Turkey Time

Here's how they look in their jars

2010-09-18T10:52:00.002-05:00

Sour

2010-09-18T05:43:00.006-05:00

Okay, okay. I know I haven't updated this blog in almost a year, but in fairness, I've been a lot better about updating my Christie blog infrequently. I'm still in Turkey. I'm still teaching - they let me stay another year - was there any doubt? But I don't want to talk about Turkey or teaching in this post. I want to talk about lemon pickle.

After shying away from jars of citrus pickles lining the aisles of the Indian section of the grocery store for years, I finally had some forced upon me. John and Michelle gave me a jar when they left for Zambia. This one, lime pickle, looked pretty good (by pretty good, I mean, there wasn't a grease stain on the label, it wasn't a dusty jar, and it looked edible. Needless to say, after partaking of some with my Lahori style chicken curry from my cookbook by Suvir Saran, I was won over. When I read up on Indian pickle and found that the aging process is a huge factor in the excellence of the flavor (Saran boasts owning a 40 year old jar of lemon pickle), I became more comfortable with the look of it and regretted not picking up a jar for one of my colleagues when I was in Kerala last year.

Well, my jar from John and Michelle is starting to run out so I decided to consult Suvir's book and see just how hard it might be to make this myself. The recipe looked straightforward enough so I ran up to the market on Hatay and picked up a dozen lemons. One turned out to be rotton so my pickle will be one short. I began by halving the lemons lengthwise and then cutting the halves in half and getting 3-4 wedges from each. Then I put them on a paper towel lined baking sheet and set them on my balcony to dry out in the sun (having reserved the lemon juice produced from cutting them up).

Next, I mixed up some whole and ground spices - this bit turned out to be a dodg-

Oh wait! I forgot to mention the most important part of the whole lemon-cutting portion - I sliced a good portion of the tip of my thumb. I'm standing at my marble counter slicing away when my knife slides a bit too far to the right and goes right into my thumb tip. As you can imagine, the lemon juice felt great on the new wound. I threw stuff down, staunched the bleeding (none got into the lemons I'm happy to say), disinfected the wound, bandaged it and went back to slicing.

-y undertaking as I don't have a proper spice grinder. I tried my mini processor but it didn't do much. I then resorted to my bamboo mortar and pestle (with the pestle that is entirely too short so my knuckles get a bit of a grinding on the side of the mortar). It took a bit, but I got most of it ground up.
I ran it through a sieve just to get the bigger, ungrindable bits (mostly cardamom pods). I added that to the salt which is sitting in a bowl waiting to receive the lovely lemon slices once they've spent their day in the sun.
Then I have to wait weeks, months, years, to taste it. I'll post more pictures when I mix the salt/spice mixture with the lemons.

A week in the life of THIS English teacher in Turkey

2009-10-29T02:05:00.005-05:00

My schedule leaves me little time to sit in front of my computer and update you all on my happenings here, but as it happens today is Republic Day in Turkey. As a result (and because H1N1 has hit Turkey) we have both today and tomorrow off from school. I'm sitting here on my third cup of strong Turkish tea, having eaten a hard-boiled egg that wasn't as hard-boiled as I thought. I find that simple tasks take on a new level of difficulty for me when I am confronted with a whole new set of stimuli. My mind seems to shut down and before I know it, I'm slicing open an egg with a nicely cooked yolk and a soft albumen inside.

Enough about eggs.

Okay, so let me take you through a day-by-day rundown of my work week.

Monday:
Up at 6:30 unless the call to prayer wakes me an hour earlier. Or unless the cat jumps on my head. Or unless I awaken in a panic because I failed to grade journals or lesson plan third period. I start making coffee and look through my closet for a pair of pants and a shirt that don't need ironing. After a shower and a quick breakfast, I head over to the English office. At 8:15, I head to the amphitheater for the Monday morning flag ceremony. My students sit in huddled groups, deceptively mellow and unawake at this hour, giving little indication of what they will be like in the classroom. We stand as the flag bearers come in and march down the stairs. The national anthem is played and the students all sing it in either a low register or monotone. I have discovered that this must be because of the key the anthem accompaniment is played in. You have to either sing it really low or really high and exposed. We listen to announcements, the flags are carried out and I run up to class.

Periods one and two with my advanced prep students (15 year olds) generally goes well. They're still waking up and haven't had their morning break yet so they aren't all hopped up on sugar. Our periods last a mere 40 minutes, which is either mercifully quick or ploddingly slow depending on my preparation and my students' behavior. We either read the novel we're working on or work in our grammar book. Third period comes and I get a break to regroup for 4th period. By this time, the students are their normal, energetic selves. They come upon me at the beginning of class, a wave of questions crashes against me and I entreat them to sit. I like my students. They have an energy that keeps me on my toes. They ask interesting questions. Their curiosity is fantastic and I find myself thinking back to try and remember if I was ever like this.

Period five is set up for parent teacher conferences - I've only done this a couple of times so mostly it's a prep hour for me. I take lunch at 6th period and check in with my fellow teachers. The lunches here are fantastic - we are spoiled: kofta, kebab, chicken, rice, salad, fresh fruit, puddings and cakes, yogurt, ayran, rich lentil soups.

After lunch, I head back to the English office to get ready to face my tenth graders. I teach two classes of tenth graders - each class is pretty unique. This group is my lively bunch. They move quickly through the material and would rather chat and draw and dance and do just about anything rather than settle down to a bit of reading. Yet once they do, they are engaged and ask some pretty insightful questions.

I get a period break then I have my other 10th grade class. This group is quieter but nevertheless just as engaged. They move through things more slowly but not because they lack the understanding or initiative. Rather, it's usually because they take more time to discuss ideas.

The best thing about walking into class each day? The students come to attention and stand by their desks until I tell them to sit (well, it takes them a bit of time to do this sometimes, but it's still pretty cool).

After class I help with the Beyond ISTA theater club.

Tuesday:
I dislike Tuesday mornings because I have two periods with each of my 10th grade classes right off the bat. I'm generally tired after teaching the same thing twice over the course of 4 periods. I get a bit of a mid-day break and then see my prep kids in the afternoon.

Wednesday:
10th graders again in the morning but only for one period with each group. Then I get a break, see my preps for two periods and then backup one of the 12th grade teachers after lunch. My afternoon is spent in a coordination meeting with two other teachers to plan the next week's lessons for 10th grade. After school, another teacher and I co-lead a radio club.

Thursday:
Prep kids in the morning, backup for 12th grade, then 10th graders late afternoon.

Friday:
I have the first two periods free (very nice, except for the fact that I've subbed for teachers 2nd period almost every week since school started). I see my 10th graders in the morning (I should mention we are reading To Kill a Mockingbird right now. My students know I'm a Mac user and in one class I came in to find, written on the board, "To Kill a Mocintosh" with an apple symbol with x'd out eyes. Very clever).

After 3rd and 4th periods, I rush over to the new building to see my preps for an hour. They are generally completely insane by this point in the week, but this is okay because I am too. I grab a super quick lunch then head back to the English building to help with the radio club's Friday lunchtime broadcast. Lately I've been bringing my iPod over to the co-op and playing jazz or lounge music for the hour. Then it's back to the new building for a lesson with the preps. 8th period on Friday is the last one of the week so I make that my SSR period with the students (I long for this period as it is generally the only block of time I have in the week for some solid reading).

We all head back to the amphitheater for the closing flag ceremony, get announcements, sing the anthem, enjoy the warmth of the sun and head out. Generally I will grab a drink and a snack with some of the Turkish and foreign faculty down by the bay.

The weeks fly by here. I'm generally overwhelmed but I've learned to ride the wave of uncertainty and enjoy the experience.

Back to school

2009-09-17T08:38:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm on the tail end of a short first week of school. It's been overwhelming, interesting, nerve-racking, fun, inspiring, and draining all at once. I really like my Turkish students - overall they seem like a good bunch. Some will try my patience I'm sure, but overall, I like their energy. I'll share more once I get fully into my schedule.

Ephesus & Sirince

2009-09-05T10:41:00.004-05:00

An amazing day today in Turkey. We left the lojman at 8:00 am and took a bus to Ephesus. According to Herodotos and others, Ephesus was founded by Ephos, queen of the Amazons. In Greek times, Artemis became the city's goddess of choice. Then in Roman times, she was given the name Diana. Ephesus is, of course, an important city for Christians as well because of its associations with the apostle Paul and the early Christian church. It was here that Paul started speaking at the basilica and lecture halls and was riling up the artisans. Demetrius, who made his living creating shrines to Artemis, got pissed off and thought Paul would take away all their market business by converting people to Christianity. They'd be out of the shrine and idol-making business. Part of our tour today included the amphitheater where Demetrius got everyone gathered and where they all shouted their cheers to Artemis. Paul wanted to go there and speak to the people but was dissuaded - this was a wise choice as he'd probably have been torn apart by the angry mob.

Ephesus is a great place to get a fairly clear picture of what it was like to have lived in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. This city has some of the best preserved ruins - there are homes with mosaic floors, temples to Artemis, latrines, markets, brothels, a library and two amphitheaters. One of the most remarkable parts of the tour was a look at the terrace houses that went up into the hills over the city. This was where the rich folk lived. Here you could see large reception areas, kitchens painted with frescos of birds and fish, tiled floors, and enormous bathrooms.

Through an ingenious plumbing system composed of terra cotta pipes, Ephesians could have hot and cold water, fountains, baths, and water running in the latrines to carry the waste away (along with a fresh stream that ran under the feet so one could use a sea sponge and clean up afterwards).

After our tour, we went to the nearby village of Sirince to get lunch. Gary, Rena, Becca and Sarah and I wandered up the steep roads until we found a sign for the Alis Pension Cafe and Bar. We walked down a dirt path to a wooden gate shaded by a large fig tree. Along the walk were several fruit trees - pomegranate, quince and peach - as well as olive trees. We got to a terraced area and ordered beer and mezze. A boy picked a peach and gave it to Sarah. Later the proprietor's older son picked peaches for all of us - huge, ripe, sweet peaches, the best I've tasted. Our meal consisted of a tomato cucumber salad with olive oil, fresh cheeses, small lamb kebabs, bread, olives and fresh pressed olive oil. This was the sort of meal people have on the Food Network - perfect setting, perfect company, perfect food.

On the bus ride home we made an impromptu stop along the road where a woman was selling dried chilis. Her husband invited us to pick ripe figs from the trees behind the house. We talked with the family, ate amazing figs and bought strings of dried red chili peppers.

I'll follow up with some pics for those of you who don't have Facebook.

Istanbul Trip (in a series of statements - photos without commentary follow)

2009-08-27T04:39:00.007-05:00

-I traveled to Istanbul for a three-day orientation session.
-I discovered that airport security is not so crazy in Izmir and Istanbul as it is in the US.
-The flight to Istanbul was less than the time it takes for me to fly to Chicago from Minneapolis.
-The Taksim neighborhood on the European side of Istanbul looks very much like any other old European city (with the addition of mosques here and there).
-I discovered our hotel was close to the Pera Palace Hotel.
-Agatha Christie used to stay at the Pera Palace Hotel when she took the Orient Express.
-Pera Palace is an old school 19th century hotel with lots of marble.
-The Pera Palace is closed for renovations and restoration.
-I do not know what the lobby looks like except in pictures.
-Cats are as plentiful in Istanbul as they are in Izmir.
-People stay up late here.
-Orientation can be tiring if you are still struggling to get used to a new time schedule.
-I was not taught enough in history class about neither Constantine nor the Ottoman Empire.
-I learned a song in Turkish.
-For the most part I have Turkish pronunciation down pat.
-I need to build up a lexicon of useful words and phrases.
-The Hagia Sophia is one of the most fascinating places I've ever seen.
-The Hagia Sophia contains iconography architectural elements and calligraphy from both the Christian and Muslim religions.
-The Hagia Sophia must have been AMAZING when it was first completed and was covered in mosaic tiles.
-Mosques get their domed look from the Hagia Sophia.
-The dome of the Hagia Sophia was actually a part of the Christian-era architecture of the church.
-I kept singing Hagia Sophia to the tune of "Hava Nagila" but only in my head.
-The food here is making me put on weight again.
-There are about 50 cisterns under Istanbul.
-I toured the largest.
-These were made during the Christian era.
-The pillars used to support these structures were taken from Greek and Roman temples and are quite exquisite.
-Two carvings of the head of Medusa help prop up two pillars.
-Neither head is facing the right way.
-Jackie Chan filmed part of a film in this cistern.
-The Bosphorus is beautiful. The 4 hour cruise I took was excellent.
-I want to go back to Istanbul soon.
-I have a picture of the Blue Mosque below.
-I did not get to see the inside of the Blue Mosque.
-The pictures below are in no particular order.

On Strays, Backgammon and Nargile

2009-08-23T08:19:00.003-05:00

Strays:

There are tons of cats and dogs wandering the streets of Izmir. We have about three cats that hang out by the lojman (faculty housing) and there are three or four more that loiter at the south gate. They look a bit like the cats in Grey Gardens - small, with tongues hanging out and lethargic. The dogs are even more lazy, finding a shady spot and parking it for the day. The interesting thing about all of these strays is the way the community takes care of them. As I was leaving the school lunchroom a couple days ago, a guard approached me. I was about to drop off my tray when he gestured to the chicken bones on my plate. He then indicated with a nod that he'd like to add my chicken bones to the tray he was collecting. "For dogs," he said. After this, I noticed in the evenings after dinner, walking along the streets, these small squares of newspapers upon which sat leftovers - köfte, lamb, bones and rice all sitting in glops. Whilst walking down to the bay, I interrupted a cat in the middle of a dinner of fava beans by a streetlamp.

Backgammon:

I'd not known that backgammon is such a popular game here, but walk down to the bars any evening and you'll see men and women young and old sitting over a table playing backgammon - others sit and play a game that looks like mahjong. I love backgammon so I'm gonna have to get me a board and play a few games with the locals. The thing people like to do while playing backgammon besides having a drink is to smoke the Nargile.

Nargile is the Turkish counterpart to the Hindu hookah. I've smoked a nargile twice since coming here. Both times at the Garden Cafe. Our ever-friendly waiter suggested we try cappuccino flavored tobacco, so we did. After a bit, friendly waiter arrives with the glass water pipe puffing away at the end of it to get it going. He then sets it down and throws a few wrapped plastic spigots or mouthpieces on the table and we go to it. It's a pretty social event, this water pipe smoking. The mouthpiece gets passed around and the heady smoke fills the evening air. Every few minutes happy waiter came through puffing on another pipe as he brought it to the table. Quite the enjoyable occupational hazard.

We hit Ikea today to get a bunch of stuff for our apartments. Tomorrow? We're off to Istanbul for three days. I'm hoping to get to see the hotel Agatha Christie used to stay in there. Apparently it's pretty chichi.

My first post from Izmir

2009-08-20T03:04:00.006-05:00

Well, I've decided to keep my old blog url since most people know it. The title of the blog has changed, tho (I'm still looking for a better title, but this will have to do until then - Molly and Kristin came up with a great list but I don't think many of those will work). Back at the end of January I was attending an overseas teaching job fair. There I accepted a position teaching at a high school in Izmir, Turkey. Since that time, I pretty much led my normal everyday life with the exception of having to get a few ducks in order - passport, application for Turkish work visa, trip to Chicago to get said visa stamped into my passport, packing, flying out.

Now that I'm here, I can't believe how quickly my summer in Minnesota passed. But anyway, I'll talk about all that's been happening since I got here.

Sunday, August 16th -
I arrived in Izmir at about 3:30 pm and promptly realized that I'd failed to exchange some money before arriving. This made getting a one euro trolly to haul my luggage difficult. I asked about an ATM but it was apparently on the other side of customs. I was reduced to begging a euro off of a fellow passenger. Once I got all that sorted out and got my luggage, I whizzed through customs without the officials even taking one look at my bags, then met Chris (our school's administrator) and Vide (a fellow English teacher). They helped me get my luggage in the van and we headed over to the Lojman, or faculty housing (I like the sound of that word, lojman. I think I'm going to use it for all subsequent residences). They asked if I wanted to sleep or head out and see the neighborhood. Neighborhood, definitely.

We walked around - oh, wait! here's a series of photos I patched together to show my apartment - it's kind of hard to see, but you get the idea. It's huge! I could fit three of my Japartment in this place (tho' I'll always miss the heated toilet seat and deep tub in that place).

- the neighborhood and Chris pointed out various places I'd need to familiarize myself with - where to buy good fruit, a bakery, the post office, a convenience store, the bank, etc. Then we walked over to the Kordon - this is the area on the bay where there is a big walkway and tons of little outdoor bars and cafes. Apparently someone back in the day had come up with the idea of building a major highway along the coast here which would have ruined the area. Thankfully, aesthetic heads prevailed and the project was abandoned. It was hot and I was a might parched so Chris and Vide took me to a bar where we had a couple of beers. As we sat there, several convertibles sped by (there's still a road along the coast, just not a view inhibiting, elevated highway), with men beating drums and boys seated up high on the back seat wearing dress clothes and flowing capes. We saw about 7 or 8 in the course of an hour. The boys were smiling and waving. Chris explained that this bit of pomp was to celebrate when a 9-year-old boy was going to be circumcised. The boy is obviously smiling because he hasn't had the procedure done yet.

After beers, we went to a local restaurant where I had a lamb and eggplant kebab with ayran (a kind of salted yogurt drink) and ended with Turkish coffee. That night I unpacked and slept only a few hours.

Monday - Wednesday
These days have been spent doing a lot of walking, taking trips to the store to get things for my place, exploring the neighborhood, greeting other arriving teachers and getting to know the campus. They have quite an orientation set up for us - trips to Ikea and local shopping malls, three days in Istanbul, departmental meetings, planning sessions, etc. We'll be very prepared by the time our students arrive.

I wanted to post a ton of pictures of the Kordon, the school and the exterior of my apartment, but I cannot get the pictures to load. I Think once I get my DSL hooked up it will be quicker. Right now I'm just piggy-backing off of my neighbor's wireless - thanks Michelle!

More to come.

Seen and Overheard at the Ecopolitan

2009-02-22T20:18:00.003-06:00

I just got back from a great dinner with Liz, Bevin, and Christina at Ecopolitan, Minneapolis' raw foods/vegan restaurant. The meal was great, the company, scintillating and the people-watching was ... in a word, interesting. Across the room from us sat a couple. Just a seemingly normal middle-aged couple having a quiet conversation. Behind Liz sat a table of two women and a man celebrating one of their birthdays. There were others in the adjoining room but I don't remember much about them.

We sat, enjoying our silly conversations when above the din a woman's voice rose and said something to the effect of, "Don't call me Barbara, whenever I'm in here I must only be referred to as Liz." (I can't remember if Barbara was the first name, but you get the idea - it was a WEIRD thing to say. I thought it was odd and after the people behind Liz left, I leaned over to Christina and asked, "What did that Liz woman say they weren't supposed to call her?" Christina laughed and replied, "I don't remember and she's still here." It was apparently woman who made up half of the middle-aged couple who'd made the loud, strange remark. Luckily she hadn't heard me and we continued with our own conversations.

A bit later, as we were eating our food, I happened to look behind Bevin to the corner where the couple sat. The middle-aged man, while the woman was talking to him, picked up his empty plate AND BEGAN LICKING HIS PLATE!!!! Not just a single lick, but several, sweeping licks! This man made a production of licking his plate clean.

Come on! Who licks their plate in a restaurant?!

Ugh! I've neglected this blog long enough!

2009-01-16T21:49:00.002-06:00

Every time I come to this blog to look up an old picture or remind myself of some event, I am reminded that the last time I posted it was Halloween and now I'm in the deep freeze of January. Kristin also reminded me that I hadn't posted to this blog in a while. I guess I haven't had much to say lately. Lots of things have been happening, but I just haven't felt like putting things down here. Maybe this year, here in 2009, I will start trying to blog here more so people can keep up with my happenings. I have made loads of friends internationally and I guess I should start showing them more of my life in Minnesota. I'll take some pictures soon so show you what the deep freeze is like. The latest thing people are doing now to show just how cold it is is to freeze a banana outside and then use it to hammer a nail into a board - yes folks, it's THAT cold here!

Happy Halloween

2008-11-01T01:57:00.003-05:00

I need to listen more closely...

2008-10-20T13:24:00.002-05:00

...before signing on to races with my sister and brother-in-law. I thought that last Saturday I'd be running a 5k race but when I got to their house and we were getting ready to go, my brother-in-law asked if I was ready to run 5 miles. I said, "No, it's only 3 miles; it's a 5k." b-i-l: "It's five miles, Matt." Okay, so ready or not, I had to do it.

Despite the steep incline around 3/4 a mile into the race and twisting my ankle at the 1 mile marker, I made it through the five miles. I've done five miles before, but not in a long time. Anyway, here's a pic of all of us after finishing the "Run for the Apples" race on Saturday:

Kalamazoo

2008-10-08T15:43:00.001-05:00

After college I was in a production called "1940s Radio Hour" which began with this song and was sung in this style. Fun stuff:

I got a new Flip Video Camcorder...

2008-08-24T12:32:00.003-05:00

...to give me greater flexibility with videos for my other blog. Here's the first video I made:

The Small House Halfway up in the Next Block

2008-08-04T22:25:00.003-05:00

When I was a kid I once got a cassette tape of excerpts from old time radio shows in my Christmas stocking. This was an entirely appropriate gift to put in my stocking as I'd always found myself drawn to older forms of comedy, to nostalgia, and yes, even to sentimentality. I always enjoyed hearing George Burns and Gracie Allen, but I remember there being a short - maybe 10 minute - comedy broadcast that I would listen to over and over because it was so funny in such an everyday, mundane way. Unfortunately the tape did not say what the show was and I have long since lost it. A couple weeks ago I decided to do some Google searching on old radio comedies and see if I could find it. I didn't know the names of the characters but I knew the one I'd heard was a conversation between a mother and her son on the front porch of their house. After looking around a bit, I discovered it must be a show called Vic and Sade. This show which at one time had 7 million listeners (including Ray Bradbury, Ogden Nash and James Thurber), was broadcast daily in the 30s and 40s in 15 minute segments. It chronicled the everyday life of Victor and Sade Gook and their adopted son, Rush.

I got a hold of about 300 existing recordings of this show (there were over 2000 but the studio ran out of room and many episodes landed in the dumpster.

I've been listening to these shows on my commute to and from work. I'm totally hooked now. The actors are hysterical, adopting midwestern accents and attitudes without being over the top. They have such a chemistry and natural delivery, it's easy to believe they are the characters they portray. Vic (who Rush and Sade call Gov) is a bit of a curmudgeon at times but primarily a fun-loving, elderly father type. He constantly calls Rush by names he just makes up: Hog Wash, Coal Scuttle, Walnut Stain, Ink Stain, Half-wit, Margaret, etc. Sade (who Vic calls Kiddo) calls her son Willie and sometimes Mary Sunshine if he's moping about. Rush is this geeky, happy-go-lucky, All-American boy. The family also had an Uncle Fletcher who makes appearances now and then.

Through the course of each 15 minute episode you get a taste for the people who make up this small town - Mrs. Applerot, Smelly Clark, Y.Y. Flirch and Bluetooth Nelson to name a few. While the subjects are sometimes dated and quaint, the characters themselves are timeless. If you are at all interested, try these two episodes on for size:

The Vegetable Garden

Bacon Sandwiches

Michael

2008-07-01T17:16:00.010-05:00

I painted this picture in 2000, less than a year after my sister and I had been out to Tacoma, Washington to visit aunts and uncles and cousins. Becky and I repeated that journey a few weeks ago, returning nine years later to attend my cousin Ron's Wedding. I'll be posting pictures and commentary about that great trip in a subsequent post. But today, I wanted to write about Ron's youngest brother, Michael. I've been thinking about this post for a long time and wanted to know what to say, how to express my thoughts about my cousin. This painting is really a marker of how long it has been since Michael was with us.

This last trip to Washington, when Becky and I arrived at Aunt Hildy and Jim's and were seeing cousins and children of cousins we hadn't seen in years, I was happy and overwhelmed and a little shy (as I often am when I am seeing people I haven't seen in years. Becky is always much more comfortable talking to people and jumping right back into easy conversation than I. I take a bit of time to feel comfortable again). I went into the kitchen to give aunt Hildy a hug. Practically the first thing I noticed, among a patchwork of photos magneted to the refrigerator door was a photo of Michael staring back at me. It took me by surprise - his frank stare and slight smile, his jaw line, unbearded, was strong and angular, or so I remember it. I hadn't looked at a photo of my cousin for so long that the emotion of his not being there momentarily overwhelmed me.

Later, I saw Michael in my cousin Laurie's son, Christopher - the eyes, mannerisms, and even his open, accepting nature - all reminded me of Michael. Even later still, as I was putting my suitcase into the room where I'd be staying, sleeping in Michael's old bed with a quilt his sister had made for him, I had further reminders of that summer nine years ago. I looked down the hall and into my aunt's bedroom where the painting I'd done for her hung against the far wall. I remember thinking about how to approach painting Michael, about how I could make something for my aunt to remember him by. I must have gone to the Institute or the Walker not long before and seen some of Chuck Close's paintings. When I blew up the photograph Jim had taken of us on trip to Mt. Rainier on my birthday and printed a close up of Michael's face, I knew that emulating Close's approach of using individual squares and filtering the image through those cells was the right approach. I had no symbolic reason for taking this approach, but just knew that somehow it fit better than something more realistic or abstract.

I remember when I saw Michael nine years ago, for the first time in several years, I felt unsure of myself. We sat opposite each other in the living room of the place he and my other cousin Rob were living in. I initially felt the distances of time and space had separated us from the bond I'd once felt. Becky and I, after all, loved Michael and as children when we'd visit would devotedly follow him around. We loved all of our cousins, but Michael was only a few years older than us, closer to Eric's age, so he was stuck with our shadowing him. He never seemed to mind us playing with him and taking an interest in the things he was interested in. Both he and Rob - all of the siblings, in fact, were enormously talented and I was always inspired to be more creative around them.

One summer Aunt Hildy had brought Michael and Rob out to Minnesota for a visit. I remember Michael taking a great interest in a book he'd bought (I think at the Minnesota Zoo) about edible plants. On a visit to Washington a year or so later, I found that this interest wasn't just a passing fancy. In fact he brewed me a tea from roasted dandelion root. I remember the heady, roasted coffee-like taste. Later, when I'd tried it on my own, I failed to make anything that came close to that tea. Becky reminded me of the tree frogs he'd caught and showed us one summer when we were out visiting. Both he and Rob seemed to cultivate artistic abilities and interests that interested me as well. As far as I could see, Michael possessed a fairly deep inner life and a reserve of imagination that I appreciated. He and Rob valued things I (probably Becky and Eric too) valued - maps and old documents, books and fantastic stories, nature, and trying to capture or recreate small remnants of worlds and eras that no longer existed.

That day, nine years ago sitting across from Michael and both of us feeling initially uncomfortable, one of us happened to mention something from when we were children and suddenly the barrier was removed. We both felt connected again. I looked across and saw Michael's eyes smiling as he was remembering things from our childhood as cousins. He even had some of the maps of imaginary places he'd invented, and I remembered again how envious I was of his imagination and talents. The time Becky and I had with Ron, Rob, and Michael that last summer was special and I'm glad we got to have it - he was gone a little over a week later.

I write this and I am initially struck by how insufficient words are in really describing memories and feelings. The second thought that strikes me is that I somehow misrepresented Michael, got something wrong or missed some aspect of him that I should have mentioned. I didn't, for example, mention his flaws and I know he had some. He wasn't perfect and I'm sure his siblings could tell stories (we all have stories of our siblings' shortcomings), but I do know he was greatly loved by a lot of people and his departure saddened us all.

I'm still left with a tinge of worry about how I'm portraying him - I felt much the same way when I painted his portrait. But then, these are my memories associated with Michael, no one else's. Others have their thoughts and reminiscences. Together they all make up who my cousin was. In that respect, maybe my approach to the painting does work after all.

I promise ...

2008-06-24T22:22:00.002-05:00

... to blog about my trip to Seattle and my Japanese student Mari's visit to the Twin Cities. I've been so busy lately, it's taking me a while to get to everything. Suffice it to say, I had a great last two weeks, making this week a bit of a let down. Who knows? If I'm feeling a bit creative and snarky, I may even blog about the strange bathroom habits of the worker bees in my corner of corporate America.

On the Landing

2008-05-27T11:59:00.009-05:00

Matt woke up not uncharacteristically early one Tuesday morning to a silent house. Light radiated through the paper blind suggesting that today would be rather wonderful. He turned over and squinted at his alarm clock rather than putting on his spectacles - just going on 7 o'clock. Apart from some chirruping birds somewhere outside, the house was quiet. There was no cook banging about in the kitchen, breaking crockery left and right. There was no sound of the butler's light footfall on the floorboards in the hall. Above all, there was no incessant meowing of the cat, Walter, who served as a trusted alarm when the clock failed. He imagined the cat was upstairs sunning himself by the window or at least perched on the sill watching the noisy grackles.

As he rubbed his eyes and put on his glasses it occurred to him that due to economic reasons he had neither a butler nor a cook - nor a housekeeper for that matter. He must have been awakened out of some dream of opulence, one filled with light treading butlers and noisy cooks. The book on his bedside table, a mystery of a bygone era, seemed to give every indication that that must have been the case.

"I do have to stop reading that kind of stuff just before bed." He thought. "It does fill one's head with the most idiotic notions." He sat up and got out of bed, his toes grabbing the soft plush, camel colored carpet. "I wish I could afford a staff to bring me breakfast and clean and manage household affairs for me."

Matt sighed thinking of all the cleaning he had to do this week. It was in fact the primary reason he'd taken a week's holiday from the office. The impending arrival of his parents from Beijing where they were teaching at university, prompted the sudden rush to clean everything. There was so much to do: there was the laundry to wash, dry and fold, the bathrooms to clean, the carpets to vacuum and a thousand and one other things that needed doing. He yawned at the thought and padded along the floor much more noisily than his imaginary butler would have done and walked toward the stairs. He knew this stirring would cause Walter to let out the most pitiful wails of need as ever a cat could emit. Yet all was silent still.

"Funny," Thought Matt, "he must still be sleeping up on the couch. No, there he is."

And there he was. Walter lay sprawled out lazily on the landing between the small and large staircase. He often waited there for Matt after being chased out of the bedroom at 5:30 (or sometimes even 4:00) in the morning for waking him too early. Matt wondered at Walter's immobility - surely he would have gotten up and started running up to the kitchen to await his breakfast of Cat Chow and water by now. Matt leaned forward and rubbed a finger under the cat's chin. Walter remained inert. Matt slowly drew back his finger and placed his hand on the cat's torso, there was no movement. He quickly lifted the cat, hoping Walter was merely ill and could be wakened, but noticed the rigidity of the feline's body. As his hands, pressed against the stomach, lifted the cat, Matt heard an exhalation of air, a kind of horrifying final sigh. It disturbed the man so much so that he almost dropped Walter.

Matt turned the cat toward him and a sickening feeling came over him. Walter's eyes had gone filmy and grey. His tongue protruded out of the side of his mouth - a morbid parody of death. Matt carefully set the cat back down on the carpet and ran upstairs to the kitchen. He grabbed a large kitchen garbage bag and set it at the top of the stairs then ran down and gingerly carried the cat upstairs and deposited it in the bag. It looked even more ghastly covered in translucent white plastic, but at least he didn't have to see those lifeless, yet staring eyes.

***

"What do I do with a cat corpse?" Matt wondered as he jumped online. He did feel concern and even a pang of sorrow yet not as much as he'd imagined he might have felt. He had, after all, only had the cat for a few months. Those months had been trying, admittedly, but in the last month or so, Matt felt that he and the pet were making a pretty good go of it. He searched for information by typing "sudden cat death" in the Google search box and deduced the culprit may have been a heart worm, that or the poor thing had a sudden aneurysm. Glancing back into the hallway, outside of the den, he could see the bag protruding where stiff front and back paws and head and neck pressed against the plastic.

"What to do! What to do!"

Then he thought about it for a moment, "I'll call mum and dad - they'll know what to do."

His father made a few comforting remarks, knowing Matt had grown fond of the cat before discussing the disposal of the body. This turn in conversation was eerily clinical, ending with this paternal edict: "Just get it buried in the back before the neighbors start to wake."

"Too late," Thought Matt. "In this geriatric neighborhood most of the neighbors would have risen long ago and even now may already peering through their blinds to see what's going on in the court."

Matt moved quickly by the corpse and to the door to the garage where he found a shovel. The thought of garage, cat and garbage bag reminded him of an earlier adventure he'd had at school, but he had no desire to repeat history. Shovel in hand, he returned to the house and picked up the bag. The body pressed against the bottom of the bag and Matt half wondered if it would hold the cat's weight until he'd gotten it outside. He carefully, yet swiftly brought shovel and bag downstairs and out the sliding patio door.

After scouting about for a proper final resting place for Walter, he decided on a spot just behind the lilac bush, far away from tree roots. As he dug, he looked around him trying to decide what he would say if the neighbors asked what he was doing. Should he confess that his pet had died suspiciously in the night or pretend that he was going to be planting flowers for his parents return? The latter notion seemed ridiculous given the position of the grave - who would plant flowers behind a lilac bush? As he dug a space wide enough to accommodate the body, he remembered his father told him to dig a deep hole. But how deep was deep enough? After about a foot of digging, removing stones and breaking roots he hit a layer of impenetrable clay.

"Oh dash it all!" exclaimed Matt, now tired from digging. "I suppose it will just have to do." As he set down the shovel and walked back to the patio to get Walter he wondered if he oughtn't to have had an autopsy conducted to discover the cause of death, but then Matt was always practical over matters of spending and an autopsy would be costly. He lifted the bag and carried it to the hole in the ground then placed Walter in his grave. He carefully positioned the cat so his paws would not stick out of the hole. It took some additional digging and some careful placement, but soon Walter was in place.

In his haste to get the cat buried, Matt had given little thought to how he felt about all of this. He stared at Walter's lifeless body and felt somehow responsible. How if he, Matt, had been a better person, this cat would still be alive. Silly thought, of course, a retributive power taking people's sins out on their pets, yet he still felt a level of guilt.

Quickly, he replaced the dirt over the grave and packed it down by slamming the back of the spade over the mound of dirt. Matt worried that it wouldn't be enough to cover a smell that might attract carrion birds, so he ran upstairs and to the garage where he'd remembered seeing a 40 lb. bag of potting soil. He heaved it over his shoulder and ran downstairs again. As he reached the landing where he'd found Walter, his bare foot came into contact with something wet on the carpet and he faltered. There would be additional cleaning up to do after covering the grave.

The End.

Nota bene: Walter died this morning suddenly. For some reason, I decided to describe the events as Agatha Christie might have done in one of her novels. I'm pretty sad about the loss of the cat; I guess this is simply my way of dealing with it.

The Awful Truth

2008-05-19T20:14:00.003-05:00

As you can tell from prior posts, I've been pretty into classic films and screwball comedies from the 1930s. A new discovery for me are the handful of films Cary Grant made with Irene Dunne. Dunne is phenomenal in both comedic and dramatic roles, but for some reason is not well remembered. In "The Awful Truth" Dunne and Grant play a couple who decide to divorce after Grant suspects his wife of spending the night with her music instructor. In the 60 day period in which they wait to finalize their divorce, they work on sabotaging each other's new conquests.

The first clips shows a short conversation between Dunne and Grant just before their divorce becomes final. During the conversation, Grant's new girlfriend calls and Dunne answers. To cover up the awkwardness of a woman answering his phone in his apartment, he tells his girlfriend that it was his sister.

In the second clip, Cary is trying to impress his new girlfriend's aristocratic family when Dunne walks in pretending to be Grant's non-existent tawdry, heavy drinking, chorus girl of a sister. The timing and chemistry between Grant and Dunne in this second scene is amazing. She's working on two levels, first to destroy his chances with his new girlfriend, and second to win him back. The jokes in this scene are both subtle (mostly class-related remarks that Dunne makes) and slapstick (the more physical comedy).

Watch just enough of the first clip to get an idea of the character Dunne is playing, then watch the second to see her versatility as she takes on this new role to embarrass Grant:

Vintage

2008-05-01T21:02:00.004-05:00

I stopped at Via's Vintage Wear in Uptown this evening when I was out and about. I was looking for a bow tie - not a clip-on, not a ready-made, but a real, honest-to-goodness, tie-it-yourself bow tie. I had picked up instructions on how to tie one when I visited Heimie's Haberdashery a few days ago to buy some shirts and a necktie. The guy there showed me how to tie one and then gave me printed instructions. I'd just recently watched "Holiday" with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn and liked the way the bow tie looked on Grant. The guy in the store told me that when you wear a bow tie, it frames your face differently; plus you have all that shirt space that would have been taken up by the necktie, so he said a bow tie is best worn with a three-piece suit or with a sweater or sweater vest. Here's my new tie:

Should I wear it to work, Kristin?

A Classic Freak-out

2008-03-28T09:52:00.003-05:00

Those of you who know me well understand that I have an eclectic (read nerdy) taste in films. I have a fairly high tolerance for slower moving films, films with little or no plot, and humor that is often more charming than clever. Classic films of the thirties hold a special place in my heart - I love the dialogues, the overacting, the poignancy and cinematography of many films from this era. One really popular film from the thirties was "Dinner at Eight." I have to admit, it unfolds slowly, and you may only recognize a few characters in it (Lionel Barrymore - Mr. Potter of "It's a Wonderful Life," Jean Harlow - Hollywood sexpot of the thirties, and my favorite Billie Burke - you'll remember her as Glinda the Good from "The Wizard of Oz"). The scene here is the one that makes me laugh the most in the film. Billie Burke is planning this lavish dinner to court some influential British couple visiting New York amidst family and financial crises happening all around. As the dinner slowly falls apart, poor Billie reaches her breaking point and freaks out on her daughter and husband. Every little gesture, twitch and eye movement is genius:

When I feel blech...

2008-03-11T08:50:00.002-05:00

Sometimes, when I've got the blues or imagine that my life has gotten too humdrum, I go to my dvd collection and pop in Swingtime for a little escapism. I always watch this scene which to me is one of the grandest in classic film history:

Wakkie Nu Nu

2008-03-03T08:29:00.001-06:00

I came across this video on one of those celebrity gossip blogs. This guy is awesome. Watch the whole video - it's so wakkie nu nu (whatever that means).

At the request of Kristin...

2008-02-20T08:56:00.002-06:00

...I am blogging to remind everyone to check out my other blog.

The only new news I have is that I read that Harry Potter and Hermione Grainger were seen on a date. Rock on, Harry! Guh-guh! (he said, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose)

A New Cat and an Old Song

2008-02-03T21:17:00.001-06:00

New cat (Walter by name):

Old song ("Dream" sung here by the 40s vocal group the Pied Pipers):
I put this up because I haven't had a decent night's rest since December 30th and it is calm and the singers have this amazing harmony. Pure nostalgia.

Update on the injury

2008-01-03T21:55:00.000-06:00

I went to the orthopedic surgeon today and he told me, after looking at the x-rays, that he thought I probably won't have to have a pin put in the shoulder or undergo any type of surgery. This makes me very happy. I got to replace my velcro immobilizer with a more traditional and functional arm sling. The good doc also said that in a couple weeks we'll check on the progress of the healing and then in about a month start some physical therapy. He did mention that there may be some permanent mobility issues with that arm, and while I now must give up my lifelong dream of playing in the NBA, I am glad that I can start driving and return to work next week.

Special thanks to all of you who left blog messages, phoned, emailed or simply sent thoughts and prayers my way.

On another note, I posted my first review on my new site. I have decided to try video blogging for this one - at least from time to time. I talk too long on it and played with effects to no visible advantage, but it was fun to try and do something a bit more off the cuff.

To do list from the last few days - a retrospective

2008-01-01T22:02:00.000-06:00

-Get last minute gifts. done
-Take friend to the airport so she can get home in time for Christmas. done
-Play violin for Xmas Eve.done
-get a new cat and name it Walter. done
-Buy short skis for new years eve outing. done
-get used boots. done
-buy snow pants on sale. done
-work new years eve but take off a little early. done
-take a nap before going to Afton Alps for the night. done
-ski for a couple hours with friends and have a blast. done
-find myself unable to execute a turn on the last run. done
-crash into a packed bank. done
-experience excruciating pain. done
-go to the ER. done
-get told that my right shoulder is fractured in three places. done
-ring in the new year sitting in a hospital gown, snow pants and Sorel boots. done
-Go to sleep on my sister's couch at 2am. done
(thanks to Dan & Sandra for bringing me to the ER and driving my car to my sis's house, and for moral support. Thanks to Becky for picking me up and helping me get medication. Thanks to Ken and Becky for letting me use their couch. Thanks to two year old Miri for saying in the cutest voice possible, "What's the matter, Uncle Matty?")

A new blog

2007-12-29T21:40:00.000-06:00

I'm keeping this blog and recording bits and pieces from my life - no changes on this one. But I've decided to create a new blog. Inspired by Dodge and her commitment to reading and reviewing a certain number of books per year, I've decided to take one author and explore their work in a year's time. I've chosen Agatha Christie as my author for 2008, and while that may seem a bit low-brow to some, I don't care. It's no secret I'm a huge fan and I haven't read through all of her works yet.

If any of my readers are Christie fans or have a favorite novel of hers, feel free to read along and leave your comments along with my summaries and reviews. I also want to make this blog a bit of a study, where I look for common themes woven throughout her work.

Here's the blog.

If you find you like it, feel free to bookmark it, blogline it, or create a link from your site. Or at least visit it from time to time to tell me what a nerd I'm being.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T09:38:00.000-06:00

My special holiday gift to my blog readers (and especially Jean, Christina and Liz) is an elf dance.

Enjoy in moderation (and with sound).

Nothing of Note

2007-11-13T20:34:00.000-06:00

I don't have much to say these days. I'm not sure why. It's not that there's been any lack of activity. It's probably more to do with the fact that I spend most of my work week writing, so when it comes to putting things down here, it's hard to think of things to write, my fingers start to pre-ache and I doubt my ability to write anything more compelling than what sets one law firm apart from the crowd (in truth, very little sets one law firm apart from another - they are either compassionate, aggressive, or professional, or slight variations on these three). So why am I sitting in front of my computer now? Why am I typing? I've no idea. Well, partly it's because when I drove over to MCAD to see if I could still access the computer room and log in to work on Photoshop, I found a class going on in there. I ended up over at the Spyhouse Coffee Shop on Nicollet. I've been coming to this place over the last couple weeks. I like it. I even bought one of their super cool retro mugs. Last month I was writing furiously to finish a short mystery I'd begun last spring. Overall, it's not bad, but it needs a lot of molding - the atmosphere is not right yet. I also need to develop it further. I think I might try and work it into a mystery novel and pitch it to one of the publishers that print off millions of mass market mysteries. I made the story local so it could perhaps be sold locally - all those Summit / Grand Ladies could sit in their coffee and tea shops reading my conventional drivel and smile with recognition of the local places I mention.

Another thing that has been fun is that I've gotten a bit Ghetto with my (still minimal) TV watching. The station of choice these days is "The CW" (Ooh! It sounds just like "The O.C."). I watch it for two reasons:

1st: I like watching "People's Court" with Judge Marilyn Milian - "The Hottest Judge on TV" so her show's intro says.

I like watching her because there is something comforting about seeing someone who has all the answers and is so sure of herself that she even shouts it. I admire people who can think through things quickly and clearly - I've never learned how to do this. I waiver and worry too much about reactions to my opinions. I like her cuz she's not crusty like Judge Judy. I think I take comfort in watching people open their mouths in disbelief when they realize that all their emotions and feelings don't have anything to do with justice. What they are looking for is mercy.

This reminds me of a quote by the late, great forgotten, Atheist turned Catholic apologist, G.K. Chesterton: "Children are innocent and love justice, while most adults are wicked and prefer mercy." I wonder if it's true. I think the first part is. The part I keep coming back to is "most adults are wicked." Who of us wants to be defined in this way? Yet, these things go through my head cuz I'm not quite comfortable with the notion that we are all basically good. Given the opportunity, I think that I generally will act in a self-serving manner. I've had to be taught to be less so. Hopefully those of us with wicked streaks can find justice tempered by mercy.

At any rate, I didn't plan on writing all that.

2nd: Thank Allah for a good new show! I've gotten hooked on the CW's Monday night show "Aliens in America" about a Wisconsin family and the Pakistani exchange student who lives with them - they thought they were getting a European jock.

This show is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. Raja is quite possibly one of the most sincerly charming, most hysterical characters I've seen in a while. Here's a preview clip:

I was going to try and end this blog by drawing some comparison between these two shows, between Marilyn and Raja and their views of the world, but that would get a bit too much like a sermon. And while I enjoy a good sermon (having grown up listening to my father in the pulpit at church every Sunday.), I am not a preacher and not good at composing sermons.

Carving Pumpkins

2007-10-21T21:32:00.000-05:00

I spent the afternoon with my sister and niece today and we carved pumpkins. I was glad I had been able to do this last year when I was in Japan (see last year's post, but don't rely on me to link to it because Blogger doesn't make it easy for us Mac users who have Safari for our browsers). Anyway, after having some miso soup and a cup of Chinese tea tonight, I broke out the mini tripod and ventured out to the front porch to photograph the two pumpkins I carved. I took this first, uninteresting, shot using the night time setting on my camera:As I was unhappy with the look of it, I decided to try the manual setting. This is the first time I have successfully used the manual setting on my camera (after trying to photograph stars while camping) since I bought it from Michel (who, if he were here, would still be trying to insist that I just paid him money to borrow the camera and that it is rightfully his). I love night shots like this:Happy Halloween!

Weird Dream and Cool Cookbook

2007-10-06T23:17:00.001-05:00

Last night I had a Tarantino type dream - it was strange. Maybe you won't find it too like Pulp Fiction or anything because it wasn't really violent, but the behavior of the two people seemed like that of characters in his films. I was on Kipling St. in St. Paul, the street I grew up on. I was on the sidewalk across from my house when a car drives by slowly in the passenger seat is a tan woman with blonde hair. She is one of the web designers from my company. She catches my eye and we stare at each other. I sense something is going to happen. Something does: She pulls out a gun and points it at me. The car stops so she can take some shots at me. I duck behind a parked car, yet bullets whiz by me. She shoots at me like six times. Then she and the driver, who happens to be the head of our design department at work decide that since they've emptied the gun, they can do no more. They throw the gun in the street muttering something about it being someone else's gun anyway, and get back in their car and drive off. I didn't feel afraid in the dream, just a bit disappointed that it would be so easy for the police to catch them. That's all I remember of the dream. I guess it wasn't too much like Tarantino, but the characters were kind of bad ass like characters in Tarantino films, even if they were co-workers.

Okay, that seemed much more interesting in my head than it actually was so let's just leave it. I picked up my friend Suvir's new cookbook yesterday at Borders. Here it is:

Today, I made the veggie enchiladas and they were really flavorful and fun to make. Then I went to Starbucks (cuz I'm angry with Caribou right now) and sat and read through most of the text of this beautiful book. Lots of interesting anecdotes and histories about the foods featured. Highly recommended.

I hope your weekend is going well.

Proud Uncle

2007-09-18T20:52:00.000-05:00

I just got home from Jack's bar and grill where we had a nice send off for my co-worker Kate who is moving to New York. I came to find my folks hovered around their Mac telling me to watch this YouTube video of my nephews Carter and Wil, my niece Maya, and their friends Maddi and Jack. They've formed a band (Carter and the Bluedogs) and played for their neighborhood block party.

I have to say that they are my new favorite band. Their "Harry Potter" song (the first one on the video)is really cool, but "I Wanna Live in the 24th Century" is amazing. But I'll let you decide for yourselves. Carter is playing the guitar, Maddi is sitting next to him singing, Wil has brown hair and is in the black round sunglasses, then Jack is the neighbor with the blond hair, and later, my niece Maya interviews the band. I was expecting something cute when I watched them; what I discovered was something much more. Enjoy:

William O'Brien State Park

2007-09-08T21:17:00.000-05:00

I finally got to go camping again this weekend and explore a new state park. William O'Brien State Park is located about 10 miles north of Stillwater, Minnesota near Marine on St. Croix, right on the St. Croix River. Now for Michel and other people who speak that wacky form of French peculiar to Canada, down here in the Midwestern United States, we pronounce St. Croix, "Saint Croy." I'm not sure what would happen if I properly pronounced "Croix" to a Minnesotan or Wisconsin cheese head, but I have a feeling it would involve at least one black eye. Kind of like how I can't pronounce karaoke as I did in Japan.

The weather was perfect for camping - after the rain, things cleared up and cooled off. I hate camping in hot weather. The site wasn't as ideal as that in Afton - this was just a drive in site, so I was much closer to my neighbors. Yet it was surrounded by beautiful red pines and had great amenities. Here I am reading Tom Maltman's excellent book on the Dakota conflict while I smoke my pipe:
And here is the morning after a not-so-good night's rest. Some neighbors decided to keep the entire campgrounds up half the night with their boring, but loud conversation, despite an attempt to shut them up.This was followed by a call/response session with some silly sounding birds. Woven through this was a dream that involved a new Pope and me watching Hillary Clinton and Al Gore walk into a church shaking their heads and shuddering in horror. Suffice it to say, I was tired when I woke up at six:
The morning was lovely and foggy, so I went down periodically to take pictures of the St. Croix River as it transformed from invisibility behind a cloak of fog, to it's sparkling wonderful self. Here are four pictures taken of roughly the same area of the river at different times of the morning:

And this one, I just like the over all look of. It was amazing how completely different the river could look in the course of two hours:
Becky, Ken, and Miriam decided to come out and meet me for a hearty camp breakfast, so I walked in this area of the park while waiting:
And here they are:
We had a great breakfast of eggs with shallots, tomatoes and cheese, bacon, toasted french bread, and sumatra coffee. While Ken read the paper, Becky and Miriam and I took a walk. Here's my sis and niece on this huge rock near the river:
After letting the condensation dry off my tent and rain fly, I packed things up and headed out. I made a quick stop at a mini farmers market in Marine on St. Croix (where I bought two huge beets - a current vegetable passion - and two white egg plants. I also looked around in this quaint general store that has been there for decades, judging by the pictures inside:
As I walked back to my car, I noticed this gazebo and a tree beginning to turn:
Yes folks, fall has already begun - I gotta get up to Gooseberry Falls on the north shore pretty soon so I don't miss the peak of the fall leaves.

State Fair

2007-08-27T21:52:00.000-05:00

Today I took a vacation day so I could head out to the "Great Minnesota Get Together." Yes, it's state fair time again here in Minnesota. My sis and niece and the folks all took a shuttle bus from 94 and Snelling and headed up to the fairgrounds. Though cloudy, it proved to be a great day. Here are a few pictures from the day.

We started off at the "Miracle of Birth" barn where, while we never saw any animals actually being born, we did see quite a few cute newborns. This wobbly lamb was fun to watch as it kept nudging it's mom.
Here's a picture from the Grandstand - at least some things served on a stick at the fair are not bad for you - oh wait...it's fried:
Here's another shot of the fair from the Grandstand:
After getting all the milk you can drink for a buck, Sweet Martha's cookies, and cheese curds, we went to lunch. We decided to try one of the old fair standbys - the church dining hall. We went to Epiphany Dining Hall this time. The folks had chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, while I had a sloppy joe:
Here's a shot of the dining hall:
And me posing with my waiting-to-be-eaten plate of food:
We of course had to stop at Empire Commons where the Dairy Association takes up half the building. For those of you who've never made it to the fair, we have a teen beauty pageant each year and the winner is named Princess Kay of the Milky Way. She and her runners-up are awarded with a huge block of butter that is carved into a bust of their likeness - well, an approximate likeness. This runner up I named Velma because she looked like she should have been hanging out with Shaggy and Scooby:
Here's the winner, Miss Princess Kay of the Milky Way, wearing her lovely tiara:
These girls sit in a cooler with a parka as the sculptress (also donning a parka) sits with her butter knife working her magic.

All in all it was a good day at the fair. I generally don't go but once or twice a year if that, but I thought today that some year it would be an interesting sociological experiment to go every day of the fair's run and track the vibe. But I think I might get violently ill if I spent too much time there - the smell of fried food still lingers.

A Goddess, a Mortal, and a Painter

2007-08-19T23:03:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time there was a goddess named Diana. Diana's interests included hunting, bathing in the woods, and preserving her virginity. One can immediately see the conflict of interest between the last two hobbies, but then who are we to question the gods?

One day, while Diana was pursuing her second interest (with the help of her ladies in waiting), a young lout named Acteon, also an avid hunter, came strolling through the woods, having separated himself from his hunting party. As he walked through the trees looking for his pals, his dogs, and his quarry, he happened to happen upon Diana who was taking her bath. Like any red-blooded young Roman mortal, he decided to take a peak and stare at this beautiful creature, not caring about the fact that even Roman gods and goddesses like a little privacy (we mortals are notorious for seeing things we shouldn't and then acting stupidly).

Unfortunately for Acteon, Diana saw him seeing her and decided to turn him into a stag whereupon Acteon was chased, hunted down, and killed by his own dogs.

Much much later, centuries after this story had first been told, another mortal (who was not Roman, but Dutch) by the name of Vermeer either liked this story so much, or had a patron who liked this story so much, that he decided to paint it. This painting was among his earliest, and while beautiful, was nowhere near as beautiful and not at all similar to the thirty or so other paintings he would go on to create. Most of his later paintings would seem much more mundane than this subject, for they were mostly domestic scenes of women sitting at windows reading letters, writing letters, weighing jewels, or playing musical instruments. Yet the silence and light in these paintings were so strong that they struck a nerve with countless viewers.

Nevertheless this masterful early attempt at painting an historical mythical subject gave some indication as to what was going to come:
-It acknowledges the viewer. Even though it is chaste (Diana's only getting a foot bath), it hints at a voyeurism (and therefore, a kind of implied eroticism) that implicates anyone who views the painting (the artist paints the work from the perspective of Acteon). This is an unnerving quality in many of Vermeer's later works where the subject is actually returning your stare, sometimes surprised, as if you have just startled them. At other times they glance at you serenely. Vermeer's most famous subject, his pearl earringed girl holds your gaze - you don't know if she's turning toward or away from you. She's held eternally at that midway point and she eternally commands our attention.
-It contains symbolic imagery to help tell the story. Diana is quickly identified (if you know your mythology) by the crescent moon tiara. But the more interesting symbol is that of her hound, which foreshadows the fact that in a matter of a few minutes, Acteon is going to be dog meat.
-Light is as important a player as any of the subjects in the work. This will not be immediatedly noticeable in the first picture I show here:
This is how I had always seen the painting in the art books; it never really jumped out at me. It's an early Vermeer, it's a bit formal, and it doesn't seem to convey any real emotion. But when I went to New York a few years ago to see an exhibition of 16 of Vermeer's paintings, I discovered the following: Part of "Diana and Her Companions" (as the painting is known) had been painted over by some former owner who believed the painting was too dark (Both in tone and subject? One wonders). At some point an unknown person decided to improve upon the work of one the the greatest painters ever to have lived by adding that cloudy blue sky in the upper-right-hand corner of the painting. Seen in this way, the painting loses much of its dramatic power. Luckily, the add-on was discovered during restoration and the work was restored to reflect Vermeer's original vision of the scene:

When I saw this painting at the Met, I was amazed to see what a difference it made removing that patch of blue sky. Now the painting seemed more sinister, more emotionally dark. Now, the light source shining on Diana and her companions was much more interesting to me and the shadowy attendant standing in the back now receded into the darkness and became somewhat goulish. To use a rather nerdy analogy that perhaps Kristin will best appreciate, it was like jumping immediately from year one to year four at Hogwarts. The painting now seemed more sinister, menacing.

Anyway, that's all I have to say about art for the moment. If you have some other ideas about these two versions of the same painting, post 'em here (the second picture of the restored version, by the way, is cropped in its online form, which is why you can only see the nose of the dog). Also, I think I had read something about that thistle growing in front of the dog. It must symbolize something - any ideas?

Wrongful

2007-08-18T23:51:00.000-05:00

I've been writing legal websites for almost three months now, and while I am starting to find a writing groove, the job does continue to have it's challenges. There is the feeling that you've written the same thing over and over, that you're recycling ideas. There's also the challenge of remembering what took place in an interview you conducted over a week ago so you can write copy that is specific.

Then there are subjects which are just not easy to write. For me, there are quite a few - sometimes this is due to my lack of interest, sometimes I am out of my realm, but then there are times where I just don't know how to address a particular subject. The subject that to me always feels a bit weird to write about is wrongful death. First, I've never quite been comfortable with the term, and second it's difficult to sound sympathetic when writing what is essentially marketing copy. But even more than this, I feel like the person to whom I should be addressing the content is no longer around to be addressed. I kept thinking about how I'd REALLY like to write this type of webpage:

Ann Arbor Wrongful Death Attorneys

Death has a finality that can be depressing, if not disturbing. When you are the one who has succumbed to this event and you find yourself in a mortuary when you normally would be home enjoying a quiet supper with your spouse or other loved ones, you may experience a helplessness you’ve never had to deal with before.

But if you suspect that your death was wrong and you shouldn’t have died – that your demise is the direct result of another’s action, intentional or simply negligent, you need legal advice and representation. At Grimm, Graves & Pall, Attorneys at Law, our wrongful death lawyers can help you determine if your death was wrong or not. Contact us today.

A Matter of Determination
If you have just died, you probably have a lot of questions. You may wonder if your death was right or wrong. Even if you suspect you’ve been wrongfully done to death, or even deathfully wronged, you need strong advocacy. Our attorneys are alive and can assist you in matters that require a pulse, not to mention the ability to walk or speak. We routinely handle wrongful death suits related to the following matters:
• Misdiagnosis
• Product Liability
• Reckless Driving
• Premises Liability

You Have Rights
While we at Grimm, Graves & Pall have never died, we do understand the frustration and debilitating effects death can have on one. Perhaps you feel that you cannot effect change in your situation, or that you will never be able to enjoy the quality of life you once enjoyed. While these are both correct assessments, you do still have rights, whatever they may be. Our job is to secure those rights.

If you have questions regarding your death or are unable to determine for yourself whether it was the result of another’s wrong or it was simply your time to go, we invite you to contact the wrongful death attorneys at Grimm, Graves & Pall for a free post-mortem case review.

Now that I have that out of my system, perhaps I can write those pages better.

The Night Birds

2007-08-05T20:05:00.001-05:00

When I got up this morning and was looking at the "Pioneer Press" over breakfast, I was happy to see a picture of fellow MSU grad student Thomas Maltman along with a full article on his new book:I was even happier when I saw he was going to be doing a reading at Common Good Bookstore up in St. Paul's Crocus Hill neighborhood. I'm generally up in St. Paul on Sundays so I decided to go support Tom and get a copy of his book. I saw Rick Robbins there from the MSU English department and got to chat a bit with Tom before his reading began.

"The Night Birds" is an historical novel focused around the Dakota conflict of 1862 in Minnesota. But as Tom described today at his reading, it's really about family secrets and silence. I can't say more about it because I have only read the first 7 pages so far. As Tom read portions of the first two chapters, I found myself getting quickly drawn into the story and his way of telling it through the eyes of his protagonist, Asa. I felt a huge sense of anticipation and wanted the story to further unfold.

This made me think about something, and I'm not sure if I read it somewhere before, or if it's my own idea. I tend to think it's the former, because the way it played in my head, it sounded almost like some quoted advice: "One should write novels and stories like mysteries, and mystery novels like dramas." Now that I type it out, I think maybe I adapted it from Hitchcock's advice to shoot love scenes like murders and murders like love scenes. Anyway, what I thought of worked with Tom's novel. He built up suspense and anticipation in the way one would writing a detective novel. I'm excited to read it, but have a couple other books to read before I get to it, the first being Nicole Lea Helget's (also an MSU fellow student) "The Summer of Ordinary Ways" which Kristin kindly loaned me.

At the behest...

2007-08-02T11:41:00.000-05:00

...of Michel, I am posting this blog to let everyone know that I was on the other side of the Twin Cities when the I35 highway bridge collapsed over the Mississippi river yesterday in Minneapolis.My family and I are all safe. Nevertheless, it's a sad day here in Minnesota as the recovery mission is underway and families and friends wait.

I Cant Concentrate

2007-07-25T15:28:00.000-05:00

I got sick today in my whole body when I learned that one of the South Korean hostages in Afghanistan had been shot repeatedly in the head and chest by the cowards known as the Taliban. Apparently eight of the hostages have been released, which is hopeful. But I keep praying for those still being held, for their families who are waiting around television sets, and for the family of the murdered man. Every time I look at this picture,
I get really sad and want to cry.

Added:
I'm not sure if these online petitions do any good - perhaps they don't - but if you would like more information about the situation and at least throw in your support in name, go here.

Update: Two hostages dead

Shim Sung-min

and

Bae Hyung-kyu

I am trying to think of something profound or compelling to say about this situation, but everything I've tried so far sounds trite. Suffice it to say that traditionally it has been easy for me to distance myself from these sort of things and not care as a way of staving off uncomfortable emotions. I know there is nothing I can do to make this situation better, so I just put up two names that mean nothing to most people. All I know about them is that Bae was a minister and Shim worked in technology and was going to get his Master's Degree. That and the fact that they were both shot. I know the idea of going to a country where there's a war going on for humanitarian purposes can seem rather foolish, and it probably is, yet it doesn't give me the right to dismiss them and not hope for their release.

Camping, communibus locis

2007-07-22T10:14:00.000-05:00

I started by titling this blog "camping, et. al." but then looked up the Latin abbreviation to make sure I was using it correctly. I should have remembered it means "and others" or "and elsewhere." I didn't want to resort to etc. either because that's too commonplace. But the point is, when I looked up the meaning of et. al. in Wikipedia it opened a whole page of Latin phrases that I nerdily nerded out on. That's why today's title is "Camping, communibus locis." I am not, however, a tech nerd, so I still can't figure out how to do italics in html on my Mac browser. I do like having foreign or archaic words italicized, so if you do too, just pretend that the phrase above is tilting a little to the right. As for the meaning of the phrase, you'll have to do some nerdly sleuthing on your own, or simply not care what it means and move on.

This is another catch up post to let people know what I have been up to. Last weekend I went canoeing and kayaking on Lake Elmo with my sister Becky, her husband Ken, and my niece Miriam. Here I am taking an obligatory self-portrait:
Here's Ken bringing the kayak that I would be using down to the lakeside. This was my first time kayaking and, as it happens, I turned out to be not so bad at it. I gave my arms a good work out and was able to move fairly quickly.
I also bought a tent last weekend because after traveling around Asia, I thought it would be good to travel around Minnesota and see its parks a bit more than I have. Anyway, it's a Coleman tent as you can see and goes nicely with the Coleman lantern Beck and Ken gave me.
On Wednesday our department at work had an outing. We were all invited to go to a Saints game. The pre-game bbq highlight was watching Jean perform feats of magic:
Just after this picture, Kristin and Jean and I skedaddled into the stadium to get more beer and keep Kristin's buzz going. That's it for the game - we only lasted 2 innings before deciding to go.
On Friday after work I went on my first camping outing of the summer season with Becky, Ken, Miriam, and their dog Sammy. We went to Afton State Park and had to hike in one mile to our site. Here's our little campsite after we got everything set up:
The rest of the pictures are pretty self explanatory and I cannot think of anything else you need to know before looking at them except that I brought my tripod which explains the fact that the pictures at dusk a) include all of us, b) are not blurry, and c) did not require the use of a flash.

Elaine

2007-07-17T00:29:00.001-05:00

Last Thursday I went to the MMC with Jean, Kristin, Shannon, and Shannon's mom. There was a guy there who we named "Elaine" because he danced like this:

In other news, I have a new car - a VW Jetta! and it looks like this:

I've Been Remiss...

2007-06-17T14:39:00.000-05:00

...in not posting with any regularity, so I will post pictures here now.

But as I am still feeling a bit of remissness hanging about, you will only receive minimal commentary on them.

And as they are attempts to be artistic, if successfully done, they should need little commentary anyway.

Penn Station

Brooklyn Bridge

Metal Tree, Madison Square Park

The Cloisters

Three Busts, The Cloisters

Cornflower, The Cloisters Gardens

Irises, The Cloisters Gardens

Nathan's Hotdog Stand, Coney Island

Boardwalk, Coney Island

The Band My Brother Plays In, Stone Arch Festival

Carter and Wil (My Nephews), Stone Arch Festival

Maya (My Niece), Stone Arch Festival

Carter, Stone Arch Festival

Wil, Stone Arch Festival

Maya, Stone Arch Festival

This is what Jean looks like when pretending to work

2007-06-13T10:32:00.001-05:00

Feverish Comfort

2007-05-31T19:47:00.001-05:00

dont get me wrong - i dont like having the flu or a sore throat and cold under any circumstance - and i cant pretend that i particularly enjoy that early stage in the life cycle of the flu virus where the razor blades in the throat give way to chills and ache - i hate it, but sometimes also love it - i hate coughing up phlegm - and the way it makes me feel like i am going to throw up - but i do find some comfort in the fever - in feeling cold and warm all at once - i shiver and shake but when i get under a blanket i feel the comfort of the heat - or else im burning up and i put my hand on the cool tile of the bathroom floor or the kitchen sink basin and i feel relief - i hate feeling this way - as i do right now - that i need to gather small comfort from little things such as fluctuating body temperature - or that I will no doubt lose weight because I have no appetite - it's really ridiculous isn't it -

Friday, 3 am
i just woke up in a cold sweat, my t-shirt soaked and the room freezing cold - but i think my fever has broke now - on to the next stage of my sickness -

hooray

The Old Summer Palace and Seoul Part 2

2007-05-20T13:46:00.001-05:00

I've been meaning to post these pictures for a few days now - especially after Kristin's comment about not having anything to check before she began work. But it's been tough to do so as I am using dial-up at my folks until I can get wireless. I am, at the moment, at a wifi spot. So, I will throw the last of my blogworthy pics up and then start posting pictures of Minnesota (and hopefully tempt friends in Japan, India, Germany, and Canada to make a trip out to see yours truly.

The old Summer Palace is very close to Peking University, so we walked there. There are two major differences between the old Summer Palace and the New Summer Palace:
1) The new one's architecture is strictly Chinese in nature, while the old one also included several buildings that reflected Western architecture (and which were, designed by Jesuits - those clever fellows).
2) The new one still has most of its buildings standing while the old one was blasted in 1860 by the British and the French during the Second Opium war (The museum has become a kind of symbol to the Chinese of foreign aggression). So while, as you saw in my earlier post, you can walk around and enjoy the New Palace in the way it was enjoyed by the last Emperor of China, you can only walk around the Old Palace ruins (which looks a bit like the Roman Forum) and try and imagine how magnificent it must have looked.

This place also had a place where you could dress up in imperial togs and get your picture taken. This child looked far more regal in his robes than i did in mine:

One of the treats of the Old Palace is this stone maze that somehow escaped the fate that met the buildings just to the east of it:

I would have liked this maze more if the walls were higher and the way in more difficult, but this was one of those "all roads lead to Rome" sort of mazes. I guess I'd have preferred a hedge maze to stone as well; however, in light of the demolishment of the once grand structures, I was going to cut this little maze some slack. Apparently at night on special occasions, girls who were part of the court would run through the maze with lanterns and guests of the emperor would rush in after them, using the light to guide them to the center pavilion. Along the way, there were some nice trees planted at various points. Here is one such tree creating its own maze of branches:

And here are some pictures of the ruins. Each one had a plaque in front of it with an etched brass plate showing what the building once looked like, but these were difficult to photograph (and to see, for that matter, given the sun's glare on the brass):

The Old Summer Palace was my last sightseeing place in Beijing. After bidding my parents an early farewell at customs at the Beijing Airport the next morning, I was on my way back to Seoul for a couple of days. I'd gotten to the airport super-early as we were concerned about traffic - it was the last day of holiday. Fortunately, I was able to catch an earlier flight to Seoul, so I didn't have to sit around so long. A note about airlines. This whole trip I flew on the Korean Asiana Airlines and I have to say that this airlines is one of the most efficient, hassle-free airlines I've ever had the good pleasure of flying with. Highly recommended.

Back in Seoul, I decided to go to a Korean Folk Village on the outskirts of town - this required a long bus ride, followed by a long walk, but the village was one of the nicest I'd been to:

I guess a lot of South Korean period films are set here - they were filming while I was there - here's a gang of actors waiting to go on:

All along the village were little huts with people showing how various Korean food, medicines, arts, crafts, and tools were made. Here's a picture of a paper-maker's shop:

I stopped here for lunch and had this lady make me a Korean pancake which was really delicious:

The grounds were extensive and included a small, cool (in both senses) lake upon which boats glided (I wanted to type "glid"):

The next day was somewhat low-key as I was getting tired and anxious to be getting back to the US. I stayed in the city and visited another palace - not as grand as the others, but nice nonetheless. There was a small ceremony going on outside of the gates, so I got some more pics:

Everyone was getting their picture taken with this dude, so I did as well:

In the afternoon, I went to this area that was a kind of street market that went on for blocks in every direction. The hawkers were a bit less vulturey than they were in Beijing at the Dirt and Silk Markets, so I was able to walk around pretty easily:

I saw this cool alley with a bunch of noodle stalls and women calling out, trying to get everyone to sit at their particular stall. I went in and had one of the most memorable meals in Korea. It began with kimchee and cold noodles and was followed by a fresh bowl of hot noodles in a really amazing broth. The cold noodles were spicy, but delicious - I had to keep refilling on water:

The Summer Palace

2007-05-10T12:43:00.000-05:00

Hi all. I'm home. I got really nostolgically excited as my plane flew over Minnesota. As I got closer to the airport, the first recognizable thing I saw from the plane window was the Target on Cliff Road near my parent's home in Burnsville. I was so happy to see how green everything was. My thanks to all of you who arranged things with nature to work out perfect for my return - the lilacs blooming was a nice touch.

This morning I drove to Cub Foods to get some groceries as I was a bit peckish. I stepped in the doors of the store and was overwhelmed. I've been to this grocery store many times, but after a year plus in Asia, everything was huge and I had no idea where to begin. After I got a few groceries, I called my sister-in-law to ask her where I could get Japanese foodstuffs and she recommended Kim's - a Korean/Asian market that has a lot of the things I've grown used to eating.

Well, even though I'm back, my blog hasn't caught up with me yet, so I am going to post today on the Summer Palace. This HUGE area complete with lakes and dragon boats was, to me, the highlight of my time in China. Here are some pics with (as per usual) very little commentary. It's hard to belive all this was built for just one family, but great to know it's available to everyone now:

Here's a short video of some musicians playing traditional Chinese music in the building in the preceding picture:

They had this area of the palace where you could don emperor/empress style costumes for about 10 yuan (which is nothing) and then take your picture. Mom and I, who don't mind a little foolishness decided to try them on. I look like I'm wearing some kind of one-piece legless baby outfit with a bow tie. I thought I'd look better if I kept a stoic look, but I simply look nervous and constipated:

Mom's pic looked much better - she'd have made a better dowager empress than I'd have made an emperor. I think under my rule, China would be a pretty silly place (but we'd have fun, my friends, we'd have fun):

These are the dragon boats that tooled around on the lake - we wanted to ride one, but the line to get tickets stretched on to eternity, so we just took pics:

This old man talked to me and I talked to him. It didn't matter one bit that neither of us could speak the other's language, nor that we couldn't even get the gist of what the other was saying. I pointed to my camera and he nodded:

Every building had it's own interesting name, like "The Palace of the Fragrance of the Lotus" or "The Temple of the Reclining Buddha," but this one was my favorite because it included one of my least favorite words (you can guess which one):

Notice it's not just moisture, but EXTENSIVE moisture.

The next night, two of my students, Takayuki and Yuriko had come into town for Golden Week, so we met them at their hotel and got some coffee in the lobby bar, but had to move because they were drilling into the lobby floor (at 9:30pm) and we couldn't hear anything - the staff moved us to the closed dining room. It was so great to see these two and I hope to visit them when they move to India in the fall:

I still have a couple more places from China and Korea to put up here, so in about 2 posts I'll be all caught up.

I have a job interview tomorrow morning - wish me luck!

El Ciudad Prohibido

2007-05-04T00:44:00.000-05:00

Doesn't it sound nice in Spanish?
("Sí" is the only proper answer here)

The day after the (_______) Wall, we decided to head to another one of Beijing's amazing sights - The Forbidden City. We decided to take a subway. The subway lines themselves are not too difficult to navigate, but buying ticket's was a bit of a challenge for us - as we butchered Chinese trying to make ourselves understood to the ticket booth lady, a young man whose name would turn out to be Zhang Hua (Hua being the first name and pronounced something like Hwaaaaaa) offered to help us. He was on his way to meet a friend and was only going to help us on the first leg of our journey, just until our transfer, but then decided to accompany us all the way to Tiananmen West stop. Hua had studied English, but had never had the opportunity to communicate with native English speakers so he was excited for the opportunity. He was a university student from a different area south of Beijing and was up in the city for the holiday week. Once we got to Tiananmen Square, he called his friend whom he'd planned on meeting and then told us he would be happy to accompany us through the Forbidden City which he'd never seen before, but had, of course, studied in history classes. He turned out to be a great guy to walk around with - he pointed out things we'd never have known but for his presence and he also took pics whenever Mom, Dad, and I wanted a picture together. It was nice - here was someone who wasn't an opportunist or the kind of person offering to be a tour guide for a price - he was just a nice guy who wanted to practice English for the morning. We had a great time and all had lunch together in the Forbidden city.

Here's a picture of Tiananmen Square:
Mao was gleaming in all of his communist glory as he welcomed us through the Gate of Heavenly Peace:Here is Zhang Hua with my folks just before we entered the Forbidden City:We thought we were buying tickets to get into the city, but we only were buying ones to go up onto the top of the Gate of Heavenly Peace, but this was okay, as I was able to get a good picture or two of Tiananmen Square (the significance of which, I'm told, is lost on many young Chinese students):Many of the buildings were being restored in preparation for the 2008 games so some of the scenery was marred by scaffolding, but here's an idea of what it looks like when you step beyond the bridges through the gates:

Now I'll just put up some pictures of the Forbidden City with little commentary (except where necessary) - it seems pointless to put "this is a sculpture of a dragon" just below a sculpture of a dragon.
Although, if any of you have a good caption for the following, I'd love to read it:

This is a sculpture of a dragon:(sorry)

A note about the Forbidden City: you don't really get a full sense of the maze of buildings and passageways that intricately wind about within these walls until you go up to this hilltop temple outside of the gates of the palace. I thought my wide-angle lens would capture it, but of course it didn't come close to capturing how it really looked standing there:

Once we climbed back down the hill, we started heading around the northeast corner of the Forbidden City so we could find a kite shop my guidebook mentioned. There were many cherry blossoms in full bloom - I like the juxtaposition of the corner of the city with cherry tree, don't you? ("Sí, Mateo."):We found the kite shop after a little bit of searching, it was a tiny, mom and pop type store. I bought kites for my nieces and nephews (and me):The next day, mom and I took a taxi to the Dirt Market (which mom frequently calls "The Dirt Farm" by mistake. I'd promised I wouldn't mention this fact, but then I started typing and couldn't resist - sorry mom, but you know it made Becky chuckle.) The dirt market is a place for cut-throat bargaining. Most of the trinkets sold here were probably made in factories in the last five years where they were antiqued so they looked about a hundred years old. But this is part of the charm - if I'd had an extra suitcase, I would have filled it with trinkets from this fascinating market - tons of Cultural Revolution-era prizes, small chess sets made to look like they came from the Ming Dynasty (or some other -ing Dynasty), carpets, pots, figurines, watches, glasses, etc. I snapped this picture right as we got to the market, not knowing a man was walking right toward the center of the picture. But it couldn't have been more perfect - he looks exactly how I felt after milling my way past hawkers down the endless rows of merchandise:
Here are the wares available for purchase:
Here I am reading some of my favorite quotes of Chairman Mao:

I know the things I purchased were probably worth less than what I paid for them, but I don't mind. I bargained and got things for much cheaper than I would have paid for them in the States.

Up next, The Summer Palace.

The (__________) Wall

2007-05-02T05:33:00.000-05:00

I'm not really sure of a better word than "great" to use, but it's such an understatement and does nothing to prepare you for how extensive, huge, beautiful, dangerous, winding, massive, awesome, and impressive this wall is. It has to be more than one word - or maybe a sound, like:

The
"bumbuduhbumbuduhbumbuduhbummmmmmmmmmKAPOW!!!!!!!!"
wall.

It's that impressive.

Really.

Before the pics of the wall, here's a few of my first full day or two in Beijing. First, I went to sit in on my dad's class. I really enjoyed watching him teach after sitting in a pew in church for years and seeing him in the role of preacher. He's doing a great job and his students - all PhD students at Peking University - really like him and mom (who sits in on the class and helps out). Here's my pop in action in the classroom:After classes, the teachers on my dad's volunteer team gathered by a beautiful lake on the campus to take pictures, so mom, dad, and I decided to take our picture too. This is at some famous rock. Someone told me why it was famous, but I cannot remember the reason. Anyway, here we are:After pics, we had my first Chinese meal. Now I'd always heard that the Chinese food we get in the US is vastly different from what you actually get here - this is probably true if you go to various regions of the country, but here in Beijing, you still have the MSG-laden, deep-fried food you can get at Chinese takeout. We did try something a little different (but still greasy) - catfish:Now, here are pictures of the Great Wall at Badaling (don't ask me the intonation on that one - it's tough). We had to take a cable car up to the wall. Here are my parents' reactions to seeing their first glimpse of the wall from the cable car:And here are some more pictures I snapped from the wall. The day was perfect, but the wall is a bit more steep than you'd think - in fact, many people go to this section because it is one of the safer climbs on the wall (which is in disrepair in other spots). So, I won't put any more commentary, but just let you see the wall. As always, the pics are nothing compared to the real thing. Still, enjoy them:

That's the wall. Stay tuned for "The Forbidden City," "The Dirt Market," and "The Summer Palace."

Seoul, Part 1

2007-04-28T06:07:00.000-05:00

I'm currently in Beijing and have found a coffee shop with free wireless. Things, connection-wise, are a bit slow over here behind the Great FireWall, but I got all the pics I want to share uploaded, so without further ado, here is what I did and saw during my stay in Seoul.

First of all, Seoul is so completely different from Tokyo in so many ways. Tokyo is quite flat, while Seoul is right in the mountains. Tokyo is very modern, while Seoul, tho' modern, has fewer skyscrapers. I have to say that Seoul more immediately reminded me of Mumbai than it did Tokyo - there was a noisy bustle and an energy there akin to what I'd experienced last summer. The smells of curry were replaced with wafts of kimchee and Korean style barbeque as I walked the streets.

The first place I visited was a folk village that had several restored homes - it was fun to walk through and see what things were like in South Korea way back when.The next place I visited was the beautiful Changdeokgung Palace (which is a bit redundant because "gung" or 宮 (that's "miya" in Japanese) means "palace"). This place was large and colorful and most notable for its "secret garden" which was really beautiful to see. I am not going to put a lot of commentary here between pictures - I'll just let you look at them:

After the palace I went over to a nice shopping/eating/people-watching area called Insadong. All along the street were vendors with stalls. I liked this little Korean flute player in his modern/traditional Korean wear:Next I came upon this guy holding up this sign. The side facing the camera is Korean, but the other side was English and it read, "Free Hugs." I hadn't heard of these folks until Michel ran into them in Tokyo. I guess they are all over the world standing and giving free hugs to people who want or need a hug. I thought it was a super idea, so I went up and got my free hug and then took his picture:Because Insadong has a lot of traditional shops and eateries, they told Starbucks, when they moved in, that the sign had to be in Korean:I had lunch in Insadong - a kind of spicy tofu soup, but it was a set so it included many other dishes - including a fish (whose eyes had gone milky with cooking):After lunch, I went to a Korean tea shop and had a cup of this tea called something like "five flavors tea." As you drink this tea, you experience flavors all over your tongue: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and spicy. It was really tasty, and it turned out to be quite a photogenic tea:Next I went to Seoul Tower - I took a cable car up and saw the view in the sunset and at dusk:
Day two began at a shop I saw that boasted healthy traditional Korean porridge. I like the word porridge - it's a word that's been with me ever since I read Goldilocks. I always wanted to taste some porridge that would be amazing and sweet and full of spice and not at all like the lumpy oatmeal I used to get at the Thomson-West cafeteria in the mornings before beginning work. After being in Asia, I realized that porridge over here is not really sweet but usually a savory, rice-based affair. In Japan it is often a very watery kind of over cooked rice that is easy to digest (so is usually eaten when sick). My porridge on my second day in Seoul was a mix of pumpkin and rice all blended together - the pumpkin made it a little sweet (so did the sweet beans on the top). I liked it, tho' it's still not the porridge of my fairytale reading days:
I spent the bulk of day two at Seoul's famous Gyeoungbokgung (I decided against the redundancy here). This palace is a maze of beautifully painted buildings. On this day, there were tons of school kids on class trips. Every time I passed a group, I was barraged with "Hello!" "How are you?" "Where are you from?" "How's the weather?" They were so out-going and fun to talk to.

After my trip to India, my father rightly observed that I didn't take enough people pictures. I wanted to rectify this, but didn't want to shove my camera in people's faces. But here at the palace, all these kids were quite happy to have their pictures taken. There was also a reinactment of an official ceramony at the palace which showed us what happens when the emperor's wife gives birth to an heir. In this ritual, they take all the afterbirth and wash it one hundred times in fresh water to insure long life and then present it to the emperor. So I got some pics of this odd little ceremony. They were actually washing some fleshy thing, but I don't really know (nor want to know) what it actually was. I don't suppose it was actual afterbirth or an umbilical cord as this was only for pretend. At any rate, here are my pictures (with people!) of Gyeongbokgung:

In addition to kimchee, one must eat bibimbap when in Korea - it's a must. So I did. bibimbap is a bunch of veggies and meat and an egg served in a hot stone bowl. You get it and mix it up with your chopsticks or spoon and dig in. Here it is before being mixed:And here I am standing in front of a statue of a dog. This was a series of figures representing the animals of the Chinese zodiac - I am a dog (obviously).

Maybe I should buy a dog when I return home and get a job.

Stay tuned for the following episodes: "The Great Wall" and "The Forbidden City"

Last Post from Japan

2007-04-20T22:18:00.001-05:00

Last night I met my Friday discussion class (along with Yuji and Kotaro) one more time at Chat Noir for zenzai, cafe au lait, and tea. I was beat from a day of closing up my apartment, hauling my luggage to AEON, trying to get some of said luggage shipped home, and saying goodbyes - which is amazingly draining. As we left last night, Emiko said she'd like to see me off at the Maronie bus station. Then Yuji said he'd like to come. Then Mayu said she'd like to come. So we met down by the JR station for a quick breakfast and last hugs goodbye. Mr. Donut was closed, so McDonalds had to do. As we sat there, it was hard for any of us to believe that I was leaving Utsunomiya for good (apart from future visits).

When we left, we were surprised to meet Kotaro outside - he'd also decided to see me off. I was very touched by the gesture of these four. Here they are (Kotaro, Emiko, Mayu, and Yuji) waving goodbye to me just before my bus pulled out of the station:

On the ride to Narita I read more Basho and found a nice haiku of his that fit the themes of spring and departure. So I dedicate this poem to the four above:

行春や
鳥啼魚の
目は泪

I hope I got the kanji right. Here's the Romanization:

Yuku haru ya
tori naki uo no
me wa namida

And a translation:

Loath to let spring go,
Birds cry, and even fishes'
Eyes are wet with tears.

A Busy Last Two Days

2007-04-20T06:08:00.000-05:00

I was planning on going to Tokyo to visit my friend Pat who'd recently returned to Japan, but I quickly realized that with everything I had to do, a train ride would be impossible. What with packing, and shipping off boxes and meeting with students one last time, there was just no time (my apologies, Pat).

Yesterday, after taking care of some bills, Mieko and Tomoko met me at AEON to take me to lunch - they surprised me by inviting Megumi along - I hadn't seen Megumi in the last month or two, so it was great that she could come along. We went to this excellent Japanese restaurant that, as it turns out, was quite close to my apartment (Would that I had known!). Here are the four of us - you can see the confusion that occurs when two cameras are taking timed pictures at the same time: no one knows where to look:

Here's a shot of my meal - vegetarian, with the exception of a soft boiled egg that was served with a small salad. Lots of roots (lotus and burdock) and veggies and miso soup:

After lunch, I met Anthony, Yasuko and Dayne - they had lunch while I had coffee and dessert. Then I had a little time to stop in at AEON before meeting Emiko and Masae for dinner at a conveyer belt sushi shop - my first experience at one. It was loads of fun. Then we went to a coffee shop that one of my students, Saki, had suggested before. This place was great, so we took great photos there:

I think if Masae was a writer, this would be her book jacket photo (Although, admittedly, it did look sharper when I first viewed it on my camera in a smaller frame):

Now I am safely set up in my small hotel room. I took a nap and a bath and now feel much better. Here I am in the yukata the hotel provided for me. They also provided me with a hair dryer (the blue/green in the foreground of the below picture), and thank goodness for that! My hair is so unmanageable if I'm unable to use a dryer:

Tomorrow I leave Utsunomiya at 7 am and head for Narita airport!

Hot Chocolate

2007-04-16T20:52:00.000-05:00

Two nights ago, I was surfing YouTube videos and looking for new ones to add to my list of favorites when I suddenly thought about cooking shows and how much I enjoy watching them. Now, I've not had cable TV in many years (because I'm a cheapskate and because I don't watch that much TV to begin with) and so I've ended up missing out on all of the cooking shows on the Food Network. So I realize that this -

Hang on, I can't concentrate. Those stupid election vans are driving by my apartment with their loud speakers. I don't know what they are saying (probably something like, "Please vote for (INSERT CANDIDATE NAME HERE)! Please. Please. Please. Thank you very much!!!!!!"), but I don't like it - it feels fascist. I'm sure it's not, but it feels that way, which makes me shudder a bit.

- discovery of mine will perhaps hold little interest for many (particularly those with cable), but I enjoy it, so up it goes on the blog. A bit (now that I think about it, it was probably more like a year) before I left the US and came to Japan, I bought Nigella Lawson's book "Feast." Yes, it was more than a year because I gave nearly an entire Guinness Cake to Jess (which she happily enjoyed) and that recipe was from that book. So back to two nights ago - I was surfing YouTube, thought about cooking shows, and then thought about Nigella Lawson - I knew by her pictures and her writing style that she was a very sensual type of cook and seemed like she enjoyed life a lot. I looked her up and found several wonderful videos of wonderful recipes that I cannot wait to try. I wanted to show you the recipe she had for bread and butter pudding, but for some reason the embedding of that video has not been enabled. So, I will post something else. I watched this video for making hot chocolate at about 2 am and after watching it, threw on my clothes and went to 7-11 to make my convenience store version of this recipe - it came out amazingly well for the quality of ingredients I was using. I substituted whiskey for rum, but the effect was fine. Here it is. Make this!

Sayonara!

2007-04-15T04:47:00.000-05:00

I have been reading Basho's Haiku prose/poetry travel diary, "Narrow Road to a Far Province." It was a gift (one of three books) from Yoko, who is brilliant, and has been taking my short story reading course. This book describes the poet's journey from Tokyo (then called Edo) to the remote upper areas of Honshu. As I was reading, I got this brilliant idea of composing some haiku to put in this blog entry, but all I could come up with was:

A lonely gyoza
Left uneaten on a plate.
A fly heard buzzing.

The gyoza was an obvious (if you live or have lived in Japan) nod to Utsunomiya (宇都宮), which has over 30 gyoza restaurants. But then I couldn't make the rest of the poem work in any meaningful way, and anyway, I'm pretty sure, if I were in a room with a plate upon which a lonely gyoza sat, I'd eat it before the fly ever got near it. So I have abandoned the idea of writing anything of poetic value in this entry (I do have some pics below of sakura, or cherry blossoms, so perhaps I'll be inspired further down).

I'm including pictures here from the last week or so - it's been a busy time, getting ready to leave Japan. And I've been lucky to be able to spend time, between packing and getting things organized, with a lot of the people I've grown to care a great deal for. A week ago, I played tennis with Tomoko, Isao, Motoki, and Anthony. Soon after we arrived, Anthony and Isao went off to play doubles with some other players on another court which left me, Tomoko, and Motoki free to play tennis and pose for silly pictures:
Isao and Anthony joined us after a bit and I was able to get this cool shot of tennis balls (and Anthony in the background):
After tennis, we had a great lunch spread out for us at Tomoko and Isao's. I love spending time with Tomoko and Isao: one is always certain to be well fed, to never have an empty glass, and to always have great conversations. After spending the afternoon there, Anthony and I had to head out to a small party at Aiichiro and Fumi's. Michel, Seiko, and Kohei were also there. Aiichiro did himself proud by cooking up a great Chinese dinner. Seiko brought her violin so that Fumi and I could play part of Bach's double concerto in D minor. This was a surprise I found out about only a day or two before going over there, so I practiced with Fumi a bit and then we had a concert where we played only the intro part of the first movement - I have never played that piece well, and after such a long time of not practicing, my playing was pretty rusty, nevertheless, it was a lot of fun:
Aiichiro and Fumi had also invited a candidate for city office over for dinner and he made a short speech which Aiichiro translated for us - this was amazing, as it was the first time, I'd eaten dinner where a political speech was made. I found this much more agreeable than what most politicians here do, which is to drive around in vans with loud speakers and yell about how everyone should vote for them. One of the things he talked about was the issue of a memorial that the local Korean community wants to erect near a mine where several Chinese and Koreans, forced into labor there, died. If you check out Michel's blog, he does a fine job outlining the history of this controversy (unfortunately when I use Blogger in my browser, I'm not given the option to create hyperlinks). Here we all are minus Fumi (who was the photographer):
This next group of pictures was taken at my farewell party last night. Madoka booked us a large tatami room at a restaurant near the school and it was perfect. The atmosphere was much better than the last couple places we'd had such parties at. Here I am with Isao and Tomoko:
It was great. Everytime a camera came out (and there were many), people would dive over tables, squash together, make peace signs with their hands. Here I am in a couple such group shots:
Scott was able to come up from Nagoya to spend the evening with us, which was a great surprise to many of the students at the party:
It was also the last time to see Michel and Yoshiko on this side of the world, so I was happy they could be there. I'll miss you guys - come to Minnesota soon!
I was humbled by the many gifts students gave me: pictures, flowers, sake, books, a soroban (Japanese abacus), furoshiki (traditional Japanese wrapping clothes for gifts, lunches, etc.), picture albums and frames, and lots of cards with warm messages. Yet none of these made me laugh as much as the shirt my Friday night discussion class presented me with. The front had a picture of me with the class - taken a couple Fridays ago. The picture on the back made me jump and let out what may have been as close to a scream as you will ever hear come out of my mouth. Here 'tis:
After Anthony led a Matt trivia game (won by a student who I've never taught before, but talked to in the lobby many times), Yasuko made a toast, Stacy gave a speech, and the staff and teachers presented me with a really nice fountain pen. Then I got up and gave a short speech - I had to keep it short because it was like the third time that week that I was worried that I'd start crying in front of my students. But I made them promise to visit me in the Land of 10,000 lakes as well as e-mail me from time to time, so I hope to be able to continue the many friendships that have begun here.

Earlier in the week, I took some pictures of the cherry blossoms, and as my kid sis asked me to post them, I am doing so here. But first, another fat lady sculpture - I like this one a lot:
The last four pictures were taken in Hachimanyama, the park where we had our hanami last year:

Okay, let's try a haiku again for the picture below:

The cherry tree's limbs
Droop and claw above my head.
Attacked by shades of pink.

(I think I'm channelling a bored student in a seventh grade English class during a poetry unit, rather than the spirit of Basho)

Tomorrow Anthony and I will meet the new teacher, Dayne, who is fresh from training in Omiya. Then two days left of work and a ton of things to do before leaving for Seoul on Saturday.

なんだこれや! ~or~ Nanda Koreya! (If the Hiragana doesn't show up on your computer)

2007-04-03T05:52:00.000-05:00

I'd been seeing these statues around town for weeks. The first one I saw was in a frame shop window. I was biking along on my way to work when suddenly, I was arrested by this enormous sculpture of a rather corpulent woman clad only in red heels with a mud pack on her face. I was shocked as I'd never seen it in the shop before. I just stared and said, "What the hell is that?" If you've read a couple entries ago, you'll remember a smaller statue I took a picture of with Kanako at Cafe Praktica. Last time I went to Praktica, Ako-san told me a bit about the artist, whose picture was on the cover of a magazine sitting next to the sculpture. I told her I thought it would be fun to visit his studio and see his work.

The very next day, I was returning to work from break and got up to the office and as I set down my bag, Stacy said, "Did you see the car down in the back of the building?"
I replied, "No. Which car?"
"The one filled with the naked fat lady sculptures you've been talking about. I think the artist is here."
So I walked back out of the office and ran down to see if I could catch the artist. When I got to the lobby, I found a guy putting a fat naked lady in the back of a car, so I pointed to the sculpture and asked if he was the artist. He said no and gestured around the corner. I walked around the corner and now recognized the artist from his picture. We chatted for a bit. He showed me the poster for the exhibition and then he told me what Nanda Koreya means. It turns out my initial reaction to his sculpture was rather apt because it was the way he translated the exhibition title: "What the hell is it?" He gave me a poster with his number and name on it and invited me to come to see his studio.

Later in the week when I was telling my excellent Odyssey ladies on Wednesday afternoon about it, Mieko and Tomoko mentioned they'd like to come along (after I hinted a bit that it would be nice to have someone there to translate). So after a couple calls to the artist, Jin Nariyoshi, we settled upon this afternoon for a visit.

I biked down to City Hall and met Tomoko and Mieko at 11 for lunch. They took me to this excellent organic foods restaurant on the east side of Utsunomiya. This place was really great - set in a rural area, it was part house, part restaurant. We came in and were happy to see a woodburning stove burning away cheerfully in the corner (it was a bit drizzly and cold today). I hopped up the stairs to the loft seating and took a couple of pictures of my daytrip companions:
Here's Tomoko and Mieko again, but in sepia - the restaurant seemed very well suited to taking sepia tone photographs (which is why I took this snap):
Here's a shot of my excellent meal. I had a chicken and green onion quiche with onion soup and a plate full of lightly steamed assorted root vegetables and a homemade mustard mayo. There was also a side dish with a tofu mousse which was delicious! Doesn't it just ooze organicness?:
Next we headed to Mashiko to meet Nariyoshi-san at his house. After another call to get specific instructions, we found the house/studio which was set back in a small forest. We wondered at first whether or not we had the right place until we saw one of his large women sitting on the porch. Just as Ako had said, Mr. Nariyoshi was really nice - he invited us into his large, high ceilinged living room in which almost every spot on the floor was filled with stacks of Japanese style pottery - bowls, cups, vases, plates, and sculptures. Then he began to show us some of his works as well as some photographs. It turns out that our host is quite well-respected in the world of Japanese ceramics. One of his pieces sits in the BRITISH MUSEUM and according to the small placard under the photo of this piece, Mr. Nariyoshi is an exponent of a particular style of Korean pottery glazing that dates from the 14th and 15th centuries (if I remember right). After his wife brought in tea for each of us and went back to her studio (she's also a potter, though they both have separate work spaces), we talked more and took some pictures. Here I am with Nariyoshi and Mieko:
And here we are again, this time with Tomoko:
I also snapped a couple shots of some of his large ladies:

He explained that beauty was not just restricted to thin, super model types - he thought that large women were sexy and beautiful and wanted to showcase that sexiness. Then he looked at me and asked if I liked large women (owing I guess to all of my questions about the sculptures) - I smiled and explained that I had so many questions because what intrigued me was that a Japanese artist should choose a large caucasian woman as his subject (he mentioned that she is not based on any particular woman - tho' I thought she looked a bit like Dawn French from BBC comedy fame - but came from his imagination). We had a great visit and at the end, he brought out a small cell phone charm with the exhibition title on it, but even more important, he took out a calligraphy brush and on the back of an exhibition card, he artfully wrote the exhibition name and stamped it with his hanko - we all marveled at his beautiful calligraphic style:
Here's one more shot of Tomoko and Mieko in Mr. Nariyoshi's living room:
After a great visit, and an invitation to go out for drinks in Utsunomiya together, we bid farewell and headed back to the main street of Mashiko where Mieko looked (without result) for a matching green tea cup to replace one that had been chipped. Here's a shot of one of the stores we looked around in:
We stopped at a coffee shop for dessert and tea and coffee. This cafe was located in the same building where I'd made pottery nearly a year ago with Saki, Masaki, and Wasim. But between that and all the tea offered us at nearly every place we went, I had to keep going to the bathroom (even making a stop on our way back to Utsunomiya - I wonder what the kanji is for "He with the little bladder"?) Mieko dropped off Tomoko and I and I walked to City Hall where I'd left my bicycle this morning only to find that my bicycle was missing - I looked and looked and e-mailed Tomoko who met me and took me to the Police station nearby to report it stolen, but without the serial number, there wasn't much they could do about it - they did, however, suggest that perhaps the City Hall security people may have moved it if it was in a restricted place, so tomorrow I'll go look for it. Anyway, I walked home tonight and as I walked past the frame shop, I snapped this picture of the sculpture that resulted in today's great adventure (even if my bike was stolen):

Nearing the End

2007-04-02T11:26:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to post something lately, but haven't really known what to write about. In some ways the last couple of weeks have been harder than I'd expected. This is primarily due to the fact that I have had so many nice messages from students since they've heard I'm leaving Japan. In spite of some of the problems on the administrative levels of this company, I've really come to care for and respect many of my students - so many of them have become good friends, and it's hard to leave good friends. I don't really know what more to say about this except that I hope many of the people I've encountered here in Japan will come visit me back in Minnesota.

I'm also very excited about returning to the States next month and seeing friends and family whom I've been away from for too long. I am a little nervous about the return - I've had no real nibbles from the applications I've submitted for work, and am not quite sure what it will be like to be back in the US after living in a place as different from it as Japan. Anyway, these last too paragraphs have taken far too long to write for as wordy and uninteresting as they are, so I will move on to pictures taken recently.

After tennis a couple weeks ago, Stacy, Anthony, and I were invited to the Suda's for dinner. We had a lot of fun playing with their new toy: Wii. Here's Stacy and Anthony boxing:
And Stacy, Motoki, and Tomoko in the kitchen whipping up some paella:
Here's the gang after the meal:
Later that week, Michel's family stopped in Utsunomiya with Michel and Yoshiko for a visit. Here we all are at AEON:
I went to Tokyo and Yokohama this weekend. Here's a shot of Tokyo Station:
Chinatown in Yokohama:
A temple in Chinatown:
I walked around Yokohama bay and saw this nice looking ship:
I really enjoyed my afternoon/evening in Yokohama - the architecture was really interesting, and in spite of the drizzly weather, it was fun to walk around and take some shots of the buildings and amusement park:

I tried taking some night time sakura pictures, but the cherry blossoms, while beautiful, didn't really look the way I wanted them to with a flash on them and I didn't have my tripod to take a good evening exposure. Ah, well...

A Great Weekend and Only Six Weeks to Go

2007-03-12T10:39:00.000-05:00

Well my last weeks in Japan are speeding by much more quickly than I thought they would - I have so many things to do before i go, but it will all get done eventually. My last day at AEON is April 19th. On the 21st I will leave for Seoul and then Beijing to visit my folks who are teaching English there. I'll spend a couple weeks in Beijing before heading back to the U.S. via Seoul and Tokyo. If all goes according to plan, I should be back in Minnesota on May 9th or 10th.

I've had a great time in Japan and made many new friends who I hope to keep in contact with and have visits from. My experiences here have ranged from the odd to the beautiful, from the noble to the ridiculous - in other words, pretty much the variety you experience any place in the world. I'm anxious to return to many of the people and things that I've been away from for the last year and two months, but in coming home, I will be leaving so many new friends and will miss a lot of cultural things I've come to appreciate.

This weekend was nice because two sets of students invited me to spend time with them. On Sunday, Fumi and Aiichiro invited Anthony and I over for lunch - they called it Anthony's welcome and my graduation from AEON party. Here's a rather staged photo of Aiichiro offering Anthony a natto roll (Anthony did try one - just before this picture was taken, and vowed never to eat natto again - wise choice, Anthony):

Today, Mieko picked up Tomoko, Stacy, and I in front of city hall to take us to Karasuyama. Our first stop was at some falls - we had a bit of time before our tours started. Unfortunately the river and the falls contain a pretty foul stench - for those of you Mankato people reading this, it's the same smell you get when you pass that farm on 169 just north of Le Sueur. But the reason for it here is because this is the country and some of the smaller country towns do not have proper sewage systems in place. Therefore, waste is dumped in the river. Here I am with Mieko and Tomoko in front of the smelly falls:

Next, we toured a cave where sake is stored. This cave was built by students and was used in WWII to store munitions I think. Here I am at the entrance:

And here're the four of us next lots of sake, being aged in an environment which offers a constant temperature:

After we sampled a variety of sake and bought a few bottles, we decided to go to lunch before visiting a washi (Japanese handmade paper) workshop. We had this kind of rice dish that people have told me the name of several times throughout the day, but for the life of me, I can't remember at the moment. Anyway, it was good and this is what it looked like:

After lunch, we went to the paper place, but the workshop was closed so we just looked around a bit. Then we stopped at an onsen on our way back and relaxed a bit before heading back to Utsunomiya. Once back, i made some amazake (sweet, hot sake, with some of the sake cake that I bought. In the evening, I headed over to AEON to write my farewell message and to meet Kanako, Yasuko, and Anthony for a snack at Cafe Praktica. Yuki - who is moving to Nagano next week - also came. Here's Kanako posing with a sculpture in the cafe. The artist who sculpted this corpulent figure has made several around town and they are to be found in various shops about the city - kind of like the Charlie Brown statues, but a bit more odd and shocking the first time you see one:

For the last three Mondays, I've been making Praktica my evening hangout - I go, get a pot of Irish malt tea and a small dessert, and either read or write or surf the net. I've known Ako-san and Kin-chan all year, but have been getting to know them better in the last few months. Ako loves classical and jazz music and has a pretty discerning taste, so I made her and her husband a disc of the Boswell Sisters, which they loved. Here I am at Praktica with Ako-san:

And here's the gang (from left to right): Kanako, Yuki, Me, Yasuko, and Anthony. It was fun to hang out with this group tonight.

That's it from my neck of the woods; what's happening where you are?

Goodbye/Hello

2007-02-25T04:10:00.000-06:00

Last night marked the end of an era: Michel said his final farewell to AEON at a party in his honor last night. The party was also a welcome to Anthony, our new teacher. Anthony's from the UK but was transplanted in the US (Texas to be precise). He's a nice guy and still has his British accent which provides nice variety for our students. Michel's official last day of work was Wednesday, and I can tell you, I was already missing the big palooka by Thursday. In the last year, we've gotten to be good friends and I realized in the second half of this week how much I relied upon him to keep me sane - thankfully he and his bride will be in Japan until around the time I leave so I can see him at lunch and keep him up-to-date on the happenings at the school.

Here're (that contraction seemed hardly worth the effort to think about) some pictures from last night. I am not going to provide much commentary as I worked today and am tired. Suffice it to say, people were very sad to see Michel go and interested to meet the new teacher. I will just say this about the venue (Esprit - so 80s sounding, no?) - there was a bit of a kerfuffle over the venue due to some staff inflexibility - the food (served in plastic bowls) was lackluster at best, and my gin and tonic tasted as if it was made of weak limeade and a splash of gingerale. If we'd had the party at Fudan Cafe like Michel had suggested, I think I'd have enjoyed my meal much more.

Before heading over to the party, a few of us stopped off at the Lion's Head Pub for a drink in Michel's honor. Here's the man of the hour with Yoshiko and Yasuko:And here is Michel and Yoshiko again with one of our favorite Saturday students, Nozomi:Anthony got a good chance to meet some of his new students. Here's Takayuki, Miki, Yuriko (Takayuki's wife), Anthony, Motoki, and Me:At exactly 11 (because of the quality of the venue) we were escorted out of the party room and those staying, went over to the karaoke room. In eternal honor of SpSp and BP, I always begin by singing a Sinatra number ("I've Got You Under My Skin"). The rest of my night's offerings were pretty atypical to what I usually do. I sang: "I Will Survive" - Cake version, and then a series of duets with Michel: "Bye Bye Love" (Simon & Garfunkle), "Day-O" (Harry Belafonte), and "Country Roads" (that was sung for Scott). In the karaoke room Nozomi soon became acquainted with the crazy guys Yuichiro and Masa:It was a lot of fun to see many of my current and former students. Here's Keizo, Emiko, Yuji, and Atsushi:Here's Hiroki and Yuji - Hiroki is planning on taking a year off starting next month and traveling around the world. He's quite an AEON success story: he began taking 4 lessons a week about a month or so ago, and started going to every free chat hour we offer. In addition he said he studies English in his free time. In the last three weeks, I've seen so much improvement in his speaking and listening ability. As the crazy guys kept hopping on people's laps around the room throughout the night, I decided to hop on Masa's lap. I think I must have crushed him - notice the look on his face (tho' he often has that look on his face, even in our lobby between classes):Here I am about to be kissed by the crazy guys. The look on Michel's face is priceless.
I was tired this morning when I had to go in to work for our Sunday open, but it was worth it to see everyone, welcome Anthony, and say goodbye to Michel.

We'll miss you, pal.

Music To While Away the Hours By

2007-02-22T12:38:00.000-06:00

This post is dedicated to:
-Rick, for introducing me to the dulcet tones of Elva Miller.
-Becky and Suzy, who in addition to embracing Mrs. Miller, introduced me to Tom and Cathy (not included in this musical selection).
-Chad and Jean who proved their love of true outsider music by accompanying Becky and me to a coffee shop concert of Tom and Cathy's.
-Robin who burned me a copy of the worst country music demo I've ever heard.

Here, for your listening pleasure is the only YouTube footage I could find of the incomparable Mrs. Elva Miller:

If you made it through any of that, please believe me when I tell you that that is one of her better performances.

As I was looking for the Elva video, I found out about this singer: Florence Foster Jenkins. She was a socialite from the early 20th Century who borrowed money from daddy to take singing lessons. When she later inherited all of daddy's money, she embarked on her singing career in earnest, recorded several classical arias, and even gave a concert at Carnegie Hall - too bad she was tone deaf, and had no sense of rhythm, and couldn't sustain a note long enough to make it a note. This YouTube video doesn't have live footage of her, but shows her picture as she massacres Der Hölle Rache from Die Zauberflöte by Mozart:

Curiouser and Curiouser

2007-02-11T09:26:00.000-06:00

This post is a companion post to my friend Aiichiro's post on the same subject. I would link to it, but my Mac browser doesn't let me do it easily, so you will just have to trust me when I say that he wrote about this first. Anyway, as someone who enjoyed art and wanted to be an artist at a very early age, I was naturally attracted to kids books with superior illustrations. I liked Maurice Sendak, Edward Gorey, etc. But my favorite illustrations were the ones Sir John Tenniel had done for Lewis Carroll's Alice books. After I admired the pictures and tried copying them in my own notebooks, I actually read "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" and was so happy to find out the stories were (unlike the Disney film) brilliantly complex, humorous, and completely sarcastic. Carroll, through these books, is able to show how ridiculous the adult world must seem to children, and poke fun at imperialism at its worst to boot.

I've seen several versions of Alice in Wonderland and have never been satisfied because they have all seemed too cutesy, and Alice isn't cute - she's strong, and whiny, sometimes a brat, and very often full of common sense. I like Alice, because she is not passive - she explores the worlds she's dropped into and discovers new things. Most versions of Alice focused on the putting famous actors in caterpillar or turtle costumes and having them dance around like theme-park mascots.

Enter Jan Svenkmajer, Eastern European stop-action animator. I'd heard he'd made a version of "Alice" in the 80s but after my sister and her friend had seen another of his films, "Little Otek" (about a child made out of a stump of wood - a child that grows and devours neighbors), I kept putting it off. I didn't want to be disturbed. When I saw YouTube had some clips of "Alice", I watched them and then ordered myself a copy of the film. It IS a bit disturbing, but not in a bad way, and it completely captures the feeling of the original books without resorting to sentimentality. In fact, it's completely unsentimental. At times, Svenkmajer's wonderland is nightmarish and his Alice, who is correctly played much younger than in most adaptations, is run through the wringer (is it wringer? or ringer? I think it must be wringer because you are wringing out water as from recently warshed (I actually spelled that incorrectly on accident, so I'll leave it) clothes).

After watching the film, I had to bring it to Aiichiro because he quotes Alice at least once a week and has a special love, bordering on obsession, for this book (which to me is very cool).

So for your viewing pleasure (Liz, you will love the teeth!), I am including Svenkmajer's version of Alice and the caterpillar (it's four minutes long, but you can spare four minutes for bizarre, can't you? I thought so.):

Daikura!

2007-02-04T23:35:00.000-06:00

Yesterday morning started with my cell phone alarm going off at 5:00am.

I quickly turned it off, knowing it would go off again in a quarter of an hour, and again in a half an hour, and again in three quarters of an hour. But before it had a chance to go off a second time, it let out a sound like a plane flying over head - that meant I was receiving an e-mail.

Michel checking to see if I was up yet.

I replied with an "Ugh! Yes" text and got an "Ugh!" back as a reply. We AEON teachers are not used to getting up at such hours; our school day doesn't begin until 1:00pm. But today, we were going skiing and I had to get my butt out of bed and jump in the shower to meet the cab over at Michel's that would take us to the east side of the train station to meet Ray, his daughter, and our bus to Daikura. I had been telling my students all week about my ski plans and purposely dropped that I hadn't been downhill skiing in over 20 years just so I could see the look of surprise on their faces. Yet, as I put on the ski/snow-boarding suit Stacy loaned me (thanks, Stacy), and later picked up the short skis at Michel's to hand them to the driver, I think I surprised myself more than I had my students. "I'm really going skiing. and not just skiing at Afton Alps or Lutzen back in Minnesota (for those who've never traveled to my great state (or never watched or read "Little House on the Prairie") Minnesota is flat, with the exception of a few hills), but skiing in the mountains. Big, steep mountains." But Michel assured me there were beginner slopes at all elevations and that I would be fine.

The taxi arrived early and dropped us off at the gyoza statue on the east side of the station. We waited in the cold for about 20-25 minutes until the bus arrived. We loaded up our gear and soon were joined by Ray and his daughter Rina. Ray is one of our outstanding former discussion students who still meets us for drinks at the local pub outside of our office on Wednesday nights (NOVA teachers, I understand, are not allowed to fraternize with students). We all spread out in the back of the bus when Ray turned around and handed us each a beer - a beer before 9! Michel and I were happily surprised by this refreshment and after a quick "kampai," we opened our cans and were on our way:The bus filled up at our second stop, but then proceeded to stop every half hour or so - so passengers could go to the toilet. Now, I have a VERY small bladder and normally would be thankful for this, but it seemed excessive even to me. Besides, it was cutting into our ski time. As we got closer the snow got heavier and heavier. The ski resort was beautiful and full of skiers, snow-boarders, and ski-boarders all enjoying themselves. As I was borrowing Michel's short skis (thanks again, Michel) I didn't need poles - only boots. I quickly got these and we all got ready and were off. This was my first time using a ski lift in my life (I'd only used a tow rope before), and after a little help from Michel and the lift attendant, I figured out how to get on and off the lift with a minimum of embarrassment (Michel will probably tell a different story, but so be it). One of the nice things about the lifts here is that they come equipped with a plexiglass hood that comes down once you start off and keeps the wind and snow away:
Here I am at the top of the hill with Michel and Rina:There were many types of ski outfits sported on the hill, but Rina's was the brightest which made it easy for us all to keep an eye on her. This was her second time skiing as well so she and I were the beginners. We all had distinct styles of skiing. Michel and Ray were obviously the most expert of our team - Michel gave me many helpful pointers on executing a controlled, curving descent down the hill. His own style showed he knew what he was talking about. Ray had long, straight skis and looked quite European with his controlled, classic way of getting down the hill. Rina snowplowed and worked on her turns. It was fun to watch her ski down to where we were and then hear her cry - half fear/half delight - grow loud and then soft again as she swiftly passed us, unable to stop. My own style was a work in progress. I was having a bit of trouble bending my knees as I turned and this contributed to my initial lack of control in my descent. By the end of the day (except for the time on the intermediate slope when I literally tumbled my way down the final run), I felt much more confident and could even execute a pretty good hockey player type stop (tho' here again, I must have looked a bit ridiculous as every time I turned to the side I either a) lost my nerve and did 2 or 3 stops to finally stop, or b) executed the stop well, but did not put my weight into it enough and lamely drifted off to the side like a discarded candy wrapper blown by the wind). Anyway, Here I am with Ray and Rina:And here we are after a nice lunch, back up on the slopes. The weather cleared enough for us to see the endless mountains and take in the true natural beauty of this country, far, far away from rust and concrete:

(If you click on the pictures, you should be able to see an enlarged version and can get a better scope of the beauty of these mountains):All in all, it was a perfect day for skiing and a great refresher course for me. Hopefully, I'll be able to make it out to the slopes one more time before the end of my contract at the end of April. Thanks to Ray for taking these amazing pictures of our day on the slopes.

Today, I am researching teaching opportunities in Vermont, Colorado, and other mountainous regions of the good old U.S. of A.

How to Make Matt Happy:

2007-01-31T00:41:00.000-06:00

Transform yourself into an Agatha Christie DVD collection, place yourself in the mail and ship yourself to Japan (even though you chose surface mail, I eventually will forgive you).

Let the 36 hours of Poirot nerd-dom begin!

I Got the Heebie Jeebies

2007-01-14T05:38:00.000-06:00

Today, I am feeling a bit restless. It was a busy day yesterday: I taught seven classes, one more than my usual Saturday schedule, which isn't bad - I've done it before - but the way it was scheduled stunk. I had to teach three classes in a row, then had an hour break, then taught four in a row. I also forgot to give a student a test between classes, so he was a bit disappointed and I was a bit disappointed in myself and grouchy and tired.

So today, I've done nothing of great import. I did do some cleaning of my apartment and organizing of papers and stuff. Then I biked down to the gas station to get some kerosene for my heater. I also tried making a Japanese style omlette. I am happy to say that in spite of not having dashi sauce (nor knowing really how to find it at the grocery store), it still came out good. The omlettes here in japan are a strange mix of the salty and the sweet. I my recipe, you mix the eggs with some sugar, soy sauce, salt, and mirin (a sweet, almost syrup-like rice wine for cooking). The omlette is cooked and rolled. My cookbook suggested eating it with grated daikon radish and a little soy, but I just had the soy. It tasted pretty good - it's definitely not a breakfast omlette - I like it as a snack.

Anyway, I have no idea what the point of this blog entry is. I'd wanted it to create some impression of what I was feeling (which is neither good nor bad, just middling), but instead, all I've done is given you a rather boring account of a boring day here. But all of this was leading up to the fact that I wanted to share this video I found on YouTube of the Boswell Sisters singing "Heebie Jeebies" - a song I first heard Louis Armstrong sing. The Armstrong version is supposedly the reason we have scat singing in jazz today - apparantly they were recording this song and he forgot the lyrics, but they had to keep going recording the cylander, so he just made up sounds and nonsense words to fill in for the lyrics. I'd never heard the Boswell Sisters nor their version of the song until yesterday when I came across the video. It's pretty cool for the 1930s and is an amazingly clear video. Connee Boswell, the lead singer, was a hero of Ella Fitzgerald's when she was first starting out. Ella tried to pattern her voice after this New Orleans songstress. Anyway, enough of my weird, disjointed ramblings. I hope you enjoy the video - I particularly like the way they sway to the music and bob their heads:

Pics from My Holiday Week

2007-01-03T19:15:00.000-06:00

Well, first, here are some pictures that Kanako sent me from our daytrip to Nasu. As we left the onsen, this friendly, but hesitant dog came over to meet us. Here he is, sizing me up. A moment later, he went off to chase a car:

Kanako was able to snap a pic of what the onsen looked like as no one was in the women's bath yet. I'm not sure how it is at other places, but at this one, one side was hot and the other side was scalding. I put one foot in the scalding side before deciding to stay on the hot side:

On New Year's Day, my students Tomoko and Isao invited me over for a traditional meal. It's called osechi. While these days, most people go to department store food courts to order this meal, Tomoko made hers. It tasted great:

This was followed by cheese fondue:

And here are my gracious hosts. We had a great time listening to jazz, eating and drinking, and then watching Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin concert DVDs:

Two days earlier another student, Aiichiro, and his son, Motoki, took me to Tochigi city. This smaller town was at one time a merchant town - with the river running through it and heading toward Tokyo, it soon became an important place for people to transport products from the country to Tokyo. Today, it is a quiet town with some lovely spots along the river where you can get an idea of how the city might have looked 100 years ago. This building is a city office and might have at one time been the prefectural office (I believe Tochigi prefecture used to be divided into two prefectures):

Here's an example of some of the old buildings you can see in Tochigi - this kind of building is a bit more rare in Utsunomiya, which had to be rebuilt after being bombed in WWII:

Here I am on a bridge wearing the cool Eddie Bauer hat that Setsuko gave me for Christmas:

And here I am with Aiichiro in front of this cool broom and wicker type shop on the main street. We stopped in and looked around a bit. Pretty cool stuff:

Here's another view of the river and an old building that once was a store house and is now a museum:

Next we went to see Ohira-san, Tochigi's mountain. Michel has climbed this bad boy more than once, but today was cold and I was not about to freeze my ears off climbing, so Aiichiro drove us to the top:

Here I am at the lookout point at the top:

We found tons of padlocks attached to the fence surrounding the lookout point. They all had writing on them. Turns out, lovers go there and put their names on the lock and then lock it to the fence as a symbol of their ever-lasting love (n.b. We also saw places where the fence was cut and locks were removed):

We stopped at a small restaurant and had some snacks. This is konyaku. It's a gelatinous substance made from a (sweet?) potato starch and is served with yuzu miso (citron flavored miso sauce):

This is dango. The small balls are made from rice powder and then they are covered in sweet bean paste (one of Michel's favorite things to eat):

I also tried amazake, which is a warmed sweet, thick sake. It was perfect on this cold day:

We headed back to Aiichiro's house where Fumi had prepared everything for nabe. Nabe simply means pot, so this meal was served in a pot at the table. It was made of a simple chicken broth with small chicken drumsticks, Chinese cabbage, chrysanthamum leaves, tofu, mushrooms, noodles, and green onions (after depleting the veggies and meat from the pot, udon noodles were added and then gyoza):

Here I am with Fumi, Aiichiro, and one of Fumi's friends who came over for dinner as well. We all had a great time eating and drinking and enjoying each other's company

I'm continually impressed with the level of hospitality I've seen here. I was feeling a bit down about spending the holidays alone in a foreign country, but so many people invited me out or to their homes. I had a very memorable holiday time indeed.

Tomorrow? Back to work.

An (On)sensational Day ~or~ Who Smells Like Rotten Eggs?

2006-12-28T05:23:00.000-06:00

Okay, first I am including a picture of my plum pudding - which unmolded poorly and looked like a pile of dirt, but tasted excellent. I think I will need to work on this recipe a bit. SpoilSport's mom has a real, traditional, family pudding recipe from jolly old England that she gave me last year and I am anxious to try it next time. Anyway, here's what mine looked like:
Now, on to today. Kanako and I planned on taking a day trip to Nasu with a couple of students. We'd asked Yuki, who accepted, but I didn't know who else Kanako was going to bring. Well, I was pleasantly surprised when we picked up Tomoko, one of my advanced students. We had a great day, and now I really understand why visiting hot springs (or onsen as they are called here) are such a popular weekend activity - especially in winter. I should have known from looking at Kanako's pictures from her trip to New York that this would be more of an eating tour than anything else. We drove out to Nasu - maybe about an hour by freeway and stopped first for a morning cone of ice cream. I had rum raisin, but I envied Tomoko, who had a cone of the best strawberry ice cream I'd ever tried. Then we drove to the main strip of Nasu. Nasu is a pretty sleepy, rural area with a lot of charm and some spectacular mountain views. Kanako told me that Tokyo folk generally buy second homes out in Nasu so they can get away from the city into the country and enjoy the hot springs.

We stopped at a restaurant and bought potato croquettes and munched away at them as a small snack before heading to the onsen. Here's Tomoko and Kanako:

And Me and Yuki (I'm wearing one of the green hats given me by one of my students):

And here we all are:

After our snack, we headed up Nasu mountain to the onsen. Unfortunately, on the way, we hit some heavy snow - the higher we got, the more the snow covered the roads. Kanako did not have her winter tires on and was worried about getting into an accident so we turned around and looked for an onsen in town - Nasu has tons of small places where you can have a relaxing soak in a hotspring. Yuki recommended a place he'd been to and we stopped there. Kanako was squealing with delight as we arrived as the onsen was pretty old style. Here are Kanako, Tomoko and Yuki in front of the entrance to the onsen:

Here's the gang, once inside:
We found out that the onsen was pretty old-school, indeed. This spot was first found 800 years ago and parts of this building were 200 years old:
We were sent down a series of steps underground which lead to two separate areas - one for men and one for women. Here I am, heading downstairs:
And here's Yuki:

I didn't take anymore pictures at the onsen because it would be a bit rude to take pictures of naked people at a hot spring. So I will just describe the event. Many hot springs, like this one, have separate areas for men and women. I bought a modesty towel at the front desk for 300 yen and Yuki and I headed to our area while Kanako and Tomoko made their way to theirs. There was a small changing room with plastic baskets for us to put our clothes and towels and such in. We disrobed and opened the sliding doors to the hot spring. In this room, there were two tubs, one with hot spring water, and one with even hotter spring water. The water was milky green and had a strong sulfer smell. The wooden boards and stones surrounding the tubs had sulfur build-up. There were windows running along the upper part of the room. When Yuki and I entered, we bid our fellow bathers - three guys - a "konichiwa" and grabbed small plastic buckets to wash ourselves off before sinking into the hot spring. The guys her were older - two guys looked like they might be in their 70s.
The other guy was probably in his 40s and his left shoulder and upper arm were covered in tattoos. I surmised from this - and Yuki confirmed it later for me that this guy was most likely a member of the yakuza - Japan's organized crime group. We soaked in the hot spring water for 45 minutes, taking frequent breaks to sit outside the tub so we didn't get light headed. The water felt amazing, despite its smell, and made my skin feel smooth and soft - I just checked my arm and it still feels great - and still smells like rotton eggs (tho' faintly). It was such a relaxing experience and I plan on returning many times this winter.

After we soaked for a bit, we met Kanako and Tomoko again in the hallway and made our way to the car. The onsen lady Yuki talked to recommended a great steak restaurant located in a small grocery store. This seemed like an odd place for a good steak house, but nevertheless, there it was. the steak was tender and juicy and came with an excellent miso soup, salad, rice, and pickle. After eating, we decided to drive back to Utsunomiya before the weather in Nasu got worse. Kanako pointed out places and stopped at points along the way. First we stopped at Dream Bakery to get some bread to bring home. Then Kanako suggested coffee and dessert - we were still a little full from lunch, but I always contend that even though you may feel full after a meal, there is always room for dessert. We decided on a cafe close to the highway - Shozo Cafe. I immediately loved this place. It was clean and white and a bit rustic and oozed style. We ordered our coffees and desserts and then found a table. Here's Tomoko and Kanako:
The waiter brought out our coffee drinks: a mocha, latte, and 2 cappucinos. Each time, the waiter/barista brought out a cup with espresso in it and a metal pitcher filled with steamed milk. He slowly poured the milk into the cups and made various designs with the espresso and foam:

After each creation, we clapped like five-year-olds and were so pleased to watch the man redden and smile at our praise of his work. Then we asked the cashier to take our picture with the barista. I think we made his day (we must have - I know for a fact that the somber, boring couple next to us didn't):
Before we left, I took a look back at Nasu as it darkened with the evening sky and caught a glimpse of the mountains:
When we got back, Tomoko invited us to her place for soba (buckwheat) tea - it was light and flavorful, and perfect after our day of eating and soaking.

Tomorrow? I'm cleaning my apartment and relaxing, then Saturday Aiichiro is taking me to see other areas around Utsunomiya.

What a great beginning to my winter holidays.

Day After Christmas Blues

2006-12-26T06:47:00.000-06:00

Well, Christmas alone wasn't as bad as I thought - of course, getting to be with my family would have been wonderful, but things were still good. On Christmas Eve, I went with Stacy and Motoki (thanks for driving, Motoki!) to Jichiidai where one of my students, Yoko, attends church. We were met by Moto - one of our brilliant discussion students - outside of the church where the church choir was assembled. They sang carols outside until the service started. The service was really nice and Yoko played piano and sang with the choir. She even typed out the Japanese carol lyrics in Romaji (Romanized letters) so we could sing along. Another one of Stacy's students was there - she brought homemade marmalade for Stacy, Moto, and me - it was wonderful. The one funny thing was the fact that the candlelight service candles were not candlelight service size candles, but instead, birthday candle sized candles with pieces of foil wrapped around the base. Still, the service was much like the Christmas Eve candlelight services i am used to - it was nice.

Also, the students here at AEON have been so generous to me this Christmas. I got,
-2 green hats (from two different students)
-Tea
-Chocolates
-Pottery

On Saturday, some wonderful gifts arrived from my parents, and today I got cards and a package from my sis and one of my brothers. All weekend I have been talking to my family - On Christmas Eve night, I got on iChat with my brother in Houson and watched the kids open presents and even read a children's storybook version of the Christmas story to the kids - my brother held up the book to the video cam and I read it to them. It was the next best thing to being there. Today I talked with Becky while I opened up the stocking stuffers she sent to me.

All of this was great and tomorrow I will chat with the whole family at my folks house, yet today was a bit of a let-down. The weather today was, in a word, gloomy. Heavy rains started last night and got heavier throughout the day. The winds picked up and my shoes got soaked on the way to work. On the way home, I took the bus, but waiting for it, my suit got soaked, my shoes got resoaked, my backpack got soaked, and my umbrella nearly broke. I thought about it and realized that I am glad that I don't normally live in such a climate. In spite of the cold of Minnesota in January, I think I prefer it to the cold, clammy feeling of soaked shoes and socks as I go to work. Hopefully, things will clear up during my days off so I can enjoy the hot springs and the ski slopes.

Four Seafood Pizzas, Three Whi-ite Russians, Two Silly Reindeer, and a Salary Ma-an in a Red Dress: A Christmas Party AEON Style

2006-12-17T00:36:00.000-06:00

Well, this AEON party was not a well-planned affair, but sometimes it's the unplanned events that prove to be the most enjoyable. We'd talked about having it at a restaurant with lots of food and drink, but no one seemed to think about reserving a room at a restaurant until two weeks before the night of the party. Year-end parties are HUGE here in Japan, so every restaurant within a mile radius of school was booked on the 16th. We then decided to have a potluck party at the school - similar to what we did for halloween. We talked about, and even planned a game for the evening, but luckily, the party ran itself and everyone had a good time without the staff having to resort to mixer type games. Mind you, if we had planned it a little bit better, we could have had a white elephant gift exchange which would have been a lot of fun (in this society of shopping for and owning the latest clothes and accoutrements, I would have been sure to have walked away with a Burberry scarf or a Louis Vuitton wallet).

Michel and I decided that we would do a little planning of our own to insure an enjoyable evening. After quaffing a couple shot glasses of a quickly mixed drink, we went to the bathroom to change out of our work suits and into more casual attire. The day before, we bought these silly reindeer headband/masks and goofy glittery bow ties. Then in one of the classrooms, we broke out the ingredients for our evening's refreshment. Here's Michel proudly holding two of the ingredients:

We mixed the Kahlúa, milk and Stoli in a plastic pitcher and then got out our Christmas mugs from the 100 Yen shop out and poured ourselves drinks for the evening. We waited a bit for a few of the students to arrive before making our appearance. Zen was one of the earliest to arrive. Zen had had some wine before coming and was all ready to enjoy the party:

Soon, more guests started to arrive and we were all surpised when our former part-time teacher, Fumiko came into the room. Madoka had secretly invited her as a surprise for staff, teachers, and students. Here she is with Satomi and a couple students getting ready to chow down some seafood pizza (I did eat one piece, but I may have to order a pepperoni pizza for dinner tonight just to make up for that one slice - it wasn't that bad, but I just can't get used to it):

After a bit, Yoshiko donned my antlers and bowtie and the newlyweds posed for this pic:

When Michel and I went downstairs to let Yuichiro (one half of the crazy guys) into the building and the first thing he said was, "I need the bathroom," we thought he had been waiting outside the building for sometime and had to go, but when he came through the doors, we realized his real reason for needing the bathroom. Like at the Halloween party a couple of months ago, he decided to wear a dress - a santa dress (but he did include his cat ears from the last costume and made sure to cover his armpit hair with flesh colored duct tape - shudder). Here he is posing with Michel (Note to Michel: this is not as bad as the pic I could have posted):

Later, Kotaro put on the mask and was delighted to be surrounded by Madoka, Fumiko, Miki, and Stacy:

Here's Junko and Seiko (two of my advanced level students with our school manager, Yoshiko):

And here are the two goofy reindeers (did I actually just type an s after that word to make it plural?) with Yuichiro and Yoshiko:

It was good to see Kei too, as I never get to teach her anymore (Jess, she was thrilled when I told her you thought her skin looked so beautiful in the Halloween pics):

And here I am toward the end of the night (still wearing that awful tie) but happy to get a few minutes to catch up with Fumiko and see how she was doing. Fumiko and I used to always have our lunch at the same time on Saturdays and would have interesting chats - I miss that:

I think I took off at around 1:30 and was handed a box of doughnuts on my way out - hooray!

Channeling My Inner Child

2006-12-13T09:19:00.000-06:00

I think there are some albums written for children that end up transcending their original purpose and appealing to a broader audience. Take the soundtrack to "A Charlie Brown Christmas." I'm not sure if it was Charles Schultz's stroke of genius to use jazz artists to create the soundtrack for this animated special, but whoever's idea it was, it was a brilliant idea. Vince Guaraldi created the "Linus and Lucy" theme and "Christmastime is Here," now both classics.

In the same way, I think Jack Johnson's Curious George soundtrack is one of those albums whose tunes are so catchy and fun, that the parents who put the CD in for their kids get just as much fun out of it as their kids.

For me, my favorite transcendent kids album has to be Carole King's "Really Rosie." I remember first being shown the film of this in grade school - yes it was shown on a reel-to-reel projector complete with flying dust particles giving shape to the beam extending from the projector to the screen, and the strangely comforting flap of the film running through the projector. I think we watched it in first grade and soon after, my sister and I got the record at the library and listened to it over and over. This kids album has everything - Carole King's amazing, scratchy voice and New York accent (and great 70s era rock/folk piano playing), and illustrations and lyrics by artist extraordinaire, Maurice Sendak. To this day, my sister and I still listen to this unendingly listenable album and now that my sister has a little baby, she sings songs from this album to my niece.

Luckily, someone else on YouTube thought the children's special from which this album comes was important enough to share. Here's a clip from my one of my favorite songs on the album:

"Pierre"

A Dream

2006-12-05T18:15:00.000-06:00

I just woke up about a half an hour ago and have been ruminating over this dream I had whilst (impressive, no?) drinking jasmine tea. Here's the dream:

I was starting my second year at Hogwarts, except Hogwarts wasn't Hogwarts; it was an office complex on a sunny, city street. And I wasn't moving into a dormitory, but an office. As I put my things at one of two desks which were separated from the room with a bed sheet, I glanced at the things sitting on the desk opposite mine. There was a pair of pink heels, a black brief case, and a pink Jackie O' style hat sitting there. I looked at them and thought, "Oh, Good, AV is my new office mate!" (Yes, Angry Vegan, you were in my dream!). As I got things settled in. AV walked in dressed in a sixties style dress-with-pants type suit and a hat that looked like Madeline's from the children's story. The overall effect was like the outfit Violet Beauregarde from Willie Wonka wore:

She grabbed her wand and went outside, so I followed. AV was looking up into the sky where several crows were congregated, but something looked odd. I looked up too and the sky had become the ground and the crows were all eating something on the pavement above us and it was as if we were in the sky looking down on them.

Suddenly, a gigantic chariot flew across the sky (which was the sky once again) off in the distance and the driver (Apollo?) was trying desperately to stop the beasts that were pulling the chariot, but couldn't and there was an amazing crash. Then we went around to the front of the building and in the sky was a towering, giant Neptune with his pitchfork and a large seahorse flying by and then a large viking ship in the distance. It started raining and it was getting difficult to see, so AV and I took out our wands and said "Expeliaramus," or whatever Harry, Ron and Hermione say, and the rain temporarily started falling in slow motion. All of the sudden all of these wizards started running by on the street - a woman with her two children stopped and talked to AV about what was going on, but I couldn't hear what they said.

Then I woke up and thought, "That was cool."

AV, did you have a similar dream?

First Week of Advent

2006-12-04T03:59:00.000-06:00

Advent - the four Sundays before Christmas on the Christian calendar - started yesterday. Celebrating Advent has been a tradition in my family for years, and is one that I've continued on my own. It's generally considered a time of spiritual preparation for celebrating Christ's birth.

I was talking to one of my brothers on Skype the other day and we were both feeling rather disillusioned by the commercialism of the season - here in Japan it too is a holiday run by department stores. And in a predominantly nominal Buddhist culture, it has little religious significance. What we have here in Japan is a kind of hodge podge of ideas of what people think an American or European Christmas should look like, so it is generally mismatched, gaudy, and geared toward spending. This is fine if you are a person for whom the holiday holds no specific spiritual meaning - it's a nice time of year for spending time with family and giving and receiving gifts. But beyond the shopping, gifts, and Santas, all of which I enjoy, I need it to mean something more significant. I am far from perfect, and Christmas carols that talk about "...the dawn of redeeming grace..." or about how "...hate is strong, and mocks the song of peace on Earth, good will to men..." stir something in me. So today I bought my four Advent candles - one to light each week - and will await Christmas in perhaps a more quiet, introspective way than I have in recent years.

I also wanted my apartment to look a little more festive than it did. So I bought a mini Christmas tree from the 100 Yen store and decorated it with some lights and little snowflake ornaments. Then I wrapped my garland of Danish flags (not "controversial" Danish cartoons, mind you) around the tree. I'm happy with the result. My little ten tatami mat-sized space of Japan looks a little warmer tonight:

P.S. I also made a plum pudding that is waiting to be eaten on Christmas Eve.

Hachimanyama Park

2006-12-03T02:53:00.000-06:00

Michel, Yoshiko, and I had a nice but chilly day walking in the park. My favorite part of Hachimanyama is this strange set of statues:

Hanko

2006-11-25T19:17:00.000-06:00

I bought a book on Japanese painting so I could try a different style. The beginning of the book shows how to carve a hanko which is the red stamp people use for official documents, art, and other things - it's a kind of personal signature. Luckily this book had pictures to show me how to make one out of an eraser. I made 4. Here's the result:

no title

2006-11-17T07:13:00.000-06:00

*I am still enjoying work.
*I am still enjoying my students.
*I am still maintaining my sense of humor.
*I am still keeping my mind engaged in intellectual pursuits.

and yet, I have hit a new low in my professional life.

*I didn't complain when they suggested we do mini 5-minute lobby lessons.
*I helped think up good idiomatic expressions to teach students between classes.
*I had fun teaching (along with my fellow teachers) pronunciation through tongue twisters.
*I even participated when one week of every month, we started having to teach a portion of a karaoke song and then sing it with our students in the lobby ("Your Song" by Elton John and Louis Armstrong's version of "What a Wonderful World").
*I drew it to the attention of our staff and fellow teachers when I noticed that some students waited in the hall until the singing was over so they didn't have to participate and feel uncomfortable, but to no avail.

but now it's simply awful:

*The song that was chosen (Notice the non-accusatory passive voice? That's on purpose.) for this week's karaoke sing-along?

*wait for it...

"What a Feeling" from Flashdance.

*I refused to sing this song with my students in the lobby and lose every shred of credibility.
*I refused to scoop my voice, Irene Cara style, while singing words that made no sense.
*Yet I was forced to teach the words to students twice this week.
*I had to say horrible, unnatural things like:

"Okay everyone, repeat after me:
'What a feeling-'
'Being's believing-'
(someone PLEASE tell me what that means)
'I can have it all-'
'Now I'm dancing for my life-'
(a useful phrase for any Japanese traveler)
'Take your passion-'
(yes, Michel and I sang 'Take your pants off,' which is what I (and I think everyone else) used to think Cara was singing)
'and make it happen-'
That was great everybody! Now, let's listen, and join in when you get to the chorus!"

*When I didn't have to lead, I generally hid out in an empty classroom.

*Who needs a drink?

I know I shouldn't...

2006-11-10T07:14:00.000-06:00

...be typing about weight loss as I sit eating a rum raisin chocolate bar (my favorite candy in Japan), and after having gone through a large carton of vanilla ice cream last week. But I was looking through old pictures on Michel's blog as well as mine a few nights ago, and I am quite pleased to have gone from this:
to this:in ten months. I still have more weight I want to lose, but it's a start.

Hey, Spoil Sport - Remember This?

2006-11-06T19:55:00.000-06:00

Farewell to Yukiyo

2006-11-05T22:26:00.000-06:00

Last Friday was the final day for our assistant manager, Yukiyo. We are going to miss her - she was always great with our students and super helpful to us foreign teachers. I remember on my second day in Utsunomiya, Yukiyo took me to the city office to apply for my identity card. She sat with me and we got to talk for a while - I think Yukiyo always has a friendly calming effect on people.

Here's the restaurant we went to - it's "famous" (as Michel loves to say) for its grilled lamb:
Michiko, Yasuko, and I split an excellent bottle of cabernet to get things started and then I dug into (or chopped into, I guess, since I was using chopsticks) some kimchi:
There were gas burners at each table with a cast iron grill pan that was raised in the middle - it's called a Genghis Khan pan - probably because the type of food is really Mongolian in origin I think - that and the pan kinda looks like a Mongol hat (in my imagination anyway). You put the meat in the center on the dome and surround it with veggies. The meat was marinated in either sesame or peanut oil which made it taste fantastic.
Here are some various shots at the table. Yasuko and me:
Michel and me:
Yoshiko and Sayaka (who is laughing hysterically about something - something to do with the bib she was wearing I think):
Here's the whole gang (Michiko must have moved in the pic as she's the only blurry one):
And here is dear Yukiyo trying to keep it together (we made her cry twice, poor thing)
It was a blast and I went home with a tummy full of wine, lamb, veggies, kimchi, and apple sour...

...I had a stomach ache the next morning.

(...but it was worth it)

Salsa!

2006-11-03T05:35:00.000-06:00

Okay, before I post about salsa dancing with Emiko and Mayu last night, here's a picture of what I get to look at every day when I leave my apartment for work. Not only do I get to see this every day, I get to hear it from Monday through Friday at 9:00 am sharp. They are building ugly condos next to my ugly apartment complex to add to the long row of ugly buildings that line the main street of Utsunomiya. I wish they would have converted this empty lot into a garden or a small park.Anyway, on to salsa. Going to a dance club in Utsunomiya on a Thursday night with Mayu and Emiko was a pretty trippy experience - primarily because it reminded me of going to the MMC with Jean and Shannon on Thursday nights in St. Paul - there were odd people dancing about - a really fun, retro 50s/60s/70s/80s band, and salsa dance lessons in between. Here's what the night looked like (in a kind of cool, blurry way):
Emiko and I cutting a rug (as the hipsters say):
Emiko and Mayu whoopin' it up on the dance floor:
Me and Mayu havin' a blast - we got those salsa steps down and added some creative twists of our own - most of which ended in our arms getting all tangled around our heads and necks:
The dance instructor - from Arthur Murray - took down my number and is going to try and get me to take lessons. I may do this if I can get their schedule to work with mine. I want to be ready when I get back to the states and go to Monday Night salsa in Minneapolis with Gayle and her friends.

This last picture is of the slowly decaying jack-o-lantern I made with Kentaro at the party - I think it looks quite nice on my porch with my oya stone lantern, potted basil, and just the briefest (no pun intended) glimpse of my boxer briefs hanging out to dry:

Halloween Post - or - how I accidentally closed my blogger window and lost my almost finished post with uploaded photos and how I am really mad

2006-10-29T08:48:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure why I get so angry when things like having to repost everything on Blogger happen to me - I mean, I live in an age where such things only take a few minutes, but for some reason, I get almost livid when things like this happen. Anyway, today was our Halloween party at school. I had to be at work at 11am after not sleeping well the night before. We often have open Sundays where we interview prospective students and offer special lessons. I had to work today and was lucky enough to have signed up two prospectives who will be starting next week. For my special lesson, I taught how to make pumpkin pie and how to carve a jack-o-lantern. We only had one student sign up for my special class. But as it was Kentaro - who's a great student, I didn't mind having only one.

Here's Kentaro rolling out dough for the face on top of his pumpkin pie. I pre-made the pie dough, but beside that, he made the whole thing by himself:
Here we are about to put the pie in the microwave/convection oven. In Japan, things are very specifically done - for example, when you are in the kitchen you wear a stupid apron, like the ones we are wearing. You don't see any other style but these weird, cumbersome things. But as I didn't want to get flour on myself, I wore one:
After making pie, we carved jack-o-lanterns. It was fun to see the reactions of Kentaro and the staff as we lit them and put them in a darkened room. People just don't really carve pumpkins much here so it was fun for everyone to see how they looked all lit up:
At 5:00 the first party guests arrived. Here's Kotaro, one of our brilliant students, who walked in and casually took off his jacket and put on a lab coat, transforming himself into a pretty convincing doctor:
Meanwhile, Kentaro donned his costume. Clowns generally scare me, but somehow Kentaro's sunglasses-wearing, pig-snout-sporting version, made me laugh hysterically:
Here's Satomi, Michiko, and Michel (a.k.a. Lucifer sensei) as the party was beginning:
Yukiyo and Sayaka decided to be Shibuya high school girls and did a pretty good job looking exactly like them - right down to the makeup. They look exactly like many students I see on the street every day. Here they are with two new students who's names I don't know - Michel and I call them "the crazy guys" because, as you can see from the picture, they are quite mad. The one in the pink Chinese dress is a huge baseball fan and not only knew that Minnesota's team was called the Twins, but also that Torii Hunter played on our team:
Setsuko also wore a Chinese dress. Here she is with Stacy, who was a giraffe this weekend:
Emiko, like the crazy guys, did some cross-dressing for the evening. I loaned her a cigar I had so she could be a gangster. Mayu dressed as another kind of Shibuya girl - Her makeup may look extreme, but it is EXACTLY what you see some of the girls doing in Shibuya:
Kei, who is another of our brilliant students put on a halo for the evening and is sitting here with her classmate's (Aki's) daugher, who made a cuter cat than the crazy guys:
We had a contest for best student costume: Aki, who is a gorgeous, wonderful student (mother of the cat in the last picture), played her part as a disco king to the hilt and was flanked most of the evening by the two crazy guys (who came in second place):
Here we all are at the end of the night:

All in all, it was a lot of fun. We have a great crew of students and this batch in particular were all really social and got to know each other better tonight. Now I'm at home sipping wine and feeling better that this post is almost complete and I can post it without losing it again.

Another Great Day in Nikko

2006-10-15T05:15:00.000-05:00

I spent the day in Nikko again - this time for the wedding party of Michel and Yoshiko. It was a perfect day for it too. Stacy and Motoki picked me up at 9:30 and we beat the traffic and arrived by 10:30. So we parked near the restaurant and decided to walk the short hiking trail to the view of the falls. I suggest you try Michel's blog for the name of the falls cuz I can't for the life of me remember the name. The translation is something like misty mountain falls I think. Here are a couple of shots:

Here's a picture in the restaurant of the happy couple amid the wine and water glasses. I quite like this one:
The meal was the best I've eaten since I have been in Japan. Everything was perfect. The wine:
The starter (trout, I think):
The (squash) soup:
The salad:
The BEST durned steak I've ever eaten in my life (I'm serious):
Dessert was amazing as well:
All these things were lovingly cooked by about a zillion chefs occupying a very small kitchen. Here are a few of them:
After dinner, I went back to the falls with Yoshiko, Anne, and Michel to snap some photos. Here I am with the happy couple (my body looks weird in this picture and I think it's because my camera case is underneath my jacket and it makes it stick out funny - at least that's the reason I'm sticking with):
When we got back, we found Stacy and Motoki sitting and reading (and magically they appeared in sepia):
We decided, despite the filling meal, to go to a mountain farm that sells homemade soft serve ice cream (and stands with roasted salamanders as well, by the way). Along the way, we stopped at a couple of places to take in the view:

We got our ice cream - which was also amazing - like everything else today - and stood around talking and enjoying the day. Here's Yoshiko's grandmother enjoying her ice cream cone.

Well, Michel and Yoshiko, congratulations. I wish you both the best of luck in your future together. And thanks to Michel's mom, Anne, and Yoshiko's family for the great meal and gifts!

Nikko - Lake Chuzenji

2006-10-11T20:14:00.000-05:00

Monday couldn't have been better. I got up early and biked over to Michel's apartment to meet him, Yoshiko, and his mom (visiting from Canada) and go to Nikko to see the fall colors. Perhaps it was a bit early, but the weather was perfect and helped cure my "fall-in-Minnesota" homesickness. This place was gorgeous.

Here I am at lake Chuzenji - this lake is high up in the mountains - you have to take a switchback road to get up there, but it's worth the mild car-sickness you might get. The water is so clear and beautiful and if you can overlook the gaudy swan paddle boats in one section of the lake, you can really enjoy the beauty.
Here I am right after we got out of the car after driving up the mountain.
Here's a picture of Michel and Yoshiko. After hiking about and having lunch, we stopped at a foot onsen and relaxed in the BOILING HOT natural spring water (that smelled like rotton eggs, of course, because of the sulpher).
Here's another view of Chuzenji from the boat house.
Earlier in the day, we went to Kegon falls.
Here's the mountain again with the cable car coming down.
This shot shows you how clear the lake was. I would have loved to have gotten a row boat and just sat in the middle of the lake reading a book and drinking coffee.
Across from Michel and Yoshiko, Anne (Michel's mom) and I sat in the relative safety of the cooler area of the foot bath - nevertheless, as you can see, my feet still got quite red.
It was a great first day in Japan for Anne (later, we took her to meet Yoshiko's family and we all went out to dinner) and a much needed escape from concrete and metal for me.

BBQ at Mieko's

2006-10-02T20:13:00.000-05:00

Sunday morning I woke up earlier than I wanted to - as usual, it was because I had to pee. but once I'm up, I'm up, so I lazed around doing nothing until 10. At 10, I realized that I had to be at Michel's at 10:45 so I could bike with him and Yoshiko over to Isao and Tomoko's place. At 10:43 (according to Vodafone cellphone time) I arrived at Michel's apartment. As I turned the corner they were smiling because they could hear the squeal of my breaks while I was still blocks away (note: the back break on most bikes here is basically a metal on metal set up, so the sound is, to say the least, annoying). We biked over to Isao and Tomoko's and hopped in their car to head over to Mieko and Hirofumi's house. The first thing Michel and I noticed was the fact that their house had a yard - something pretty rare over here where space is a major commodity. More than just having a yard, they had a lawn. I felt at home instantly:
The tables were filled with all sorts of meats, vegetables, and drinks - everything we needed for the perfect Japanese style BBQ:
I loved these little mushrooms wrapped in bacon. The only problem is that the bacon here is quite a bit different from the bacon we get in the States - this stuff was probably more along the lines of what we call Canadian bacon (sorry, Michel). Nevertheless, they were tasty.
Here's all the wonderful food grilling away - the chicken, the peppers, the mushrooms, the squid, the cartilage kebobs - wait! CARTILAGE? Yes, you heard right. They call it soft bone here and they love it - even my sister-in-law talked about how much she enjoyed it. I tried one and it was exactly how you'd imagine it would be - slightly rubbery, softly crunchy and lacking in any degree of flavor.
The squid, however, was wonderful. I think they just covered it in soy before grilling - it was wonderful:
Here is the happy couple who are going to be even happier in around two weeks - congrats, you guys:

I love this picture because of the difference between all three. They are all looking at Rin, the daughter of one of Mieko's friends. Yoshiko is delighted, Michel wants to capture the moment as I did, and Mieko is completely gleeful. Mieko and her husband are avid snowboarders and Mieko was a snowboarding instructor for a time. Maybe I will go out with them some time this winter after I master skiing with Michel and Yoshiko:
And here's what Yoshiko, Michel, and Mieko were looking at - young Rin trying to take a picture:
And here she is with her mum:
by mid afternoon it began to sprinkle, so we folded up the tables and chairs and brought the party indoors. Tomoko had brought a great dessert with fruit and cubes of a really delicous milk pudding (and you know how I LOVE pudding). Here's the gang at the table going left to right: Hirofumi, Michel, Yoshiko, Mieko, Tomoko, and Isao:
Here's the gang again with me - Hirofumi took this one:
There was a vitamin bottle-style bottle that actually held gum in it. Built into the side of the bottle is a place where there is a pack of post-it notes. The purpose for this is so that you have a small square of paper to deposit your gum in when finished with it. Tomoko and I used the paper to make a couple of paper cranes:

On Monday, Michel and I got together, made Indian food (potatoes braised in yogurt sauce, gujarati dal, and rice) and watched Equalibrium and Alien Resurrection, but I didn't take any pictures. Michel did tho'.

I didn't believe him (a.k.a. the dumbing down of Matt)

2006-09-28T20:21:00.000-05:00

One of the first five things Michel told me when I arrived in Japan (he went on to tell me much more than these first five things - all good advice - but they don't come into this topic) was that I would start to slowly lose my vocabulary. He told me that when you spend your day simplifying your classroom English for your students, all those brilliant words not getting used drift back to the far recesses of your mind and are left forgotten like a ketchup packet at the bottom of a kitchen drawer. I didn't believe him at first. I love using words and finding the perfect word to use. I told myself that this would not happen to me. I even laughed on Monday when Alex couldn't remember the word "Zoo" ("It's that place with the animals..."). But I am forced to come to the frightening conclusion that this is happening to me as well, but I think on a grander scale. It's not just single words that are vanishing like socks in the laundry, it's whole phrases and ideas. And it comes at a point where I really want to do more writing. I sit down, open my notebook and uncap my pen and begin. Yet nothing substantial comes out. I have three good story ideas that are all in different stages and none of them is developing into anything substantial. I need to get out of this state of atrophy. Any ideas on how to do this?

Daytrip to Tokyo

2006-09-26T20:31:00.000-05:00

On Monday morning, Michel and I hopped on a train to Ueno for a day in Tokyo. We first stopped at Ameyoko - the market street at Ueno station - so I could get some lentils, cardamom, black mustard seed, basmati rice (cheaper than Japanese rice, and of course much better when cooking Indian dals), and some tea.

Here's the market - it's generally much more crowded than this. I like the crowds, but it's much easier to shop on a day like this:

We met Alex in Shibuya and after stopping at the Mac store so I could get some stuff, we hopped on a train and went to this awesome burger shop over in Kichijoji - now my new favorite area of Tokyo. The name of the restaurant was Village Vanguard, and here's the burger I ate (the one thing they don't get right here in Japan, in my opinion, is the bacon - I love it crispy and dark. Here's it's more like just some fatty slices of smoked ham):

We left to head to the park and on our way saw this sign. Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have seen this kind of racism in Japan. It seems to be perfectly acceptable in Japan to portray black people in this way (as the continued popularity of "Little Black Sambo" (complete with similar illustrations) in book stores here shows):

We got to the park. And...

...saw a duck,

...got some desserts in an Asian cafe,

...and chatted and brought Alex up to date on all the happenings at Utsunomiya school (Alex, on the left, is the emergency teacher who I replaced).

Next, we walked around the park for a bit. We all tried the macro setting on our cameras. This was the result I got:

Here's a small shrine in the park. At least I think it was a shrine....Michel?

Here's a blues singer we met in the park and listened to for a while. He was pretty awesome and had some cool, Elvis-esque moves:

All in all, it was a great day. Loads of fun, but exhausting.

See you when?

2006-09-17T20:33:00.000-05:00

I generally stop by the 7/11 on my way home from work each night to pick up a packet of tofu (when I am being good) or ice cream (when I am being bad). There is an elementary education major who works behind the counter every night named Hideto. Hideto likes to practice his English with me when I come in, so I always say "hi" and he always says, "May I help you?" Then I generally ask how his studies are coming and he tells me about the big test he just took and is waiting to hear about. Then he tries to get me to buy some oden which sits floating in a subdivided metal heating pan filled with broth.

A couple weeks ago he was really hard-selling the oden because of a sale they were having. He gestured to the oden and said "Seven day sale. Sale start yesterday. You can eat oden?" "Yes," I replied, "I can eat oden. It's delicious." Then I looked at the sign and the date indicated that it started not yesterday, but tomorrow. "So the sale starts tomorrow?" I asked. Hideto smiled and said nothing, so I took this to mean that he either didn't understand that bit, or that yes, the sale did indeed start tomorrow. I was a little confused. I paid for my tofu (okay, it WAS ice cream this time) and said good night. Hideto smiled and waved and said. "Bye, Matt. See you yesterday!"

And that statement put to rest my confusion.

***

Anyway, I thought since I hadn't posted in a while on happenings in Japan, I would. I also have a couple of pictures I took at the Miya Matsuri - our town's summer festival - that I am pretty proud of. These were taken the day before I left for India:

Two other items to report:

First, my brother Eric and his family left Japan last week and I am already missing them tons. It was always have family to visit at the end of a long week. They also were a great help to me whenever I had a question. Thanks Eric, Maki, Ethan, Ranelle, and Dominic - I'll miss you guys.

The second piece of news is that I have renewed my contract for an additional three months. I decided to dodge another Minnesota winter and come home in April (or May, if I do some traveling). I'm glad I renewed - I am seeing so much improvement with many of my students and it's fun to see them progress over the months. I am going to miss everyone, but those months will go fast I'm sure. I can't believe how quickly things have gone already. I've also been thinking of moving from Victorian lit to American lit for my PhD studies. I really like the American playwright Horton Foote and am considering doing my dissertation on him.