27 November 2005, night Man, oh man, we had a big dinner last night. We went to a sukiyaki/shabu shabu restaurant to celebrate Kumiko's mom's 60th birthday. After loading up on both sukiyaki and shabu shabu, they brought out udon, and then ice cream. Then we all went back home and ate birthday cake. Kazuomi and Chiaki (my brother and sister-in-law) were there with my nephew Daichi as well. He was entertaining as usual, doing more speaking than I've heard before. I think I ate too much though, because I've had a stomach ache all day today. I'm getting excited about Christmas now. The decorations aren't as ubiquitous or spectacular as they are in Texas, but they come out earlier since there's no Thanksgiving to get in the way.
A drugstore near my house. I buy hair mousse and razors there.22 November 2005, wee hours This guy named Brian from my office and I have been playing jazz on Sunday evenings after work. Last night the bar we usually go to was being used for a concert, so we went to Brian's apartment to play. One of the staff members, Ai, also came along and played alto sax, which added a nice dimension to the sound. Later, Brian played some of the music he makes at home using a keyboard and sequencer and samples and loops and real instruments, and it was really impressive. It's great to have artistic friends. You never know what talents are bubbling under the surface of your office mates. Most would probably like you to know, if only someone would ask. Now I'm listening to a guy/group called Sigur Ros, from Iceland. Another guy (also named Matt) at my office loaned this to me. It's pretty cool, atmospheric, far out stuff, as you'd expect from Iceland. I'm enjoying it.
She's about to be eclipsed. Life on the Hankyu train.19 November 2005, afternoon Even though we've been giving our garden nothing but neglect recently, it's still giving rewards. I just picked a peck of peppers and a barrel of beets. Kumiko's out with her friends now, and I'm going to try and replicate a recipe she made a couple of weeks ago, using turnip greens from the garden, and some ground beef I picked up from Mr. Bird, our local grocery store. Actually I have no idea how she made it, and she used brussels sprouts greens, so this will be nothing like it. Our brussels sprouts are still nothing but greens, however they're getting pretty big now. I'm watching Pokemon on Japanese TV right now. It's the first season, so it brings me back to 1999, before coming to Japan, when I'd set my VCR to record the show while I was at work. I don't think I've seen this episode though. It's about punching pokemon. They're fighting in a boxing ring. Today Kumiko and I went to meet with a gallery owner, which was informative, then went to the German Christmas festival at the Sky Building. I had sausage and sauerkraut. It was awesome! Then I went to the garden and took my new Rolleiflex along to see its first light under new ownership. It's fun to use. I think I'm going to like it.
16 November 2005, morning It's finally cold. I love wearing a coat so I have pockets for all my junk, but recently it's been too warm in the afternoon, so it's hard to get dressed for work, knowing you'll be walking home at 10pm. Now there's no question. I can wear my coat and carry my light meter, change, wallet, pen, pencil, old Kentucky Fried Chicken receipts, new MosBurger receipts, notepad, phone. I feel like Doctor Who.
13 November 2005, morning We had a fun party on Friday night. It was a combined taste-test party (described in previous post) and early birthday party for me. Today is my actual birthday. I'm going to work soon. The results of the taste-testing: the sensitive palette award goes to Paul, who passed every challenge up to the very end. The only place he went astray was the final multi-nation beer challenge. We had beers from six countries: Mexico, Czech Republic, China, Ireland, Belgium and Germany. We had to take a taste and then announce what country it was from. Paul and John and I each got three of six correct. Ueda-san was the winner with four of six correct. I was pretty much fooled by every challenge except Coke vs Pepsi, where, as an avid Coca-Cola drinker, I had my pride on the line, and came through. I also passed the Ritz vs store-brand cracker challenge, but failed the Heinz vs Y's Choice ketchup test as well as the beer vs hopposhu (malt liquor) test. At one point Kumiko brought out this fantastic birthday cake, shaped like my Kowa/SIX camera, a perfect replica, that she commissioned from a specialty bakery in Yamaguchi prefecture. It was an incredible surprise, and a wonderful cake. I polished it off last night, while we watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on DVD.
10 November 2005, midnight Happy Birthday, Anna! My sister's 34 today. I'm going to celebrate her birthday as I will my own on the 13th, by going to work. My "new" camera arrived yesterday. That'll be my present. It's not as good cosmetically as I'd thought, but still really cool. This vintage of Rolleiflex has a much more stylish design than the ones most people want. I'll take it to work tomorrow. Everything seems to work, but you never know until you've run a couple of rolls through. Typically, I have to ruin one or two films to discover the finer points of operation, but this seems pretty straightforward. On Friday evening we're having Paul and Jenny and a few others over for a much-discussed "taste-test party". We came up with the idea when Paul and Jenny and John and Kumiko and I were sitting in a restaurant, discussing the quality of the ketchup that came with our fries. Now it's coming to fruition. We're going to do blind taste tests on Coke/Pepsi, Kirin/Asahi, ketchup/catsup, Evian/tap water, etc. I'm going to make a vegetarian shepherd's pie. We'll see how that goes. A good shepherd doesn't slaughter his flock.
taxis in Senri, a young woman on the JR line, Kumiko at home, Umeda lights5 November 2005, 2am Finally, after four straight Saturdays of rain, it's going to be a nice one. I've got to get in bed soon, so I wake up and enjoy it. By enjoy it, I mean spend about 4 hours in a dark room. I have lots of printing to do. We went to the Art Deco exhibit at the Suntory Museum on Friday afternoon. It wasn't as good as we'd hoped. I wanted more examples of industrial design: fans, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, etc. We did see a good space heater and a radio and a couple of cool cameras, but the exhibit wasted too much space on tracing the influences of art deco: Egyptian, African, Japanese, Chinese art...all this stuff we don't want to see at an art deco exhibit. A lot of the items they had on display seemed kind of second rate as well. I've seen cooler stuff at the City-Wide Garage Sale in Austin. It is a nice exhibit space though. The Suntory Museum is a cool building. I saw a poster advertising an upcoming exhibition of "paintings" made by a guy who dips his boxing gloves in buckets of paint, and then pounds the wall. People really buy into novelty, don't they?
This view of Umeda has changed a lot over the past 5 years.3 November 2005, night This evening I finished reading Really the Blues, the book Barry recommended. It was excellent. It's the memoirs of a clarinet/saxophone player named Milton Mezzrow. He had a hard life and an obsession with the "New Orleans jazz idiom". He lived through the 1920s and 30s as a young man, starting out in Chicago, and ending up in Harlem. He makes misery sound like happiness. The only way to live. I'm about to order a bunch of records, so I can hear what he's talking about.
This building intrigued me, but I didn't go inside.
