~=^=~
Monday, January 11, 2010
Updates Are A'Comin' Paw!
Hey gang. I know it's been a long time and I hope you can forgive me. I will tell you this, I have been busy and have some fun stories to share. . . Though not just yet. However, in place of those oh-so-awesome stories I leave you with some pictures, and links to more of the like :)
~=^=~
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009
New State of Mind(fulness)
Living on the Farm, Day 4: So I've been residing at my friend David's house the past 4 days. It's been really great. He lives on top of this hill in Kamakura. He's got maybe a 1/2 acre of land with a little organic/permacultureish farm going. I haven't really gotten to work in the garden yet (did plant some shallots though!) but hopefully when David gets back in a few days he'll start showing me how everything works.
It's so quite up here, and with all the rain it's been super peaceful. I do have to say the commute to and from town can be a little tricky. See we're on this hill, and the only way I know how to get here from town is this long, windy, narrow, overgrown, jungle of a path filled with snakes, bears, spiders and narrow passages. Possibly ninjas.
Walking home has actually been a real treat. I get some exercise, I get to be in nature, and I get some time to decompress away from anything resembling society or technology. That's really great. However when it's late and has been raining like it has the walk home can also be pretty freaking terrifying. Like tonight...
See, if you go back a paragraph and a half you'll see that I mentioned snakes and spiders and possibly large mammals that might want to kill and/or eat me. Oh and ninjas, but we'll get to them in a minute. Now snakes have never really freaked me out. Maybe it's from growing up in a place that was covered in rattlers or seeing my fare share of garter snakes and even handling a few boas. I'm fine with them. Spiders? I mean we're not talking daddy long-legs, not even black widows. I don't even know WHAT these are. I mean their webs are huge and TOUGH. I hit one the other day with my head and I bounced back. ME! I'm 6' (~183cm) and about 155lbs (~70kg I will learn the metric system dammit!). This web probably weighed ounces. OUNCES and I'm the one who was taken down. Add to that the fact that I had a spider about the size of my hand suddenly interested in my head and whatever nutritious delights that lay within. Combine all that with darkness and you can imagine my trepidation about walking home in the rain.
Oh so nature wants to kill me. Big deal, nature will kill any one of us without a second thought. But what about ninjas? See, I don't know why they might kill me or what I may or may not have done to deserve such a death. I started to think about it like how in America you sometimes have to worry about incurring the wrath of gangs. Like wear red or blue through certain parts of South Central, LA (or conversely drive through South Central, LA) and you may get shot. Look at a group of people wearing gang paraphanalia and weilding hand guns and you may get shot. These rules make sense to me and I feel that in 28 years I've become pretty adept at not getting shot/stabbed/jumped in various rough neighborhoods in America. However, that knowledge helps me not in the land of the Ninja.
There's a little Shinto shrine at the bottom of my jungle mountain path that I climb home. I stop and say a little prayer there on my way up. What if that's like their turf? For all I know I've now associated myself with some faction of Ninja and the next time I'm alone at a train station I'm going to be ascended upon by any number of silent assassins. But aren't the shadows a ninja's turf? I mean, they're like, everywhere. So hopefully they'll forgive my gaijin ignorance and stick to murdering each other and random samurai. Or delivering pizza. I honestly have no idea what ninjas do in the 21st Century.
So yeah, that's where I'm at. In a beautiful chill house up on top of a mellow hill overlooking some beautiful houses all the way to the beach. I can see a lighthouse at night. Come visit me. You may have to fight for your life on the way but trust me, you'll be glad you did.
~=@=~
It's so quite up here, and with all the rain it's been super peaceful. I do have to say the commute to and from town can be a little tricky. See we're on this hill, and the only way I know how to get here from town is this long, windy, narrow, overgrown, jungle of a path filled with snakes, bears, spiders and narrow passages. Possibly ninjas.
Walking home has actually been a real treat. I get some exercise, I get to be in nature, and I get some time to decompress away from anything resembling society or technology. That's really great. However when it's late and has been raining like it has the walk home can also be pretty freaking terrifying. Like tonight...
See, if you go back a paragraph and a half you'll see that I mentioned snakes and spiders and possibly large mammals that might want to kill and/or eat me. Oh and ninjas, but we'll get to them in a minute. Now snakes have never really freaked me out. Maybe it's from growing up in a place that was covered in rattlers or seeing my fare share of garter snakes and even handling a few boas. I'm fine with them. Spiders? I mean we're not talking daddy long-legs, not even black widows. I don't even know WHAT these are. I mean their webs are huge and TOUGH. I hit one the other day with my head and I bounced back. ME! I'm 6' (~183cm) and about 155lbs (~70kg I will learn the metric system dammit!). This web probably weighed ounces. OUNCES and I'm the one who was taken down. Add to that the fact that I had a spider about the size of my hand suddenly interested in my head and whatever nutritious delights that lay within. Combine all that with darkness and you can imagine my trepidation about walking home in the rain.
Oh so nature wants to kill me. Big deal, nature will kill any one of us without a second thought. But what about ninjas? See, I don't know why they might kill me or what I may or may not have done to deserve such a death. I started to think about it like how in America you sometimes have to worry about incurring the wrath of gangs. Like wear red or blue through certain parts of South Central, LA (or conversely drive through South Central, LA) and you may get shot. Look at a group of people wearing gang paraphanalia and weilding hand guns and you may get shot. These rules make sense to me and I feel that in 28 years I've become pretty adept at not getting shot/stabbed/jumped in various rough neighborhoods in America. However, that knowledge helps me not in the land of the Ninja.
There's a little Shinto shrine at the bottom of my jungle mountain path that I climb home. I stop and say a little prayer there on my way up. What if that's like their turf? For all I know I've now associated myself with some faction of Ninja and the next time I'm alone at a train station I'm going to be ascended upon by any number of silent assassins. But aren't the shadows a ninja's turf? I mean, they're like, everywhere. So hopefully they'll forgive my gaijin ignorance and stick to murdering each other and random samurai. Or delivering pizza. I honestly have no idea what ninjas do in the 21st Century.
So yeah, that's where I'm at. In a beautiful chill house up on top of a mellow hill overlooking some beautiful houses all the way to the beach. I can see a lighthouse at night. Come visit me. You may have to fight for your life on the way but trust me, you'll be glad you did.
~=@=~
Saturday, October 31, 2009
His Holiness the Dalai Lama (HHDL) and Halloween in Shibuya (HIS)
I hung out with the Dalai Lama yesterday. Well by "hung out" I mean we were in the same room together. Actually by "same room" I mean really big auditorium. And really when I say "Dalai Lama" I mean bald Tibetan looking dude in yellow and red (McDonald's?) robes. But I'm pretty sure it was him. He was speaking about Buddhism after all, and samsara, and some other really complex stuff... Oh and apparently there's bingo tomorrow at 3, BYOD (bring your own dharma). At least I think he was. Honestly I have no idea what he was saying. My Japanese is bad enough as it is, but Japanese spoken with a Tibetan accent? Fugghitaboutit! Oh wait... Oh yes I'm being told that he was speaking Tibetan and his interpreter was speaking Japanese. Well I'm just an idiot then and have no idea what language sounds like.
But regardless of any of those sorts of language or spacial boundaries it was a rather moving experience. I think. I dunno I just felt really mellow the whole time. And bored. Yeah I was pretty bored. But mellow. So I guess it balances out. It was really cool though to see so many people show up to hear him speak. People talk about the world being in such a dismal place, but when so many people come to listen to a guy talk about transcending desire and peace can we really say it's all that bad?
After his talk we headed to Shibuya for some ramen and to see all the crazy Tokyo kids dress up for halloween. Forgive me, but by "all the... kids" I mean all 20 of them. But they did have cool costumes as you can see below. I would say "after the jump" but never understood what that meant because I'm not making any jump and it usually just means "after the empty space" so fuck that. "Below" works for me.
Anyways, I didn't get dressed up this year. I'm still getting accustomed to just being here and didn't really have like a group to go out with. Hopefully next year I'll be motivated to don some crazy attire and head out to the streets. We'll see...
But regardless of any of those sorts of language or spacial boundaries it was a rather moving experience. I think. I dunno I just felt really mellow the whole time. And bored. Yeah I was pretty bored. But mellow. So I guess it balances out. It was really cool though to see so many people show up to hear him speak. People talk about the world being in such a dismal place, but when so many people come to listen to a guy talk about transcending desire and peace can we really say it's all that bad?
After his talk we headed to Shibuya for some ramen and to see all the crazy Tokyo kids dress up for halloween. Forgive me, but by "all the... kids" I mean all 20 of them. But they did have cool costumes as you can see below. I would say "after the jump" but never understood what that meant because I'm not making any jump and it usually just means "after the empty space" so fuck that. "Below" works for me.
Anyways, I didn't get dressed up this year. I'm still getting accustomed to just being here and didn't really have like a group to go out with. Hopefully next year I'll be motivated to don some crazy attire and head out to the streets. We'll see...
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Rice
A simple piece of advice. If you plan on ever coming to the Land of the Rising Sun make sure you have enough time to get sick of the rice. If you happen to leave Japan before consuming at least 15 metric tons of gohan (cooked rice) you can rest assured that the rest of your life will be quite miserable. Let me explain.
Japanese rice is unlike anything you have ever experienced. Ever. Nothing you have ever eaten before in the entirety of your life can prepare you for the overwhelming experience of Japanese rice. Now don't get confused, it's not immediately overwhelming. It's not like an explosion in your mouth. You won't pass out, or see images of God or Jesus while staring gape-jawed at the ceiling with a mouth full of white gold. What it will do is slowly encode into your DNA taste-bud receptors that require constant satisfaction or else you will experience the worst withdrawals you have ever experienced in your life.
Now you may be thinking, "Big deal, I've eaten rice before AND done heroine, I'm not scared." Keep thinking that. Think that all the way back on your 10 hour flight home, the 45 minute trip through the airport, the hour-long commute home, keep that thought until you're all cosey in bed, ready to fall asleep. Then, at 2am when you wake up with cold sweats wondering why your teeth hurt, you will realize the truth of my words. Don't believe me? Go out to an American sushi restaurant. ANY American sushi restaurant, see that shit they wrap the sushi with? That's not seaweed, and that's definitely not rice. Go ahead, taste it. Taste it and let your mind wander back to that very first time you had real Japanese rice. You were so innocent then, you didn't know. You couldn't know that you were condemning yourself to a life of never being satisfied with any other rice eating experience. It's ok, I was there once too. It's why I'm in Japan now. I couldn't live without my fix.
But there is hope! It's a difficult path, not many will walk it. Most will unwittingly lock themselves into a life of misery, but maybe you're different. You could be the one. It requires a firm mind and a strong stomach. You have to eat all the rice. All of it. You must eat gohan until you feel sick, until you are sick, until you think you will die, and for some until you die. Trust me death is a better alternative than living a life without Japanese rice. If you make it, if you can eat all the rice, then you have a chance at burning out the coded DNA rice receptors. Once those are gone you won't have the cravings. Normal, American, crappy rice will taste normal again. You'll be happy. Content.
Though the risks are many the momentary pleasures that Japanese rice give us are great. Whether it's gohan, mochi, or cooked in any of a million other ways (those Nihon-jin sure are crafty little buggers!) it is delicious. This cannot be denied.
~=^=~
Japanese rice is unlike anything you have ever experienced. Ever. Nothing you have ever eaten before in the entirety of your life can prepare you for the overwhelming experience of Japanese rice. Now don't get confused, it's not immediately overwhelming. It's not like an explosion in your mouth. You won't pass out, or see images of God or Jesus while staring gape-jawed at the ceiling with a mouth full of white gold. What it will do is slowly encode into your DNA taste-bud receptors that require constant satisfaction or else you will experience the worst withdrawals you have ever experienced in your life.
Now you may be thinking, "Big deal, I've eaten rice before AND done heroine, I'm not scared." Keep thinking that. Think that all the way back on your 10 hour flight home, the 45 minute trip through the airport, the hour-long commute home, keep that thought until you're all cosey in bed, ready to fall asleep. Then, at 2am when you wake up with cold sweats wondering why your teeth hurt, you will realize the truth of my words. Don't believe me? Go out to an American sushi restaurant. ANY American sushi restaurant, see that shit they wrap the sushi with? That's not seaweed, and that's definitely not rice. Go ahead, taste it. Taste it and let your mind wander back to that very first time you had real Japanese rice. You were so innocent then, you didn't know. You couldn't know that you were condemning yourself to a life of never being satisfied with any other rice eating experience. It's ok, I was there once too. It's why I'm in Japan now. I couldn't live without my fix.
But there is hope! It's a difficult path, not many will walk it. Most will unwittingly lock themselves into a life of misery, but maybe you're different. You could be the one. It requires a firm mind and a strong stomach. You have to eat all the rice. All of it. You must eat gohan until you feel sick, until you are sick, until you think you will die, and for some until you die. Trust me death is a better alternative than living a life without Japanese rice. If you make it, if you can eat all the rice, then you have a chance at burning out the coded DNA rice receptors. Once those are gone you won't have the cravings. Normal, American, crappy rice will taste normal again. You'll be happy. Content.
Though the risks are many the momentary pleasures that Japanese rice give us are great. Whether it's gohan, mochi, or cooked in any of a million other ways (those Nihon-jin sure are crafty little buggers!) it is delicious. This cannot be denied.
~=^=~
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Nothing Really New
For those of you who are unaware (but interested in counting) this is my fourth trip across the Pacific and my third trip to Japan (one of those ventures was to China). I guess it's really no surprise then that I'm not as blown away by all the Japanese weirdness around me. Like political candidates standing outside of train stations with mega-sized megaphones screaming their thanks to everyone who deafly "listens" to their platform. Or really all the myriad things that most people notice on their first outing here: public baths, plastic food, endless vending machines, bowing, neon lights, karaoke, geishas, etc... That's just naming a few. I haven't even been to Tokyo yet so I can't quite remember what that's like but if memory serves me correctly it's fucking insane. Sort of like Dark City but filled with crazy Japanese people.
Anyways, most of my time here so far has been spent kicking it with my brother. I can't complain really, we spend most days going to the beach and doing Tai Chi, eating, and watching movies. It's been great, but not really a traditional "Japanese experience" if you know what I mean. Tai Chi on the beach sure is fun though. I could think of worse things I could be doing... Like waking up at 5:30am to go to work 6 days a week. Yeah there's that. That would be a lot worse.
~=&=~
Anyways, most of my time here so far has been spent kicking it with my brother. I can't complain really, we spend most days going to the beach and doing Tai Chi, eating, and watching movies. It's been great, but not really a traditional "Japanese experience" if you know what I mean. Tai Chi on the beach sure is fun though. I could think of worse things I could be doing... Like waking up at 5:30am to go to work 6 days a week. Yeah there's that. That would be a lot worse.
~=&=~
Monday, October 19, 2009
This Is Vedy Important... Mm.
Went to my 2nd Aikido class yesterday. *Phew* I had no idea it was gonna be 4 hours of getting my ass kicked.
Hour 1: Boken practice. But apparently in Japan they use extra heavy bokens that us gaijin can barely lift . I thought my arms were going to just snap out of their sockets like Legos or something.
Hour 2: Jo practice. Much easier than the boken but still tiring.
*Break* <-- I thought this was the end of class, little did I know we had just begun.
Hours 3 & 4: Aikido practice. Mostly getting thrown repeatedly into a mat and having my wrist locked in what can only be expressed as "HOLY SHIT FUCKING OW! OW! OW! I CAN FEEL MY RADIUS SPLINTERING PLEASE STOP!" Yeah apparently they don't stop when you scream, only when you tap the mat. Gotta follow protocal I guess.
But you know, it was tough but a lot of fun. Also, I can see that Aikido is pretty serious business. If you really study it I think it has a lot of practical application. One of the guys in the class had been studying for 40 years, after class he put on his suit and walked out with a breifcase. I feel sorry for anyone trying to mug him in the night thinking he's just some harmless saliryman.
Slowly approaching the 2-week mark in Japan. The loneliness is slowly starting to set in. I really need to just get out of my brother's house and start making my own friends. Soon enough that'll happen I imagine. But right now it doesn't feel soon enough.
Anyways, at a cute little restaurant that has free wi-fi. Apparently wi-fi is a pretty rare commodity in Japan. I think they limit a lot of these sorts of technologies as a means of preventing any future Godzilla type mutations in the fucking MILLIONS of bugs that live here. I could imagine some Japanese person imagining that if some spider crosses with some stray wi-fi signal it'll mutate into a 20-story tall arachnid capable of shooting acid web on city buses and fucking up the JR time schedule. THE RAIWS MUST RUN ON LIME! WAKADE MASU?!
God I love it here.
~=*=~
Hour 1: Boken practice. But apparently in Japan they use extra heavy bokens that us gaijin can barely lift . I thought my arms were going to just snap out of their sockets like Legos or something.
Hour 2: Jo practice. Much easier than the boken but still tiring.
*Break* <-- I thought this was the end of class, little did I know we had just begun.
Hours 3 & 4: Aikido practice. Mostly getting thrown repeatedly into a mat and having my wrist locked in what can only be expressed as "HOLY SHIT FUCKING OW! OW! OW! I CAN FEEL MY RADIUS SPLINTERING PLEASE STOP!" Yeah apparently they don't stop when you scream, only when you tap the mat. Gotta follow protocal I guess.
But you know, it was tough but a lot of fun. Also, I can see that Aikido is pretty serious business. If you really study it I think it has a lot of practical application. One of the guys in the class had been studying for 40 years, after class he put on his suit and walked out with a breifcase. I feel sorry for anyone trying to mug him in the night thinking he's just some harmless saliryman.
Slowly approaching the 2-week mark in Japan. The loneliness is slowly starting to set in. I really need to just get out of my brother's house and start making my own friends. Soon enough that'll happen I imagine. But right now it doesn't feel soon enough.
Anyways, at a cute little restaurant that has free wi-fi. Apparently wi-fi is a pretty rare commodity in Japan. I think they limit a lot of these sorts of technologies as a means of preventing any future Godzilla type mutations in the fucking MILLIONS of bugs that live here. I could imagine some Japanese person imagining that if some spider crosses with some stray wi-fi signal it'll mutate into a 20-story tall arachnid capable of shooting acid web on city buses and fucking up the JR time schedule. THE RAIWS MUST RUN ON LIME! WAKADE MASU?!
God I love it here.
~=*=~
Friday, October 16, 2009
First Pangs of Homesickness
I felt homesick the other day. We were sitting around eating dinner having some sort of depressing conversation about the current state of the world and I just started to miss being home. I missed my neighborhood in the Mission. I missed my two jobs with all of my friends. I missed being able to talk to anyone I met in a language I understood. I missed the near constant harassment by homeless people for what little money I have. I missed the HUGE variety of food that exists in America and especially in San Francisco. I missed my roommate and our regular (though amusing) arguments. I missed biking to the beach and through the Haight. I missed getting Indian delivery at 11pm and gorging myself on chicken tikka masala while watching Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert make what would otherwise be horribly depressing funny. I missed the smell of urine that I so often found walking down Shotwell. I missed the smell of urine I so often found anywhere in the Mission. I missed going to Dolores and watching people much cooler and more beautiful than I get drunk and act like assholes. I missed the near constant sound of sirens as apparently there is always a fire/murder/heart attack happening somewhere. I missed the sound of gunshots lulling me into a dreamless sleep.
But then I belched and felt better. I guess it was just gas.
~=!=~
But then I belched and felt better. I guess it was just gas.
~=!=~
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