Hisaya-Odori

Today I was late and I was hurrying. Hisaya-Odori in Nagoya doesn' t have much vehicle traffic on a Sunday, this particular Sunday especially. In any case, the only vehicle on this particular stretch of road was a large garbage truck parked running and unattended by the curb. As I came nearer one garbage man coming out of the office building with a bag of trash. He climbed onto the truck and paused briefly to throw it into one of the dividers on the other side of the truck. He then called out to the homeless guy sitting against the wall. I don't understand much Japanese, but it was something to the effect of "Hey...you hungry?" The scraggly man nodded and stood up while the garbageman rummaged through the bags nearest to him in the divided truck and handed the homeless man a garbage bag that had a bunch of sandwiches.
All that took less than half a minute as I walked by.

I should have some sort of wise remark or interpretation of this event, but unfortunately I don't. As with most of the occurances that happen near me in Japan I just tilt my head in that direction and think, "Hunh...the garbage man feeds the homeless garbage....hunh." And then I file it away.

The Doll's Festival

In March we went to a Doll's Festival in Asuke, Toyota. I finally loaded pictures. Above is the creepy advertisement I saw. Imagine walking down a narrow road with small wooden houses on both sides whose windows are filled with traditional dolls. Hundreds of Japanese people crowded around you, and this advertisement in the window. I am not sure why it is that so many of the advertisements in Japan feature foreign women. When it is a foreign product, I can understand. I wish I know how this would speak to Japanese women. "Use our product and you'll turn blonde and not look anything like all the ugly Japanese -looking women around you." It seems like self-loathing.




This is the best one I took. My tendency when taking pictures is always to be a step too far back (perhaps in life as well). However, I think I got this right. It's nice the way it is.

PET me

This person has won my love. They hacked a gateway into a Commodore shell. I loved my PET.

Khaki forever!

This was photoshopped on Fark.com. But I had to laugh out loud. It's the new plan to donate monochromatic clothing to the children of America! You can learn math, but only if you wear khaki pants! It will be a world of khaki readers! They will read khaki books! We will all lead khaki lives! Dress casual for all!

Stylish penguins

Thank goodness the Mormons are saving the world.

Adding photo

I beg to put before you...

Mercutio

Hey Will, how many members of a demographic or occupational group does it take to change a lightbulb?

William Shakespeare

Err... how many?

Mercutio

N + 1. 1 to change the bulb and N to act in a stereotypical manner.

William Shakespeare

...

William Shakespeare

Sometimes your metahumor is just too bizarre, Mercutio.

Mercutio

I never meta humor I didn't like...

Wikipedia...under metahumor. Yes, I spend my time looking up jokes in Encyclopedias.

Here it is folks. Your moment of zen

Katamari Damacy. If you don't know it, I pity you.

In Flew Enza

Generally I feel like an uneducated person.
I want to continue learning, even while not in school presently. So, perhaps a blog?

This week my topic of inquiry has been one that always burns at the back of my mind and resurfaces occaisionally, the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919. I found a book about it and I have been delving through during work this week. (No classes)

What I find is that the more I read the more I realize I don't know. I don't think I ever got around to studying World War 1 in school. I have to research Wilson, World War 1, Socialists, Eugene Debs, burial customs. There is so much I don't understand.

wikipedia gives me this;
"More people died from the Spanish flu in six months than during the five years of conflict of World War I. The Spanish Flu may have killed 25 million people only in the first 25 weeks beginning in September 1918, while AIDS killed as many in its first 25 years."