Skip to main content

the only time to write

these days it's after i've had a shot of rum, after being out of the house from 10am to 11pm, after bouncing around a classroom feeding off the energy derived from a can of soda, instant coffee, bright-eyed young people fueled by their own youth.

today i explained japan's cultural obsession with cherry-blossoms, how a tree totally devoted to the production of beauty (the absence of even a single photosynthesizing leaf) can inspire so much poetry. how entire offices will take an afternoon to picnic and get drunk under the falling blossoms, how some people will go flower-viewing just for the food. it was a "Namiko Abe" moment. (see my earlier post dated april 23.)

i also succumb to these moments, although i do identify with the ones who show up just to get drunk and eat the rice cakes.

i am learning that my writing identity is becoming more and more estranged from my daytime identity. is this a problem?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Me the Pirate in 2010

things to acquire by hook or by crook: microwave $59 @ target food processor-ness $100-150 @ macy's george foreman grilleration $19.99 @ target (can it be!?) macbook $1000 @ black friday sale 2010 final cutty (studio) $1000 @ apple.com 007 camera-pen (or sth similar from veho) $100 @ J&R bathing suit $29 (-$20 w/coupon) @ old navy as part of an effort to develop problem-solving skills (big problem: save money) and also become more conscious of how i am moving through life, i have decided to help SF build new furniture for the living room. project 1 - coffee table 2 - bench 3 - kitchen island 4 - chairs 5 - bunk bed!?!?

On Protracted War... against roaches

Team Roaches: 1 Team me: 0 Being the stupidhead that I am, I got home at like 11pm after bombing my apartment with 3 Raid Fumigators and FORGOT TO OPEN THE WINDOWS for about 3 hours. So I have been sitting here inhaling poison. Just wanted to share. This is a video of Domokun inhaling toxic air.

Nagoya 4: the ride continues

The taxi driver told us that Toyota's recall scandal really demoralized workers in this area. Toyota is the leading job-provider in this prefecture although Nissan and I think Mazda are also headquartered here. I had heard from the neighbors that a lot of the factories use Brazilian immigrant labor which is why there are so many Braziltowns along the highway. There are also a lot of Brazilians around downtown. They have their own groceries and international call plans... I know that the government used to allow the ones who are part Japanese to stay and work, but I had also read that this was a scam to exploit workers. I read a novel about this by a Peruvian writer. He described subcontracting companies that would ship impoverished Japanese Latin-Americans (mostly Peruvian and Brazilian) into Japan with promises of quick money. When they finally realized what was going on they found themselves in company housing with a dozen people to a shower, poor hygiene, 80+ hour work-weeks, a...