11 days left until we leave. went to stockholm, picked up the VISAs. the two embassy guys we met were suuper nice; seems like the mean/grumpy guys actually work in another part of the building. wife's sisters are visiting, i have to empty my phone and give it to them today or tomorrow.

in stockholm when we were walking there were two fat old ladies going in the opposite direction, the one with the bright pink hat stopped with a big smile and said "good day! good day, misses! and good day, mister! this is the mister, right?" and we said "yes" and she said good day again and then we said "thanks, good day" and she left. her friend was silent the whole time.

"good day" is really archaic in swedish, no one says it anymore, my wife was super shocked to hear it. and i don't really know why the lady assumed we were married (i mean, we ARE, but literally every time i get on the bus the drivers assume i'm under 18 years old so??). afterwards my wife said "what's wrong with swedes? it's like that old lady had been locked up in her basement for 50 years and only came out for the first time today or something".

bought a suitcase for my wife (neon pink). she's finally started to get a little excited about going to japan, NOT because "it's japan" but because she's actually realizing that we're going to, if nothing else, at least be out of this house. her complaints about her parents / sisters have been increasing by the day, which i take as a sign that she's getting more and more impatient about us leaving.

some stuff with the parents does seem like it's getting worse, ex. her dad just SMELLS really really bad, every time he comes out of the bathroom it's like someone died in there AND the smell sticks to not only him but to YOU and the ROOM. my wife describes it as him being a "walking corpse". definitely wasn't this bad a year ago. also you can tell that his memory problems are reaching his face now; tonight when he talked to me, throughout the whole time he LOOKED completely lost and confused; even just a couple months ago he'd TALK confused but not LOOK confused.

i've also found out that some stuff in japan is cheaper than i originally thought, ex. someone just told me they bought 8 volumes of (brand-new-looking) used manga for 1,000 yen which is like... $1 USD per book i guess. i know it's super easy to spend all your money away in japan but wow, i'll really have to watch out!!

in "japanese-language" news, i've started watching dramas with japanese subtitles instead of just anime. everyone online says that dramas have "more realistic talking than anime" and uh..... no. not at all. not modern anime, anyway.