Wednesday 13th April
I awoke at 5am again after spending most of the night in the bathroom.
No, I wasn't ill, I have a peculiar jet lag symptom - needing to pee every hour or so. Actually, my jet lag is very similar to being pregnant... headache, tiredness, insomnia (yes, they do go together), fuzzy headedness, irritability and nausea. And needing to pee all the time. And eat a lot.
I think the nausea part is still my jishin yoi - earthquake sickness - making its presence felt.
While waiting for everyone else to wake up I was treated to almost two full hours of cuddles from a scarily affectionate Raymi-cat. Most unusual.
I have a pleasant day ahead as Rhiannon is going to be at school all day. She hasn't been to school properly since the Tohoku earthquake on 11th March.
Her instructions are to be standing outside the house a 8.05am to be collected by the minibus. However, it's pouring with rain so we hover in the porch looking out for it before fumbling with the damn keys to let her out of the gate when it arrives. I'm so proud of her confidence. I couldn't have done that at her age. She will be delivered back to the gate at around 4.30pm. Bliss!
Tim goes off car-hunting and I'm all alone at long last. I like solitude. Very much indeed.
I don my coat and wish I hadn't sent my wellies off on the boat and head off for my first dog walk in Germany. I'm a little nervous as I've already seen numerous dogs walking along the pavement off-leash. In Japan, dogs are never off-leash unless they are in a dog run.
Besides, the dogs in Japan wear dresses and are generally the size of guinea pigs. The dogs here are not. They are huge.
Kita and I set off. No idea where we are going but I've seen a lake on the map so I head for that. Kita is understandably skittish after her ordeal and I hope a nice long walk, albeit in the pouring rain, will help. We found our way down to the lake and the first thing we saw as we turned a muddy corner was the biggest mastiff type dog I've ever seen. And it was not on a lead. And I couldn't see the owner. Oh. My. God! Kita obviously thought the same too and didn't know what to make of it. Luckily there was a gate in the way of their meeting. I waited for the owner to show.
Shiba Inus are unusual dogs - very primitive and more like cats in many respects. For example, Kita doesn't go in for butt-sniffing but prefers to sniff the other dog's nose. Our vet in Japan told us that Shibas quite often do not like squashed-nose dogs and I wonder if this is the reason. If a dog tries to sniff Kita's butt she tends to sit down. And if that means sitting on the other dog's head, so be it. Embarrassingly she once peed on a dog who had the temerity to stick its head where she didn't want it. I prayed she wouldn't do this again...
She didn't. It was worse and she showed an aggression I've never seen in her before. No attack, but a full on Shiba scream and bared teeth showed her antipathy. Mercifully the mastiff was very well trained and friendly and just trotted off. I am quite pleased I didn't understand what its owner said to me.
Our walk continued with no further incident apart from a brief, non-contact meeting with an enormous German Shepherd and we returned home absolutely sodden.
Just as I was changing out my wet clothes, Tim phoned. The car was much further away than he expected so he'd be away for some time. Meanwhile, someone was coming to fix a leak in the bathroom, a faulty radiator thermostat. At 10am. It was 10am now so I hurried to get dressed.
The janitor arrived. A charming Polish gentleman who will be a wonderful person to get to know properly. He did his work, told me his life story and, as he was leaving asked, "where is your television? You cannot have no television if you have a child". Hah! Ours is on the boat. Bless him, he promised to find one for us and deliver it as soon as he could. He came back with one a couple of days later.
Tim eventually and triumphantly returned with our new car and our liaison chappie.
We'd better get some food in, so, following our guide, Tim drove us to our nearest store. 'Kaisers' is the name of a chain of shops that apparently are of good quality.
But it's not within walking distance of our home.
And this is when a slight depression hit me. Nothing is nearby. We're living in a beautiful leafy suburb of Berlin, but there is nothing here, no shops, not even a train station. All shops close on Sundays, many close on Saturday afternoons too. I can no longer pop across the road for milk or food.
And where is everything else? I need a nearby post office if I'm to keep running my business. A vet, dentist, doctor... where are they?
The thought of driving here terrifies me. It's all on the wrong side of the road and I've never driven that way before. Besides, I'm not yet allowed to drive here for insurance reasons so will have to rely on Tim for that. And he will be at work.
I start comparing Berlin to Tokyo and this is not a good thing. I have moments of "I don't want to be here". I must snap out of that but am finding it hard.