An American Still in Tokyo-The Second Year

Tee-hee...I had lunch with J today :-D :-D



"Foolish heart, hear me calling

Stop before you start falling

Foolish heart, heed my warning

You've been wrong before

Don't be wrong anymore..."

-Steve Perry "Foolish Heart"

My kimono picture reposted...



I just want to give a huge THANK YOU to the person who helped me fix the problem!!


...I shall call him..."J" (bends fingers in from of quotation marks)

I saw J today when I went to lunch...I half hoped to see him there but was surprised to actually see him there. Anyway, I had promised him that I would have my sister send a VHS copy of "8 Mile". Well, last night, I talked to both her and my mother and they tell me that they`re not selling the VHS version of "8 Mile" anywhere! What the hell!? I didn`t think they`d be putting VHS out of phase so quickly!! Now I agree with Gen when she says that it`s ridiculous that they`re outphasing VHS. So, I am making an appeal to all of you....if you find a VHS copy of "8 Mile" anywhere...please let me know!


I don`t want to lose my ticket to Korea...


Last night, I was feeling really sh***y (actually, I`ve been kind of feeling that way these past few days), but then I talked to my sister on the phone...and she really made me feel better....that things are going to be ok and that I`m not alone. Don also gave me encouragement....and today I received a really nice emails from my mom and from Bill. I just want to thank you guys....all of you....for being there for me during this time of uncertainty!

If you are having trouble seeing the pictures I have posted, my apologies. This blog-thingy is being finicky when it comes to pictures. One minute you can see them, the next minute they won`t load....

Last night I had a strange dream. I was in an airport and apparently, they were randomly checking out the passports of all the Koreans, or maybe of all the people traveling to make sure that they were indeed from that country. Or maybe they were trying to prevent the Koreans from traveling or something. Anyway, there was this woman with a baby trying to get past the passport checks and then suddenly, my mom is that lady and the baby is a chick and I am going with them as well. We walk past by the passport checkers and miraculously, they didn`t ask to see our passports. But then I think we were stopped by either a security person or something/someone else, which was no big deal, but what happened was that my mom placed the chick on the floor and while being questioned (or something), she accidentally stepped on the chick, breaking its leg. I picked up the chick and carried it in my hand. It couldn`t stand up on it`s broken leg so I tried to get it to stand on its other leg. We finally got to the check-in counter and as I was waiting in line, I remember thinking, "Wow...I`m actually going to Korea!" I`m not even sure if my mom was going to go to Korea at this point. But then I saw my sister pass by. She was waving bye to me and was on her way to catching a flight to Italy. I was surprised and a little dissapointed because I thought she was going to Korea with me. When I got to the ticket counter, they asked for my passport and after processing my papers, they said, "Well, we got some good news and bad news." and they gave me some sort of document stamped in red. They said, "We don`t know if you`ll be able to go on this flight..." and around that time, I woke up. I`m pretty sure I know what Korea represents in this dream and I think I know what Mariana going to Italy represents...but I don`t know what the rest means, especially the injured chick and my mother. So... will I be able to go to Korea??

This is the tree I was talking about....



This picture was taken in Spring 2000, outside my dorm building at UD.

Costco...

Believe it or not...I went to Costco! Yes, here in Japan! It`s near Ayumu`s house and he had promised us to take us there, but we never got around to it until yesterday. I was flabbergasted....it was as if I had been taken back to the US! Everything was sold in bulk and I could easily say that at least 80% of the products were American...everything from Tide to Jiff peanut butter. I had never been to a Costco before, even back home, but I was reminded of Sam`s Club back home...I can almost say that the very layout of the building was like Sam`s Club. And just like Sam`s Club, they were giving out samples, including sample of this lychee liquor...In the US they would have never dreamed of doing that, especially with a lot of kids around! Which goes to show how uptight the US is about alcohol...I mean, you have to use common sense, you wouldn`t give a sample of alcohol to a little kid, and if an adult doesn`t want to taste the alcohol, he/she doesn`t have to. Anyways, it reminded me of how my mom likes to go to Sam`s Club for a lot of the groceries. I think Ayumu read my mind because he saw my look of amazement and said jokingly, "Are you looking for your mom?". Indeed...it made me kind of miss her...

But what really got me was that the books they sold were all in English! I swear it`s as if they plucked a Costco from the US and plopped it right in the middle of Japan. The experience was kind of unsettling to tell you the truth....because it`s such a startling example of the Americanization of Japan. Now the very grocery products are American! I remember writing how going to Outback Steakhouse was a welcome "break" from Japan...this time, going to Costco was defenitely a "break" from Japan, but it wasn`t welcome...I wanted to go back to the "real" Japan! Like my friend once said upon seeing Coca Cola trucks in Geneva...."You can`t escape America..."

Indeed, there are dogwoods in Japan!...

And they seem to be blooming everywhere....I guess I had been a bit impatient because the dogwoods back home bloom much earlier. Actually, it seems that the trees and flowers here in Japan bloom a bit later than in the US. There are a lot of nice flowering trees that are in bloom in the post-sakura season. For example, I don`t know the name, but these trees with fluffy pink flowers have come into bloom all over the place. It was this very kind of tree that grew outside my dorm building sophomore year....the kind of tree that I took pictures of. Also, the azaleas have bloomed! They`re not as bright pink as the ones that grow at home. They`re more of a subdued magenta color, which is the kind I like the best! I`m getting mushy again...but outside my parents`s bedroom window, there`s an azalea bush that blooms every spring and seeing the azaleas here remind me of it....too bad I couldn`t see that azalea bush bloom this year. But anyway, the variety of flowering trees right now has totally changed my view on the homogeneity of Japan`s trees!