a fondness for cows

On Monday, I moved from the hotel that I had been staying in for the previous 4 days [the language school I�m attending provides an annoying variety of housing: hotel, house, home-stay, apartment, dormitory�Ewith and without roommates]. I moved into a double apartment about 30 minutes�Ewalk east of the school. Currently I have no roommate, but rumor has it that one may be arriving shortly.

The apartment is located a couple blocks from Okazaki Nougyou High School. It is a school with an agricultural focus.

There are two nearly-identical bedrooms in the apartment. One is towards the front, and the other is towards the back. From the window in the back bedroom, I can see the farm school�s Holstein cows.

Given my dairy farm upbringing, the cows of course were the deciding factor in choosing my bedroom. As soon as I saw the cows, I had terribly romantic notions of waking up to the gentle, low, heartwarming sounds of content cows.

Japanese cows must be trained to be mute. I haven�t heard one peep, snort, or moo out of a single one of those cows. What a disappointment. . .I�m changing bedrooms tomorrow.

3 short topics

Typhoon number 10! Currently, Japan is anticipating the arrival of it�s tenth typhoon of the summer. Gosh, I can hardly wait.

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When I am hiking, I find that I often �roll� my ankles. I don�t sprain them, they just sort of give way for a split second and then my leg muscles kick in and stop any major damage from being done.

Anyway, during particularly tedious hikes down the little mountain nearby, I often find myself wishing that wide feet and/or wide shoes were fashionable. Then maybe I could find shoes with some sort of �stability flange� molded to them.

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I�ve rented a bicycle to help me get around town in Okazaki. The bike is a total POS.

The most annoying�but probably least consequential�aspect of the bicycle is the humming/buzzing sound it makes.

I�m of the opinion that if a bike generates the same sound as a wind-up car, then it should also possess the same properties. That is, the damn thing ought to be generating and storing energy as I pedal it.