My Neighbor..

I still haven't met my neighbor, but subtle contact has been made..

Upon returning to my apartment after this evening, I found a short hand-written note stuck in my door's mail slot...

It could either have been from my landlord, or as I more highly suspected, one of my neighbors, and I immediately began to worry that I had inadvertently done something to offend...it's easy to do when you can't read signs, and one never knows if one is breaking rules or something...

I thought maybe my music could be heard or...I don't even know....so with trepidation I got out my dictionaries and began the translation process.

After a little work I was relieved to find it to be a note of apology rather than a note of derision or chastisement.

To the best of my translation ability, the note reads as follows....

This is the person from room 308. The wind blew a cooking paper away. It was unused. If it is on your veranda, I would be happy if you'd please discard it. I am very sorry.

Sure enough, there was a stray paper towel on my balcony. I found the existence both the note and the renegade "cooking paper" quite amusing.

Here's to polite neighbors!

kissaten

kissaten
decorated for winter
the sun through its windows
casts snowflake shadows
about tables and chairs
while the breeze outside
tosses golden leaves about
like careless swirling flakes.

Ode to a Stray Cat

a patchwork cat
sits at the top of the stairs
and speaks to passersby.
i wonder what she says...

apparently
she only mews at
the gentler sex...
are you big with kittens
or the sympathy of friends?

koneko,
cold meat is your dinner tonight...
if only because
i haven't cooked it yet.

Alas, and Say Goodbye. A Song of Memory.

Alack, alack.

The police do not have my bicycle. It was indeed stolen. I didn't know it had a lock on it, and shame of shames, didn't lock it. In the US our bikes don't come with locks! The embarrassing part....since I didn't know it had a lock, I left it sitting, with the key still in the lock.

It has been reported stolen to the police, but I don't expect to see it ever again, my sweet sweet bike.

My coworker Maki holds out hope...her stolen bike was once returned, but I have not the smallest hope.



At any rate, sometimes I sit on my tiny balcony and listen to music...and sometimes I write..

Nothing complete usually, just thin phrases of jilted prose...

"musing,
insignificant snatches of words...
do you like them?"

but the other day I wrote something when a certain song came on...

(these are just ghosts that broke my heart before i met you...)

this is a song of memory.
i can't hear it now without remembering
hot summer nights on the porch,
or better, the roof,
and those almost cool breezes.

the late night stars,
driving past cornfields,
singing so loud the whole town could hear,
and laying under that sky
watching for falling stars.

toilsome jobs during hot hot days,
and friendships at night...

i can't hear this without
saying sorrowful goodbyes
to those short months,
those few days i'll never see again,
yet never forget.

it's a habit, now
to sit out and watch the sky.
and while the stars remain,
it's still not the same
without you.

A Mind Melting Experience

You may be expecting something big...

but really, it was a small experience....

I flipped on my tv, watched some silly game shows, then turned the channel to what I soon discovered to be a language show. They were teaching Korean, but....quite clearly...in Japanese. That was pretty melting in itself, I mean...just trying to distinguish between the Korean and the Japanese....

but then it got worse..

Then it changed to a Japanese show teaching Arabic. I swear, at first I thought they were teaching elvish. Frillz. And now my brain is so melted at trying to understand the backwards arabic loopies through a Japanese filter. Impossible! Also....mind melting.

Also...did you know know how fast camels can run!? So fast! Also, apparently they race them...but they don't ride them, they put tiny robots on them...

Le Sigh

Hey there!

Want to hear a fun story!?

I'm sure you do.....

Once upon a time....this morning...

I went with my new coworker and bought a bicycle. I know, sweet right?! It was on sale and a good price....they didn't have the color I wanted, they had sold out since I saw the bikes on sale 5 days ago...but the other color, ice blue, was nice too. It came with a headlight on it, and a basket and a bell and everything. Apparently Japanese bicycles also have locks built onto them...which I didn't know until now. It was a totally sweet ride.

I hauled it on the train, through elevators, down some escalators, until I finally arrived back at my station, where I had to hurry to work. This was all before work. So, I parked it in a bike lot that I always pass on my way to work. And happy and excited went to school. I had a pretty good day too...

Then it was time to go. I left with my coworker, excited that I'd get to ride my new bike home for the first time, jokingly adding "if it's still where I parked it." Har har har.

I'm sure some of you astute readers have noticed my subtle use of the past tense. This is not an accident, friends. No. The words of a good writer are never accidents. Some of you know where this is going.

Yes. Of course. Welcome to my life. I arrived back at the parking lot to find my bicycle missing. So..to...NOT find it seems more correct. As it turns out the bike lot is for the use of paying customers..which I would know...if I could read Japanese.

So, there you go. My brand new, 11-hour-old bicycle is already missing. It's either been impounded, or it was stolen.

Tomorrow, one of my coworkers is going to call the number on the unreadableJapanese sign and inquire about the whereabouts of my sweet ride. If they don't have it though, I'll just have to report it stolen to the police, (good thing I paid the extra 500 yen to have it registered) and resign myself to bike-less life.

Sighs.

Major Update Time!

Oh, hello there, you're still checking this blog? I commend you! And I thank you for your patience, and tenacity in returning here day after day, longing, burning, pining for more pictures of Japan. Yes. I know. But fret not, your wait is over. And you're in for a lot of reading and clicking, so get your snacks and beverages now, exercise your clicking finger, and settle in..

So, my backlog of pictures begins weeks ago, with photos I took on a weekend trip into Tokyo. Orchid (a friend from training) and I ventured out to Asakusa, a shiny red beacon (not to be confused with shiny red bacon) of touristy goodness. Asakusa is famous for the Senso-ji, a buddhist temple, and the area surrounding it that is swathed in souvenir shops.

We arrived in style on the Ginza subway line and followed the mob toward the temple area. We stopped into the tourist information booth and then took a couple photos while waiting to cross the street. The temple is also famous for its huge chochin hanging in the outer gate. Taking a photo here is a trial because everyone else is trying to do the same and all are vying for the best angles. One tries not to walk through the middle of other people's pictures, but it's a confounding maze, and I'm fairly sure I ruined at least 20 family photos.

After passing through the outer gate, and under the giant chochin, you are confronted with an overwhelming sea of dark heads. Here lies Nakamise-dori crowded with its shops where visitors have been shopping for centuries. Walking down the street (currently decorated in celebration of the autumn colors) you approach the main buildings.

As you walk through the entrance on the inside you see the bright red everywhere, and the temple's five story pagoda. As you can see, procuring an unadulterated photo of simply the pagoda, is impossible.

Just inside the entrance you can pay a hundred yen to get your omikuji, your fortune. Even after asking a few of my Japanese co-workers, I have still not managed to divine for how long, exactly, these fortunes apply. I received very good luck (which would be great if I believed these sorts of things), but poor Orchid, who seems to be rather superstitious, received quite bad luck. If you expand the picture as much as possible, you can read the amusing English translation. My favorite is "Stop starting a trip." Which made Orchid ponder "does that mean I should leave Japan??" But, luckily for the superstitious, should you receive a bad fortune, you can simply tie it up with the expectation that this will prevent the bad fortune from occuring.

Next, further into the temple area, the air is laden with the heavy, sweet scent of burning incense. And here you find the well-known incense cauldron. The smoke from this cauldron is reputed to be healing and you'll see devout visitors, full of hope, wafting the magical bluish smoke toward their faces, or in more desperate cases, rubbing it into whichever area of the body needs the most help. Perhaps he is hoping to cure his baldness, though I think it may be a bit too late...

Next to the cauldron is the area for cleansing oneself before entering the temple. Please be careful not to spit on your neighbor's shoe. After dripping, swishing, and drying, you can move up the stairs and into the building. You are to cast some coins (a monetary offering to pay for your wishes) into the wooden box, if there is a bell ring it, bow twice, clap twice to bring the god's attention to you while you think hard about your wish (be as specific as possible please, no need to be wishy washy), then bow once again.

You can go into the very front area of the temple, but walls of wire will keep you from wandering into the religious area where monks offer prayer amid ornate and shiny decor that monetary offerings have bought.

If you proceed out the left exit of the temple you'll find a lovely garden, which is a welcome respite from the swarming humanity of Nakamise-dori and the fervent, pushing wishers. You'll see this except, you probably won't see me in front of it.... And if you wander toward the right you'll find this stone bridge, my koi friends, and a lovely view. Also, some shrines.

After having some tasty yakisoba, Orchid and I left Asakusa and since it was early, we went to Shinjuku to take a look around. There we found the main branch of Kinokuniya, a bookstore I'm rather fond of, and some other interesting stores. We stopped into a few stores, considered going to Tokyo tower, but after finding at the shoe store that it was a bit far away, decided on Harajuku instead. Also we found these interesting shoes. I kid you not.

In Harajuku we went to Meiji-jingu, where former emperor Meiji and his wife Empress Shoken are enshrined. The Japanese built this shrine in honor of them after their deaths (1912 & 1914 respectively) turning an iris garden they frequented into a rambling forest, garden, and shrine. This shrine was infinitely more pleasant than Asakusa. It was much quieter and the forest area surrounding the shrine is incredibly beautiful. I hope to return when the leaves are changing color, and to arrive earlier in the day, since the garden area was closed by the time we arrived.

We arrived in early afternoon and decended into the woodsy shrine area. It it's quite expansive and the gravel walkways are wide and inviting, and the wooden torii are beautiful and impressive with respect to size. On the way to the actual shrine there is a snack area and gift shop, and beyond that along the side of the path are casks of wine given as gifts from france for the dedication of the shrine. Parts of the shrine are being restored, and most of the current shrine has been rebuilt since World War II. It is wooden, and it blends well with the thriving forest that encloses it. Even though there were a good number of people around, it was still peaceful. Here, there were no omikuji to be found, but if you find that paying and praying may not be enough to bring your wishes to bear, you can purchase and sign prayers to be left at the shrine and hopefully granted by the kami (gods) enshrined there.

These prayers can be found at just about any shrine, but the Meiji shrine is popular thus the prayers were very interesting to read. They represent a world of visitors and their dearest wishes. They hang in every language, and most are simple hopes, seemingly left as a legacy rather than an actual prayer. I found "love health & baby soon" particularly endearing (I quite enjoy the ambiguity in the handwriting of "stock" which looks like 'stork', as well as "refuge" and "powerball"

These kinds of wishes are good, especially in light of Japan's great oversight. He gave coins to his friend, and he watches as his friend prances easily, spryly up the mere seven steps that mark his own barrier.

It began to grow dark under the heavy canopy of the trees, so we headed out at a leisurely pace, and found that we were leaving just as it was closing.

It was still quite light outside of the trees when we left, so we headed just down the hill and across from the train station we had arrived at and took a trip down Takeshita-dori. It was growing dark, but the hordes of teenagers were in full shopping swing. This was a really fun place to go, and we greatly enjoyed seeing all the different shops, and inhaling the sugary smell of the crepe stands wafting about on the breeze.

And finally, here are some updated pictures of my room for you. My tiny little sofa, and the cardboard table top I constructed for one of my stools from the giant box the sofa was delivered in. Also, here's the bag I bought. Hah.

Please tune in next time for Tokyo Tower, a Japanese Garden, and my trip to Nikko...

Love you!