For our next trick...

It took us four years, but we finally mastered the trick where Ransom pulls caution tape out of my mouth. He's a magic man.

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One Semester of Spanish Spanish Love Song

Lacking content of my own, I give you this.

Link via Moments of Adequacy, via Erik

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Sweater vest!

For my next knitting project, I'm thinking of knitting a sweater vest for Ransom. Looking for patterns on the web today, I found this. It would be fun just to make him wear it. ("But I worked so hard....")

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Solid ground

My cat is slipping. Usually, he berates me mercilessly when I've been gone for any amount of time, but today, he satisfied himself with a few bursts of meowing and a couple of thudding flops in front of my feet. Then he went to chatter at the squirrels.

At any rate, we're home now. Japan was neat -- I really liked it. I had a great time, but, as always, it's nice to come home to familiar surroundings. It's nice to not have to worry about the logistics involved with travelling -- at home, all my routines are in place, so I don't have to think very much about getting from A to B, or worry whether we'll all find something we like for dinner. Don't get me wrong, it's great to bust out of routines, I'm just relishing being home.

For my next trip, it's looking like Ethiopia is a possibility. My sister is planning to adopt three children (to add to her existing brood of three). You can read about the adoption progress on her blog, We're Diving In.

But that's a ways off. For now, I'm going to relish the feel of my pillow, which in no way resembles a bag of concrete. I'm going to eat cereal and pizza and wear different shoes. I'm going to ride my bicycle and see my friends and watch movies. All the while, I hope I make a few changes to my usual routine. I hope to be a bit more deliberate, less hasty in the small decisions I make every day. I'd like to change the way I interact with time so that I am not always racing against it. I'd prefer to wander through it, to lose the impatience that characterizes so many of my actions.

Of course, for any of that to happen, with the exception of hanging out with my lovely soft pillow, I shall first have to get over some jet lag. As I type this, it's 4:30am in Tokyo. Tomorrow morning.

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Vacation rules

I'm well into the swing of vacationing, but am startled to find that our first week here is almost up! We leave Tokyo tomorrow for Osaka, the entertainment capital of Japan. It's hard to imagine packing more amusements, lights, and various things to do inside a city than Tokyo already has; I'm curious to find out what it's like. We will also be taking a day trip to Kyoto while we are staying in Osaka.

Unfortunately, I don't have the software available to get photos off my camera, so no pictures for you just yet. You are missing out on images of tiny cans of peas, massive crowds in Shibuya (which probably didn't come out well), and a 1/5 scale model of the Statue of Liberty.

Last night, while Luke was at the arcade -- his version of a nightcap -- Jesse and I wandered into a tapas bar for a nightcap of our own. I used my mad Spanish skills to figure out which items on the menu denoted red wines and pointed to one at random. It was extremely delicious; too bad I don't know what it was! Jesse sampled their beer menu: Guiness, Alhambra, and something else. While we were there, two older men sat down next to us and struck up a conversation. One had been to Cuba for three days and told us repeatedly, "I love Castro. I love Communist." He also tried, in very broken English, to start a conversation about Palestine and the Jews, but that didn't go very far.

My favorite part of the evening was when he told us that his companion isn't Japanese. "He is Hawaiian," he said, and pointed to his friend's belly, which was rather rounder than the average Japanese gut. The man threw his head back in laughter as he patted himself vigorously on the belly while his friend repeated, "From Hawaii." The story probably loses a lot in the telling, but it was very funny.

The bar we were at was in the little back streets of Nakano, the area where we rented an apartment for the week. It was so picturesque, sitting almost in the open air at a table that looked out onto a brick walkway with lanterns. It felt a little bit like we were on the set of an elaborate play.

Luke just got back from getting his hair cut, so we're heading out to wander around the Imperial Palace grounds now. I'm also hoping that we'll have time and I can convince the boys to go to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. Wish me luck!

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Tokyo!

We made it!

I haven't been as overwhelmed by Tokyo as I expected... perhaps it's because I came here with the expectation of being overwhelmed, much in the way crappy movies are more fun if you go in with low expectations. Or maybe I'm just jet lagged and will be shocked to my very core when we venture out tomorrow.

Either way, our first day in Tokyo has been fun. We went to a grocery store for ramen last night, since none of us was feeling too adventurous after the 11 hour flight. I was impressed with the tiny cans of peas and corn. So tiny! Today, we went to the Akihabara district, which is a huge cluster of electronics stores. It made me wish I was building a computer from scratch so I could dive into all the stores and find the appropriate parts. As it was, I just sort of wandered around looking at people and things and getting in the way of approximately sixteen million people in the process. Fortunately, we were able to find an adapter that works for Luke's laptop, so we've got internet access at the apartment.

We made it to a noodle shop today, too. The woman who worked there was very friendly and came over to demonstrate how to buy the tickets from the machine before sitting down at the counter, and then presented us with an English translation card so we could pick our selections. I went for mildly spicy ramen with green onions, garlic slivers, and Welsh onions. It was tasty as heck.

OK! With three nerds and one laptop, we'll be here all day if I keep blathering on. Peace out.

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