I am here

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Hey guys, how's it going? Today I actually managed to sit outside for a long period of time, instead of just popping out to check the mail or take the dog out. Here's the view from the backyard:

Just your typical late November day at home.

No clouds. At all! Not a single one:

I wish I could sleep in that color.

And I want to move where again? And it's snowing up there? What do you mean it's colder than Japan right now? Jeebus, I must be crazy.

My mother has a collection of Japanese dolls. She has...six of them. As I child I thought they were all a family (this was the mother). In middle school I used one as a model for a sketch I did. I think they're pretty neat, but as a child it never occurred to me that other people didn't have Japanese dolls in their living rooms.

Fluffy hat I don't need! [/]

But it's so fluffy!

I went into Moohoop twice before I bought this hat, okay? They were having a sale. It wasn't on sale, but I~~'ve always wanted~~ recently decided that I wanted a fluffy brownish hat. Does this qualify as a toque?

Seasonal Vegetables... [/]

Can you pickle something if it's already halfway preserved?

...should be eaten when in season. This is from one of my family friends/uncles. Apparently, his cucumber vine is still producing. Hmm.

(Pictures will be boring until I pull myself together and actually leave the house, just to warn you.)

Central Valley Sunrise [/]

Just south of the spinach outbreak areas. (I assume.)

We started the drive back to SD at 4:30am. Around sunrise, I woke up to see my dad trying to take pictures while driving. It's good to know I'm not the only one that does that. Maybe I can even blame it on genetics.

Frightful. [/]

The picture doesn't do it justice.

My grandparents teach ballroom dancing, and they have a lot of instructional videos. This is one of the most disturbing. I feel bad for the woman, because I'm sure she's trying very hard to keep smiling while being balanced on a bony old man hip, but still. ::cough::

Trees with Rights

Way better than a row of palm trees. [/]

This oak tree is old. And in San Jose, old trees have rights. If the trunk is more than so many inches in diameter, you can't cut it down without permission. I think it's great, because I like giant trees, but my grandmother complains about how messy it is. It's got character--I've seen raccoons in that tree, and there are a couple rusty horseshoes nailed to the trunk. As a kid, I was disappointed that it didn't drop acorns (only oak galls--light white balls that are...caused by wasps? Well, thanks google.) but now I'm just happy that it's still there.

The house is a two story, super old farmhouse. I love the house too.

King of the neighborhood.

Hello Turkey.

I slept through most of Thanksgiving, thanks to my cold and the jet lag. Apparently we had a 22-pound turkey, but I missed the carving party. Here's where I came in:

Turkey, you're so delicious. [/]

Nothing special happened at Thanksgiving. Just good eating. We don't seem to do drama anymore these days, thank goodness.

This is my America.

My second day back was manual labor day. The persimmons needed to be harvested. No problem, right? That's what I thought, because I was thinking of the small, pruned trees I saw in my town. Well, my grandparents have a tree that's about 30 years old, and while it's pruned, it has definitely taken advantage of the elbow room.

And my dad did most of the work. Poor guy.

This is maybe a quarter of what needed to be picked.

Kaki butts! [/]

I can't decide if my family picks them later then the Japanese, or if this is just this particular variety. I just know that I like my kaki crunchy, not slimy. I guess I should find a recipe for overripe persimmons.

Remember that guy who invited A to go out picking persimmons at his house? Well, he did it to J too. I wonder how many friendly foreigners he's collected...

Travel Tips.

Hey guys, when you leave for good, don't fly out of your home airport. It caught me by surprise, but I should've known. From that plane, I could see my apartment, my schools, my grocery store, the way to town...and then I started seeing everyone else's schools, and where they lived...It was too much. I'm used to a bus ride past anonymous scenery, and I like it that way. Seeing all those places from so far away was like saying goodbye again.

At least though, at my airport, I got to meet the father of a student. He checked my luggage, and introduced himself. And I got to buy a bunch of silly udon souvenirs that I wouldn't have looked at otherwise.

And you know what? The Narita Airport Sanuki udon shop isn't bad. I didn't get udon, but the soba was pretty good.

Eating that last meal alone sucked. But it was delicious. [/]

By the time I got on the last plane, I breathed a sigh of relief. That particular journey went taxi-bus-plane-bus-plane, and I was convinced that I would screw it up somehow. But I didn't. After some crazy turbulence, three movies, and some pretty bad airplane food (dude, ANA can do better than that), I arrived at SFO, slightly sick, a few days early for Thanksgiving.

I got some culture too! [/]

By sheer luck, a ticket to the Yoshida Brothers concert opened up, and I snagged it! Originally I didn't want to go, because it was my last day in Japan, but I couldn't resist. It was pretty great. Shamisen rock. Once I figure out what albums have the songs I like, I'll start investing. I found myself distracted by the reverberating clacks made by the (uhm) plucking pick. Is that normal? Intended? Unavoidable? The backgrounds were pretty neat too. Culture Night productions made me really aware of what ends up on that back screen.

I ended up sitting next to two girls who were speaking in Spanish. (Or maybe Portuguese.) They were Asian, so it was unexpected, but it was interesting seeing what it look like when I'm chatting with L. People kept checking to see where the gaijin were. Fooled you suckas!

L and E. Swell people. I can even roadtrip with them!

Afterwards we went to Sea Dragon, which, as E pointed out, was a nice circular way to tie up my trip. (G surprised me with a group dinner there my first Saturday in town.) I had my karikari chicken, L lapped up the oily bits, and then we splurged on creme brulee. Now that's a great last dinner.

Kids, Cones, and...uhm...Crooners.

Look out, the photos are back. Here's a small recap of my last Saturday in Japan. First we went to Meet the World. It was great, we played a game called Smother the Small Child.

That kid was really really cute. Too bad for you!
(Smother the Small Child is photo [/].)

I was assigned the kindergarten, first, AND second grade classes. WTF! All the other classes had like five foreigners each, and we had 5 between like 80 kids! Bah. It was still a lot of fun. Some people had never worked with kindergarten kids before, and it was a real treat for them. Me, I got to tie a towel to a kid's face. Three kids in fact. It was a blast.

Afterwards, I decided to go to the museums because I hadn't been in three years. The Benesse is the same, although I swear there are more plants in the weeds exhibit. We also went for a stroll in art house area. We saw a shrine with cat statues, and a lot of white cones. At the port, there were a whole bunch of cones, which looked totally normal until it got dark. Then they lit up. Brilliant. Sometimes they even ran patterns. I've never been so in love with a group of traffic cones.

And just out of sight, a new pumpkin! Weird. I thought one was enough.

The port's been spiffed up since I last visited a year ago. They even had an indoor waiting area, where the DS club played MarioKart and Japanese people watched them. No really, check out the woman behind them.

And later, I schooled them all at Tetris.
Because those are the only games I'm good at.
Aw.

Afterwards there was a musical meeting and then we went to dinner at Dear. I made it to Dear twice! That means TWO lasagnas! Hooray! And then a bunch of us celebrated Tree's birthday...by going to a different izakaya for drinks! No, we couldn't find people so we just went to a different bar to kill time...it was a pretty random group of people, but it was quality. Lots of good conversations. And I got to hang out with D four times! Every Single Weekend! That's how many times I see him in one year!

And then we went to karaoke, where we decided to get our own room, so we could actually sing songs. I mean seriously, that group was rockin it hard. Look at tamborine man. Look at the (real) welshie. I think the birthday girl was up dancing next to me. Apparently she had such a good time that she couldn't talk for a couple days. Now that's a good time.

The three tallest guys in the prefecture. J looks...normal sized. Wow.
And this is photo [/], because I took it after midnight, and was pleasantly hungover the next day.

And then we went home. I've been lucky that big events have coincided with my last weekends. I got to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in ages. People I didn't even get to say goodbye to the first time around. The best goodbye? It's a one-two punch, poorly paraphrased:

"Oh don't be silly. You know you'll be be back next month."

Followed by:

"For the record, I don't think you'll be coming back." (To be fair, that wasn't the real goodbye.)

I love my friends.

Readjustment Day 2

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

As I'm not wearing socks because I rarely wear socks in San Diego, I'd like to share what I'm doing right now:

Drinking red wine (only a little, and only because it's leftover from that bottle from last month, and because I've become a boredom drinker) and reading xkcd.com, that geeky web comic. I only don't get the really science-y ones.

I have been home for 7 hours.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

I have taken some things off of my bed, I have taken some laundry out of a suitcase. I've checked most of my blogs, I kind of ate a meal.

All of these back to back trips have left me disoriented.

It's now been 4 months since I've had a job? Really? Four?

Where can I unpack if all my past unpackings still haven't found a home yet?

Hey look, matzo.

I can still feign complete thoughts, sure. For example--today I had McDonald's for the first time...since...wow. At least last year. I know I've had Burger King less than a year ago, and I remember having a tsukimi burger in Tokyo with my sister in September of 2004, but in the past 3 years, I'm pretty sure I haven't had McDonald's more than 5 times, and even that's a generous estimate. But this morning, during the drive home, we stopped at McDonald's, where half the people were in their pajamas and everyone was comparing driving destinations. I wish I had taken a picture. And when we got back in the car, I had a sausage mcmuffin in my hand, and I despised it. I could smell the rubbery egg and felt the greasy warmth and I wrinkled my nose. But food's food, and we still had another 4 hours of driving to go. So I took a bite.

And it was delicious. Not udon delicious, or yakiniku delicious, but guilty pleasure delicious. Like eating mac n cheese for dinner. I even picked the orange bits of cheese from the wrapper. And all that guilt about eating bad fast food? I realized I was in the middle of Central Valley in California, and all the food in the area was probably on par with McDonald's. Goodbye guilt.

I probably won't start craving McDonald's, but now it's in my head that McDonald's still tastes good. Bah.

I need to start making plans and setting goals. No excuses now. The internet's back, the weather's warmer, I have a car, I don't have that pesky job thing to get in my way...all that's lacking is real motivation. Urgh.

Answers.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

I'm coming back. But only for a month. Because I'm crazy. See you soon.

The Sparkling Red (3/365)

My house is like my apartment(s). Sorry.

Sunday, October 15, 7:48pm

This is a sparkling red wine, Riunite Lambrusco. You can get it from the grocery store. (Vons, specifically.) It has a screw top. And I love it.

A few weeks ago, I went to a funeral. I didn't know the man, it was the father of a girl I used to know. My mother left the obituary on the table for me to see.

I justified going by reassuring myself that I was kind of as a representative of the old crowd that knew the family. I went to elementary school with this girl, I went to dinner with her and her boyfriend before a 10th grade homecoming dance. Most of my friends were closer to her than I was, but they're scattered. (And working.) She's a bubbly, witty gal, and although we weren't ever close, I felt the need to pay my respects.

The clincher was that another friend (who is much closer) was going. And besides, it was like 2 miles from my house. Guilt got the better of me, and I ended up going to the reception too. Sorry about the freeloading, family of the departed.

The reception was really nice though. It was subdued, but casual. It was at a local Italian place that I haven't been to in almost 20 years. They played his favorite songs, and there were pictures on the walls of him through the years. I helped set up. We accidentally put a lint roller on display, because we didn't know any better. (Hey, there was a beaver golf club cover and a farting George Bush doll in the collection.)

The food was good, too. Humble, simple stuff. Salad, spaghetti, pizza. And the family wine, Lambrusco. I was skeptical at first, but I enjoyed it. And it was sweet and sparkling. I'm a sucker for those. I will be honest, I felt uncomfortable being there, but appreciated the send-off the guy got. Intimate and relaxed. It was nice seeing the daughter again. She still sparkles like she did in high school.

A few nights ago, I snuck a bottle of Lambrusco into the shopping cart, and my dad laughed at me. "You can make a sparkling red with 7-up," he said, but he recognized the name (apparently it's been around for 25 years, who knew). I now drink a glass of wine after dinner (like my father), mostly because I enjoy the stuff. We'll see what happens when I finish the bottle.

I like it when stuff has a story.

Eggs, Unpretty. (2/365)

The colors make me sick.

Saturday, October 14, 12:14pm
The night before, I decided I would make an omelette for breakfast. Awesome. I like eggs. Well, this is what happened. 3 eggs, mushrooms, and cheese. Cooked in a small frying pan. For some reason, I just didn't feel like hauling out the bigger cast iron one, and ended up with a fluffy, mushroom topped brick. I should've put some salsa on it, just to break up the unsettling brown-yellow-offwhite combination. I know, I can't cook. But I'm trying.

Was it good? It was good enough. It needed vegetables. It was solid eating though. That was the only thing I ate until dinner. Next time I'll try harder, I promise.

And then for dinner, I had a carne asada burrito. Heaven. I wasn't hungry, but man, I wanted it. I went into a food coma about 3/4 the way through. It wasn't that big, but after living in Japan, I guess my stomach got used to smaller portions.

Poor choice of comparison item, I know. But that burrito is still a decent size.

The eggs picture is #2 in the picture a day challenge. I think the posts might get shorter, but I'll keep trying to take those pictures.

The Rocketman (1/365)

"What are you taking a picture of?"

Friday, October 13, 2006, 2:00pm
Hello free lunch.

This is my dad. He's a rocket scientist. (It's so awesome to say that, although I suspect the job's not very exciting.) He drinks a glass of wine every day at dinner (definitely a kitchen drinker, but perhaps not to say, L's excess), likes garlic, and once said he likes Irish Car Bombs, although I've yet to test that one. In high school, my friends thought my parents were divorced because they never saw my dad. I could share a lot of unsavory stories about him from that angsty time period, but what matters now is that when he comes home early on Fridays (because he wants to? I have no idea), he asks if I want to go out for lunch. I can appreciate this.

We went to a homestyle Italian place, and it was good enough. There was a homey atmosphere, but it seemed very calculated. Y'know how Buca di Beppo just lays on the charm? Pictures crammed on the walls, a walk through the kitchen, stuff on the ceiling. Good stuff. Faked, all of it, but fun and charming. This place, it's the suburban version. Sports bar on the side, track lighting setting the mood. Pasta not very al dente. My dad talked about buying a condo for me to live in once I got a job, because it'd be "cheaper." Boring stuff like that.

This is picture #1 of the 365 picture ~~experiment~~ challenge. I'm gonna try and take a picture a day. I estimate I'll get sick of the program in 2-3 months. Eventually I'll upload them all to flickr. Eventually.

Pretty things from the internet

Friday, October 13, 2006

Boingboing harvest. But hey, you probably didn't click those links anyway.

Somebody's wedding "cake" was 400 cake penguins. Penguins made of cake. Super awesome.

An artist on LSD. I couldn't resist. That's only the second of nine drawings.

Words made of wire. I'm totally going to teach myself to do this someday.

And finally, rainbow roses. Sure they could be tacky in real life, but just seeing them fills me with awe. I want to touch one.

Oh, and speaking of touching, I touched that makeup case, and it was a let down. Tacky in real life. I consoled myself by spending the equivalent to a decent pair of shoes on makeup brushes. I totally spent all that money I "saved" by not purchasing that case...more actually. But, uhm, I needed...uhm, well I needed a dress for the next wedding, and that dress was so cheap (after my makeup splurge) that I bought another dress...and then Clinique had bonus time...I swear I'm done spending like this for awhile. Please don't snowball further.

Oh wait. Plane tickets. And shoes for the dress. Hell. I'm afraid to look at my bank account.