M.I.A.

Gone to Borneo. Be back in 18 days. Might post stuff along the way.

Happy Holidays.

Mish Mash

Last Sunday was the Uenomura nursery school Christmas festival. It was filled with strange dances, the Christmas story (Japanified Bible version), kids dressed up as ninjas, kids doing their Elvis impersonations, and kimono clad youngsters. It was awesome. I had the pleasure of leading them in two English "Christmas" songs--The ABCs and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. It was the best Christmas program I've ever been to...and most untraditional.

The Chair

There is a wonderful gym in the mountains near my village. It is free, located in a beautiful building designed by a famous architect (I don't know who), and steaming hot green tea is available free of charge for your post-workout consumption. I make it to the gym about three times a week, and usually the place is completely empty. On the rare instance that someone else is in the gym while I am there, they are usually older than 60, wear aprons while pumping iron, and need to set their cane down before getting on the treadmill. No joke. Just recently, we have developed "Brains and Brawn Night." "Brains and Brawn Night" involves working out and then playing a rousing game of Scrabble afterwards with fellow English teachers.

Anyway, the real purpose of this post is to show you the amazing massage chair at the gym. It looks like a recliner made for Darth Vader. This is how it works: you put your favorite CD into the CD player in the arm rest of the chair, flip the shield down, and give a relaxing listen. The tunes will melt all of your aches and pains away as the chair massages you to the beat of the music. In a word: divine.



The guy in the chair is Noli--The ivy leaguin', paleontology studyin', off-road unicyclin', two-letter-Scrabble-word-spellin' Texan. Who ever said the only good things to come out of Texas were grapefruit and Tex-Mex?

Dress in Layers

Enid and I and some other friends renovated an old Japanese style house in the mountains of Ueno this weekend. It was surprisingly fun and rejuvenating to get out of the office and do some manual labor. After we finished, Enid wasn't quite ready to take a breather, so she took the liberty of wearing all of my hang-up clothes and danced around. Some things to note: she is wearing a Christmas stocking on her right foot, 3 hats, my Japanese yukata, and drinking...wait for it...water. Yes, she doesn't need any liquid courage to look this ridiculous.



I have to take credit for the artistic and nauseating cinematography. I feel it helps portray the mood at that moment.

Seoul Food: Glutton Fest 2006

It has been a week now since I returned from South Korea, and I think my stomach is still full. Yes, we saw "the sights," and we talked with "the locals," and got Korean "massages." However, most importantly, we ate! Seoul food is nothing like grits and cornbread. Seoul food is the meat and potatoes of Asian cuisine, minus the potatoes. Yes, Korean food is basically meat--be it beef, pork, intestines, chicken, or dog. Oh, and kimchi. And for those of you who don't know what kimchi is...it is...umm...delicious. It is pickled cabbage mixed with a secret family recipe of 14 different herbs and spices. Kimchi is to Korea, as miso soup is to Japan, as curry is to India, as vodka is to Russians*. In other words, you can't have a meal without it.

*If I happen to die of exposure to Polonium, you know who did it.

Urano-sensei and I made our rounds 'round Seoul in search of the most delectable dishes, choicest cuts of meat, and frostiest mugs of beer. His Japanese and my English came in handy when coming across the typical Korean waitress. If she didn't speak English, chances are she spoke Japanese...or vice versa. The fact that Urano-sensei is a math teacher also came in handy when counting the exorbitant amount of complimentary dishes on the table (26 at one restaurant). It was so gluttonous, it was sinful.

FYI: If you want to be a cook, I suggest never moving to Korea to start a restauant. As you can probably tell by the pictures, you basically cook your own food on a little stove in/on the table before you. It is awesome, but I don't want you to discover this after landing at the airport in Seoul and handing out your resume filled with culinary cum laudes. That would be embarrassing. On the bright side, it would be a pretty lax job.