Today was actually a happy accident, although I didn’t realize that at first.

After much hemming and hawing and complaining about the heat (summer finally arrived with a vengeance) I decided to go see Avengers: Age of Ultron. I was done marking exams and had finished all my final marks in the morning and needed to get out of the house. Because of the heat, She Who Must Be Obeyed offered to drive me but I pointed out I needed the exercise as I’d been inside for three days straight.

At the theater, which is only a couple train stops, a bit of a walk and quite a bit of sweat away, I was shocked to discover I was only being charged 1,100 yen (or $8.90 right now). The usual ticket price for a ticket is 1,800 yen ($14.58). When I glanced at the colorful board next to the register all I noticed was that there was a discount for people 55 years old and older.  At first I was surprised and a bit annoyed and then I was like, cool. My graying hair is coming in handy all of a sudden.

It turned out though, after careful inspection, that the theater has adopted a policy it calls “Happy Mondays” where all tickets are discounted. (There are already student discounts.) There are also discounts for having a store card and for coming early in the morning or late at night. I guess I’ll have to wait to exploit my graying hair.

These discounts are interesting because they mean, at long last, that the theaters are having to lower prices to sell tickets and concessions as streaming slowly becomes popular in Japan and most young people watch videos on their phones.  If these discounts last, it means I’ll probably go see more movies.

Today I did my part for the theater by ordering a couple hot dogs for lunch and then getting popcorn and an ice tea to enjoy during the movie. The popcorn was good (and fresh, which is not always true with that theater before noon). According to my scale, means the movie got an automatic three stars out of five.

The movie itself was good, although it was plagued by shaky camera nonsense and not enough Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. It was especially good to see Jeremy Renner get the chance to speak in more than grunts and knowing glares.

The next movies on the list don’t arrive until December (the new Star Wars and the new James Bond). I hope I can see them on a Monday or my gray hair fools the staff.

I mentioned before how we were expecting a lot of work to be done on our apartment at a time when it wasn’t particularly convenient. I was expecting the worst. Instead what we got wasn’t so bad. In fact, it was more than we expected.

While I was at the ISOT, She Who Must Be Obeyed had the day off. That was the day the repair teams arrived and attacked our apartment without mercy.

In one day they replaced the six tatami mats in our bedroom. They are still a bit green, meaning they are brand new, and She Who Must Be Obeyed assures me that they smelled great at first.

While they were in the bedroom they also replaced all the wallpaper, not just the parts that were peeling off because of humidity. While they were replacing the wallpaper, they also repaired a couple small holes our girls had created in the walls from practicing various dance moves and/or rough-housing.

(Note: according to our girls the holes were created by “I don’t know,” whoever that is, so we’ve punished both just to be safe. Once “I don’t know” is located, he/she will also be punished.)

(Note: Yes, I am aware that, officially, I Don’t Know is on third base.)

Unfortunately, they also removed the screw I’d installed to hold our air conditioner remote. This means the remote could end up anywhere and probably will.

In the variety room, they patched the ruined section of floor covering that had come loose because of humidity and then slowly been shredded by my chair. I’d covered with a blue plastic cover that had to be taped down to keep it from sliding. Now, there’s a brown spot that doesn’t exactly match the floor covering. They also gave me an extra bit to serve as a floor protector.

The old plastic cover now serves as a humidity shield in our closet.

Finally, they brought the newly screened screen doors meaning we could enjoy the unseasonably cool weather without sharing our apartment with random insects.

It all went so smoothly that I kind of wish I’d broken a couple other things just to see if they’d fix it. That said, I’m now waiting for the next thing to break. And something will break, I’m pretty sure of it.

In our apartment we are suddenly getting what we wished for. Unfortunately it’s happening now, not later.

Our rental contract gets renewed this year which means we are expected to sign some papers and hand over some money. However, before we did that, She Who Must Be Obeyed and I decided to request either lower rent or a bunch of fixes.

The management company opted for the fixes, and then did us one better, albeit at a bad time.

First, we requested new tatami mats and new wall paper in our bedroom. Because our apartment is on the first floor we get a lot of humidity which isn’t helped by every room having large sliding glass doors that act as water condensers. Our tatami mats near the sliding doors have gotten moldy and and the wallpaper next to the doors has become loose and moldy. All that will be fixed.

Second, because of the same problem, the linoleum in the Variety Room got moisture under it and it came loose. Over time the wheels on my desk chair began to tear holes in the loose linoleum and I now have it covered with a couple sheets of plastic. The management company agreed to replace that, but I suspect they are going to do it in an ugly patch rather than fix the problem.

Finally, the screens on all the sliding doors have torn and developed large “bug doors” that make it easier for insects to get in and out of the apartment. We were going to take care of that ourselves, but the management company suddenly confiscated all our screen doors and they are being repaired.

Unfortunately this means that during the coolest early July we’ve had since I’ve been in Japan we can’t open our windows and enjoy the cooler air without hosting several hundred insects. Also, the management company are in a hurry to get all this done at the same time I’m in a hurry to finish exams.

We asked for it, now we’re getting it. We just wish they’d waited a bit.

I’m currently on a forced intermittent fast. This is because tomorrow I’ve got a health check and the check will involve a tube and a camera.

This will happen because, as the company I work for likes to point out to the people who hire them, “Dwayne is over 35” and because I’m on Japan’s national health care scheme, I’m entitled/required to take a physical every year.

One of the oddities is that it used to alternate between full physical and mere x-ray from year to year. However, the last couple years it’s been a more comprehensive check involving blood, x-rays, eye checks and peeing in cups.

Every now and then, though, I’m asked to do a stomach cancer test. There is, however, no good way to do this. Choice One is taking a gas tablet, drinking barium and getting placed on the medical equivalent of carnival ride and then getting spun, angled and rotated whilst being irradiated. That is followed by a long belch and a mad dash home before the barium solution decides to evacuate. That is followed by hours on the toilet waiting for the barium solution to finish exiting.

A few weeks after the earthquake and tsunami in 2011 I was told that I’d have to get a health check that included drinking barium solution. My response involved a shockingly profane version of “I would prefer not to”, because I didn’t want to get stuck in a train station during a rolling blackout and end up spending hours in a station toilet. Also, there was no guarantee I could get a taxi because of the restrictions on gasoline.

Tomorrow, though, I’ve opted for the upper endoscopy. I’ll get drugged and have a camera shoved down my throat. Because of that, I won’t be able to eat until sometime tomorrow afternoon and then I probably won’t want to eat as I’ll probably have a sore throat and nausea. (Remember, this is for my health.)

In the end I’ll decide which is a better test, although I suspect they’ll both leave me feeling like crap. One literally, and one figuratively, of course.