what can the clay say to the potter?
monday evening i had my first pottery lesson. sort of discouraging. because i thought i may have come a lot further in my art skills since the first grade. but i hadn't.

the teacher was this really laid back woman. she makes her own ceramic drums! (did somebody say "i lika da BOOM BOOM!"? there were also some interesting guys there from Osaka and Kobe. one guy teaches digeridoo, so he invited me for lessons. did somebody say "i lika da BERereeoawoowowowoawowanwoGGnnG!"?) i think i may continue taking these lessons in cruelty to clay, because Art and these people are worth it.

so what did this clay say to me? a few things:
1) it was tired of being worked... so it started cracking
2) the clay remembers its shape and doesn't want to be remoulded, even though it has to be for beauty's sake.
3) little pieces by themselves dry out quicker when not attached to the brick.
4) sometimes the clay is built up so that it could be cut down... to make (in this case) a good sized-cup, not one that is too big.

clay. crazy talkin' clay it was! had a mind of its own.

a month of new music that blows me away
perhaps its advancement in technology, but this new year has brought lots of really good music from a lot of good friends of mine. and it makes me happy. so happy that i'm glad to announce i'll have music soon too. there is already a bootleg moving around...and i'm about leak another one. i'm excited. good news is my stereo condenser mic that i bought for 500YEN ($5) works wonderfully! laying phat tracks from here on out. expect music soon.

a night at the lime green cafe
in fact....i'm sitting here in the next town, doing this proxy blog, at a nice little cafe called the lime green cafe. its owned by a friendly, anglophile named Kiso. the prices are high but the atmosphere is right. i've been rehearsing with my GarageBand. got some songs working. and Kiso asked me, very informally, to do a live show! so.. i could be having a concert here in japan... who's coming out for it!?

Happy Birthday Brian! I'd call, but I'm out of the country. Hope its a good one and don't worry about being one more year closer to death.

long time. i bet you thought you were off the hook from reading this blog, but alas, i have lots of stuff to write about. so let us make haste and follow my life chronologically.

happy chinese new year!
this weekend i went to the chinese new year celebrations in Kobe. I thought this was really great. The Chinese really know how to throw a fiesta. With dancing dragons being all comical and people doing various stunts. And of course you can't celebrate China without some Kung-fu. i'm really excited for my cousin steve who's gonna be my neighbor... in Shanghai, China! Steve, if this was any indication of the communist chinese festive spirit, you're going to have a good time!

awkward part about it was it was held in Kobe's Nanking-machi (Nanking town)... now, i couldn't shake the feeling of irony that a bunch of Japanese people would come to Nanking-machi and celebrate Chinese New Year's while the air is still not clear about Nanking, China.

my garageband is taking off
also on saturday i joined the millions of japanese consumers and bought a load worth of stuff. what did i buy? i bought a band... a GarageBand to be exact. This program is just what i've been looking for. It's got drums! i can't play drums! and i can't program a drum machine! so this is the next best thing! thus, recordings are on their way. there's even a bootleg of my latest song floating around. its a depressing number about martyrdom. and if you listen closely you can hear someone signing off of AIM on my iChat buddylist. but its on beat, so it's cool. so stay tuned. i kind of want to produce tons and tons of music just to prove that iChat works and low budget recording is the way of the future... but i'm not disciplined enough.

my other other journal
and like a paycheck i find myself being worth less at the end of the month.
sunday afternoon i spent some time crying for things i've needed to cry about for awhile. i also spent some time looking through my paper journals that i've kept for awhile now and saw myself a year ago, then two years ago...then i chose not to go back any further.

my $100 concert, on a band i've never heard
a friend here in Supertown invited me to go to Osaka to see this band Belle & Sebastian. i agreed. i had never actually heard this group, but i've heard people (the rodens) talk about them (on the BBS). so i decided i'd take advantage of living near Osaka. the ticket cost 6500YEN at the door. the concert though was a lot further than what we expected... and we didn't understand the trains... so we took a taxi... 4000YEN and we still had to walk in the bitter cold a kilometer or so. we caught cheap trains back to Osaka but roundtrip tickets to and from Supertown was around 2500YEN. add in some food... and you've got one heck of a bill. i made a vow, after i saw (and was solicited for marijuana by) Parliment and the P-Funk never to pay more than $30 for a concert, because its just not worth it... and i may still hold that, because i didn't pay dollars. i think i just came to the conclusion that "concerts are just expensive here, and whining about it isn't going to change it. when in rome..." and that's that. the band was amazing and incredibly eclectic and tight at their art. and it might have been my first proper arena rocker feeling concert... very good group. nice music. so was it worth it?? i'd say almost. but then again, i can't think of much worth $100 to me.

today was another day at elementaries
this header translates to: today was another day of let's see how many times we can touch the foreign guy's penis. i spent most of the afternoon in the defensive position. despite the fingers up the butt and the swats at my crotch, i really like these days where i go to elementary schools. there's one elementary schoo way out in the country and when i go there i feel like i'm a member of the family. the kids remember me completely. and they are genuinely warm warm people out there. i like that. it makes my job feel wonderful.

over the mountain pass
because elementary schools and junior highs are on a different time schedule i managed to sneak out a little earlier than usual. so i went exploring. i took a road that i'd never driven down before and drove. the road started to creep up a mountain and it turned into a mountain pass to the next city. it was beautiful. and at the top was this large terraced grove and terraced rice paddies... utterly astounding! i think i may have found where i'll get engaged. but then i'd be all sweaty and wheezing at the top... not very romantic. but none the less. there were actually some trails that i could have taken, but didn't because i had to be somewhere down the mountain. oh well... i'll explore it before July. shootin' for july

well i'm outta here. i'm gonna ride my train off into the sunset. y'all comeback now ya'hear? more posting to come! YOWZAA! it's gonna be another one of those weeks! goodnight for now.

this letter came into my inbox, via the email, yesterday from a JET in the neighborhood... probably the most disturbing thing.

Hi everyone,
a friend of mine has been having health problems and we just figured out
why. When buying 'salt' at the shops over a year ago, she asked if the
bottle was salt (she's fairly fluent in Japanese)... the person replied back
in English, 'its flavoured salt' so she bought it and has been using it,
only to discover recently that it is MSG!!!!

can you imagine!? the bottle itself just says "flavor salt", no indication of MSG. i'm now steering clear of anything in my cupboard that says "flavor" on it. yikes.

this is extra cautioning because i don't read the contents of thing in English, let alone spending an hour per ingredient translating. bah! you are what you eat eh?

Me versus Big Cold
today i was made aware that a weather phenomenon is coming tonight. translated, the phenomenon literally is called: Big Cold. this aptly named weather system refers to the coldest day of the year... it's accompanied by Big Snow. so i pulled out my kerosene heater out of the closet and plugged it in, got kerosene for it, and plugged it in. now i'm high on its fumes and carbon monoxide. its so dangerous to me to have this kerosene heater in my room... but i guess it's what they do here. i will have to turn it off at night... because, i'm afraid of dying in my bed, anesthetized by the byproducts of this heater. when i booted it up it started ZRRRPing and shooting smoke... then that powerful smell of first-run-of-the-heater came and filled my room. ah the power of electricity on dust. its doing well, the little guy. and its supposed to be cheaper than electricity... i'll put this to the test.. it cost me 1800 YEN for the stinking kerosene...that's half of what my electric bills usually are... and this still uses some electricity. bah!

adults say the darndest things
heeeehyyy kidss! can i interessst you in a-uh-uh-uh JELL-O Pudding Pop. today i went to my BOE and my supervisor says, "You were skinny when you came back from India but now you're fatter". I smiled politely, bowed, and said "Arigatoo". they just say these things.

then my other boss says "Oh, what's happened to the top of your head!?" The true answer is: ACNE. my reply, "I fell snowboarding and the goggles pressed into my face" then i point to the zorro like mask of yellowing bruises around my eyes. they got a kick out of that.

then the boss guy who i never understand (because he sounds like he's talking with a mouth full of something like milk) comes up to me and says about me (not to me), "He never understands what i say." so i tell him, "You are Advanced Level Japanese". they laughed about that. BONUS POINTS SECURED! and then he said something i didn't understand... my boss tried to translate and the best we got "Texas, ne...., Straight..." And i said, "Yup. That's Texas!"

computer, run end_post.exe
>>Could not execute because command is not recognized.
Retry Cancel Quit

this is of notable importance. last thursday i signed the pieces of paper that will keep me here another year. from January 27th my contract will be 18 more months of living in japan. pretty scary to think that sometimes. but fact of the matter is i'm not done being here. things are picking up i think (hey shoe! don't drop!). and its bittersweet i think. bittersweet to think that i'll be away from all my friends back in the ATX and my family that stretches coast to coast... i'll even be away from some of the friends i've made here, since they'll return. but i think we both know that i'm supposed to do another year. my time isn't done yet. heck, mormons do two years... i can do at least that. that's kind of been my secret motto. not so secret anymore.

so i tip my Diet Coke to the next eighteen months of contracted foreign living. i tip my glass of Japanese Green Tea or Oolong Cha to another contracted eighteen months of trying to integrate myself into a culture that feels like already set cement. and in a year from now, i have to decide if i want another go... due to my inertia towards the postponement of commitment, i will not even think about it until January of next year. so, wish me luck. and i'm already etching plans to come home... or get married in July ("SHOOTING FOR JULY!"), then you can all come out to the wedding... to wherever is and to whomever it is.

see you in a couple years...