Tags: accurate, japan, teaching english in japan

After some very necessary video chatting I put on real pants and went to the grocery store. The good thing about going after seven in the evening or so is that all of the prepared foods are marked down big time, thanks to that handy Japanese law putting a time-line on the shelf-life of perishable goods.

Funny, I haven’t mentioned my diet lately. Mostly because I’ve abandoned it.

Tonight I ate an eight piece sushi box. Four of the pieces were salmon, one regular kind and the other super fatty and full of yummy white stripes. One shrimp, one egg, one squid, and one tuna. For a normal person that might have been a filling dinner.

But not I, said the cat. I’ve been craving fried pumpkin, so I walked to the fried food aisle. Good news: everything was marked down to 3 for 1. Bad news : there was no pumpkin in sight. But his closest ally, the sweet potato, was there, basking in full tempura glory. Also snatched up two different kinds of squid, cause, well, why else was I born?

The meat on stick department is right next to the fried foods, so I HAD to look. And when I saw what I saw, I HAD to buy. Chicken thighs, oh my oh my. Yakitori saves lives, that’s all. All this food (plus two onigiri for tomorrow) only came to nine bucks!

I didn’t allow myself to walk through the sweet aisle. Wah, because all I want is a chewy cookie. Decided if I absolutely could not get on without engaging in absolute compulsive behavior, I could always go out later and buy a Snickers. I’m already back in my pajamas, so perhaps I’ve resisted temptation, but it wouldn’t be that shocking if I managed to go sleep-shopping, only to later wake up to piles of candy wrappers strewn about the apartment.

In other news there is no other news. I made a countdown of my time left in this position and have been daydreaming a lot and reading a bit. I have a friend coming to visit in March and I’m planning bits of our trip. Just found out that that is not a good time to climb Mt. Fuji, so those plans feel soured. We’ll see.

Please send me photos of what you’re eating. Food is all I’m really able to care about at this point! AAAH.

Tags: food, heart attacks will happen, japan

Tags: art, lazy, now playing

Tags: japan, straight from the playground, students

“Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drank, I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, “It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver.”

– Jack Handy, Saturday Night Live

Tags: beer, japan, quotes

But you’ve gotta get the hell out of here. That’s the theme of today in Japan; Setsubun, or Bean-Throwing Festival, is a ritual based on ridding your house of evil, and inviting in luck, in preparation for spring. Cause somebody’s got to tell those demons to gets to steppin.

The above image was swiped from bunnychan.it. We had dried soybeans in our school lunch today to celebrate, but I don’t know much about the tradition and have yet to witness it fully. A lot of teachers were talking about going to buy maki-zushi, which are the really big, uncut sushi rolls. If you eat it a certain way and keep quiet it’s meant to bring good fortune. Also at each house it’s tradition to throw beans out the door and speak a chant that commands the devil away, and invites good fortune in. Some houses have a person wear a devil mask and throw the beans at him. It seems that this is more widely practiced in rural areas (perhaps like most traditions that center around something other than consumption) and I got to see my kids painting the devil masks, which are both scary and playful.

I didn’t throw any beans out of my door, but I did clean my bathroom. So my apartment should have fewer demons than it did when I woke up this morning. I’ve spent the day considering behaviours and thought patterns I’d like to expel from my life, and wound up at the same point I always come back to. Namely, that my life issues, as minor as they may be, stem from laziness, an inability to be driven by the prospect of success (or failure, for that matter) and a strong aversion to action that I just can’t shake. Eek. From here I’m not sure what to do, maybe I ought to toss beans at and chase myself.

Tags: japan, spring isn't really here, stomp the devil out, traditions

Tags: japan, television

If you’ve been reading the news, looking outside of your window, applying for jobs, or making regular conversation with just about anyone, you’ve probably noticed that times are bleak. And it seems that even relocation to Canada isn’t quite enough. Maybe in your abundance of free time you’ve been running Google searches like this or this.

If you’ve read Dark Ages America and are half as disillusioned and confused as I am you’re probably all ready to relocate to Mars. Maybe you’ve recently made an eBay bid for land. For you, future neighbor, I have great news. There will be beer in space. And later you can send a love letter (Will there be regular post offices in outer-space? How much will stamps run us? Perhaps an email will suffice?) to thank Sapporo, the greatest Japanese brewery ever. Sure, sure, Kirin was our preferred brewery for ages, but they’re not the ones making Space Beer, from barley grown in the backyards of aliens, now are they?

Here’s the full scoop, courtesy of the beloved Huffington Post. Cheers.

Tags: beer, food, japan, only in japan, relief

Over at fastcompany.com I just stumbled on an article about how innovative Japanese designers are having fun with bar codes.

Yay to slowly ridding dull things from this world. Here’s a sneak:

Tags: art, consumption sumption what's your function, only in japan

nataliedee.com

The past three weeks have felt like three very disconnected months. This was definitely the longest I’ve ever gone without access to mail and news. In some ways it was nice that the world didn’t exist, in other ways it was confusing. If anything I learned that most things just don’t even come close to kind of mattering. Thrilling shit, per usual! Just finished checking my email, and nope, I didn’t get any love letters.

Have some stuff to tidy up and respond to, so you’ll hear from me later.

Tags: i missed you boo, japan