Author: Jonathan

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A change in weather

Living in Los Angeles for the past 20 years, I guess I had forgotten that weather actually changes. It seems in the past two weeks that summer has ended. Of course, last week it officially ended. Even the weather indicates it has ended. I had to wear a sweater last night when I went out for dinner! Gasp! It is nice that the heat and humidity appear to have broken. The weather is very comfortable. I like it.

I really don’t have much to write about. Tomo was here this weekend so we got to hang out. I’ll be in Tokyo next weekend to see Radiohead. I am looking forward to that concert. I seem to be doing normal stuff now, like watching the occasional DVD, reading books, surfing the web, helping Tomo with Photoshop. Oh, and working of course. I think it is time that I renew my Japanese language study. I can’t believe I’ve been here 6 months. I don’t feel my language skills have improved. I’m sure they have, but still, they should be soooo much better. Time to get serious again.

I hope everyone is doing OK out there. I know I haven’t been great about keeping up with folks via email, but drop me a note. I’d love to hear from you.

Oh – I considered getting up at 4:30 am to listen to Purdue football. I’m glad I didn’t waste my time. It looks like a real clunker of a season is coming up.

Oh, Oh – It looks like I only write in short sentences now. What has happened? It is a blogging trap? Have I lost the ability to write with complex structure? Is it due to simplifying my language for Japan? I do not know. I find it intriguing. Perhaps you do to.

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How much is it worth?

Has it really been twelve days since my last blog entry? Wow. For both of you out there reading this, I apologize that it took so long. I had a few entries in mind but they have escaped me. I know one was really amusing too. What a bummer, I can’t remember what it was.

Today I am having a few colleagues over for a movie night. Hey, no big deal. It is a good excuse to make me clean up a little bit and finally wade through some of the uninteresting mail that has piled up. So I’m in a relatively clean / picked up place. Nice. I’m getting better organized. I thought it might be kind of fun to have some chips and salsa as a little movie night kind of behavior. I went to one of the gaijin grocery stores and sure enough I was able to get some Tostitos white corn tortilla chips and salsa (luckily while I was there I saw some chili beans so I’ll be able to make chili this winter which makes me very happy). I bought two bags and two salsas.

How much would you pay for this?

How much do you think that little purchase cost? Sure, it is Japan. Things are more expensive here. I understand that. The total purchase was … are you ready? It was about 2300 yen, or $20. Yikes! We will have to enjoy every last morsel.

 

Other News

In other news, we had our first typhoon of the season. The storm was weakening and then start building up again. I made sure I left work at the peak of the storm, it appears. It was pretty rainy and getting windy when I left. By the time I got home the air was still and it was gently raining. What happened? The storm looks pretty wet when you look at the RADAR image below. Compared to one of the typhoons in Mito in 2004 this was nothing. I must have been on the good side of the eye or something.

It looks worse than it was

 

I have actually succeeded in framing and hanging some pictures. As a matter of fact, you can see some of the images with the Tostitos. I ordered 9 more frames today. Just part of my prairie fire spending!

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It is hard to explain

… but I will try. Today was a long day. I didn’t work this weekend so I had a ton of email to try to read. Plus at the end of the day I had a rather culturally frustrating meeting that did not go as I had wished. I rode the train home, stopped at the grocery, hopped on the subway and headed home for a simple dinner at home and maybe more email, a video, or working on my journal. As I was exiting the station, I noticed a poster with modern art that read, to the best of my knowledge, “pecan” and “currie” in Japanese. How strange, I thought, what kind of modern art show (not contemporary art – just modern between the wars kind of stuff) would have that title? “Pecan and currie” just didn’t make any sense to me at all.

Of course, all this was in Japanese. It was written

ペカソ

and

クレ

So all my Japanese reading friends are probably thinking, “fool!” Anyway, the characters above are in katakana, and they are used to represent foreign words. Some characters also look rather the same. For example, can you quickly tell the difference between ソ and ン? To the trained eye, you can. The first character has a stroke that goes from the top and down to the left. Think of a brush. The second character has a brush stroke from the lower left to the upper right. Kind of like a check mark. That subtle difference is the difference between the sound “so” and “n”. That’s right. So I read the ソ as “n” when it was really or “so.” Which, as you can see, changes the reading from a nut, to well, Pekaso. Obviously that is Picasso (who one could argue was kind of a nut as well but I would probably disagree). Maybe the modern art thing is making more sense. But what about “currie?” The characters are “ku” and “re” – kure. Remembering the spelling of currie, it is actually カレ in Japanese, or “ka” and “re.” So “kure” obviously becomes Klee with the whole “r” and “l” conundrum. Picasso and Klee – sounds like a pretty good show. Maybe I can get pecan currie if I go to the show!

I guess I was just hungry. I hope that my little tale gives you a taste of the opportunity for major misunderstandings here!

As for this weekend, I went up to Tokyo to get away. I had a nice time – it is always good to see friends. Tomo got back from a trip to the States, so he had some nice booty for me. Try to find deodorant here in Japan. It doesn’t exist! People don’t stink (generally). It is remarkable.

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Dance your clothes off

Yes, if you ask I am doing laundry. Why is laundry always part of my journal? I think because when you do laundry you are somewhat captured, so it is a good time to write.

Thursday night / Friday morning we had a lot of rain. No typhoon or anything, just some big cracklin’ thunderstorms and lots of rain. I guess a lot more than I expected because my train line was shut down Friday morning. Luckily the work network got the news out and I went to the hotel where most the folks are staying and hitched a ride in a taxi. I wonder what will happen in a typhoon? The only time I’ve been in a typhoon it was over a weekend so I didn’t miss work or anything. I think it is inevitable that we’ll have one or two. This year in Japan it seems quiet.

It kept raining through Saturday. It was a good day to stay inside so I went for a walk. Of course. I finally made it to the framing shop that I had seen a couple of weekends ago. Good but not great. To frame to my standards is really expensive too, maybe over $100 per piece. That’s just too much to spend for something a little temporary. As of Saturday I was feeling stuck and started surfing the web to ship stuff here to do my own framing.

I woke this morning at 8:00 am without an alarm (Saturday I woke up at 5:40 without an alarm as well since someone from work called me. Grrrrrrr.). The sun was shining brightly, so I figured it was an excellent opportunity to get on the mamachari and check out the city. I rode south and east into some of the suburban areas. I rode down car dealer row, apparently and saw Mercedes, Jaguar, Porsche, Maserati, and Subaru! I also stumbled upon an antique store. I guess I spent too much time in antique stores in my youth to pass it up. So in I went. It was an eclectic mix as most stores are. Of course I was tempted to buy something because you always are. Nothing specific – I just had to buy something. I resisted.

While I was out riding I did decide I didn’t want to frame my photos so expensively. It just didn’t seem worth it. I decided that I’d try to find the frameless clips that just put the art between the class and some backing board. That way I could change out photos if I wanted (which I know I’ll never do but at least I have the option). Now all I had to do was find the frames, so I started heading to Loft. I forgot this weekend was The Nippon Domannaka Festival so I was in for a surprise. Here’s the official link and another link.

The Nippon Domannaka Festival appears to be a flashly, loud, dance contest. And I guess if you read the links, that’s what it is! I was on the edge of it with my bike, so I parked my bike and walked around a little. I was camera-less because Tomo has my his my little camera with him right now. I was also really hungry. I went to Loft and found some simple frameless frames! Maybe my mission would be accomplished. The simple frames were still expensive but I didn’t need mat board or glass. Happy, I was able to go home and dump the bike, eat, pick up my camera, and head for the domatsuri (Domannaka Festival).

Apparently there are 19 different venues to watch the performances but I saw them on a parade route down the main street of Nagoya. Apparently there were over 200 groups this year. I only saw a handful. Trust me, they were all quite different.

Here’s a typical group. From the street it was hard to get a good angle for photos. Most of the teams are made up of both young men and young women. There are some really good dancers and some other dancers too.

A typical domannaka group

And another typical group getting ready to start. Lots of hair and face paint.

You have to get the hair and makeup right

 

The dance teams are supposed to communicate with the audience as well, so there is a lot of interaction.

Interacting with the audience

But then this group formed a little group and started to change their costume.

Uh, what are they doing?

As they emerged, it was clear that traditional festival clothing was what they were going for.

My goodness, they aren't wearing much

Until the guys were dancing like this!

I don't think you could do this in a parade in the US without violating decency laws

Check out their feet. Ouch!

 

Of course, following this extremely energetic and youthful show, was this next act. I kid you not. I’m hoping for no clothing changes.

I don't think they are shedding clothes

 

Finally, there was the cult that decided to participate as well. Very strange costumes.

Is domannaka reaching cult status?

 

It was a good day. In the end, I got a sunburn and after vowing to save money on framing I bought a roller cutter for another $220 dollars, so my DIY savings is quicky diminishing. What the heck, I can always use the roller cutter!

I hope you enjoyed Domannaka!

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Meat, meat, meat

I’m watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics. Summer is really coming to an end. The International School starts tomorrow, the temperature has cooled (barely). This weekend there was another festival – perhaps the last of “festival season.” I wandered around but couldn’t get real motivated for pictures. It was a mostly a dancing festival it seems. Also lots of food that I didn’t want to eat.

So why meat, meat, meat? Because it seems that is all I’ve been eating lately. Thursday night we took a colleague out to dinner for his 30th anniversary at work. We went to a Brazilian place that basically carves meet from a grilled stick. Friday I took my Japanese colleagues out to dinner and enjoyed yakiniku (grilled meat at your table). Then Saturday we had a going away party and we went to … yakiniku again! Ugh. No meat for me for a while.

Gosh, I really don’t have much to say. I worked this week. A lot. That’s about it.