just a quote (II)

Today was a long day. It was mostly a good day, but it was a long one.

We went up to Gotemba to the Premium Outlet mall to see if we could find a new suitcase and met with mild success. Not sure if it'll work for our needs, but it might. It wasn't the easiest of tasks because of the "family-friendly" atmosphere, but we managed to get through the day. And then we rewarded ourselves with a delicious French dinner at a hotel in the area. A good start to our last week in Japan. It's hard to believe that we'll be flying away on Sunday.

Because it's been such a busy day, I haven't had time to work on a blog post. Also, a lot of my extra time lately has gone to preparing for Nanowrimo - plotting and gathering notes and such. Even writing a memoir takes preparation, and I have a lot of ideas to get down, so organization is important. My posting schedule will probably change some for November. For now, I'll leave you with another quote, this one by C. S. Lewis, who has long been a favorite author of mine, not just for the Chronicles of Narnia (some of which are still some of my favorite stories) but also for his other works. Here is a quote about love and loss and the importance of leaving ourselves open to love - and therefore open also to the possibility of losing what we love. Enjoy.

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell."
     - C. S. Lewis, "The Four Loves"

just a quote (I)

We're going off to Tokyo today, so I haven't much time to dedicate to a long post, though I have plenty circulating in my brain. But to make sure that I stick to my goal of posting every day, I present to you one of my favorite quotes. It's from a short story by Ray Bradbury, from probably my favorite short story by him. I've liked Bradbury's novels, but for me, his short stories are often like little masterpieces. So, here you go.

"I'll make a voice that is like an empty bed beside you all night long and like an empty house when you open the door, and like trees in autumn with no leaves. A sound like the birds flying south, crying, and a sound like November wind and the sea on the hard, cold shore. I'll make a sound that's so alone that no one can miss it, that whoever hears it will weep in their souls, and hearths will seem warmer, and being inside will seem better to all who hear it in the distant towns. I'll make me a sound and an apparatus and they'll call it a Fog Horn and whoever hears it will know the sadness of eternity and the briefness of life."

≫ Ray Bradbury, "The Fog Horn"

*blink blink*

Skipping past the apologies and the remonstrations, etc. and moving on to just continuing to exist.

So, here's what I've been doing lately, in no particular order:

1. taking horseback riding lessons. This is a fun (if expensive) activity I've picked up. I enjoy it immensely, but I really need to move up from the beginners' lesson because I'm starting to get bored of the whole "walking around in a circle" thing. All that's holding me back is figuring out the tack, which I mostly have down. It is a universal truth, perhaps, that instructors always seem to be there when you make a mistake but aren't around when you actually do it correctly.

2. intensely studying Japanese. I've been racking up to 2-3 hours per day recently. Am I actually improving? Not so far as I can tell. But the kind staff at Tully's Coffee have taken notice of it and continually encourage me to keep up the good work.

3. writing. Well, mostly editing. The novel I worked on for NaNo has undergone great amounts of editing after I decided it needed dual points of view and a tense change.

4. reading Agatha Christie novels. Went through six of them last month, already gone through two this month. I'm not sure who I like better: Poirot or Marple. I must admit that I was rather disappointed with Murder on the Orient Express, though. Death on the Nile was a much better story (if not a more predictable one; I solved the mystery before the murder even took place). Most disappointing was the play "The Mousetrap." HIGHLY predictable. Not sure why it's considered the best of her plays. "Verdict" and "Witness for the Prosecution" are much better.

5. butting heads with the manager. We're having, um, "personality" differences.

6. practicing Japanese songs for karaoke. Mixed results.

7. surviving without the internet. Shocking.

8. promising to update this blog yet never really getting around to it. Must remedy this at once. (see #5 for a good reason WHY I haven't been able to blog)

Japanese Trainspotting

Timing is everything. With careful planning and precise timing, you can see amazing things, so long as you know when and where to be. Everything runs on its own clock, and if you can synchronize with it, you can witness marvelous things.

Or, if you're lucky, you can stumble upon them at just the right moment. There's something magical about arriving just as the natural order of things is unfolding.

Twice since moving to Matsudo, I've left my apartment to discover a group of people gathered at a nearby railroad crossing. I live close to the tracks - they lie just across the street, parallel to a skinny creek lined with sakura trees. I'm used to the trains, but the people are unusual.

They are almost all men, and they all have cameras. Not your everyday handheld digital cameras but serious photography cameras, replete with lens attachments and tripods and whatever else may be needed for serious train photography. These men - there are seven or eight of them at the crossing, with more of them posted haphazardly along the sakura path - are ardently preparing for the moment of the perfect shot: adjusting their tripods for maximum stability, curling around the fence railing to get the best vantage point, clustering around around the edge of the path to get the clearest view. They are quiet and serious, focused on their work.

The crossing signal comes to life, and the actions of the photographers becomes more frantic as they make last-second preparations. Rumblings announces the train's approach, and then the group goes still, poised and ready to capture the moment.

The first time I witnessed this activity, the train had a vinyl banner spread across its front, declaring in Japanese and English that this was its Last Run. The second occurence provided no such insight to the importance of the event. Two sets of cars - one yellow, one blue - had been coupled, and nobody rode them; they carried only a small squadron of jumpsuited railway workers. Its signifigance remains a mystery to me.

To me, but not to the photographers. A symphony of snapping shutters erupts as the train comes closer, and then follows a scramble as the group reassembles to catch hasty photos of the train's backside.

And then the moment has passed. The photographers smile at each other and consult their cameras and compare pictures. This lasts only briefly, and then they pack up their things and head off in different directions. Within five minutes, the crossing is abandoned, once again an unimportant fixture in the Matsudo cityscape. You would never know that anything special had just happened here.

a very fast update

I do not have internet at home yet, which is the biggest and most disturbing news I have right now. I have blogs prepared for all of the awesome and/or irritating things that have happened to me in the past week but no way to post them. The only reason I'm able to post now is because my new manager is away at head office for a meeting, because most of the time, she's sitting here in the office and monopolizing the computer. Which is part of her job, so I understand.

I will try to post again on Saturday morning, because that's about the only time I have the office to myself - I have to come in at ten-flipping-am for a full day of classes. It's so early that nobody else is here yet. I should have time to quickly post any blogs I have prepped. So, check back here on Saturday.

As for how things are going: pretty good. The Moriya school is very nice - very new and very big. My apartment is the complete opposite and is as far from impressive as is possible. The only nice thing I can say about it is that today I found a little grocery near the station, so I will no longer have to survive on combini food. I really wish I lived in Moriya and not Shin-Matsudo, eevn though Shni-Matsudo is more convienent to Tokyo and Kumagaya and possibly even Gunma itself.

But it's not been all bad. My social life remains mostly intact. I went to Kumagaya for gaming, with the added bonus of a brief visit to a sakura festival (which I must blog about, if only because sakura plays sucha large part in Japanese culture). On Monday, I went into Tokyo to meet some people and do more sakura viewing. This was enjoyable, because it mainly involved wondering about and drinking.

And now I must get back to work. Will post more soon, possibly with pictures!

Japanese Food Journal: random food items

I planned on making peanut butter balls this evening, but I left the vanilla at the school, and considering I already changed into comfy clothes and have no desire to go back out into that cold wind, I'm once again delaying the candy-making. Wednesday, maybe, since I have the day off.

In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of random food items:

Let's start things off with my favorite vegetable: the mushroom! (yes, arguably, they're fungi, not vegetables, but this matters little to me.) Japan has wonderful mushrooms, and I've sampled a few of them. These are maitake or Sheep's Head mushrooms. They're delicious, which is reflected in their Japanese name: maitake literally means "dancing mushroom," because people supposedly danced for joy when they found them. We had them at our nabe party.

More mushrooms! Aren't they adorable? These are brown beech mushrooms (bunashimeji), and were very yummy sauteed and eaten with tofu. I've eaten them a couple times since then, and they're probably my favorite variety of mushroom now. Like most mushrooms, they have a bit of an earthy taste, but they're quite mild and delicate.

This is tamago kake gohan, which I often eat for breakfast now. It's steamed rice with a raw egg mixed in. It's delicious, especially with some sesame seed senbei. One of my students suggested it to me, explaining that it's a very filling and nutritious breakfast.

This is yaki manju, which is a specialty in Gunma. It's basically a grilled sweet bun covered in a sugary miso sauce. Some varieties have anko paste inside, but the Gunma variety is eaten plain. It's interesting, and very filling. I could only eat two. I'm fairly certain that I would like them better with the anko paste. Hitomi-san brought in cold yaki manju a few weeks ago, but the above buns were brought to us hot and fresh by one of Benni-sensei's students. Pretty good.

A while ago, I discovered this Minute Maid drink, which is aloe & white grape. It's awesome, especially because it has little pieces of aloe in it. That was surprising at first (I nearly gagged when I swallowed one because I had no idea what it was) but also pleasant. I immediately went to the internet, where I learned that not only is aloe edible, it's lauded for its health benefits, particularly in regards to digestion and immune system boosters. Keen, huh? Turns out that you can take any random aloe plant, skin it, chop it up, and eat it. Apparently, it has a bitter taste by itself, but when added to tea or yogurt, it's sweetened enough to be appetizing.

Not long after finding the drink, I found the aloe yogurt I'd read about. Not that great by itself, but with some granola or sweet crackers (something crunchy), it's pretty good. I usually eat yogurt as breakfast or a late-night snack, but I prefer the fig yogurt more.

I wrote down the name of this fruit, but I can't find it. Hitomi-san brought them in one day and gave me some (since then, she's also fed me chestnuts, seawead-based jello, and baked mountain potato - yaki-imo, which was unarguably the best of the lot). You rip the ends off and eat them with the peel on. They're like mini-kiwis. Not too bad.

And now for some non-Kit-Kat candy. The rose-strawberry combination attracted my attention, and I decided to give it a try.

This is the candy, after being bitten into. It has some kind of wafer on top, covering a rose-flavored mousse, all wrapped in a strawberry shell. Interesting combination. The rose is subtle but distinguishable and a bit intriguing.

Kozue-sensei usually brings me Kit-Kats when we get together, and last Friday, she also brought me this candy. I'm not sure how to explain it, and even Kozue-sensei and Benni-sensei were a little confused by it.

Here they are in their little packages. The one on the left is kinako mochi, which is a traditional treat around this time of year. It's baked mochi coated in soybean powder. The one of the left is matcha (green tea powder) flavored.

And here they are unwrapped. The mochi one (L) was yummy, but the matcha one was actually kinda gross. I found this unusual, as I generally like matcha-flavor. It had a jelly-like thing inside, and that was what I didn't like. The outside was okay.

And that is all for now. Another update on the school's situation is forthcoming, as soon as I get a little more information.

more fun with seismic activity

My previous post mentioned that we had some earthquake activity recently. Turns out that the seismic forces at work weren't finished yet.

Asama-yama is an active volcano stuck along the border of Gunma-ken (where I live) and Nagano-ken, the prefecture to the west. Benni-sensei has told me about it, but you can't see it from Isesaki, considering that it's a good distance away and there are other mountains around besides. Its last eruption was in 2004, and this weekend, there were predictions that it would erupt because of recent small earthquakes within the volcano.

The eruption was recorded as starting very early Monday morning, initially with a tongue of lava shooting from the volcano, followed by smoke billowing out of the crater. Some large rocks were found a few kilometers away from the volcano, but there was no major damage done, as Asama-yama is located in very rural area. Ash was reported in Tokyo, but I didn't notice any here in Isesaki. It was pretty cloudy today, and considering I was out driving around with Benni-sensei, I probably would have noticed ash-fall. Or maybe it happened earlier in the morning - I didn't leave my apartment until about 2pm.

I probably wouldn't have found out about it until later today if my dad hadn't called me Monday evening to ask if I'd heard about it. He said he saw it on the news. I plan on asking Hitomi-san about it when I go into work today, she's usually aware of recent news events.

For a bit of information and a video of the eruption:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7864266.stm

random pictures that I haven't posted yet

I'm doing clean-up with my picture files and half-written blog entries. I've had some of these pictures for a while, and it's about time I posted them. I was going to wait until I decided to write more about them, but who knows when that will be. I do have a couple of posts I want to put up (about the awesomeness of nabe, the latest Kit-Kat haul, and future travel plans), but I need to actually get around to writing them first. Until then, enjoy the pictures.

This is a fig. Until I came to Japan, there were certain fruits I'd only heard of and never seen but knew must exist somewhere in the world. Figs were such an example. Eating a fig is not like eating a fig newton. Figs are actually very tasty. This is an organic fig that was at its perfect moment of ripeness. It was therefore delicious. One of Benni-sensei's students gave them to us (I have no recollection of who it was, maybe Motosu-san? He's a farmer.)

This is yokan, which is basically jellified sweet red bean paste. Naofumi-san brought this back from a business trip, and because Benni-sensei doesn't like sweet things, she forced me to take it home. Not that I was complaining. It was very good with some plain butter cookies I found.

Of all the anko-filled sweets I've had, this remains my favorite. It's anko wrapped in mochi covered in sesame seeds. The first anko I ever had was at a buffet sushi place in Jacksonville, which served fried sesame balls filled with anko. These are actually more Vietnamese than Japanese, but it was close enough, and I've loved anko ever since. I LOVE these sesame balls and am somewhat sorry that they aren't around much anymore. Maybe they're a seasonal thing.

These are my hashi - my chopsticks. One of my students went on a trip to Shanghai and brought these back for me. I like them, they're pretty. And they were a gift, which is always nice. They even have a little storage bag! It's nice (even if it is pink).

This is a persimmon, another of those mythical fruits that I'd never seen, only heard of. I ended up getting about a dozen of these from various students. After I got my convectional toaster oven, I made persimmon bread, which was very yummy and enjoyed by everyone who tried it.

This is a fish cookie filled with custard that Hitomi-san gave me. She said it's called taiyaki. No surprise, it was yummy.

This is my homework from the holiday break. You probably can't read it, but it's my attempt to master the days of the week. My kanji sucks. My hiragana isn't much better. However, my pronunciation and memorization of the vocabulary is flawless. Or so I'm told. (By the way, today is suiyobi, in case you were wondering. You probably weren't; that's just me showing off a little.)

This is strawberry daifuku. It's strawberry-flavored mochi and anko with a giant strawberry in the middle. There have been lots of strawberry-related sweets out lately, which may or may not be related to a holiday coming up (Valentine's Day?), but I have no confirmation on this. Benni-sensei is on vacation and can't answer my questions, and I forgot to ask Hitomi-san and Naofumi-san. They're usually the people I turn to when I have burning questions. Either way, this is probably my second-favorite daifuku treat, after the sesame balls. (hehe)

This is Eddie, my convectional toaster oven. Benni-sensei has great fun teasing me by calling him my boyfriend (she's just jealous that she doesn't have an oven), so we decided he needed a name. Eddie was chosen, though I don't remember why. I like Eddie, he works very well and also heats the room, which is a bonus. He is my favorite appliance.

These are the cookies he helped make, the first batch. Notice how buttery, greasy, and generally sub-par they are. That's not Eddie's fault. Now that I have shortening (yay, thanks, parents!), I can make proper cookies. After I'm done with this whole being sick thing.

And these are the brownies he helped make. They were very easy and very good and everybody liked them (everybody liked the cookies too, but they don't know what I can really do).

This is the Christmas wall, just before I tore it down. The kids make almost all of those snowflakes, and they had a very happy time doing it. They also colored all of the pictures and made the Santa figures too. The adults also liked coming in and every week and seeing what new things had been put on the wall. I have a world map up there now, with arrows pointing to the GEOS schools worldwide. It's a homestay work-in-progress.

This is oshiruko, red bean soup with baked mochi. This is how Hitomi-san suggested I eat my mochi, seeing as how I love azuki beans. Unsurprisingly, I love it. It's also a pretty popular dessert, it seems, considering I've had it at two restaurants (again charming my Japanese hosts because of my adoration of azuki beans). I should note that most oshiruko has smaller mochi balls that aren't usually baked. This is just my personal version.

rewind: movies I watched on the flight to Japan

I fully intended to sleep most of the flight, but I ended up sleeping only about 90 minutes. Instead, I tortured myself with bad movies. Hooray!

The Incredible Hulk
Two words: utter crap. That's a crappy way to begin a movie (seriously, overdone pantomime with the credits? it was cheesier than a goofy silent movie) and end a movie (um, what?). In fact, the whole movie sucked in ways that can't be enumerated. If this is how you're going to treat graphic novels, you shouldn't be allowed anywhere near them. I'm talking to you, Hollywood!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
I can't imagine that anyone who has any sort of respect for the Indiana Jones series would enjoy this movie. In fact, I can't imagine anyone who has any sort of respect for anything in general would enjoy this movie. It's time to quit when you've gotten so formulaic that you might as well be a Dan Brown novel. You know what doesn't belong in an Indiana Jones movie? Aliens. Forget Harrison Ford and the utter ridiculousness of his stunts. Even his scene-chewing antics can't overshadow the fact that this was an Indiana Jones movie about aliens.

Hancock
Um . . . why? What's the deal with the screenplay here? Did some pages go missing during filming and nobody noticed until after post-production when it was too late to do any more shooting? I love Will Smith (his choice of scripts lately has just not been all that great), and I liked the rehabilitating superhero angle, but the rest of it was just confusing. The plot twist? Stupefying. And predictable. But mostly stupefying.

Leatherheads
Didn't get to watch all of it, but what I saw was entertaining. Nice vaudevillian touches, very true to the era. I also appreciated the World War I scenario, that being a special interest of mine. I'm actually sorry I didn't get to see how it ended, even though I could guess because it's still a predictable Hollywood movie. But at least it wasn't confusing. And there weren't any aliens.