If...

Wouldn't you know that now I'm wide awake!

If I had a dime (I'd settle for ten yen) for every time I fell asleep in that damned chair, I'd have just about enough money to pay for the surgery I'm going to need for all time spent sleeping in the chair.

If waking up at 2 a.m. to a sink full of dirty dishes, two items for your wife's lunch undone, and rice yet to be made isn't bad enough, how about a roach the size of a Volkswagen Beetle casually walking up to you when you enter the kitchen to take care of some of the already mentioned? If anyone from this part of Japan tells you they've never had one in their house, feel free to call them a liar (if they were telling the truth, they're so damned lucky they probably won't know why you're accusing them anyway). They had suckers like this in Florida too, but they had some euphemistic name for them to hide the fact that they're really just huge roaches.

If washing a mountain of dishes, cooking two items (tofu steaks and a zuccini/red pepper/onion/basil kindda thing), washing and preparing rice and battling vehicle-sized insects at 2:00 a.m. with a bad back from sleeping in a chair isn't enough for you...try it after sleeping in contacs. The closest feeling would be waking to find that you had slept with sand in your eyes.

Still...

When Taka wakes up at 7 a.m. to find a clean kitchen, her bento (lunch box) done and fresh rice for breakfast, it'll all be worth it.

I just hope I'm not awake to see it!