Peasant: She turned me into a newt!
Bedevere: A newt?
Peasant: … I got better.

— Monty Python and the Holy Grail

We left for a long anticipated camping trip Tuesday, driving past Okutama and Mount Mitake to a beautiful expanse of forested wilderness on the northwestern edge of Tokyo. After 30 minutes of driving I asked Hitomi to take the wheel because my head didn’t feel right. I suspected a fever but thought I might just be tired and congested. Anway what better place to recover from a mild cold than a campsite with clean air, calm nature, and clear weather.

We arrived, set up camp, and started the barbecue grill. Then we ate a mountain of marinated beef and pork along with hot dogs and a few veggies to help it all down. Despite reports of good weather, we finished under a few drops of rain. We headed up to take showers, but after trudging up the hill I changed my mind. I was feeling the fever again, and I was afraid a shower might send me over the edge.

After some warm tea, we all crawled into the tent to sleep. We could hear our neighbors, a family, carrying on a low conversation. Of greater concern, the group of college students just twenty meters down the hill were talking and laughing loudly.  I had spoken with them earlier that evening. They had all taken a liking to our girls, and they were friendly enough.  Just college students.

Normally, I can sleep through such things, but for the next 2 hours I lay awake tossing and turning, unable to get comfortable in any position.  I was always too hot or too cold, and my legs and back hurt terribly as if my nerves were being stretched tight. Meanwhile, the students became louder and louder. I confess, I fantasized about setting their tents on fire using the charcoal starter I’d brought. Don’t worry, it was only fantasy never a consideration. But, finally, driven by outrage and an overriding need to use the restroom, I unzipped the tent and walked out in the rain. I came upon three of them in the shelter just below us. One was standing on a table singing exuberantly into a broom handle to an audience of two hooting and smiling girls. I lurched into their view and with as much fury as I could convey, a lot at that moment (believe it or not), I said in Japanese, “I’m your neighbor, and none of us can sleep!”  The singing guy lowered his broom and said, “Sumimasen!” (excuse me).

That might have been the end of it, but I did something out of character that I’ll blame on my fever (although maybe your character is precisely what comes out at such a time). I left them with a few choice words in English to let them know what I thought of “Sumimasen” and turned and walked away. Then I went to the restroom. I heard a couple of girls talking loudly in stalls, one of them nearly wailing. I imagine they were drunk. Due to the nature of Japanese restrooms, I could see the whole row of stalls. I put my head just inside the door and repeated what I’d said at the shelter, minus the last part. They hushed. I went to the bathroom, then returned to bed.

The noise mostly stopped after that, but I couldn’t sleep. All night my head was full of dark thoughts, guilt over getting so angry, and frustration at the pain that kept me awake. I heard the students finally go to sleep at 1:30am. I may have sleep a bit from 4:30 to 7am.

The rain started coming down hard just as we all woke up. We might have waited it out, but I didn’t want to spend another night like the one before. We packed up during a lull and drove straight home. The rest of the story isn’t that interesting. I went to the doctor. A nurse stuck a very thin Q-Tip extremely far up my nose. The test came back “Influenza Type A.” They didn’t specifically test for the H2N1 virus, but it’s the only “Type A” flu going around in Tokyo. So I started taking medicine. That was yesterday. Last night wasn’t great, but I feel much, much better now.

I’ll be working hard today and tomorrow, along with my wife, to get as much done as we can. Probably she and the kids will all be getting sick soon. At least they will be over it before school starts and before my next trip to Cambodia in two weeks. I can’t imagine having to leave with them all sick.

(I suspect I got infected during my trip to downtown Tokyo last week. It could have happened at the hip-hop festival or at “Kabab Box J” near Takeshitadori, where I had an incredibly tasty and highly recommended pita sandwhich. Mmmm, the spicy sauce… But more likely it happened on the train.)

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