Ukiyo-e

I went to the opening of a Japanese Cultural function tonight. It was alright, but I met some of their people so that made me feel like part of the demanding machine known as Cultural Relations. They seem really nice, and I was impressed that I knew the complicated Japanese business card exchange Tango.

After the lecture, their manager came back to the microphone and thanked the artist then mentioned the reception outside and before she'd finished the word 'reception' half the audience (the Americans, I'm ashamed to say) had bolted out and by the time I'd politely waited til she'd finished and made my way at a dignified pace towards the food there was, and there is no other phrase for it, a feeding frenzy at the sushi table. People were waddling away with plates piled five or six high with sushi. I'm surprised no one lost an eye due to chopstick prodding.

The heatwave is apparently going to begin to die tonight- tomorrow will be a mere 33C as opposed to today's 41C. The real problem is the power grid can't cope and we've lost power three nights in a row now. But weird brownouts- one night everything upstairs carked it, then on Tuesday night my fan worked but nothing else did then last night Roomie's fan worked and nothing else did (happily though the blackout waited until after Project Runway). It is so foul without air-con. So. Foul. I don't even know how to open my windows, not that it would change anything because it's so still and I look on to an alleyway. All last night I kept waking up drenched in sweat, sprawled across my bed.