Maggots, Macrobiotics, and Matsumoto

This week we had a fun alliterative weekend.

To backtrack, last week just before Alan arrived I had "fun with fruit flies".  I've tried to be hyper vigilant about keeping the kitchen and trash area clean, and as I was super cleaning in preparation for Alan's arrival I found a science-fiction worthy hive of fruit flies.  It's very hot here, as anyone in Japan can attest to, and without air conditioning the trash is a breeding ground of nasties.  I vacuumed, mopped, swished, swatted and otherwise brutally destroyed the fruit fly habitat and thought the situation was under control.

Not so.... oh, definitely not so.  Sunday we had fruit flies: the next generation.

Yes, maggots.

How can something so small be so yucky?

I know it's completely irrational to dislike maggots more than bigger creepy things... I do fine with snakes, large spiders, mutant cockroaches... but maggots.  <Shudder>  My worst nightmare is waking up to an apartment filled with maggot-covered rats.  Creeptastic.

Rat tailed maggot.  Please kill me now.

Letting go of violent tendencies.

So began the crazy cleaning round two, this time employing chemical bug destroying spray I rarely ever use because I suspect karma will come around and kill me with cancer from the fumes.  We also have fly tape, a garbage lid bug zapper, *and* a poisonous floor bug playground.  Bugs: you WILL die!

On a happier note, we had a very tasty lunch with the other local ALTs  at a macrobiotic restaurant called Gen in Matsumoto city.  We narrowly missed the lunch after getting lost by the station .

I ask you... is it logical that the one place in the entire town where loads of foreigners will be coming in--i.e., the train station--is the one place they decide to *end* all of the signs in romaji?  Really?

Apparently, it must be so.  As we got hopelessly lost one the wrong side of some small stream after being unable to find the correct road away from the station.   To top it all off, we returned to our parking spot at the high school to find ourselves locked in.  Then, we sat in traffic in a bazillion degree heat for ... forever.

But I digress.

We had a very tasty lunch, and the ones in charge were kind enough to alert the restaurant to my embarrassing soy allergy on top of my other food restrictions, so I was happily able to eat everything served!
However, Alan's soy-filled plate was much prettier, so take a look and start salivating!

All vegetarian lunch at Gen

Only bummer was the desserts were tofu extravaganza, so obviously out for me.  Oh well, I'm sure it was tasty to those who could partake.

Overall, a nice weekend, though we will never drive in Matsumoto ever again.  It seemed silly to pay 1000 Y for us both to take the train round trip when we could drive... but it's also silly to get locked into a parking lot and almost die of heat stroke sitting at the longest stop lights ever invented.  You live you learn.