. It’s like I just completely forget that there’s a street with cars on it and I just keep meandering forwards until someone stops me. I can’t count the times that Otosan or Okasan has had to leap forwards and block me before I wander out into a busy street. In fact, this has happened so often, that sometimes one of them will block me even if I’m totally paying attention and am already stopping.

I swear this is going to be the death of me.

At any rate, today after another bullet train ride (that I unfortunately slept through), Otosan and Okasan dropped me off with some friends (another older couple) to spend a couple of days exploring Kyoto and Nara. First, we went to a beautiful golden temple. There was no entry, but it was surrounded by water with these pristine little islands. Very picturesque. That’s another thing to look forward to when I get around to posting more pictures.

While we were there, I went to bathroom (what else is new?) and there was a sign for how to use a western toilet. The instructions went like so:

Please sit down when you use the toilet.

Turn your back on the cover.

And flush the toilet after using.

So now that you've read it, did anyone else get this really funny mental image of someone trying to straddle the toilet?

Reading this also helped me realize that I’d been using the Japanese-style toilets backwards. That would explain why it was always so awkward to reach the toilet paper. I had to sort of hop backwards and twist while being careful not to fall over into the toilet. Really, considering this alone, you’d think I would have fixed this habit earlier. I suppose I was just being stubborn.

***Seriousness Starts***

The next stop was the Kyoto Peace Memorial Museum. Again, this was truly a blow on the way I viewed the world. It’s amazing how terrible things can be happening all around you, and yet you just continue on in your happy oblivious bubble. I read signs talking about bombings, injuries, killing and war. About how the weapons just keep getting more and more powerful, and how many fear that the human race is going to eliminate itself with the weapons it’s creating.

I don’t understand what is wrong with people! It’s so frustrating to me! How hard is it to see that war is is completely unnecessary? There is not one justifiable war in all of history. Every single one of the bloody things could have been solved if people just bleeding listened to each other!!!

And really, there are just a select few people to blame. Most humans don’t want war. They don’t want to kill to get what they want. But we’re all animals, and when humans are backed into a corner, they lash out.

Aside from those few bloodthirsty individuals who look for any reason to start a war and don’t listen to reason. They’re the ones to blame.

The state of this world just makes me so mad! I get angry just thinking about it!

Okay. Calm down, Serina. You've made your point. Let the poor people reading this blog move on with the relevant story already.

***Seriousness Ends***

By the time we arrived at the (let’s call them the Suzukis) hometown, it was late. But we still had to eat, so we went out to dinner at a nice restaurant. When told that my birthday had already passed, the Suzukis insisted on having the birthday performance anyway. This proved to consist of the song playing through the restaurant while the family celebrating was given tambourines to bang along to the beat. Then, the birthday boy/girl was given a plate of ice cream with “Happy ___ birthday, ___” written around the side (those blanks filled in obviously, and the lettering in Japanese).

It was a little awkward because I didn't know what to do with myself, so I settled for banging my tambourine and laughing. This turned out not to be terribly difficult, because the Suzukis seemed to be having a tough time singing along in time with the music.

All in all, it was pretty fun.

Finally, we arrived at their house. It turned out they had a dog, a hyper little thing with curly fur and a piercing bark named Sakura. Sakura seemed completely convinced that I was an intruder, and insisted on alerting her owners to my presence every time I passed her cage.

After my shower, I decided I was going to put my dog-whisperer skills to work and make this dog like me. (As in enjoy my company. The Suzukis probably don’t need a dog with a tendency to wander into busy streets).

I walked up to her cage talking softly while she had a psychotic breakdown at the edge of her cage, scrambling and barking wildly. Carefully, I put my hand on her head and started scratching her behind the ears, still cooing about what a good guard dog she was.

It was like magic. She instantly calmed down and started wagging her tail instead. I stayed there for a few more minutes, petting and talking. When I finally stood up and walked away, she watched me go quietly.

Thank you, Sakura. Thank you for letting me feel like an awesome dog-whisperer for one night. You are truly a gifted little guard dog.