Category: General Musings

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.

… 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.

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.