Now that was fast. I’m on the LIRR [Long Island Railroad], going out to visit a friend and I realized that the last entry I made I was in Nagoya, nattering on about food and movies and bicycles and not much else. In some respects I was hoping to leave some more substantial account of the expatriate experience but in the end it was as it always is…a series of fragments, pictures and blog entries, some old papers et cetera that I can hold out and say “here, look…Japan. My life.” The rest is fated to remain inside my head, invisible to everyone around me, gradually fading to be rewritten with new memories as life goes on. I was happy to have moved to Japan again, to once more have suffered in the muggy heat of the summer there. The cicadas were so loud…One time in a park where I rested one morning every branch must have been home to at least five dozen of the fat bugs because the sound was so loud to have been almost a physical sensation. The last week I was there, just before relinquishing my bicycle to my next door neighbor, I took a bike ride around my neighborhood by the drainage ditch in the evening. Bats were flying all around, looping overhead and the lights were going on in the little mom and pop okonomiyaki joints down the street. I rode a lot that summer, to Sakae, to Yagoto. Dispite the pest problem I liked the apartment building, with its metal doors and cement balconies and the most fantastic veiw I have ever had over my railing. Life was simple and interesting and free.
My sister came out to visit. That was the most amazing thing, seeing her in the airport, her hair grown long. I have gotten so used to Japan it no longer seems foreign place to me, but it is a place, as it were, apart. Old connections, old problems are, for the most part, traded in for a new set. However, sometimes the two world brush against each other, and you are reminded about how small the world really has become. It is a strange and wonderful thing to see a your sister, a personage so familiar to you that their sudden appearance in a setting that you though of as being severed from your “other” life makes the whole thing seem like a dream you are having. We had a fun two weeks. My friends at the movie club liked her…the two of us dressed in Yukata and went out for kaitenzushi (sushi train, according to the Australians.) We went to Kyoto and met up with her friend from school. She helped me clean the apartment and put up with me freaking out thinking I had sealed our night bus tickets inside the cardboard box. We ate eel-bowls and went to the Noda’s and did many, many adventures. I love my sister. Not only that but dad had a business trip in Yokohama and we got to see him too! It was crazy! The three of us all met at Hachiko statue in Shibuya and had dinner with my Japanese family, and then we went back to the hotel the next day. It was one of the big ones in the Yokohama Skyline, right across the street from the big ferris wheel that the show in Hachikuro and other movies. We rode it and I sat with my sister and dad, looking out over miles and miles and thinking…I am happy.
Whoa…maybe this weekend I can relax and work on my paper
This is possibly the most sociable I have ever been in my life, and consequently I’m just about ready to collapse in a heap. What with the world cup and a rather dangerous drama addiction, I have not been keeping a sleeping schedule anything close to what a normal human requires (but for a college student it is perfect…it can go hand and hand with my recent diet of conbini bento and melon bread). Let’s see. Last Friday, the movie club had a barbecue, and after going shopping at the Jasco, 13 of us crowded around this little tiny hibachi, fanned the flames and grilled meat and squid and various other delicacies, including blueberry marsh-mellows. Marsh-mellow no kushiyaki! Ueno-sempai makes up ridiculous stories all the time, to try see if he can con me…at the shopping center he was telling me the children in the day care are for rental and then handed me a bottle of soba soy sauce and told me it was marinade. 嘘つくなってば！信じたらどうする？One of these days I’m going to believe him, do something off the wall and then they will feel guilty for trying to pull one over on the American, oh yes. I had a really good time, got a kinda tipsy (I had a little bit of that 朝鮮人参Korean carrot liquor. Whoo. That’s potent stuff.) and rode my bike home around 11 in high spirits. Once I got inside my little darkened apartment, though, I suddenly got really lonely and ended up calling up Uncle John on Skype and talking his ear off for about an hour. That is one of the benefits of time differences…you ever get lonesome at 1 in the morning, you are able to call your friends and relations without the fear of pissing them off royally. Saturday was the AMI compa and Sunday? The Toyota car museum with Matsumoto-kun + Gyouza. It was really fun and edu-macational and I know know the words for exhaust system, displacement, and various other phases having to do with internal combustion engines. (I wish my sis was here.) Our favorite car was the Lancia in the parking lot, though. Apparently a race car driver had decided to take his young son to look at the history of automotive technology, and his car became an unofficial exhibit.
So I saw Kimi wa Pet. Golly. Gee whiz. I think I’m done for. He sits. He shakes. He rolls over. You can take him for walks in the park. It’s Matsujun in a box.
So actually, the drama, as an adaptation, is really well done…I think I actually like it better than the original manga. When I read it I remember liking the story of the manga, and the characters do have a lot of personality, but I really didn’t care for the at style at all…poofy lips and really angular faces…not really to my taste. When I read the first volume I remember thinking…”Hmmm. This would work well in live action… hahaha Imagine pitching this to an American studio hahaha.” But the Japanese have come through for us again and delivered one of the best live action manga adaptations I have see thus far. (Usually they fail to impress somehow.) But I really dig this.
So for those of you who don’t know, let me recap the story and shed some light on the reason I am currently kicking my feet in the air and squealing with fangirl-ish glee. The story is about a woman, right? Who keeps a man as a pet. No, no…don’t run away! I know it sounds kinky as all get out, but it’s really cute! Really! So. Begin at the beginning. You know those guys who get intimidated by girls who are smarter than them…? And the girls who play dumb and helpless to get guys? The main character isn’t one of those girls. Sumire is a Todai/Harvard graduate who works in the foreign affairs devision of a large newspaper, who in the beginning is dumped by he fiance because she is taller and smarter and makes more money than he does, and it scares him. Feeling insecure because of his highly capable independent journalist girlfriend, the bastard cheats on her and eventually marries lil miss future housewifey type mistress when she becomes preggers. Not only that, but following the breakup, Sumire (violet) gets transfered from “Foreign Affairs” in the newspaper to “lifestyle/home” department because she refuses to put up with sexual harassment from her boss. So her life sucks, even though she is the best at what she does everyone hates her and is jealous of her for just being herself. And then she finds a homeless boy (Matsujun) in a cardboard box in front of her apartment complex. Yup. He is pretty much the worse for the wear, so she patches him up and lets him spend the night on the couch. She leaves for work in the morning thinking he’ll be gone when she gets back, but when she comes home there he is on the floor watching TV. She tosses him out while he begs her to let him crash…so, in an attempt to chase him off, she is like “you can stay here only if you be my pet, and when I say pet I mean like a dog.” thinking “no sane person would agree to that.”…well…”Peaches” promptly agrees.
There are, of couse, a lot of dog jokes, but really the relationship between the characters is quite interesting. For the most part, its like Sumire has this boy crashing at her house (and he acts like a normal person most of the time, or as normal as his character will allow for), and she refuses to enter into a romantic relationship with him, but he keeps her company and calms her down when the stress of her career gets to her. In return he gets food and gets to sleep in the loft…Just watch it. Just watch. You’ll have to trust me on this one.
私はどれほど幸せ者なのか．．． I is a heppy heppy ket. Before I get into the Meidaisai, I just have to say I had just about the best day ever yesterday. (and you say…big deal.) But really. It’s entering the rainy season and everything is grey and smells like mildew, and for about two days I had a mood to match. Something you can’t really put your finger on, but you know…just kind of wistful and blah. I Skyped my dad, and was like “Pop, why are things blah? Why don’t I get…I don’t know…invited to more parties or something?” and then he was like “Aww, be happy…alright, I’m going to bed.” As far as happiness as a chemical reaction goes, sports = endorphins. So I did what I always do when I am cranky mood - something that involves running around until you are ready to fall over and tired enough to forget why I was cranky in the first place. I’ve got a bike… And here I recall a conversation I had with Kuma-san the other day. I forget exactly how it came up, but..
“One of these days I’m going to ride to Sakae.” says I, in Japanese.
“Sakae? Get out. That’s too far away!” quoth he.
So, Yesterday I set out with my wallet in one pocket and my cellphone in the other and rode straight down the sidewalk on the side of the expressway. I rode almost all the way to Nagoya station, and I spent time in Sakae watching street concerts. The TV tower is closed until the 14th, but I found the Ghibli store I went to before, and a Shonen Jump character store right next to it. (Man, all you Bleach fans back home would have a fit. Which, by the way…the free TV is great except for the fact that it goes black and white when there is an explosion, so watching Bleach, I have to keep getting up and fixing the dang thing. Ichigo, stop fighting, stupid!) I just felt so good feeling the wind rushing past me…I always like riding out back on the country roads in the summer, past the field of corn. You feel like you’re flying. And then I get a mail from my friend Matsumoto-kun in the movie club and I spent the rest of the evening hanging out with him, talking politics and soccer. I was sitting the the sushi place we went to that night, and there was just this kind of glow around everything as I watched the entrees cycle around the conveyor belt. Man, I’m glad I came back here. I’m so, so glad.
So today, I, uh, got a craving for Japanese food. Which is funny, considering the circumstances. The thing is, I’ve been eating way to much katsu in the school cafeteria. I mean, this is Nagoya, home to Miso Pork Cutlet, but still….Meat, meat, meat. And in the morning, hey, I’m in a hurry, so Bread bread bread. Fish. I need Fish. I was in the co-op cafeteria after class and of all things I got a craving for natto. There it was, the most infamous of infamous Japanese foods, the Gaijin-bane stinky beans, and I thought “…yum.” Now I don’t dislike natto…I actually think its pretty good, with some mustard and onions. But its not something I usually eat voluntarily, you know. So a craving for natto? Either I must have adapted better than I thought, or I really do need to change my diet. In any case, I had some good アジ（鯵）mackerel and ate up my sticky beans, and relished them. Cafeteria food though it may be, hooray for washoku. I also want real Kimchi. Maybe I need to rally the Koreans and head out to Sakae for some good eats. Doh…Ethnic cuisine…(making Homer Simpson drooling noises). We were talking about an Indian food menu in class, and I suddenly got really nostalgic. I’m not Indian, but my family tends to eat a lot of Indian food and I was one of the only ones in class who knew what all the dishes were. I got really misty eyed, remembering various family meals. There’s this one restaurant we always go to when we celebrate, and we went right before I left. I just remember being really content that night, and full of a good saag curry. No, I’m not homesick…just full of memories, rattling around like pennies inside of my head. Oh! Speaking of curry, there was a booth at the school festival by the Thai student association that served lovely Green Curry, and also this thing called “Yamitsuki” (yummies) It was, I believe, a perfect recipe in that it effortlessly combined the dishes of four different countries into one. I shall teach you how to make it, to the best of my knowledge.
YUMMY FOOD!
1. Take a tortilla (or a piece of flat bread…any sort of wrap will do) and warm it briefly in a frying pan (or nuke it..but then it won’t get a little crispy.)
2. Brown a hot dog on the stove, and also heat up some thick curry. You want something similar to Samosa filling, you know…potatoes and peas, yellow, spicy. Actually, pick out the curry that best suits your personal taste.
3. Put the hot dog on the flat bread. Cover it with curry. AND THEN! (this is key) drizzle Mayo over the whole thing.
4. Wrap it up and enjoy your Hotdog-Mayonnaise-Curry-Burrito Mexican/Indian/American/Japanese food. Why is it Japanese, you say? Weren’t you aware that Mayo is a primary ingredient in Japanese Cooking? I consider it a Japanese food, on par with wasabi and pickled squid guts (no, I am not being racist and sarcastic, ちゃんと食べた、イカの塩辛I have eaten squid guts (ika no shiokara)…it was salty)
next! MEIDAISAI REPORT!
I just saw something really weird. So, I can usually tell a “surprise guest” episode of a talk show versus something weird that just happened. People act surprised, but are prepped before hand…the come up with quippy, fawning comments, feigning amazement at the good luck of having so and so on the set. But imagine something weird happened, and some of the people in the studio must have known about it, the info didn’t get to the main players…there is just awkwardness and silences, nervous fidgeting. What we are talking about is something that genuinely catches them, professionals though they be, by surprise. Something WEIRD.
So, I was watching TV just now, right? Michael Jackson just showed up on the SMAPxSMAP show. Not like as a guest. He was watching the concert they were filming upstairs, and then just walked onto the set. Who’s going to stop him? He’s Michael Jackson. He’s become a joke in the states as sad fallen creature consumed by fame, but the after-image of legend still lingers. This was the man who twenty years ago inspired a generation of pop stars…Shingo said that after seeing Michael on stage at the Tokyo dome he made up his mind that he would one day stand up on that stage. This man, he came, he greeted them, and he left. Just like that. You could see the five fellows of SMAP reeling in his wake. They just sat on the floor and said suge na. Suge-. over and over. No music…no cutting to other things…just the five sitting on the studio floorboards all moony-eyed like they couldn’t believe what just happened. These men and their band are one of the biggest names in pop to come out of Japan…they may not be super stars, but in Asia they are pretty well known, and almost every red-blooded Japanese man, woman, and child knows their names. I am not a big SMAP fan, as their stuff is not really to my taste… pop, super upbeat, but if nothing else I acknowledge that they are a THING. Of course, I do like Shingo mama and his mayonnaise antics (”Oha” was going around when I was in high school.) Goro did his Michael Jackson imitation that he did in a TV sketch years ago, and everyone was like “okay now stop.” The five guys were tongue tied, cowed.
And Micheal Jackson. He is so far gone. It’s like he’s a robot, dead inside, eaten from the inside out. I can see why people joke about him being an alien. Ghostly visage, eyes hidden by dark aviator glasses that almost hide his ghastly (and I use the word in a literal manner…he looks like a night ghast) nose as well…even the way he moves is strange. He spoke in his creepy, high voice. “Thank you for acccepting me, God bless you, god bless you.” The pretty young translator behind him fluidly repeated his words in Japanese, but somehow they lost their pleading, wretched yet vacant quality in the translation. SMAP, a giant of the music industry standing dwarfed before a another giant, a great big crumbling, dying giant.
Just when I though Japan had stopped being weird for me. CMs cease to freak me out, customs seem to be the norm. But no! Japan, you never cease to amaze with your sudden bouts of the surreal.
Speaking of which…that was a cool music video on now…like a cross between Yellow Submarine, Bakshi’s Wizards, and Indian Religious Art. Funky.
So Abe-san had his shoot today…I was in it (and I didn’t find out until yesterday)…no lines but I got to smile and be pretty. The only problem is I don’t smile so well when I’m nervous…man, I tell you I feel much more secure behind a camera then in front of it. We sat out on the couches in front of the club room for a while and hung out. I like this crowd…I’ll tell more about them and the others tomorrow. And Hooray for our mini film festival! (Got to get those subtitles done for Dog Prince) Medaisai is in 3 days! Our school festival is nice because it doesn’t fall in the autumn like a lot of schools’ bunkasai. It will be yakisoba and haunted houses and concerts all the way! Woo-hoo! Jumping Beans, I’m happy!
I can’t stop watching this. If you haven’t seen it, hasten to it THIS MINUTE! Deathnote Live Action
So, the ending to the tale of the centipede…after I left it at a cliff hanger, I’m sure you are wondering what became of the beast. Well, after searching high and low and not being able to locate it, I began to calm down, and eventually assume that it had found its way out of the room by the way it came. Forget about it, right? I lay on the bed and watched dramas on the free TV, and then brought my laptop over and lay there all comfy and curled up watching host-bu. It was the 8th episode, a pretty good one, where the host-bu goes to the ocean. There’s one scene where a character (Tamaki) holds up a large crab for the heroine to see and a centipede crawls out, making the surrounding girls freak out. (MU-KA-DE~!) I laugh…got rid of that problem. It is not three minutes later when I start to feel a really weird sensation on the TOP OF MY HEAD. No. Oh no no no. I put my hand up there. NOOOOOOOOO! The enormous centipede freaks out as I try to get it out of my hair. I shout. It zips under my pillow and then disappears down the crack between bed and wall. I tear off all the covers. Time to bring out the big guns. “Sang Hi! uchi no heya ni kite kurenai? Ima, ima…nanka dame nan da.” I call my pal on the cellphone, and the long and short of it is me and my far more level headed Korean neighbor (kind soul that she is…you should have seen her face when I greeted her at the door with a flip-flop, a folder and an umbrella.) chased the thing all around the room and then finally got it. Didn’t die easily…you have to keep whacking it again and again…my God, its Hell. Finally it gave up the fight and we emerged victorious. First boss battle of this adventuring party over. The end
Searching for a counter to keep track of the time I have left here I found a widget called “In Japan.” Just a simple counter, over a Japanese sun flag. It makes me wonder if it is common for foreigners here to count the days till they go home (I wonder if that is the origin of the widget)…I always have very mixed feelings about it….all the time I am here miss home, but it is not that I really want to return. I feel the pull of New York like the moon pulls on the earth and changes the tides…the thing that I feel the most is the place that surrounds me, my feet solidly on the Japanese ground, content and living in the present. It is just that slight pull, barely there melancholy that signals my link to NY. It was the same for Japan when I was back in America. I always feel a little lonely for where I am not, but always very happy where I am.
I am an animal person. I love most of the life forms on this particular planet, and although my tastes tend to sway a bit more toward the fuzzy mammalian variety, I am not biased against snakes, eels, spiders, earth worms, or any of the other myriad of species of a more creepy-crawly nature. Toward the various lower life forms I feel a sort of magnanimous, if slightly condescending, sympathy(considering I, as a higher primate, am far more biologically advanced than they are a certain degree of smugness is understandable), and attempt not to interfere in their doings as long as they do not meddle in mine. Little bugs, go about your doodle-y way in peace. Except the goddamn centipedes. I want you all to die. There are three things I hate in this world. I always write the same two when, say, filling out those boring Facebook style personality questionnaires. After a completing sickeningly long list of “Likes” the self-satisfied optimist in me deigns to make a few tiny little concessions. “Oh, I hate racism and bigots.” I say. “And people who torture.” Why even bother to state the obvious? You really aren’t putting too much thought into this, Emi. And then I always follow this short cliched list with “centipedes” It serves as kind of a humorous chaser to a very broad category of hellish bastards, being a small and insignificant phobia. Who would know that these catty centipede comments would come back to haunt me. There were always centipedes at my house. One time I was startled in the bathroom as one crawled up the shower curtain. It disappeared, and when I called my dad in, it fell on the top of his head, much to the chagrin of all parties involved. The centipedes that live in New York, though, are nothing compared to the variety that live here. It isn’t the size of them that’s the problem…having lived with a foot long millipede for over a year, one would think I was used to it. (Mitch the Millipede was a good pet, although he wasn’t a xylophone playing rabbit.) No, Japanese Mukade are tenacious, bad tempered brutes with a poisonous bite and quick reaction times. On top of that, I have had bad centipede luck lately…During a Picnic with the Korean Presbyterians, A four incher with red legs plopped down from a branch beside me, and I nearly stepped on a ridiculously large one idling on the path on my way home from club. So forgive me the phobic rant… Kids check under their bed for monsters, I, humiliating as it is, check every night for centipedes. And then today, as I put my foot in a sock I had hung up to dry, I find my fear is justified. A suspicious wiggly lump at the toe. At first I am not sure, but then it moves again and I tear the sock off, this long dark THING sprouting legs everywhere emerges. I screech like a girl and fling it away, sock and all, and in a moment of panic dash from the apartment. I knock on Sang hi’s door, but she seems to be out, and then I realize who a baby I am being and go back inside armed with an umbrella to slay the thing. And its gone. I hope that it is still inside the sock so I pick the sock up on the umbrella and fling it out on the veranda, whereupon I begin to smack it mightily. And…I realize…I don’t know where it has gone. It’s still…INSIDE THE ROOM! Cue scary music. So I guess I’m going to be shaking my bed clothes more thoroughly than usual, and hoping that the fool bug is not on the warpath tonight. I’ll keep looking, mark my words. Curse you centipedes.
Oh, and on the bright side, there was a working TV in the free corner today! Yesterday a bike, today a terebi! The two things that I was considering luxury items and wavering back and forth as to whether I should Invest …problem solved. Now I can watch Bleach and Variety Bangumi! Yay!
I woke up this morning and remembered something that sent me straight out of the covers and busy: today I was to collect my 1000 yen bicycle. During the Meidai foreign student’s bazaar a month ago, I was placed on the waiting list in the second-hand bicycle lottery, getting sixth place in a drawing for four lots. Of course, I assumed my chances of getting a bike were slim to none (who is going to turn down a $9 bicycle, even a one gear, rust covered mama-chari?), but to my great surprise I found a mail in my inbox a few weeks ago titled “bick” and detailing the procedure, time and place I should remember in order to collect the goods. Yatta ne, Emi. You got yourself a bicycle.
I remember the last time I lived in Japan, my bike and I were inseparable during summer vacation. Bright red, one gear, shopping basket between the handlebars…I named it “the wind,” I got a hilarious farmers tan riding it up and down the hills and and winding roads of the Machida Suburbs. During school, riding to the train station everyday was one of my favorite parts of the morning, because it was all downhill for the most part and on the way to the bike parking garage near Tamagawa Gakuen Mae I would pick up so much speed that everything would go blurry and curves would be a wide and dangerous arc of movement. There was a hill right in front of the station, the last hill on the way there named korokoro zaka, presumably onomatopoeia for the sound you would make rolling down it - the thing was practically a 45 degree incline. Miho and I would blast down it, with our seifuku skirts flying out behind us. It was great.
So I have a bike. It’s a bit rusty, not a pretty shiny red thing like Kaze, but the chain and the breaks seem pretty solid, and you can shift going up the hills. The name on the fender is 西村竜次. I think I’ll call it “Ryuu.”
Later: I rode to many kilometers. I found a book off. I ate lunch at Bamiyan Ramen, which had free Icee refills. My life is complete.
In closing, A Random Thing: At the North Co-op Cafeteria, I have had all these flavors of soft serve ice cream: - Green Tea - Annin (or Chinese Gelatin Dessert) - Black Sesame - Yuzu Peel (Japanese Citrus) - Sakura (Cherry Blossom) - Rose - Miso Flavor -Genmai (brown rice) -Ume (Japanese Sour Plum) and - Wasabi I have not tried Japanese purple Yam flavor or Tofu because it is sold out.
