Looking back on my last post, I notice a definite choppiness to the narrative which I, ever attuned to my own spastic ways, decode as nervousness. The internet connection I am “borrowing” from my neighbor is very tenuous – or at least it was yesterday – and with each keystroke, I feared being disconnected … […]
Author: ieatmypigeon
Movin’ Right Along
… and we’re moved. As it will be another week before I have my Yahoo BB! internet account set up in this apartment, I am cautiously “borrowing” a neighbor’s signal. I’ve passed some of them in the hall; they seem nice and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind. So I’m buying next month’s book club selection […]
Your 242-Word Mini Japanese Culture Lesson
As in the West, weddings are a huge industry in Japan. Thanks to the importation of Hollywood movies, Japanese weddings have come to have a lot of other things in common with the West, such as brides wearing white dresses and carrying floral bouquets. It’s common for young Japanese brides to channel Cher and undergo […]
Ice Box
Because I still haven’t had enough of the ridiculous circus that is My Life in a Japanese Micro-Kitchen, I’ve been trying my hand at baking. I have no counter so I must mix powders and sugars in a metal bowl balanced on my lap. I have no mixer so I must churn batters with a […]
Your 97-Word Mini Japanese Culture Lesson
A small assortment of random Japanese onomatopoeias, for you: The dog says: wanwan The cat says: nyaonyao The baby chick says: piyopiyo The rooster says: kokekokko The gleaming, sparkling object says: pikapika The knock on the door says: tonton The door bell says: pinpon! The crunchy snack says: sakusaku The empty stomach says: pekopeko The […]
Metric Avenue
It took me a while to get used to the Metric System. It can be difficult to retrain your brain to a whole new number scale of “hot,” “cold,” and “tall”, especially if it’s pea-sized, American and went to public high school like mine. Carnitas warned me. “Get used to it,” he said. “It’s standard.” […]
Monkey-chan
The apartment is chosen: spacious, ultra clean, as cheap as our current place, fully-furnished, and bathed in gorgeous natural light. Before making our final decision, we dealt with 3 English-speaking real estate agents and 1 Japanese real estate company; a company I’d inadvertently gotten us involved with after answering an English-language ad online that said, […]
To the Side
Miho always comes to class ready to get her sass on. Today she arrived slightly late and extra sassy, her ramped up feistiness announced first by her sideways dimpled smirk and then by her fierce side ponytail. The three other girls were also late to class, so only Miho, Aya and myself were in the […]
Nine, Eleven, Seven
It is a strange thing to be a New Yorker away from home on September 11th. The anniversary is a non-issue in Japan, as would be expected, and until you write the date in your roll books you, too, might even be able to forget. And then there it is: 9/11. 9/11. 9/11. Over and […]
Your 30-Word Mini Japanese Culture Lesson
In the Japanese version of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid”, the lyrics for “Under the Sea” include “Subarashii* … unda da shi ….” and Ursula refers to Prince Eric as “Hansamu Man.” *fantastic!