| 31 things I love about being back |
[22 Sep 2008|01:18am] |
heirloom tomatoes, yellow nectarines, artichokes;
old vine zinfandel, tacos at Chipotle, everything at Trader Joe's.
gifts with purchase, pirate bands, microbrews;
cheap eats at happy hour,
rosemary bushes in parking lots,
the biggest blue sky I've ever seen.
colorful sensets, black PNW overcast,
the burning smell of autumn on a rainy day;
wet leaves, hanging out, hugs.
being in the same timezone as my family,
free night and weekend minutes, "text me";
nonsmoking culture, cable TV, my housemates.
casual Spanish, clothes dryers, kitties.
red potatoes. rye bread. blackberries.
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| David Foster Wallace |
[14 Sep 2008|12:14am] |
Last year I read a book called The New Kings of Nonfiction. Whenever I hear someone say they like nonfiction I imagine them settling down with civil war histories and presidential biographies. But this collection was curated by Ira Glass, and I think we can say that he knows a thing or two about presenting compelling stories. Which was a revelation for me: nonfiction can be stories!1
I devoured the collection (almost) completely. One of my favorites was "Host," an essay in which David Foster Wallace describes the host of a conservative radio talk show in LA. Reading it was like spending an hour free-associating your way through Wikipedia: every time an obscure (or just interesting) idea was mentioned, David Foster Wallace would go into delicious detail in an embedded footnote, displayed as a box alongside the text. The notes quickly became recursive, to the point that you have to make conscious decisions on whether to accept the temptation to flick your eyes to the notes or steel yourself to at least finish the paragraph first.
I started reading other essays of his. I loved them. He was a genius and an acute observer of how much of our time we spend on passive entertainment. It's a dark topic, one that people don't much like to think about, but his writing had this cheerful tone that somehow abated the sinking feeling you get when you consider your doom.
Some of his essays are available online. I highly recommend them.
He committed suicide today, and I am depressed as hell. He was only 46. I'm not even halfway through A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, I've barely sampled his work, but I told myself I would meet him someday, go see him read. The memories of David Foster Wallace that are being posted on McSweeney's (and on Slate) indicate that it would have been, he would have been, even more wonderful than I imagined.
In his essays it's easy to see how someone with his thought processes could've been tortured by them, but of course I don't know what was really going on. It's just so sad that someone so talented, unique, and beloved could still want to shut it all off.
- If you think about the world of English writing as a pie chart, I guess it seems obvious that fiction is a tiny wedge overwhelmed by nonfiction's "everything else."
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| Animal Crossing |
[01 Sep 2008|10:48pm] |
Um, I know it's an old game but do any of you play Animal Crossing on the DS? I just started but maybe we could, you know, hang out in each others' towns. Or maybe you have an old save somewhere and even though you don't play anymore you have some fruit you could send me. Or we could trade! I have oranges and coconuts.
My friend code is 4768-9837-2502
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| Pickpocket |
[23 Aug 2008|02:18pm] |
I spent my first few weeks in Portland interviewing for rooms to rent in shared houses. I really liked the two girls I met at a 3-bedroom townhouse off the lightrail line, so if everything goes well I'll have a key and a lease by the end of today.
After a visit to IKEA to buy a bed yesterday, I stopped by a bar downtown to watch the Olympics. I had a big zippered totebag with me, sans laptop but filled with my iphone, gameboy, electronic dictionary, wallet, and passport.
There weren't a lot of people sitting at the bar. I had my tote hanging off one of the arms of my barstool when two girls stepped up to the bar in the space next to me, on the side my bag was on. I'd just asked the waitress to close out my tab, and she brought me a credit slip to sign and returned my credit card. I reached for my bag, bringing it into my lap, and pulled out my wallet to put my credit card away. I was doing so many things at once that I only vaguely recognized that my bag was unzipped already, with a tangle of my headphone cords hanging out. I absentmindedly made a cursory inspection—everything expensive was still in there, and my wallet was in my hand. This all happened within the space of 30 seconds, so I didn't give it much thought.
The girls swung around from my left side to my right and sat in the two stools next to me. One of them put her bag on the counter. It was a fake Chanel in my favorite shade of pink. "That's a great bag," I told her.
"There ain't nothin' in it," she drawled, smiling. From the outer appearance it indeed looked like it was nearly empty, but what a weird thing to say! "I don't keep nothin' in it," she continued. Okaaay, I thought, in that way you do when someone says something that could potentially trap you in a boring conversation.
Having paid, I left and walked home, at which point it dawned on me: the first girl was the sakura: there to distract me while her friend reached into my bag. I checked my bag again: I was lucky that it was so deep—you'd have to be in up to your elbow to get anything of value, and I'm sure the headphones, newspaper, notebooks, and all the other crap toploaded into my bag didn't help them. Still, the case to my $450 electronic dictionary was completely unzipped, and I probably would have lost it if it hadn't been stuck to the inside of the case with adhesive tape.
The empty Chanel bag is interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if they immediately transferred what they pickpocketed into it: if the owner complains that they stole her ipod, they could easily say that it was theirs. It would be the owner's word against theirs, and they would be the ones with the goods in hand.
I'm glad I didn't lose anything but it's a little depressing. I know better than to leave my purse on a table while I refill my coffee, but pickpocketing? That's something that only happens in Europe, or if in America, only in the olden days.
Anyway, I'll be keeping an eye out for those two. I would love to catch them in the act!
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| Ouendan |
[12 Jun 2008|10:31pm] |
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I've been going to a few Orix Buffaloes games with Mr. ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) bblue23 lately. If you look at the stands in the far background of this photo, I think you can get an idea of their general popularity in Osaka, where the Hanshin Tigers rule. But attending a stadium game without having to deal with crowds suits me fine.
This shot was taken from the unreserved seating section of the stands yesterday, squarely in the middle of the hardcore fans' cheering section. Whenever the Buffaloes are at bat, we stand up, and chant/cheer for the players at bat under the direction of the ouendan leader. Each player has their own song, and thanks to Mr. bblue23's printout of the lyrics, I've managed to mostly memorize exactly three of them. "Shouting out the cheers is such a great way to let off steam," he told me, and I couldn't agree more.
We went again tonight, although I was a bit nervous: it was ¥200 beer night, and a crowd of drunk sports fans was the last thing I wanted to deal with. Not to worry, he said: "Everyone in this section is completely focused on cheering. You won't see many people drinking," and true enough, I counted only one.
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| Making Umeshu |
[06 Jun 2008|05:55pm] |
Took a break from work today to make umeshu, checking another item off the list of things I want to do before I leave Japan. (Whether I'll be able to taste it or not before I leave is another matter!) More pics here.
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| Arashiyama & Ginkaku-ji |
[31 May 2008|07:51pm] |
My mom and a friend are here in Japan, and we've been doing a bit of sightseeing. In the past few days we've gone to Arashiyama and Ginkaku-ji, which are turning out to be two of the best places I've visited in Japan. (Why did it take me so long to get there? XD)
Anyway, I'm getting started with flickr, so if you have an account, let me know so I can add you.
(vulpes, you might like the totally creepy inari shrine we saw in Arashiyama. The story is in the comments.)
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| Leadership |
[17 Nov 2007|10:19am] |
"Ohhhhhhhhhh! Auntie Anne's!"
My coworker raced over to buy a pretzel. We were in the US on business, and had taken the afternoon off to go to a mall. Having grown up overseas, she was just as delighted as I was to revisit the brands that hadn't made it to Japan yet.
Watching the lone woman behind the counter in action was like seeing a video in slow-mo. Surly and unresponsive, she made zero eye contact throughout the cash transaction, after which she sluggishly dropped the pretzel into the bag, then shook the can of flavor powder into the bag itself. Two shakes. I was shocked.
After we had walked a good distance away, my coworker said, thoughtfully, "you know the girl who served us? What did you think of her?"
"Well... she didn't seem to have any motivation at all, and I wouldn't want to eat anything from that store. And seeing that kind of attitude makes me really worried about my country, and makes me wonder if I really want to live here again." I paused. "What did you think?"
"I think that if she were my employee, I would fire her," she said, matter-of-factly.
"Well sure, but there might not be anyone else who wants this job."
She shrugged. "Then I would make the job more attractive."
"How would you do that?"
She thought for a bit. "First, I would make sure that I was completely enjoying my own work."
from shmivejournal:
Have you ever had a dream about someone, and when you woke up you found that you had changed your opinion about them completely, even though absolutely no facts had changed?
Great stuff in the comments.
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[01 Nov 2007|11:46pm] |
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One of Matt's literary translations was featured on Boing Boing today.
Who recommended it to BB? Oh, just William Gibson.
Congrats Matt!
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| Oh come on... |
[08 Aug 2007|07:38am] |
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| Instant Introspection |
[19 Jun 2007|09:52pm] |
Revealed during my latest interpreting stint:
the words "humble" and "patient" are literally not in my vocabulary.
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| Monkey Brains |
[14 Jun 2007|10:45pm] |
On a recent business trip to Kyushu, the local manager took us out for dinner. It was FABULOUS! Kyushu has the bestest, freshest seafood ever.
And then he ordered the eyeball.
I guess this is the part of the fish that nobody wants, but they managed to season up that fishhead into a local delicacy.
It's a tuna, by the way.
The white ring around the eye is the cartilage that keeps it in the socket.
After we finished picking all the flesh off the face (delicious!), they decided it was time to eat the eyeball.
( not for sensitive viewers )
I also got to ride in a hovercraft! It was just like a GI Joe commerical!
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| Interpreting 原稿どおり |
[27 Feb 2007|10:09pm] |
I just spent all day interpreting at a conference.
My interpreting went straight to the headsets of the people who needed to hear the proceedings in English. I really like interpreting this way, because if I make a little mistake, nobody really notices and it doesn't hurt anything.
However, with so many bilingual Japanese people at my company, there was an entire room of observers watching the conference on video, with (my) English interpreting as the soundtrack. -_-
One of the elites commented to me that I have made some amazing progress. This guy has seen me make some pretty dumb mistakes.
I guess it's easy to look good at interpreting when:
- you get all the presentation scripts and powerpoints beforehand
- you take the time to translate them all (in this case, 3 out of 4 weekends in February -_-)
- the presenters follow the script exactly
I just said thank you.
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| Life at a Japanese Company |
[24 Feb 2007|11:51pm] |
I came into work on Saturday last weekend.
I went to work today, which is also a Saturday, and was joined by three of my coworkers.
You know what's nice? Walking out of work at eight and meeting old friends for dinner. And having one of my coworkers drop in as well, merging the work-friends and friends-friends worlds.
I'm going in to work tomorrow too, but first I'm going to meet a friend for board games over breakfast.
If only my weekdays were like this. ♥
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| Happy New Year |
[10 Jan 2007|10:05pm] |
Happy New Year!
2007 is the year of the wild boar. I don't usually pay attention to the annual changeover of the animals of the Chinese zodiac—they appear on the new year's cards that everyone sends each other in Japan, and that's about it.
But wild boars are different. They roam the residential neighborhoods of Kobe, where the streets start curving uphill into Mt. Rokko. They poke through trash bags on garbage day, and walk the streets single-file, obeying traffic signals—at least according to one of my students.
The first time I saw one was in my second week of living in Japan. I was invited to the home of one of my co-teachers for dinner, and on the walk back to the station, one of my dining companions pointed it out to me. A mother with a litter of little piglets trotting down the street at night.
Another time, a few years ago, I was walking towards Konan University to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, and standing in one of the rivers that flow down from the mountain, were three full-grown inoshishi. In retrospect, I should have taken a photo (many of the other test-takers did), but I remember that I was in a rather surly mood that morning. I had spent the previous night angrily stuffing my face with chicken skewers and beer at the local yakitori joint, after having taken a practice test for level 2 and failing by a good five percent. But that day, although I didn't know it until two months later, I passed.
I don't attribute seeing the wild boars to my success, but I do regard them as lucky. And more than that, they have a strong association with Japan for me. It's a little thing, but having the inoshishi as the emblem of 2007 feels like there's just that much more potential this year. I have only one resolution: 2007 will be a year of me asking for exactly what I want, because I'm taking this one by the tusks, baby.
I hope your new year is full of love, happiness, and satisfaction. Mine will be.
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| Notice of further no further updates |
[19 Oct 2006|09:32pm] |
Hey kids,
Just to let you know, I'm off to Taiwan for the weekend. I didn't want any of you noticing my continued lack of updates and thinking that I was still living out my usual existence in Japan! Au contraire! I am EN VACANCES, baby.
I'm flying China Air (or Air China or whatever) not by choice—I hear you sniggering, malifact!—so include me in your prayers plz
As usual, I have a few ideas for entries rolling around, so as soon as November hits I should be back in the saddle. In the meantime, I've been posting some of the juicier stuff friends-only, so if you want a piece of that action, you know what to do.
...and the de-friending starts... now
(the first rule of blog club: you do not make light of actions that irritate your friends & readers)
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| Bitch, please |
[26 Aug 2006|05:33am] |
From an article about Snakes on a Plane appeared in last Friday's Wall Street Journal:...the filmmakers added new scenes to the film, including one where Mr. Jackson's character delivers an exclamation similar to one a sound-alike had uttered in a fan trailer. In it, Mr. Jackson repeatedly uses an Oedipal expletive to describe both the snakes and the plane.
[full article...] Did you see that? An Oedipal expletive. Isn't that amazing? Just two words, yet they elegantly encapsulate the original meaning, with literary allusion to boot. Can we use this euphemism from now on, please?
 I recently became aware of the existence of Neko no Jikan (lit: Kitty Time), a cafe where, for just ten bucks an hour, I can hang out with ninteen of some of the ugliest kitties I have ever seen. (the full menu)
Of course I'm going.
I saw this in Tokyu Hands the other day:
Only queens put their pants on hangers.
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| Booty Call |
[05 Aug 2006|02:08pm] |
After a month of spending nearly every weekend either working or taking red-eye flights overseas, I found myself toying with the idea of calling up an ex to "hang out."
My cellphone, however, having sensed these self-destructive thoughts, sacrficed itself so that I would have no means to get together with someone who would ultimately make me feel bad about myself.
Or, you know, maybe I just got drunk and lost it.
Anyway, I am now toting a new model with the holy grail of predictive text input in English and an address book backup service, so I will only have to make the following request to you once:
PEOPLE IN JAPAN: I have lost all my address book entries, but my email address and phone number on the new phone are the same, so I would really appreciate it if you would send me a message with your contact info.
If you don't have my contact info, send yours to homodachi@livejournal.com and I'll hook you up!
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