Saturday, April 29, 2006

golden goddess

click to see this in all its bigger glory
I once, not by my own choice, was a member of a religious cult. (A fact I dont think I ever wrote about before. This shows my growing compassion, or maybe disregard, for my few faithful readers.) At that time we learned the story of the religious leader Moses taking his people out to the desert to party. He decided to get some rules from three-part god, left everyone behind and went up a mountain to hangout with god. Well, everyone got bored when DJ moses wasnt around to keep the party hot, so they made a big golden cow to worship, because everyone knows cows are sexy. The story continues on (Moses comes back and gets pissed off because he's bovine phobic, etc.) but the point is (as you maybe guessed by the illustration) my new home station Tabata decided to do better than a cow. They got a golden naked lady to worship. Yeah. I think its freaky too. Worship service starts at 9:00.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

limited time offer

Yes, you heard that right! In an effort to expand my reach, and as a way to slow down on my bombardment of the same 5 people, for a limited time only I am prepared to offer the Free Postcard Program, while supplies last. Heres how it works: you want a postcard. You e-mail your address to me. A few weeks later you and your family are enjoying a fine hand crafted postcard in the privacy of your own home! Or even in your car, while you golf or even while drinking a martini at the country club. I enjoy making a postcard from Japan. You enjoy reading it, no strings attached! This offer is not only valid to those who know me, it is open to anyone, even random web surfers. Please contact me via email address on right bar. This offer only valid while supplies last, on planet earth, and its surrounding 8 planets. please load image - this post is a joke No gurantee is expressed or implied as to the quality or promptness of postcards. Supplier will not be held responsible for misuse of product. Your information will not be sold or given to another party, unless said party asks us to dance, buys us a drink, slips something in our drink and then steals our bag. An ability to understand parody is required. As (not) seen on TV!

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

international city

click click
I should note first that this was orginally sent from my cell phone, so please pardon odd format mishaps. I am living near "downtown" Tokyo these days. Compared to just 6 years ago Tokyo seems so international.
People from all over the world living together in one vibrant city.
Some random observations of foreign people:
An American woman is waiting for the train, eyes nervously scanning the Japanese people around her. She seems to be a new conversational English teacher. The train comes, but it doesnt stop infront of the arrow she was waiting behind. She sighs, frustrated. She doesnt realize the train lines itself to the arrow that matches the amount of cars it has.
A korean tourist, with a big camera around his neck, waits in line to get into another train. He looks at the Japanese guy infront of him. He seems confused that he's waiting for the passangers to get off before boarding the train. Watching foreign people helps me realize how hard it is to live day-to-day in a country where you weren't born. In other news, my new place is nice. A little small and old, but its really cheap. Its 10 minutes from Tabata station, on the Yamanote line. Its on the second floor, below a shop thats closed in the daytime. At night, metal walls
roll up and it transforms into a soft-core porno shop of sorts. I seem to have some good local bars and restraunts around me. I'll have to check those out soon!

Monday, April 10, 2006

i like bento

click for big version
Yeah. It might not be such a surprize, but I like bento a lot. A quick explanation, for those of you who might not know, bento is Japanese boxed food. And although I'm kind of poor right now because I'm not working yet, so I might not be having so many, I plan to eat a lot this year. In fact, so many I decided to make a different blog dedicated to just that. I present, bento geek in it's early form. For those of you who have been following me from the start of my blogging, you might remember way back in 2003 or so I had a different food blog that basically stopped after about three posts. So lets hope I can keep motivated on this one, because I like the concept of posting what you eat. Regarding the photo that in this post, it is out the window behind me. At about 5 in the morning, a red neon glow mixing with early morning light. Nice!

Thursday, April 06, 2006

hanami and what not


I still haven't really done much about looking for a job yet. I need to get on that. Today I walked around this area, and these trees were blooming. People were doing hanami (flower viewing) and kids were playing, and petals were drifting slowly off the branches in the wind. Perfect setup for Spring to perform it's dance, eh?

Sunday, April 02, 2006

travel in japan: part 2 (plus)

After saying goodbye to Tanya, I made my way up to hang out with Evan for another 2 days. He was working, and his hometown is very small, so I just walked around his local mall, had lunch with him during his lunch brake and then bar hopped with him after his work. The second day we all ended up at one of his freind's house, buzzed as a bee, drinking wine and talking about silly stuff in Japanese. The next day, I got up and went to Hiroshima, next day after that I went to Osaka, and finally went to Tokyo on an 11 hour local train. (The picture below is of the "atomic bomb dome" in Hiroshima, a sad relic of America's violent past.) click for big version
I'm going to now just randomly describe moments from my whole trip, random, from the start to the end. (A lot more happened, but if I chronologically listed it all, it would be way too long to write down here.)

Sitting in the airplane going from Hong Kong to Korea, theres a Korean couple next to me. With out asking he takes my used dishes and gives them to the flight attendent. His girlfriend offers me the uneaten bread from her meal. I smile, feeling the approach of Korea.

On a local train with Tanya, she tells a sick joke and I die with laughter, even though it shouldn't be funny. I can feel laughing-tears come to my eyes.

Another long local train, Tanya offers me a slice of bread and cheese. The train continues on endlessly.

Looking for an old lady's house-hotel near a local station with Tanya. Not finding it. The local police man takes us in his car to her door. The police man drives off. We nock. She doesnt answer. We go in. Shes sleeping. We don't know how to check in, so we leave and she wakes up, stumbling, mumbbling (in Japanese) that shes drunk. She loses her hat, walking in circles. Falling to sleep on soft futons in a large old tatami room.

Evan sits at his computer flipping randomly through Bellingham photos as he tells me stories about when I wasnt there. I feel the years, and connect to the missing moments in some way. Time seems translucent for a moment or two.

In Hiroshima, I meet a couple from Switzerland and two good friends from Columbia. Both females, of the four, have a hard time with English. We drink beer in the hostel, talking about their Japan experiences. I teach the Japanese word for "play" to the man from Switzeland. The Columbian man speaks Japanese well, he's in Japan on a Japanese government Japanese language study scholarship.

In Osaka, meeting a friend I hadn't met for 6 years. Something amazing about that much time between meeting someone. Somehow the past seemed to rush towards me, somehow the past seemed to be not so long ago.

And thats all the moments for now. A few more photos before I disapear.

This (below) is a shinto torii god gateway thing from my Kyushu trip.
click for a big version
Next picture below is Tanya taking my picture at Kumamoto Castle.

And now my day to day life in Japan, looking for a job or whatever, begins!
 
All original content CC 2002-2012 BY NC SA - first design from dilarangmelarang altered by neonvirus and thunderbunny.