Yeah, I Know. It Was My Fault. But...

"Western" breakfast at an Internet Cafe This photo was taken at 7:02 am this morning. Why did I go to the Internet cafe that early? Well, tell you the truth, I didn't "go" there early this morning. I'm still at the net cafe and I've been here since 11 pm last night. Right. I didn't sleep at home but slept here. See the pink blanket they let me use? The reclining chair was very comfortable -- could have been more comfortable than my bed, actually. No, no. It's not that I got kicked out of my apartment and became one of the "net cafe refugees" in Japan. But I might be one soon. What happened? I lost my room key and couldn't get into my apartment room last night. It was just unbelievable. Yes, I'm not the most careful person on the face of the earth, and do something stupid like this once in a while. But WHY did it have to be yesterday?! Yesterday morning, I had to work terribly hard. I completed almost legendary workload all by myself and got already exhausted at around 11:00 am. But I had to wash dishes again at lunchtime, too, which was also a hard work because it was a very busy day even though it was a weekday. I was almost unconscious while at work at night, being completely exhausted from the manual labor. All I could think about then was hot, relaxing bath and nice, hearty soup dish with a little drink because I didn't have to work next morning. Nabeyaki udon was my choice -- with special toppings such as prawn tempura, kamaboko, egg, maitake mushrooms, even small oysters!-- and mizuna from my balcony garden. I looked at the clock at every five minutes and finally it was time to go home. I bought all the necessary ingredients at a supermarket on my way and went back to my apartment. That was when the tragedy started. I checked the small pocket of my bag -- that's where I always keep my room key-- but found nothing in there. Wait a minute. I looked everywhere in the bag, but still couldn't find it. OK. Calm down. It's gotta be here somewhere, because I didn't take it out today. I took a deep breath, sat down on the steps in front of the apartment door, and emptied my bag. Still no key. Checked all the pockets of my clothes... but still nothing. OMG! So instead of relaxing in the hot bath or enjoying hot udon noodles, I rode my bike in the cold wind to visit all the places I went yesterday: a convenience store, my locker at the workplace, the net cafe where I had a snack before night time work, the language school I work at night... Of course I couldn't find the key. Finally I gave up all the wonderful plans for that night and decided to stay overnight at an Internet cafe. They have a special night hour rate, and at this particular net cafe, all the food is 50% off this month. And they serve breakfast for free. Not bad, huh? So now, I'm posting this to kill time until the landlord's office opens at 9 am. I'm going to ask them to let me use the master key to get into my room. And after that, I might have to change the door lock to be safe, which would cost me a fortune! OH WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN? Yeah, I know. It's my carelessness that should be blamed. But...AHHHHH!!! Yeah, OK. Let's see the bright side of things. The bright side of this was -- uh -- the blanket was very cute. ------------ 11:10 am Thanks so much to those who already left caring comments after reading above. And here's more to jerk your tears (... of laughter, I guess). At 9 am, I called the landlord's office from the Internet cafe. But I was told that they only take care of the paperwork on behalf of the owner of the apartment who lives in a different prefecture, and they don't keep master keys; the owner does. And what I should do was calling a locksmith and having the door lock replaced to be safe, then bringing one new spare key to their office so that they could send it to the owner. Sigh. B-I-G expense! But no other choice. Feeling down, I used the restroom at the cafe, then the toilet flooded on me... Now, I called a locksmith, went to the bank to get money, got back to my apartment and had the lock replaced and paid for it. Then I brought the new spare key to the office as I was told, and there was no one in the office. Yeah, right. Things will go like this all day today. The horoscope must be warning me NOT to do anything or go anywhere today. If I ride my bicycle, I might hit an old lady crossing the road, and if I go shopping, the particular thing I want would be sold out at everywhere. OK. Fine. Then I'll go for a domestic pleasure. I'm going to take a hot bath now and after that, make nice nabeyaki udon which I missed last night. How could these go wrong? I don't know. They might, somehow. But I really REALLY need some comfort now! ------ 1:30 pm, same day. Look! Nabeyaki udon... Finally. Dear readers, I took a nice hot bath. Now it's a warm, sunny afternoon. I'm eating this nabeyaki udon as I watch my laundry drying on the balcony. So comfortable and relaxing... Everything that happened last night and this morning seems like a bad dream. Maybe after I had a good sleep tonight, I would be able to laugh about the whole thing from the bottom of my heart. Now... let's go for hot tea and dessert... :)