2:22 p.m. Have heard from a client that there is an apartment building near the office, which is inclined at an angle of roughly ten or so degrees. It is uncertain whether the building has slanted as a result of the previous earthquake or not, since it was already June when my client first noticed that the building was terrifyingly slanted towards the right. She explained how slanted the building actually was, encouraging me to see it with my own eyes.

2:43 p.m. Was skeptical, at first, but as I stood on the sidewalk across from the apartment building, I was appalled by it. The building seemed to be a couple of decades old, with a bunch of plants and trees topped on the roof and, thick green covering the second floor balcony. As I looked closer, I noticed it wasn't just slanting to the right, but also slightly twisted... I wonder if there's anyone still living in it? It's almost leaning on the house next door. Isn't the neigbor complaining? Why don't they get rid of the vegetation on the roof? Why are they growing such thick woods on the roof in the first place?

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Caterpillar

3:59 p.m. Must make a correction to yeterday's article about the slanting house. Have said it was "almost leaning on the house next door," however, &quo;the house next door&quo; actually could be a parking lot. Am not so sure because I haven't had a chance to confirm it, I only had a glance this morning and thought I saw a parking lot instead of a house. There is a house on the other side of the apartment building, and I must have mixed up the information, since as you might already know, am struggling with my memory these days.

4:07 p.m. So the description should be, "almost leaning on the wall of the parking lot next to it." Not that it makes much difference to the chance of the apartment building collapsing...

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Caterpillar

2:35 p.m. Couldn't help taking the long way around to work, merely to check what was next to the slanting apartment. Must re-correct my article. Sure, there was a parking lot, but between the parking lot and the apartment was a HOUSE! A two-storie block-like house that must have been older than the aparatment, was standing right next to the apartment building...

2:49 p.m. There was a downpour a short while ago. It must have been because of the typhoon. Wind and rain battered against the glass doors of the office, and for a moment, I thought this whole office would be blown off to who knows where. Now that the rain has stopped as abruptly as it had started, am wondering about the slanting apartment and its neighbor.

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Caterpillar

6:19 p.m. My aunt came today and has just left. She's been to the hospital to see Obaba, and stopped by on her way home. Probably also because she had to discuss with JoOusama, what to do about Obaba. The doctor in charge of Obaba had called last weekend, leaving a message on our answerphone, that we had to decide whether we'd like Obaba to stay on oral nutrition intake which she's having trouble with or, switch to either tube feeding or gastrostoma, because she wasn't eating regularly through her mouth. Can easily imagine Obaba refusing to eat sometimes, depending on who is feeding her or what she's expected to eat.

As merely grandchild and not daughter nor son to Obaba, I really am not in a position to take part in such serious discussion however, since Tono who is expected to be the most responsible for such things, is obviously oblivious to the situation, I joined the discussion insisting that gastrostoma, definitely, must be avoided. It took a couple of hours but in the end, the three of us reached an agreement to tell the hospital that we want Obaba to stay on oral nutrition intake, though it might upset the staff there because it will require them to continue putting a lot of labor into it. Think have done the right thing.

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Caterpillar

3:52 p.m. Was talking about catching mosquitos in the air the other day. It's one of the few things I'm good at. And Mr. N-jima has told me, that he can't catch them while flying, but he can swat them at a rate of one hundred percent, whenever they tried to steel a hungry sip from his veins. He never misses. I was immediately intrigued and asked him how he could do that, and this is what he told me. Whenever you feel a mosquito on your arms or legs or wherever, you tighten up your muscles of that part. Then, the mosquito would become trapped between the muscles, and won't be able to move. After you've nailed the mosquito, all you have to do is swat it. Sounded simple, but fishy.

Last night I noticed a mosquito on my left arm, ready to start sucking up blood. MY blood. As soon as I recognized the little creature, I tensed the muscles of my left arm clenching my fist tightly. Ahh! The mosquito couldn't move. Slowly, my right hand moved above the mosquito and... SMACK! So it worked. Though now am getting curious. What will happen if I'd tried to pull the mosquito away from my arm? Would it simply come off or will it be torn because its straw mouth was stuck in my muscles?

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Caterpillar

2:31 p.m. Emergency crisis. Our desk-top computer went dead. It has been taken apart with its mother board laid out on the table by the time I came in today. The problem seemed to be the condenser according to Cow, and he's gone out to Akihabara to get a new one.

2:42 p.m. Have been using the desk-top for work but since it's unavailable, am now editting this on Cow's lap-top. Wonder if I'll have to bring in my lap-top tomorrow. I'll have to in case Cow fails to fix the desk-top by the end of the day. No problem about that, but am on the verge of a nervous breakdown not being able to prepare for Thursday, when I'll be tied up at meeting after meeting from ten to eight. Gee, what kind of torture could this be?

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Caterpillar

2:49 p.m. Cow has worked hard and managed to replace five condensors on the mother board with the ones he bought yesterday. He put the desk-top together again and tried launching it. But it started operating before he touched the switch button... So there must be something wrong with the switch, too. As a matter of fact, the switch button has been kind of loose for a while, and Cow has been telling me to be carefull when starting up the computer.

4:57 p.m. Desk-top has revived miraculously, but without the face panel covering the front including the switch. Now the bare switching system is exposed, because Cow thinks that it was the softened spring of the switch button which had caused the trouble. The switch button was attached to the front panel with the spring, therefore, no panel, no problem. Have been concerened about dust getting inside or our clients feeling disturbed, however, stupid Cow seems reluctant to find new switch parts to replace the old one.

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Caterpillar

3:58 p.m. It's a tough day. Am tired. Have been tied up at meeting after meeting since morning as have written yesterday. Why is it that more than half of my clients come all at once on this particular day? Have managed to get over three sessions and still have two more left to go. Cannot believe this is happening. Wonder if I can survive till tomorrow. I'd probably be dead by the time I get home tonight.

4:02 p.m. Meantime, Cow seems to be humming a tune, happy and content with the aluminum-faced, raw-switchboard-exposed desk-top, because it's operating slightly smoother and quicker than before. Having a fantasy of choking his neck. No, that was breaking his neck.

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Caterpillar

3:41 p.m. Cow has told me about this cheap Karaoke chain called Karaoke Honpo Maneki-neko. This Karaoke chain, according to Cow who apparently got the information from TV, was supposed to offer extremely cheap rates for a room equipped with a Karaoke machine. Very interesting.

3:43 p.m. Have checked out its web site. The price is certainly remarkable. The price of a room during daytime (from 9:00AM to 7:00PM) on weekdays is twenty-five yen per every half an hour, though you have to order at least one drink. That sums up to merely one hundred yen plus drink fees, even if you sang your heart out for four hours! However, have realized that the night time rates are not particularly cheap compared to other Karaoke boxes. So that's the trick. They charge you remarkably cheap rates just for slow hours, but the word will be spread about the extremely cheap Karaoke chain, which would resultingly fill their rooms with customers. Hmm, there's a strategy. Got that, Cow?

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Caterpillar

1:25 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. O have been our next door neighbor for as long as I can remember. Mr. O has retired about ten or so years ago, and since then, he and his wife have been living a quiet life. Mrs. O is a Chunichi Dragons fan as well as an anti-Giants fan, and when she was much younger, I remember hearing her cursing the team whenever they had lost a game against the Yomiuri Giants. Her voice would boom out in the quiet night, because all the windows were opened in the summer back in those days. Mr. O was usually quiet, but lately he's become hard of hearing, often annoying his wife for his delayed and bizzare responses in an unexpectedly loud voice.

I was out on the veranda for a smoke this morning, when I heard a jangling of coins scattered on the floor followed by Mr. O's loud cry saying, "Kane(money)!" I pricked up my ears to eaves drop on what he was about to say. Minutes went by. Silence... What?! What was it? What happened to the money?

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Caterpillar

11:15 p.m. I feel good. Have gone out to get myself a new pair of glasses. Have been wearing the old one for more than five years and the metal replacement temples have turned white, probably from too much perspiration, while the temple covers have been miserably cracked. Since have received my share of the payment for Mr. N-jima's project last month, decided it's about time I got a new pair. Cow who came along insisted on a pink plastic frame, but I had no intention looking bizarre. In the end, I settled for a grey plastic frame.

Tomorrow happens to be "Chu-shu-no Mei-getsu(the time of year when you can see the most beautiful full moon)." The weather seems to be OK, so I think am going to spend some time looking up at the sky and appreciate the most beautiful moon of the year with my new glasses.

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Caterpillar

2:15 p.m. According to the weather news I've heard a short while ago, we're having clear skies this evening. Good condition for moon viewing. Let's have this opportunity to enjoy the beautiful moon and appreciate how lucky we are to be able to savor such moment. It might be nice if you had a small glass of Sake to keep you company. Mmm, sounds great.

2:19 p.m. On the other hand, must not stay up too late. Two workmen have arrived at our door around 8:30 this morning, and they've been tearing down wallpaper ever since. There were several heaps of ripped wallpaper on the floor when I left the house, with the hall and stairs covered with shreds in all sizes. I didn't know they were coming until they actually rang the doorbell, and wished JoOusama had told me earlier, since had to go up and down the narrow staircase while one of the men frantically tore down the wallpaper which was scratched and draped in most parts, thanks to Mikeco. Hope things will be different by the time I get home, but am pretty sure the work would take another couple of days.

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Caterpillar

2:53 p.m. Mmm, it was a beeaauuutiful moon. Round like a ball of cheese, and bright. No wonder ancient people celebrated and partied on the night of Chushu-no Meigetsu.

Was also glad to see that some people still follow the tradition of making offerings on this occasion. It's part of our Japanese traditions and customs to make offerings of round food such as Odango(rice dumplings) or Satoimo(taro) potatoes, that resemble the shape of the full moon seen on the night of Chusu-no Meigetsu, though people who do this are growing less and less. As I passed by a Yaoya(vegetable shop) yesterday, I noticed two plates set on a small table in the front space of the shop. On one plate was a heap of ripe grapes, and on the other plate was a heap of Odango, accompanied with a few stems of Susuki(Japanese pampas grass) in a tumbler half filled with water. Simple. Simple but enough to bring up the mood for moon-viewing.

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Caterpillar

5:01 p.m. My new glasses have been getting more and more comfortable every day. At first, the frame bothered me a bit because my previous pair had larger frames and I didn't have to see everything through a grey circle. However, it is wonderful to not have to shove up my new glasses every three minutes, and I've been satisfied merely just because of that.

5:09 p.m. As a matter of fact, perhaps the only problem with them, though am not sure if I could call it a problem, is that no one seems to notice that have changed my glasses....

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Caterpillar

12:23 p.m. Heard a bunch of voices breaking into a loud cheer, and saw a crowd of girls from a nearby high school gathered on the corner of 7-eleven. Many students from that high school come out to buy their lunch around this time of day. We weren't allowed to go out to buy lunch in our days, as I recall. The teachers used to make an exception sometimes, though we still needed a permit from the teacher to go out, and such occasions were very rare, not to mention. Cow and I have been wondering for a while, if those students were allowed to go out for lunch, daily without any permisiion. Well, things could change over time.

12:33 p.m. And there also are some things that saty the same no matter what. Selfish people who crowd around money and power, the episodes of Mito Koumon, Cow's laziness and my unpunctuality (came in a couple of minutes late today and have kept my client waiting)...

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Caterpillar

3:16 p.m. Have received email from a travel website, offering a link exchange. It's the second time have received such offer, and as usual, was delighted to know that someone has actually read my articles. It always makes me happy to think that I might have been given a chance to help people learn more about Japan. Hope my articles would be of some use.

3:38 p.m. Just sent reply to the travel website. Am happy about the link offer, but it always makes me sweat when sending back email in English. Assuming from her name, the sender seemed to be a non-native English speaker just like the first offer I'd got more than a year ago, so perhaps I don't have to be too nervous about my English but still, I don't want to sound rude. As a result, I spend a long time at my computer trying to choose the right words, only to find out that it seems all wrong and start all over again. Have already spent nearly two hours on it...

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Caterpillar

2:03 p.m. Very strong wind has been blowing since morning. Cow has gone out to the nearby supermarket, but hasn't returned yet. Has the wind blown him away somewhere? No way. If Cow would be blown away, I'd be flying over the Niigata by now.

2:06 p.m. Cow has returned and announced that he was going to roast Sanma (Pacific saury) for supper. Well, it is the best season for Sanma, that's true. Sanma that arrive in stores around this time of year are said to taste super, as they have plenty of fat. And since have brought up the topic about Sanma, here's a little trick to pick out the freshest Sanma. Rule 1, pick the ones with pointed yellow beaks, rule 2, if you could possibly peer inside the operculum, see if it's bright red, because the coclor is a proof for freshness.

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Caterpillar

12:25 p.m. Was awakened by the scorching sun around noon. Apparently, had fallen asleep while reading Sara Paretsky for I found the paperback mercifully shoved aside, though the bookmark had been blown off to the far end of my room. It was quite windy by the time I woke up, thanks to the umpteenth typhoon this season, possibly one of the reasons I was able to sleep this late without having to get up to turn on the fan, although I was soaked with sweat and the Goza (straw rug) kept sticking onto my back and shoulders.

12:34 p.m. By the way, I went on the Internet to check out my seat for the Def Leppard concert in November. The ticket has arrived yesterday, and the green envelope that contained the ticket sat there waiting to be opened on my desk however, could not pluck up energy to launch the computer and go searching where my seat could be. Anyway, have checked now, to find that I was seated on the left side of the sixteenth row facing the stage. Not a good seat, in fact, not good at all. But cannot complain since have merely made a phone call to obtain it. Besides, am lucky enough to be able to go to rock concerts. A couple of years back, couldn't afford to go to one.

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Caterpillar

8:37 a.m. Must go down to the hospital to check in on Obaba. Haven't been there in a while. It's the Coming of the Aged Day, after all. Considering the two hour trip to the hospital, I'll leave around ten.

11:32 a.m. I overslept...

7:08 p.m. Am back but very tired. Obaba has lost some weight since she hadn't been eating regularly through her mouth, but other than that, she looked, well, OK. Have bought some pork rib slices for tomorrow's lunch.

11:00 p.m. JoOusama has dug up some of my old text books and notebooks from New York, and wanted to check on me to put aside the ones she could throw away. Rare case (to get rid of unwanted things) as it was, I've put up with her for more than an hour biting back the fury against her. She had used up the pumpkin I was going to cook with the rib slices... Must come up with a substitute lunch menu.

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Caterpillar

4:20 p.m. Must apologize. Yesterday I wrote that it was Coming of the Aged Day. Wrong. It was Respect for the Aged Day. Coming of Age Day used to be on January 15th, but lately it has been removed to the second Monday in January, thanks to the Happy Monday Act. I meant Respect for the Aged Day.

4:38 p.m. I don't know what got into me to make such a mistake. Perhaps I was too tired having been to the hospital and back, mostly unable to occupy a seat. Still, my knees gave way a couple of times on my way back, because I'd fallen asleep without knowing while I was standing, leaning on the side seat by the door. Cow seems to be tired too, after a meeting with one of his client who is an old lady. Well, we've got to keep working to earn a living.

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Caterpillar

2:06 p.m. A huge typhoon is coming up along the Pacific coast. It feels like a Dejavu since have written something exactly like this a couple of weeks ago, but it is not. It's a different typhoon, just that it's as big as the one before which left seious damages in Wakayama.

2:12 p.m. Typhoon warnings had been crawling on the TV screens and bursting from radios since yesterday. According to the latest Yahoo! weather news, it is feared to land on somewhere in Tokai or Kanto region late this evening. I was beginning to get a bit concerned that I might not make it home if the typhoon really hit Kanto, when I received a call from my client that she wanted to cancel today's meeting because she didn't want to risk herself to go out on a day like this. Understandable. My other client whom I expected to see this afternoon didn't turn up... I checked my email and found that he'd fed me a line telling that he was going home early and not getting out today. Why couldn't he just give me a call before I wasted my time waiting for thirty minutes, gave him a ring on his cell phone only to be ignored, then finding out that he'd sent email at twelve fifty-something while he was supposed to arrive at one thirty?

2:35 p.m. Have had enough. Am going home early today.

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Caterpillar

4:09 p.m. I left my office around five, I think. But it was too late. By the time I got to the station, the subway was packed and running back and forth part of the way. I managed to squeeze myself between frustrated passengers, only to find I was stuck at Shibuya because the most of the trains had stopped by that time due to the typhoon.

Weighing the risk of taking the bus, waiting in a huge line for hours, tossed and jostled in the packed bus, then suddenly forced to get off at a bus stop a good distance away from home, I decided to walk home. At least, I knew my way and thankfully, the rain had stopped. All I had to be careful was the sudden gust of wind and some occasional debris blown off by the wind.

Eventually, I reached home about four hours after I'd left my office. What a day. But I got home in one piece, nothing broken except my umbrella that had been savagely bent in some places by the wind .

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Caterpillar

12:07 p.m. Have slept late again... Got up around noon, washed a thick blanket that I haven't been using during the summer in a hurry. I was afraid it might not dry off even if I'd left it to dry all afternoon, since it was cloudy although the forecast had predicted sunny skies.

2:32 p.m. Started making my first Python file. I was so determined to learn Python programing after I'd met my friend from Germany in January, but have been away from it since had to spend time on unexpected things all spring. I remembered around August, that I should get back to it but couldn't actually put my mind to it since had sort of burned out after the Mr. N-jima project. Today, I finally got myself to get back to it.

11:32 p.m. Have spent hours trying to figure out why the command prompt spits back "SyntaxError" when I ordered it to view the python file I'd made in advance on notepad. Finally discovered, to my disappointment, that had left out the most important command, "print." No wonder I was scolded with the same error message every time.

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Caterpillar

1:47 p.m. Suddenly, it's cool. I was pouring with sweat walking home from Shibuya Wednesday evening and now, it seems the season has suddenly changed bringing the dry cool air of autumn. Well, it should be, I mean, September will be over in a week.

1:51 p.m. When autumn comes around, so does the horse race season. Must start preparing for the grade one races coming up. Come to think of it, Koube Shinbun-hai, a prep race for Kikka-sho (the third and final classic race for the three-year-olds) will be run tomorrow. Orfevre, the double crown winner is going to be running after three months of good rest. Haven't checked the barrier draw yet, but am sure he would win, or be second at the worst.

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Caterpillar

11:48 a.m. How come cannot get up in the morning?

4:00 p.m. It was an easy win for Orfevre. This horse is going to win the triple crown. The question is, which horse comes in second (and third)? Had no intention going against Orfevre, so have spent the remaining time before the race, giving a good pondering in handicapping the main race in Nakayama, the All Comer. Had to think hard since it was the first race of this autumn season, and finally settled for trifectas keying Earnestly for the first, Gestalt, Meiner Lacrima, Shadow Gate on second and Columbus Circle on third. The idea of Caliburn slipping into third had crossed my mind, but dismissed it since he was the second favored which meant they won't pay out much if he came in third. The result was agonizing. Earnestly won the race as expected, Gestalt in tow however, Caliburn had actually slipped in third between Gestalt and Columbus Circle... Wish I could have poisoned Caliburn or something. Why, oh why, did I cross him out? Because it only payed off 6,150 yen. That is not much compared to the trifecta of Earnestly, Gestalt and Columbus Circle, a long shot that might have payed off as much as 15,680 yen to 100 yen. Well, it sure did open my eyes.

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Caterpillar

2:28 p.m. Got up around seven today. Humph. Can get up in the morning if I tried. But of course, since got work today. Besides, JoOusama had threatened me late last night (it was after 11:00 P.M.) that the wall paper boys were going to be back again, arriving at our doorstep before 8:30 in the morning.

Not just because I got up early, I dropped by one of the libraries on my way to work. Wanted to check out what on earth has happened to the Sara Paretsky books that I'd placed a reservation on August 26, which was already nearly a month ago. It transpired that the books I'd reserved were held up at the former reader's. I had been stood up for ten minutes merely to get this information out a librarian's mouth, then another ten minutes after she'd asked me to give her some more time to check if she could find the books in other libraries to put them on backorder. Thus, twenty minutes of my precious morning time went down the drain even though I've got up early with an effort, because of some irresponsible library user and a reluctant librarian.

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Caterpillar

2:26 p.m. Am very excited. Have just read in Yahoo! News that the American movie version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is going to be released next year. Have read the book a year ago and loved it. Enjoyed it so much have read all three of the "Millennium" series which I enjoyed even more. It's a rare case for the sequence to turn out more intriguing than the former stories, but Steig Larsen has proved to be more than able to produce that rare case. Had glimpsed or heard earlier somewhere that they were making an American version of the Swedish hit movie of the story, I wasn't sure Hollywood would be much interested in the idea at the time. And it's going to be on screen!

2:38 p.m. Have just seen the trailer. Mmm, Lisabeth is just the way have imagined from the book. Daniel Craig for Blomkvist wasn't my idea, though. It's merely a trailer so can't be relying on it, but the film looks good, true to the original story. Directed by David Fincher (sounds promising), the film is going to be on screen from December in the U.S. and Sweden, from February, 2012 in Japan. Can't wait to see it (though am not going to a cinema)!

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Caterpillar

5:44 p.m. Speaking of movies, my conversation with Cow drifted to a film released in the 80s, "Stakeout." It wasn't much of a mystery as I recall, but Cow and I both liked how Richard Dreyfuss had performed.

5:51 p.m. Have done a brief search on him and discovered that he was also in films such as "The Graduate," "Jaws," and "Stand By Me (where? who?)." When it comes to "Stakeout," though, Cow and I always agree on the favorite scene when Richard fixes a gin and tonic for his make believe wife Geena (Cathy Bates), pouring excessive amount of gin mixing with merely a drop of tonic saying, "Giiiiiiiin tonic."

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Caterpillar

3:32 p.m. As I was getting on the escalator at the station, I noticed an old lady trying to get on as well. Must respect the elderly, I thought, and let her go ahead. But the woman was somehow moving unnervingly slow. It took her at least 10 seconds to collect her shopping bags before getting on the escalator, and then another 10 seconds to adjust her step to actually get on. By the time she was safely on the step of the escalator, I knew there was a line forming behind me which made me think perhaps I shouldn't have let her go before me.

Unfortunately, we had to go another flight up in order to get out on the streets and there was a landing at the end of the escalator before we had to get on another one up. So I had to wait another 40 seconds while the old woman once again repeated her process over from the start, regardless of the congestion she was creating behind her. As old and frail as she was, I was thinking the slow process couldn't have been helped, when I heard someone clicking his or her tongue. Wanted to yell back, "Hey, what's the problem with you?" but was too scared to see how long the line behind me had become. Oh, God bless these people.

The End

Caterpillar

2:41 p.m. Cow's favorite website, Karah Payer, has updated an article of an IQ test. It's supposed to tell you your IQ by solving forty questions in this test. Come to think of it, I've done several IQ tests while in school, but they never told me what my IQ was. Have always wondered if I had low IQ since I was the usually the one slower than everybody else. Since there was a link to the test, I decided to give it a try.

3:10 p.m. It took me a while to finish the test. As IQ tests generally are, this test also shows you a bunch of diagrams. What you got to do is, find some regularity between the diagrams and choose the answer which you think would be the most probable to come at the end of the series of diagrams. The first couple of problems were easy, rather like matching games however, as the test grew nearer to the end, it became incomprehensible. How was I supposed to find any regularity? The diagrams merely seemed to be laid out at random to me. Finally, I finished the test, exhausted. And my IQ, according to the test was... 104. Normal. Half relieved that I wasn't in the border, but a little disappointed at the same time because a tiny piece of my mind kept wishing I belonged to the higher zone. As I reported my results, Cow told me he'd alreadytried the test and his IQ was 105. So we're like the pot calling the kettle black.

The End

Caterpillar