April 1, 2005
They are pleased to inform us
My mother called at 2:00 this morning, interrupting sleep and our plans for a day trip today to Kurashiki, to inform me that I have been accepted to the graduate program I’ve been dreaming of for about two years now. So that is the good good news, and I’m quite blown over by it.
Yesterday was a busy day. We finished our wedding invitations and posted most of them (so watch your mailboxes. You just could be an invitee!) We went to pick up the porcelain Hello Kitty in a kimono that I’ve been lusting after for months, and ran other errands. It was a beautiful day, and I was outdoors with just a hoodie for warmth. We went to Himeji castle where sakura (cherry blossom) season is just about upon us. The cherry blossoms are only buds at the moment, but lanterns deck the castle grounds, and it’s lousy with tourists. Next week it will be madness, acres jammed with drunken Japanese people under the blossoms with portable karaoke machines and copious sake. Hanami (cherry blossom viewing parties) is one of the most remarkable experiences I have had here and it’s wonderful to be here and experience it again. I haven’t been following the daily Sakura report (absolutely a weather report with flowers on the map rather than sunshine and rainclouds) on the Japanese news (it takes a mighty constitution to stomach the Japanese news), but apparently they’re due in a matter of days. And yesterday I lay down on the grass, and watched the blue sky turn above me, and after any long winter that’s quite a formidable experience. Anyway, we went to the gym after that. I am getting better at the gym, since the first day where I couldn’t read the changeroom signs and didn’t know which one to go into and cried. And went out to the izakaya last night with friends from work. I didn’t drink as my tuberculosis is acting up, but we ate so much and had a wonderful time. Always the double mark of a good evening.
March 31, 2005
A portrait by Haruka
Haruka, age 7, is my favourite student and had her last lesson at my school yesterday. She gave me this treasure as a parting gift. I’ve got a bit of the Sailor Moons going on!
March 31, 2005
Favourite Quote of the Week
from “Life of Pi” by Yan Martel, via UTNE,
~It is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside… The main battleground for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart~
March 29, 2005
And you're not moving anywhere
It’s election time in Britain and The Guardian reports that Tony Blair and co. have selected U2’s “A Beautiful Day” as their theme song. Campaign theme songs fascinate me- remember the “Still The One” debacle last year in America? And the “Don’t Stop” Clintons. How Ronald Reagan wanted to use “Little Pink Houses” by John Cougar Mellencamp (as he was then known) but John Cougar wouldn’t let him. This is the richness of Baby Boomer history. I enjoy the fact that a pop song is now a campaign requirement, but mainly because it’s amusingly horrifying and it never really works (as the article makes clear, though 1908’s “Get on a Raft With Taft” had potential).
Pop music and politics don’t mix either way. Politically charged pop songs make me uncomfortable. You shouldn’t be able to bop your head along to a profound message. There was a song out in Britain last year that was unbelievably catchy and about domestic violence, called “Thank You” by someone called Jamelia . The chorus went “For every last bruise you gave me…” and onwards. I once witnessed a group of absconding school girls singing it together in the Nottingham City Centre, and the effect was disturbing. You shouldn’t be able to sing along to songs about domestic violence. I recognise what poor Jamelia was trying to say, but it’s a bit trivialising. Similarly, The Manic Street Preachers and the hummable “If You Tolerate This, Then Your Children Will Be Next”. There are way too many capital letters in that plea. Also, choruses of pop singers singing to end world hunger. And featuring Justin Timberlake is really no excuse around it. The intentions are noble but it’s so lame. Pop songs should be about it being your party and you crying if you want to, or your boyfriend being back.
Some people do manage it successfully- U2 actually, or John Lennon’s Imagine. But for every Imagine, we have to do with a bit of Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder singing Ebony and Ivory. Just keep that in mind.
For more about politcs and pop songs, this interview with the famous non-terrorist Yusaf Islam, aka Cat Stevens. (I like the way the article begins with the ubiquitous “(Name here) doesn’t look like a threat to national security.” Who looks like a threat to national security? Richard Reid I guess, but beyond that I don’t really know.)
March 28, 2005
My polar bear can destroy your walrus
This is about Can-Lit, Peterborough and the University of Toronto. I received a copy of The Vic Report in the post today and it made me nostalgic. Sheila Heti has a new book out. An interesting story here on the role of faith in African affairs.
It must also be noted that I had a friend over for dinner last night and she was up most the night after vomiting. She claims it’s just a coincidence but I think she’s just being polite. Though you probably don’t have to be polite to people who have poisoned you.
March 26, 2005
Good news
I am pleased to announce that I am proud bearer of a UK Entry Clearance for a Marriage Visitor, after the remarkably efficient British embassy processed my application in a week. It’s so nice to have something less to worry about.
I’ve got a hobby update at Now Doing. A great article on “domestic fiction” here, referring to my all-time favourite book Unless by Carol Shields and Alice Munro with her “deep caves paved with kitchen linoleum.” A gorgeously written article here by Maggie O’Farrell on those who do not, in fact, toddle. On tsunami stories here. Is it bad that I found the headline “Diabetics losing legs unnecessarily” amusing?
March 25, 2005
Provisions gotten; fingers crossed
We went to Osaka today to buy magazines and to Kobe to buy soup. These are the kind of errands I run, and Stuart is lucky enough to run along beside me. We got UTNE and Vanity Fair, the latter with three near-naked women on the front which will be a little embarrassing to read on the train. Unless they are animated, naked women on the train are inappropriate. We also went to The Sanrio Gallery to check out three floors of Hello Kitty Fare. My favourite section was the appliance department, stocked with your Hello Kitty rice cooker, kettle, toaster, dehumidifier etc. Serious.
We came home to find a note from the post office, who had tried to deliver something from the British Embassy at 4:00pm. We jumped on our bikes, as you do, and raced to the post office at super speed. Unfortunately the man could not give me my package. I don’t know why. He kept pointing to a sign in Hiragana as explanation, but that wasn’t very helpful. So we will hope for the best, and I’ll go to fetch it tomorrow.
In book news, I’m consumed with magazines and will soon be starting “Travels with my Aunt” by Graham Greene.
March 24, 2005
Karaoke and the state of things
We have a new habit of listening to R. Kelly “Ignition” on Wednesdays, as the refrain goes- “It’s the freakin’ weekend.” It has caught on and now my co-workers who share my days off have taken to spending Wednesdays singing “Bounce, Bounce, Bounce, Bounce, Bounce.” R Kelly brings me to the matter I want to discuss, the sad decline of my taste in music. I blame it all on karaoke. I’ve never been amazingly cool, but still my musical tastes have been somewhat reputable. But I will quote you the songs that will remind me of 2004/5- our year in Japan. 1) You’re In my Heart- Rod Stewart 2) That’s the Way it Is- Celine Dion 3) Breathless- The Corrs 4) Kc and JoJo- All My Life 5) All I Want for Christmas Is You- Mariah Carey 6) Africa by Toto 7) These Dreams by Heart 8) Take on Me- A-Ha 9) Always Be My Baby- Mariah Carey 10) Reach by S-Club 7 etc. This isn’t cool. It’s terribly the opposite. It’s all to blame on karaoke, which has become my favourite leisure activity but which is terribly debilitating. I have lost the ability to make conversation, though perhaps this is from overuse. It’s all I do all day. But still. Surprisingly good karaoke songs are 1) At the Zoo by Simon and Garfunkel, 2) Bohemian Like Me- Dandy Warhols, 3) Live Forever- Oasis. I really like to sing Bad Bad Leroy Brown but Stuart disagrees with its coolness. I forgot to mention “Turn me On” by Kevin Lyttle and “You Make Me Wanna” by Blue though I can’t blame these on karaoke. I love these songs with passions worthy of something else.
March 24, 2005
The Drumming Game
Gratuitous picture, because I can. Here we are in the Games Centre doing one of the many things we love best.
