Today, I got my first pay "check" for teaching in Japan: a cash payment for the subbing I did last week. I rewarded myself by going to check out the Mos Burger downtown. Sasebo, oddly enough, is known for its hamburgers (I know I know, they're so Japanese?), and Mos Burger is the gourmet variety. So I went, and the menu was (logically) all in Japanese, but it did have pictures, and I ordered with a decent amount of success (read: I got what I intended to get, but I mostly had to point and it took two guys to understand). I had a little trouble telling them what kind of drink I wanted, since usually I just get ocha (hot tea), and that did not appear to be an option.
The Mos Cheeseburger was every bit as gourmet as a burger can get without being presumptious. It was the size of a McDonald's happy meal burger (which suits me because that's what I order there anyway), and consisted of a bun, mustard, the burger itself, a hefty amount of chili and some cheese. It was quite tasty. I got fries and a coke with it, and they were very good too. The fries were just enough to be good but not so much that you feel like you drank a vat of fat. The coke was about medium sized. Better yet, my order came with a menu and coupons, and the menu is in katakana, which I'm supposed to be able to read. So after I ate, I sat down to translate the thing so next time I'll know how to say what I want. I was having a decent amount of success in this endeavor when I was distracted by a vistor.
It was a lizard.
And it was crawling near the ceiling in my TV room. It was grey and about as long as my hand.
After my initial panic reaction to call Zack, I realized that the little guy was more scared of me than I was of it, which is actually saying a lot. Then I decided that I could not keep this to myself. I had to tell someone! So I pulled out my phone and took some sub-standard pictures (I really really really need a camera here), and then I called Mel for advice.
Mel has lived everywhere, as far as I can tell, and she's not a girly girl who would scream at the word lizard, so I knew I could ask her what she would do and not get "Call 911 and demand that someone help you!!!" Her first reaction was "Lucky! I never see lizards around here!" She went on to explain to me that lizards eat bugs (okay, I knew that, but it hadn't occurred to me yet) and thus it was not a good idea to kill the guy. I wasn't going to kill him anyway, so this was a good start. She then said that she had seen a lizard here eating a cockroach. This warmed me up to the little guy considerably. I had to kill a cockroach last night, and if he was willing to take on that job, I'd be happy to share my TV room with him. She said also that lizards scare easily, and I could probably chase him out an open door. He wasn't exactly in a position for that, though, so I decided against it for the time being. Instead, I left him to his own devices, and when he figured out that I wasn't going to eat him, he rushed down behind the TV and out of sight. I have no idea how he got in to the house in the first place, so I can only hope that he'll either leave the way he came or go about killing every insect on the first floor (I'd rather imagine him not going anywhere near my bedroom).
I successfully calmed myself down enough to take a bath, but when I was done, I found myself still curious about my little visitor. So I got on google. After a quick run through of every lizard common to Japan, with pictures, I'm fairly confident that my buddy is a Japanese Gecko. No, really, that's their common name. In Japan, they're called Nihon-Yamori, and are considered guardians of the house. So, I've named the guy Mushu. (I know, wrong country. I don't care.) I hope I never see Mushu again, or if I do he's on the first floor, but it's good to know that the Japanese like these guys. That must mean they're relatively harmless. For a picture of one who looks a lot scarier than my little guy, go to this webpage:http://homepage3.nifty.com/japrep/gekko/gekko/text/ejpyamori.htm. Mushu looks more like the Geico gecko, only gray. I think he must be a baby. I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or worse, but it certainly was good entertainment for the night.
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