Just Say No!

Hi guys! I went to Harajuku on Halloween. You all know Harajuku, right? Japan doesn’t really do the dressing-up-on-Halloween thing (but their Halloween decorations are so cute! See my Halloween post). But I thought if anywhere would give me a taste of how Halloween’s done back in the US, it’d be Harajuku.

Once I got there, though, everyone was dressed normal! I went into some amazing costume stores where I was tempted by some sparkly Vegas outfits, but no one was actually wearing a costume. However, I tore myself away from the costume stores and bought some other “normal” clothes. I was so thrilled with them that I had to make a video revolving around my purchases! You can interrogate my level of taste later. But reserve your harshest comments for never ok! 😉

I’m such a liar! “I might come back for it…” And yeah, buy it with money I don’t have! Don’t say America never taught me anything! Hehe. But in all fairness, my Japanese language teacher did tell us that when expressing negative sentiments or declining in Japanese, you do it in the most roundabout way possible. There’s this young guy from France in my class and he just cracks me up. He just doesn’t get it (but I’m right there with him most of the time!). He asked the teacher in his gloriously thick French accent, “But if I’m at the store, how do I say, ‘I don’t like both of these! Take them away I don’t want them! I’m going to the other store!'”

The teacher looked taken aback and said, “…Ahhh, hmm. Well in that case you would say, ‘Sumimasen…dochira mo…chotto…'” Which translates as, “I’m sooo sorry…both of them are just….too….just…” while you make your voice trail away in a farewell sigh of regret. So yes, trying on expensive stuff in the store is a big deal. You can’t just say NO when they help zip you up into the jacket that’s too tiny for you anyway, and you can’t just say NO after they’ve watched you admire yourself in the jacket you will not be able to afford until you win the lottery. In general I’ve always had to work on being better at saying NO! But in Japan it’s hard to say NO because of the roundabout language thing, AND when I take into consideration the fact that the biggest ad campaign in the subway system revolves around not safety, but politeness. Sorry for the glare on these pictures but I will type out their message.

"Please be aware that applying make-up on the train may be bothersome to others."

"Please be careful not to lean against the person sitting next to you should you fall asleep."

"Please be considerate of passengers around you when using your mobile phone."

And note how they convey their message not with some overbearing authority figure, but benign cute little animals. Every time I hop on or off the subway I am greeted by the kitty, the parakeets, or the guinea pig. They all want you to have good manners! But even that message was expressed in the most roundabout/polite way possible — cute animals to blunt the bossiness! Something I took away from all this emphasis on manners was (among other things, but Imma focus on the positive here) that asserting oneself need not be a strident declaration; it can be a delicate persuasion. If only I knew Japanese better.

But in any case, I’m glad I told MYSELF “No” on spending $2000 on a leather jacket that would be too small on me one and a half pounds later. Nothing but real talk with me (this can be read two ways I think; one of them is like me talking to myself GET IT!?). I did however spend $15 on delicious special udon; food is something that’s always worth the money in my opinion. Here are the OGFSss!

the nabeyaki udon was served boiling hot in this stone pot! i couldn't even get a proper picture at first the lens steamed up! SO worth burning my tongue for.

now this is when it cooled off and i messed it around. SO. GOOD.

I love you YES I do for reading this! x Oh, and P.S. When I got back from Harajuku, I went to the gym. And on my way back from the gym, I saw all these men dressed up as cavemen and they were running a marathon led by a man dressed up as a referee. Or maybe he was a referee? And he was training them? And then these salary-men guffawed at them while they exchanged Laffy Taffys. Halloween in Japan. Somehow that seems about right.

The Nameless

“…And your mind becomes almost visible            and you know there is nothing                                that is not mysterious. And that no moment            is less important than this moment.                      And that imprisonment is not possible.”                                                                                      — from “After Ritsos” by Malena Morlin (really beautifully sums up the feeling I have when I meditate!)

Hi Everyone! I loved this past Saturday. I know I am supposed to be grateful for every day, whether I loved it or not. I know that the Zen saying goes, “Every day is a good day.” Thanks to a certain Aikido sensei/Zen Master who is my dad, I never had to look far to reground myself in this bit of wisdom.

But it doesn’t always click. The koan “Every day is a good day” sounds simple enough, but more often than not, in the search for the nameless truth, it is actually names and labels that end up steering our point of view. So BAM! Existential doom.

The details are pervasive in the background. And how easy it is to mistake its teeming mass for substance, when we don’t know what it is to be still. I certainly don’t know how to be still. Whenever I freak out, my dad has to always give me the same advice: Sit. Meditate. I always take his advice but never meditate on my own accord. Usually I much prefer to console myself with the non-stop voices in my head and let them possess me and drive me INSANE. And then, like a nutcase, wonder why I can’t find a solution that was lasting or satisfying.

Without fail, when I took Dad’s advice and meditated I would feel worlds better. Rigid dualities gave way to endless possibility! I felt no compulsive need to stress-eat! I became physically incapable of whining! I saw God and she looked happy! But meditating for more than two days in a row was weirdly un-doable for me. I would not do it until the next time I reached my psychological wit’s end and absolutely needed to make that frantic phone call home. So as you can see, I am no great student of meditation.

Fast forward to this weekend! I got the chance to go to Engaku-Ji, a beautiful temple in Kamakura (where the daibutsu in the picture above is located!! that was a very crowded spot, unlike Engaku-Ji thank goodness!). Once every fall and every spring, the priests/monks hold a meditation session. I felt nervous and excited to go. I didn’t know what to expect. I don’t usually meditate for periods longer than 10 minutes and we would definitely be meditating for longer than that. I secretly feared that I would be incapable of the disciplined stillness and just crumble into the shapes of my deepest darkest demons.

loved this as soon as i saw it. all these temples/monk quarters tucked away in the mountains. if this doesn’t make you feel peaceful i don’t know what will!

But once I got there, my anxieties somehow transformed into consciousness. The beauty of Engaku-ji is so magnificent that consciousness feels like the only option that there ever was and ever will be. I felt like I had entered heaven. The weather was beautiful, sunny, clear and cool. The breeze seemed to push us along the path and we were greeted by the head priest’s youngest daughter who led us up to the temple where we would be meditating.

Once we were inside the priest’s house, I found a seat to listen to his talk. While we were waiting for the priest to start his talk, this kindly 90 year-old man gave me all these origami treasures he made! In that moment I felt so encouraged and happy even though my legs were already getting numb sitting on the floor. Note: one of the trying aspects of Zen meditation is the way we sit…your legs get unbearably numb in the way they are supposed to be crossed and you are not allowed to move! Just breathe deeply and quiet your mind. It was such a sweet gesture that seemed like the simplest purpose of humanity.

so cute! i will keep them forever!

cute duck pop-up thing! it made me so happy.

The priest looked like the Dalai Lama. It was so uncanny. His talk was completely in Japanese, and I tried to focus to understand as much as I could without getting too distracted by his resemblance to the Dalai Lama. His talk was about the September typhoon and how this fall the maple leaves could not change color (they’re usually red by this time) because of the salty winds. But, he emphasized, nature is not attached to any fixed sequence; the leaves continue to draw from a deeper source and live on in whatever way they can. There is an eternal life beyond form or color; the abundance of life in spite of whatever setbacks shows that all life can always access something vital. Even though the form is something different, form does not matter; name does not matter. Can we look beyond form and to that source for the same sustenance?

the leaves are all white with salt. but they are ALIVE! Every day is a good day. =)

the table at the front is where the priest gave his talk from; we sat on the green cushions

the dark area where the light is shining through on the left is where we meditated. if you look closely, you can see the pile of zabus (pillows) we use to meditate on.

After the talk, we went to another temple to do zazen, Japanese Zen meditation led by the priest’s monk son. Walking over, I felt oddly calm. All my nerves were gone because they were simply irrelevant. The origami, the talk, the sheer energy of the place worked wonders. The meditation went by so quickly. I actually wanted it to go on longer. My mind stopped churning nothing into something and just became as nothing as a vacant portal into an essence of space. In hindsight, I guess I will name that feeling as “amazing.” My legs got numb, but not all the way up to my butt in the danger-I-want-to-squirm-uncontrollably zone. I didn’t have to sneeze and no beads of sweat trickled down into any odd crevices. I was inspired to meditate all the time from now on. It was then time for lunch served and prepared by the monks.

The lunch revolved around simple dishes: rice, miso soup, tsukemono (pickled vegetables). And rice was the main star, as usual. In another stroke of luck, the rice, that is usually prepared with chestnuts which I am allergic to, was for this day prepared with gingko nuts, which I am completely fine with and happen to love! Every day is a good day; there’s so much to be grateful for! The whole meal was conducted in complete silence. Zenzen hanasenaiyo! (We couldn’t talk at all). Which was good because I have a very bad habit of waving my chopsticks around when I talk. It’s very bad manners in Japan and just kind of dangerous in general (you can poke your friend’s eye out etc). We would continue to be served bowl after bowl of rice/soup unless we communicated otherwise with hand gestures. We were instructed to save one piece of tsukemono for when they poured tea into one of our bowls at the end. We would use that piece to help scrub each dish/bowl clean with the tea and drink/eat up all the remaining scraps. That way not a grain of rice was wasted. And all the bowls looked sparkly and clean afterwards.

yum yum yum! stay tuned for the picture of the old-fashioned glorious apparatus they smoke this rice in!!!

After lunch, the priest’s son, the monk who led us in zazen, let us see the monks’ quarters and the temple that houses Buddha’s ashes. These areas were off-limits to the public and I count myself so very blessed to have gotten to experience all this.

the large door is always bolted, but the monks (and their special guests) go in and out of this little secret door

this is what the priest’s son was wearing. super cool. looks really big but on the person it looks very impressive and sturdy and beautiful.

monks’ sandals

ahhhhh! this is the amazing apparatus they use to smoke cook the rice!!!!! that’s why it tasted like so much more than rice. like holy grains of nirvana.

i love how from above one of the monk quarters, you can look down and see the monks farming. they grow all their own food!

As we walked back down the path, the priest’s son came up to me and said, “The way you sit is very beautiful. Kirei deshoo. Your meditation is just beautiful. Very beautiful.” WHOA. This is coming from a monk, the head priest’s son no less! And it’s not like he goes around singling out individuals. Or say things he doesn’t mean…he’s a monk after all and says what he means and means what he says. He radiated that sinewy power and peacefulness (you’d think that’s contradictory, right?) that only Zen people can. I was so honored — Dad! You would have been so proud! I was simply doing what I knew how to do: sit up straight, breathe, and strive for consciousness. I guess if I could name how I felt when he told me that, I would call it “sublime.”

So maybe the best way I can end this post (and it was a long one, thank you for reading!) is not with words but with pictures! Mata ne!

…ok, i know i said i would be quiet, but just had to point out…there were tons of beautiful spider webs all over…can you see the one in this picture? =)

Me and my Mansion

Hey guys! So I wanted to do a post just on where I am living because it is awesome and I want to remember it forever. And what better way to preserve memories than video! I made one and hope you don’t get seasick because my webcam skills are heta (unskillful in Japanese).

Wow what a spaz. I also took pictures so you can get a better idea of it.

relatively neat. good thing i didn't show the closet (i.e. a pack-rat's best friend)

do you see the blue futon? i roll it out every night and sleep on the floor! like a boss! it's actually really comfortable. i just don't like having to put it away every morning. but such is the life in a MANSION!! lololol

So that’s it! Hope you enjoyed this week’s episode of CRIBS. Be sure to come back next week for an exclusive look at the homes of Pee Wee Herman and Nicki Minaj! Hahahahaha, ok I’m getting really silly. I imagine their homes would have overlapping similarities though. Maybe. Mmmm, deep thoughts. Here’s the OGFSsss. I am posting this as I eat as to mitigate the intense food lust.

went out with friends to get tapas and the place had the best paella ever. even better than the ones i had in barcelona #bragging #shutup

i had a clearer shot of this blurry picture but i feel like the blurriness better conveys the swooning nature of the enjoyment. we were at this little little hole in the wall that was PACKED with the pau hana crowd (after work crowd). the kitchen was tiny but the food was EXQUISITE!!! don't know how the one chef was doing it. like a mini factory of culinary genius.

Love from ME thanks for reading =)

Beautiful Hobos

For those of you who know me, you know I’m kind of a hobo. Most of the time my “style” consists of what a little kid might wear to the circus, and my inner slob-child dies a little every time the occasion calls for formal dress. I really don’t dress up unless absolutely necessary. But when I do feel like putting on makeup and decent clothes that match, I look quite different, sometimes even dramatically. I’ve always relished being such a chameleon because it leads to constant mini social experiments: how much does appearance matter, and to whom does it matter, and why?

But before I get carried away philosophizing, I need to tell you about this past week’s funniest unintentional social experiment of all time. The weather took a chilly turn and my cold-weather blankets needed heavy-duty cleaning. You know the type, all you winter friends: large, quilted, feathery, poofy. I knew the cleaners were just around the block. Feeling adventurous, I tried to take a shortcut that ended up being a long cut (you go, Miss-Directionally-Challenged!). So there I was: in my normal hobo glory, but with the hobo-ness enhanced tenfold with me carrying these HUGE blankets in my arms like they were my daily tents. I NEVER LOOKED LIKE MORE OF A HOBO IN MY LIFE. I didn’t even realize the extent of my hobo-ness until I started getting funny looks. They were either looks of extreme pity or looks of extreme non-looks, i.e. people determinedly trying not to look at me. As I rounded the corner to the cleaners, a policeman directing traffic gave me a hurried smile that said, “Hold on! I will do something to help you as soon as I tell all these big Mercedes where to go! Just hold on!” It was odd and nice.

When I dropped off my bulky blankets, I felt a sense of relief. Not only because they were getting heavy, but because I felt weighed down by the fact that mere appearance has the ability to burden: what kind of appearance would it take to initiate a deeper connection among human beings?

Now I want you to watch this video:

At the level of appearance, we can always keep our distance, play around with whether we like something or don’t, agree or disagree, and be on our way. There is no enchantress to turn us into a beast if we don’t attempt to look deeper! There are just weirdos like me who sometimes look hot and sometimes not. But in all seriousness, there are so many ways we are connected to an essence far more enchanting and beautiful, dare I say, our underlying true nature.

"Keisei Rose Garden Since 1999"

Consider what I saw today: a beautiful rose garden (where I was sooo reminded of Beauty and the Beast, the connections are everywhere because EVERYTHING IS INTERCONNECTED! #geekingout). It was acres and acres of all different types of roses. As I saw people wandering slowly through the gardens, admiring the flowers and literally smelling the roses, I was overwhelmingly reminded of Zen. Flowers have no utilitarian purpose. They just are. And we are drawn to them. They are ethereal, fleeting, just like our lives! …if we can slow down and recognize that every once in a while. It was a cloudy day, but that didn’t matter, it was still such a breathtaking experience of color and smell and amusing names.

acres!

this one was called "in broad daylight" =) there were some other funny names too like "the ingenious mr. fairchild" but he wasn't in bloom

the poetry of suggestion

Then after the huge acres, there was also like a farmer’s market where they sold flowers and roses for your very own garden…hope this all hasn’t taken too long to load, I hope you stay tuned for my very nerdy quote and of course OGFSss.

"A flower blossoms for its own joy. We gain a moment of joy by looking at it...

"Of course man may sell the flower, and so make it useful to him, but this has nothing to do with the flower. It is not part of its essence. It is accidental. It is a misuse. All this is I fear very obscure. But the subject is a long one. Truly yours, Oscar Wilde"

isn't it amazing how such delicate beauty comes from this? that's beautiful in itself!

Ok, this post is getting kinda long, thank you for reading! And remember to stop and smell the roses =) before you turn into a hideous beast! Love from me, the hobo enchantress

OGFSssss (also, big thank you to the friends who took me to the Rose Garden and out to eat this sushi! <3)

this avocado roll puts all other avocado rolls to shame. exquisitely sliced and sweet avocado at the top, crispy savory fish and cucumber in the middle. soy sauce (shoyu!) glaze and i need to eat this again right now. why oh why do i write these so late at night when breakfast is so far away

Anything Can Happen on Halloween

Hi guys! I think the next couple posts are going to be all over the place. There’s a lot of pictures and video I want to post but I can’t muster the wit or intellectual-osity to link them in any interesting way, so here you go. And plus I’d rather do this than do homework. Homework never stops sucking, does it? In this post: Halloween and Totoro

1. Halloween: This whole month has been full of amazing Halloween decorations and it inspires such a festive autumn feeling. Usually when Halloween rolls around back home I turn into the chocolate-hating version of Scrooge #allergies. But here, there’s like this autumn classiness with their Halloween anticipation.

look at these halloween lollipops!!! they are so pretty! how much you wanna bet they taste better than a tootsie pop (guessing for the price, they better taste better! hehe)

And then there’s good old Engrish with the cute decorations:

can you read the little words at the bottom? "something nice is about to happen. something nice is about to happen..." the creepiness is implied through the cute I LOVE IT

have you ever seen a halloween cafe?!!

2. The Ghibli Museum in Mitaka: If you haven’t seen Hayao Miyazaki’s movie My Neighbor Totoro, do your inner child a favor and go watch it RIGHT NOW. I can’t say I’ve seen all his movies, but Ghibli does some magical animation. And the Ghibli Museum (Miyazaki = Studio Ghibli) is one of the most magical places on earth.

the view from inside the bus window!!!

There’s even a Ghibli bus that runs from Mitaka Station to the museum (and also makes stops at other points in town so it’s accessible and useful to the whole community…really nice touch!). On the bus, there were people of all ages, from four year olds to 80-somethings, all sticking around til the last stop: THE GHIBLI MUSEUM! The little kids could barely contain their enthusiasm; as we pulled up to the museum, they literally squealed with delight and happiness. Disney wishes he could manufacture that kind of joy. It’s not a theme park they were excited about, it was a MUSEUM. A museum made up mostly of animation exhibits, expressive architecture, and pure whimsy. A lot of the Ghibli movies just speak so much to your soul (lil cheesy, I know!) that every character and detail and color palette has a significance, so to see them re-created, or to see the process, is kind of deeply personal. Like you’re seeing how much work went into that one moment of artistic resonance. In that first pure moment when art hits you, you never really ask why it does and how. It just does. The museum invites you to revel in that first moment and tries to answer a little of the “why” and “how” with their exhibits like “A Re-creation of Inside the animator’s studio,” complete with cigarette ashtrays and wall-to-wall watercolors and sketches…but somehow you just end up with an even more exhilarating sense of curiosity. I kind of maybe might have cried at one point standing in an archway staring at the ceiling.

loved this bus, it helps get you in the magical mood!

the entrance to the museum. even the location of the museum is strategic...kind of secluded and foresty. a lot of his movies evoke the beauty of nature. those are totoro(s) at the top, it's worth it to click and see close-up if you're already a fan!

outside the museum, you can see their outdoor/rooftop exhibit from afar!

and now here i am on the roof! next to this big guy! robot or something. haven't seen this movie. someone enlighten me?? =)

also on the roof, there was a re-creation of the forest tunnel that you need to run through to find totoro in the forest. so magical and beautiful!!! and the museum's unofficial slogan is "Let's Lose Our Way Together." the romantic in me loves it. and not just because my sense of direction sucks.

oops no pictures inside please! gomenasai! it's the entry door so i guess that's ok??? totoro, please forgive me!

Ok, now I really have to do my homework, no more procrastinating! But I hope you liked the pics and hope you go watch My Neighbor Totoro ;)! Big fluffy totoro hugs from meeeee x

21st Century Schizoid Man and Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, I hardly knew ya

This is kind of embarrassing. I didn’t know who Steve Jobs was. When I was in Ginza (Tokyo’s hugangulous shopping district..of many I should add) the other day, I happened to walk past the huge Apple store. I heard through the grapevine that Steve Jobs died, it’s a sad day for Apple, we will miss this American genius…But when I saw this shrine outside the Apple store, I was confused.

the masses paying their respects

There were a ton of fresh apples, flower bouquets, posters, and other tokens of remembrance outside the apple store. There were even police guards outside the store making sure nobody got too overzealous with their Apple love. But the picture of Steve Jobs threw me for a loop. Who was this intense-looking bearded dude? I realized that for all this time, my mental image of Steve Jobs was actually (wait for it): Bill Gates. I conflated the two powerful white men of the techno-verse! But before you stop reading out of disgust for such “blasphemy,” I want to ask: What does power look like? Apparently, I read power as whiteness and maleness, white maleness if you willllll. And institutionally and historically speaking, you really can’t fault me for thinking so. However, nowadays with masses Occupying Wall Street(s) of the world, power is starting to look a little different.

You got the power to let power go? 21st Century Schizoid Man! Thank you, Kanye.

this guy wrote a note to steve jobs on these two apple fruits and was trying to get a picture with it and the apple logo in the background

So, yes. What does power look like? In our most shameful moments and in our most gracious, it looks like us. Power is simply Being, living in recognition that this life works through interconnections we will never even be aware of. Power is admitting that even if we’ll never explicitly know every single miraculous and disastrous consequence our individual choices bring, we can still acknowledge that our redemption lies outside the border of our selves and with each other. I think that the Occupy Wall Street movement is an overall acknowledgment of this; we need not be debilitated by our lack of “knowledge” (like my ignorance of the exact contours of Steve Jobs’ face). Our knowledge is always incomplete, so in many ways, we need each other if we want to reclaim what it means to be human. (P.S. for all those taking the streets, be safe! especially YOU, you know who you are)

Ok, enough with the philosophizing! To quote Steve Jobs’ motto: “Stay hungry, stay foolish.”  And as you guys know, I’m always hungry. So with no further ado, here be the OGFSs!!!

this is called tsukemen. there used to be a tsukemen restaurant in honolulu but it closed down and i miss it every day. but behold! found some in japan!

The tsukemen soup is served on the side because it is so dense and flavorful. You dip the noodles in like zaru soba.

ok this is kind of gross and mangled looking. but there was an egg, and bits of charsiu (pork) that was grilled right before putting it in the soup. SO. GOOD. it added to the broth's smoky/spicy flavor

Thanks for reading! LOVE FROM ME, 21st century schizoid girl hehehehe

Cute is a girl’s best friend

Japan knows how to do cute. But my post title does not refer to Hello Kitty. Or Totoro. Or Snoopy*. Though those are all so very cute, in this post I’m going to talk about adorable children! If you don’t like kids, or have them and can’t manage to match my enthusiasm, thank you for coming anyway, and feel free to skip ahead to the OGFSs. (*so much love for Totoro and Snoopy/Peanuts…more on this later stay tunedddd!*)

Today, Monday, is a national holiday in Japan. Sports Day or Taiiku no Hi, comes every second Monday of October to commemorate the time in 1964 when Japan hosted the Olympics. Many schools and companies celebrate it by bonding through good old- fashioned perspiration and participate in their own organized mini Olympics to promote active lifestyles.

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to go to a pre-school/kindergarten’s celebration of Sports Day. I went out to Ibaraki Prefecture with friends who were the guests of honor at the school and did not know what to expect. I only hoped and prayed that I wouldn’t personally have to sweat. Once we got there, I almost died of a cuteness overdose. I was struck by an urge to have a billion children all at the same time by any means necessary. It was weird.

humongous empty field. it will soon be filled with the cutest kids you have ever seen.

In the school’s huge playground, we were greeted by a rows upon rows of kids in lines arranged by year and color-coded hats. All the two year olds wore orange hats, and the oldest ones, five years old wore blue I think? And the years in between wore different colors. They were all so proud to be there and begin their program.

performance after performance after performance! from 8:30 am - 3:00 pm. they all either stood up or ran around or performed. even the two year olds! such endurance and good spirits.

One of the first items on the program was English exercise. It’s about mental health too! Their English is already better than my Japanese. Look at their identical shoes and adorable hats!

Next, they all stood in rows and went from standing by themselves and doing a solo exercise:

i was jealous of their coordination at some points. yes i said it. here's the leader in blue at the front.

To gathering into threes to show what they could do as a group:

look they're barefoot too!

Then what they could do as six:

it's a good thing they're all skinny and little. and fit apparently.

Then what they could do in whole lines:

human dominoes...after this their shirts were all still impecabbly white. don't ask me how.

Then what they could do ALL TOGETHER!

they created a human border around the whole playground and made a super high pyramid in the center. spoiler alert: none of these kids in all 7 hours that they were out in the sun, doing various strenous activities, got hurt. yoku dekimashita!

I never saw anything like it. Every single kid knew exactly what they were supposed to do at every given moment. Sure, they were shuttled along by their chaperones and teachers, and that guy with the starter’s gun who really enjoyed his job (haha). But they were eerily disciplined and well-behaved while also seeming to have a lot of fun.

There go the little two year olds in their orange hats! The chaperone teachers kept on trying to get them to throw their hands up in the air once they got to the finish line. The chaperones/teachers were so crucial to the choreography. The lines to mark the kids’ places were constantly being drawn and redrawn again by the grownups. A METAPHOR PERHAPS…!?

brooms to erase the marks that thousands of little feet in identical shoes could not

i really wanted that chalk-line-drawer-guy's job. doesn't it look like so much fun to push that thing around and make such satisfyingly chunky lines?

Then the older kids did the relay races.

awwww so cute. look at the boy lifting the blue baton. such good posture!

the older kids were really good at crossing finish lines with the appropriate amount of self-congratulation. but adorable self-congratulation! hands up in the airrr

Then! (Are you tired yet? This is not even half of all their activities…I felt like such a lazy ass just watching them) Their parents got involved. It was so good to see both moms AND dads involved.

in two teams, one pushing a red ball, the other a blue one (can't really see it here), the parent and child have to push the ball all around the whole playground. some parents helped a lot, others let their kid do it all.

and this game where the kid rides on the parents' back and they all run around while the kids try to take each others' hats. so cute!

even though they all were competitive and tried to steal each others' hats, they were all friends in the end. i'm so glad i got this shot of this kid reaching out for his friend's hand. CUE THE AWWWWWing!

By now, I was ready to go home and call it a day. I felt so exhausted just watching all of this! Even the cuteness was starting to overwhelm me with their smiley vibes and cherubic cheer. BUT THEN. At the two o’clock hour. When the cherubic dances started to wilt, and you could start to see the sweat behind the smiles, they pulled out all the stops. Have you ever seen a marching band made up of five year olds?

Everyone was on point and they sounded so good. WHAT HOW DID THAT EVEN HAPPEN? Don’t even get me started on the cuteness.

crisp white uniforms again

i think i counted five different instruments? at least? the flags should count too.

perfect formation

here's a supportive sibling in the crowd. her shirt's saying might sound familiar. (hint: i stole it for my title)

Ok, this is getting very long, thank you for staying with me! In short, what really stood out to me was: 1) the order and discipline 2) the parents’ involvement 3) the cuteness (duh). Somehow all three of those things made me think about the Japanese proverb: The nail that sticks out gets pounded. The social implications of this saying are vast in range, good, bad and everything in between. You are free to apply and interpret it as you wish. But from my standpoint, after watching that whole day of activity, I interpret the saying to mean that to stand out is suicide because one’s well-being depends on her allegiance to and acknowledgment of the whole. With all the emphasis on organization in groups — remember those pics earlier on of the three kids –> six kids –> human domino –> human pyramid? — the whole completely overshadowed the individual.

Especially with the People magazine I read on the plane (don’t judge, “literature” has flexible meaning, I READ WHAT I WANT OK), I really think that individualism can actually deepen the trap of one’s alienation to society/the whole.

FYI, amurrrica: this is NOT CUTE

Note: lone child on cover; the nature of Toddler/Tiara competitions: me, me, ME, me and my SPRAY TAN, dammit! Does that make sense? You can interpret that how you want too. I’m too tired and overwhelmed by this re-hashing of cuteness to carry on. Without further adue, here are the OGFSss.

there's this japanese snack called kakimochi. it's a rice cracker that can be prepared in many different ways. here is one prepared in one of my personal favorite styles: DEEP FRIED

I couldn’t resist and had to have a fresh hot batch.

have you ever wondered what a cross between a french fry and a buttery pastry would taste like? it would taste like this. and it was killahhhh.

Ok, thanks for reading! And a special thank you to the friends who took me to the amazing event. I don’t know if I will ever again in my lifetime experience such cuteness and general amazingness. Ja ne!

Honey and Vinegar

Hello again! One of the things I’ve always wanted to do was rely on the kindness of strangers. I never really have because I usually brace myself for the worst and do whatever I can to prepare accordingly. I guess you could call me hopelessly self-reliant; in a world I cannot control, I can only rely on myself. As James Baldwin said in Another Country, “the aim of the dreamer, after all, is merely to go on dreaming and not be molested by the world…and the teeth of the world are sharp.”

But here in this Another Country, it’s hard for me to rely on my broken-Japanese-speaking self. I don’t know where I’m going! What is this on the menu! Is the ground shaking, is this an earthquake! Nope, I just tripped and didn’t want to admit it. I have to constantly work up the energy, courage and humility to ask for help. And hope the person will A: get the gist of what I’m saying and B: take pity on my soul. With each turn of kindness, I grow less anxious and feel more at home than I ever thought I would being so far away from home.

There was that time I had to pee so bad. And the only bathroom around was one that needed money to open it. Before I put in a 100 yen that was sure to be the first of many I lost because I couldn’t properly read the instructions, a man politely told me that I needed a special token to get in, not yen. I started to thank him for the explanation, and look for this magical token dispenser but he just gave me one of his own tokens! Thank you!

the toilet was very swanky. not like the hogwarts prefect bathroom but very high tech. worth the 100 yen i guess. look at this sanitary pad/tampon disposal. it automatically opens you don't have to even touch anything.

There was that time we missed the train. Our lunch order took too long to come and even though we ate as fast as we could, we still couldn’t make it in time. The next train wouldn’t be for a few hours and it would be too dark by the time we got home. The restaurant owner explained that there would be a bus that stopped right outside his restaurant in a few minutes that would take us where we needed to go. Great, but we were out in the countryside and we were worried about the lack of traffic going our way. He gladly waited out in the hot sun with us as if to assure us that if he was waiting too, we would not wait in vain and the bus would surely come. It did, and he told the bus driver to give us a discount because the driver got coffee from him from time to time on his stops. Arigatou gozaimasu!

out in the countryside: sawara!

There was that time I really wanted that refreshing-looking health drink made of fresh vegetables and fruit vinegars. I told the guy selling them that I couldn’t have milk; was there milk inside it? He shook his head in a way that could mean yes or no. I couldn’t tell, but took it on faith that it had no death poisons and ordered a small. He poured a tiny amount into a little plastic shot glass. I knew drink portions in Japan were small, but that was just ridiculous. But wait. He wanted me to sample that little bit first to see if I would have any allergic reaction before I paid. That was just so incredibly thoughtful. And the drink was delicious. Mahalo!

didn't get a pic of the drink but got a strawberry soymilk glazed donut from the same place. sooo good and not too sweet.

And then there were all those times people just gave me free stuff. But that’s for another post. The teeth of the world may be sharp, but even sharp teeth can form a smile. Like how some old people have really bad teeth but still have genuinely kind smiles #lazysegue #kindaoffensive. But seriously, I am finally starting to trust more in the world and view the whole “relying on the kindness of strangers” thing as something other than a fairy tale. The teeth of the world may be sharp, but they won’t necessarily eat me alive the moment I put my trust in others. This dreamer can happily dream on.

And now it’s time for OGFSsss. Sadly, I’ve been a little pig lately and remembered to take pics only AFTER I ate everything. But here’s some other stuff for your amusement.

behold, this month's coverboy for HOT PEPPER BEAUTY. his ad was in the subway. how is he so pretty?! he needs to make me his next "BEAUTY PROJECT"

because……..

i need to get to this level of beauty! here i am no makeup, jetlagged, hungry. i aspire to be one of these pouty cats. (NOT! borat voice)

And this is where I live! Right near Tokyo Tower! This was the view of it tonight outside my window.

verr naice! (ok enough with the borat voice, you're alienating readers)

Thank you for visiting! x

“How vain it is to sit down and write when you have not stood up to live.”

Thanks a lot, Thoreau. Here I am sitting down to write, getting to Living (with a capital “L”!), one mundane step at a time. As a lot of my fellow recent-grads know, getting settled into a new phase of life/place inevitably includes a bunch of mundane steps. Some of which I’ll detail here. I hope you enjoy it and if you don’t you can just skip ahead to the pictures of delicious food at the end. No judgement, thanks for visiting!

1. Gym Membership: Even though there’s a ton of walking all day every day in Tokyo, I still crave that endorphin high! I run kind of thick when I don’t work out (especially with all this food) so it’s just healthier for me. I convinced myself that whatever the price, it would be worth it. But the god of small favors really likes me and out of the thousands of gyms in Tokyo, I got one that’s in the midst of a special promotion! My first two months are 50% off and since a friend referred me, it was an extra 50 bucks off. Love it. The gym is a five minute walk from my apartment and has everything I need. The man who registered me gave me a tour and showed me where to key myself in. There’s a camera that sees it’s you and only you coming in, he emphasized to me. Why was I not surprised? I smiled for the camera.

2. Good fences make good neighbors: Without knowing it, the woman I ran into a couple times leaving my apartment is the Syrian ambassador. She lives on the floor right below me. Whoa, we’re neighbors?! In the little exchanges we’ve had, she seems so warm and kind. My other neighbors/friends tell me she is an amazing cook. Maybe that’s why it always smells so good around dinnertime in my apartment every day! The whole neighbor situation reminded me of that Robert Frost poem “Mending Wall.”: “He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’ / Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder / If I could put a notion in his head: / Why do they make good neighbors?” Especially with the “Spring is the mischief in me” line, I cannot help but think of Syria and The Arab Spring and how even though the world’s interconnected fates have no place for fences, we still don’t know how to trust each other without them.

3. Shopping: Some of the shopping for my place was done at different Hyakuen stores, or dollar stores. And some of my shopping was done at places like Tokyu Hands. There is no American equivalent to Tokyu Hands. It is part department store, part Target, part everything you ever wanted as a consumer who has burned with the fever of acquisitiveness (read: anyone part of a capitalistic society). It is sickening. And fun. Sick fun, a pretty apt description for capitalism,  wouldn’t you say, wa wa wee wah (Borat voice)! But I digress. There are different branches/locations of Tokyu Hands in Tokyo and Osaka. The one I went to in Ginza isn’t the largest one, but still has a niche in offering a large selection of more upscale products. There were five floors within a larger shopping complex: 5F: Wellness Beauty (makeup, fitness, sleep aids), 6F: Colorful Stationery, 7F: Ginza D.I.Y. (storage — kinda like a more awesome Container Store, tools, natural disaster aids i.e. anything from adhesive to keep your flatscreen TV safe in case of an earthquake to CPR kits and hard hats), 8F: Delicious Smile (kitchen stuff ahhhh my favorite floor), 9F: Hands Collection (travel supplies, business bags, disguises&party products, clocks).

Here is the Tokyu Hands motto! "Contemplating, more extensively and in more depth, the sense of satisfaction and happiness that things can bring...The quality of your own individual style is about to improve"

So, as you can see, Tokyu Hands takes “THINGS” and the satisfaction and happiness implicit within their magical THINGness very seriously. Shopping is mundane, but can also be glorious; like anything else in life, it all depends on your attitude. But the scary part was, that when I was in Tokyu Hands, I forgot why I would ever want to stand up to live when I could just curl up on this massage cushion:

Mmmmmm, shiny...

To link back to my whole “neighbors” spiel, what if nowadays, instead of using fences to demarcate between ourselves and others, we implement THINGS? As the motto says, it’s all about you and “your own individual style.” What if the most important relationship we have is between ourselves and our stuff? Perhaps the awesomeness of these products is in direct proportion to how much we’ve allowed them to compensate for real relationships. Our hearty reliance on THINGS for happiness and satisfaction sadly betrays the fact that we often relate to each other more through our ability to consume than our ability to give.

…But I bought such awesome stuff. Ugh. And now I’m starting to go into nerd overdrive. It’s a good thing I’ve started school (more on that later!). Here’s one last pic of Tokyu Hands and stay tuned for the OGFSsss DELICIOUS FOOD YAY!

the kitchen floor, nice segue into OGFSs. see how shiny and organized! such madness made neat.

Now for my OGFSssss, hope you don’t have an empty stomach! (or full, if you don’t like sashimi)

homemade Oden, one of my favorites!!

homemade onigiri (rice balls, some plain some with beans)

These next OGFSs were delicious too, but their enjoyment was a little compromised.

fussy omnivore's dilemma: in tsukiji they killed this fish right in front of me and i ate him. he was still moving and ahhhhhh i think he could hear me chewing. him. sorry fishy =(

delicious fried pork-ness (tonkatsu)

the man in the middle always amazes me. his arms and hands are really red. see the huge silver vats? the tonkatsu deep fries in there and as soon as they take it out, he slices it with his bare hands, no gloves or anything! itai! (ouch)

Ok, I have to wake up early tomorrow, so until next time! Ja ne! =)