November 5, 2010
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Ramblings
After having been a shifty character for the last three years I am finally beginning to feel a bit better and maybe even like doing something besides nothing. I think I had just run out of mental energy. It is so nice not to have two homes and be constantly shuttling between them with most of the time spent in the home that I did not prefer. It is so nice not to have to leave everything behind, and also nice not having to live out of the 100 yen shops because I didn't want to invest in a home that was only akin to a temporary camp. We still have to make trips to MIL's place to do upkeep and visit her in the hospital, but maybe I can handle that.
On our trip to Kagoshima last weekend we had to come back to Tokyo along a parallel route to Typhoon #14. First we had to worry about being able to take off from Kagoshima, but the weather reports said that the storm had shifted eastward and would be no problem. Then we had to worry about whether we could land in Tokyo, as the worst of the typhoon would arrive around 5 pm, the same time as our plane. We had cheap tour reservations which under normal circumstances cannot be rescheduled, but since a typhoon presents abnormal circumstances JAL was very nice about putting us on an earlier flight out. As it turned out, our worry was wasted as no flights were cancelled that day anyway.
The week after next when I go to Kagoshima I have to pick up my glasses. I had been looking for them for a month, but the first two weeks don't count because I didn't notice they were missing. That tells you how much I wear them. I am actually legally allowed to drive without them, and it's a good think we don't own a car! I can also read pretty well without them and don't use them at all for computer. Yes, I can read the small font on Facebook without any trouble. Old Hat, eat your heart out. Haha! Anyway, I have this habit of taking them off when I eat. Maybe I don't like them for middle distance. I do this in restaurants and tell myself every time I do it that I am going to forget them on the table someday. Well, someday was a month ago and I had no idea where the somewhere was. I couldn't find them at home and none of the Tokyo area eateries that I had been in had found any specs left behind. Well, I must have left them at MIL's house thought I, but no, they were neither there nor at the Kagoshima Airport. I REALLY hate loosing things, so I am a very thorough searcher. Okay, the only thing to do is give up and get new glasses, which I had actually been wanting to do anyway, since the lenses I had where scratched on the left side from being stomped on at the Tama River bank and on the right by ash from the local Kagoshimian volcano. I found a nice frame on sale that hubby doesn't like because it looks geeky, but lately geeky is "in," and I kind of like the retro look. I then remembered one more place in Kagoshima where we had eaten and called there, and lo and behold, they had my glasses! "We tried to catch you and give them back, but you had already gone! You are that non-Japanese person, right?" I somehow knew that God would find them for me. He is very good about things like that. But now I have gotten the itch and will go and get the new glasses anyway. A bit extravagant, I know...
A couple of days ago my guitar tuner decided that it would pull a Halloween trick on me and give up the ghost. I tried changing the batteries, but no luck. I tried taking it apart (as if I knew what I was doing) and putting it back together again with similar luckless results. Dropping it the other day probably did not do the thing any good and I wondered if that loose round innard had anything to do with the cause of the problem. Dern, I liked that tuner. I got another el cheapo tuner yesterday in Chofu. I tried changing to a third set of batteries in the broken tuner just for fun, and lo and behold again, resurrection. Should I be happy or kick myself for spending money on a second tuner that I didn't need? OK, God knows that for some reason I need a back-up tuner. Isn't rationalization wonderful?
Rabbit and parakeet continue to keep each other company. The bird is not finger tamed because during those formative first few weeks I was in Fukuoka and the bird was in Tokyo. Rabbit is fenced in and parakeet loves hanging around bunny's cage. The bird could fly all over the house if it wanted, but it just stays in the bunny circle. It's a pretty nice arrangement.
Last weekend's "go somewhere" was to the Nezu Museum to see an exhibition of old Chinese celedon ceramics. There was a piece or two that I would not have minded bringing home with me.
Complaint time: I don't usually do this, but here it goes. I was in Keio Department Store (Did I say I love this town?) the other day and was checking out the ceramics section. After having been exposed to different ceramics and kilns in Kyushu it is fun to go into a department store and see if I can properly identify items without looking at the labels. I am only right half the time, so it is kind of fun. They were having a sale on Kutani Ware, and I started up a conversation with the fellow at the booth. He was of course very proud of his wares and very anxious for me to take some of them home with me. I spotted some cups that had an identical pattern to some things we had gotten from MIL's house, so it was "good study" for me. Even within the Kutani Ware genre there are many variations, and I mentioned to the gentleman that Japanese dishes are lovely because of their varied shapes and colors and are because they are selected according as to what kind of delicacy is to be served therein, whereas Western dishes are all the same pattern. Gentleman then proceeded to wax eloquently about how this is because Japan has four distinct seasons whereas other countries do not. (??HUH??) Um, New York is like Sapporo with snow in the winter and no snow in the summer and a spring and a fall in between. No, no says he, we have four seasons from Sapporo all the way to Okinawa. (??HUH??) No, dear gentleman, that is not a matter of four seasons, that is a matter of North to South. Well, logic was not functioning here, so I just bought a cup and was on my way. It just gets my goat sometimes that folks here think that theirs is the only way of doing or seeing things, that it is the best and most accurate and that there could not possibly be any room for variation. Well, perhaps folks most anywhere think that their way is the best and only one. Anyway, below see a sample of Kutani Ware. The green and yellow glazes are a distinguishing characteristic.
