Nasty Conjugation

Hello friends. Holly is in Tokyo with her parents again, so here comes another update! There are thirty-six new pictures on the Flickr account for your perusal. They consist of our adventures in Tokyo on Monday and Tuesday. There are some fun things to look at in there! Since the last entry was about sadness, I figured I would try something a little more interesting this time around. Here are some thoughts I wrote about the pervasive sense of honor I’ve noticed in Japanese culture. Please enjoy, and let me know if you have any questions!

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Apologies for the lack of entries, but the bee hive has just been a-buzzing with activity on account of Holly’s parents arriving in Japan. Holly is currently in Tokyo with them, at their posh hotel, and I am living the bachelor life for a night (which, of course, means that I am just wasting a night sitting on the Internet). Life has settled into a normal routine here. I am behind on responding to e-mails because that, truly, is one field where I consistently excel. Since I am alone for the night I am naturally thinking lonesome thoughts, so here is a short meditation on homesickness I wrote on the train last week.

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Japan is full of so many things that sometimes just walking down the street makes me want to puke out of my eyes. However! Some of these things are adequately if not extraordinarily pleasing. The Flickr account has been updated with pictures of some of the things we bought. There are also two pictures of the living room, which has been further decorated.

Please enjoy.

Someone of my particularly base tendencies should not be expected not to make a post about toilets. What follows is a brief meditation on going to the bathroom in Japan. Also, for your consideration: my toilet.

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It really is amazing how the contents of my head can be affected by such a variety of outside forces. Weather, temperature, smell, texture, color, sound, flavor – combinations of sensory information are making a chemical mess of my brain cage.

Remember those Junior Science Lab kits from childhood? They came with an assortment of test tubes, beakers, some copper wire, a double-A battery, various chemicals, powders, and instructions on how to turn it all into science. I used mine to measure rainfall; I tried some of the other experiments, but I was a pretty abysmal scientist when it came down to it. However, had I been a decent chemist, I could’ve had those test tubes bubbling with all kinds of sinister alchemical concoctions. I could’ve added vinegar and red dye to baking soda and had myself a volcano (actually, I think I did do that). If only I’d known how to make an electrical current run through the copper wire from a beaker of salt water. I had more litmus paper than maybe was decent, but I never knew what color meant acid. All I could do was leave my graduated cylinder out on the back porch and measure the rain.

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