These two pictures are of when Casey and Louise came to my hospital school for an official visit. The visit required a month of planning, hanko-stamping, paperwork and phone calls, but in the end, Casey played his guitar, Louise sang, and the kids were nothing less than thrilled. Not only did they have get to hang out with two new foreigners, but one was 2 meters high! Visiting this awesome school is the highlight of my week. The staff and faculty are wonderful and include me in everything despite my terrible Japanese, and the kids are what I love most about my job. Such big personalities! Plus, two of my students are Christians and my supervisor arranges for us to have "chats" about our shared faith. One of these students was just accepted into Tohoku University for his undergrad- a very impressive accomplishment, and I am very proud of him.

Part 1

Okay, I had a bunch of long-winded descriptions for these, but my Mac crashed for the first time ever last night right while I was in the middle of updating. I'll try to get the descriptions written again at school tomorrow! Thanks for your patience!









More in a bit...

Christmas

With all this talk about what Christmas means, I thought I'd throw in my own 2.3 yen.

Now that I am a certified, card-carrying adult, Christmas has become a respite from responsibility, a brief return to the simple and powerful magic created when families converge to eat, play card games, and talk, just talk. I am fortunate in that my relatives are all alive and living within the short span between the Mason Dixon line and lower Virginia's Blue Ridge mountains. When I go home for Christmas, I go home, my family and the landscape of rural Maryland overlapping like layers of a watercolor.

I think of my uncles, their work-callosed hands squeezing my biceps, their faces changed in small, nearly imperceptible ways since the previous year. Aunts to be greeted with meek hugs. Close-aged cousins, once my closest friends, now with opaque lives, new jobs and relationships, interests I never knew about. Everyone is one year older and, though I try ignore it, I am strongly aware that I know nearly nothing of what has happened in their lives between these Christmas bookends. They sum it up for me with impossible succinctness; the job is going well, the kids are doing such and such, we went to Florida for a few days this summer.

If there is one thing I've forsaken by living so far away these past seven years, it's familiarity--family. Now, in our present attempts to relate, we rely on the tensile strength of our pasts, bridge-building with those small memories we've used for years to define one another. To my aunt, I'm still the nephew perpetually kicking her shins for telling me Superman isn't real. Cousin Matt always always sides with me. Dwayne is forever the cool younger uncle who lets me stay up all night playing his Super Nintendo. Because we never see each other, these memories, stretched endlessly into the present, are all we have. Yet somehow, they are enough. Trite and true, cliched or not, family is family is family.

And Christmas, for me, is family. Jesus is there, sure, but like a backdrop or, better yet, the stagelights. Setting the scene, illuminating all of us--grampa as he throws a few fake punches, testing my reflexes, the endless supply of young cousins wailing and breaking their new toys, grandmas watching proudly, brothers sharing a plate of pie, and the parents and their siblings playing Uno and laughing over shared vacations twenty years past.

I simply can't wait to be home for Christmas. Hope to see you all soon!

Probable Cause?

The Iraq war has now lasted longer than America's involvement in WWII.

I don't know what else to say about that.

Frog

This one is from Julianna:

"I was just correcting an essay and felt compelled to share it:

The most exciting event for me during my junior high school days was dissection of eight frogs to study them. I was interested in creatures. I wanted to know them in detail. So, I decided to examine frogs. I dissected the body of a frog. First, I performed an abdominal operation. Next, I skinned the frog. And I took Frog's organs from the body. Last, I examined organs under the microscope. The more I examined the frog, the more I was interested in it. So, I decided to dissect seven more frogs. It took ten hours to dissect the 8 frogs. I was tired."

If I was a punning man, I'd say it's a good thing those frogs already croaked. Good thing I'm not not.

Robert Altman, one of America's truly great filmmakers, died today.

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1562162,00.html

If you've yet to see it, check out Short Cuts, his reworking of nine Raymond Carver stories.

Loch Lomond

I finally got around to posting on MySpace one of the songs Louise and I recorded, a traditional Scottish ballad. It's available at www.myspace.com/mysteryandmanners, my profile page, or www.myspace.com/theblackships, my music page.

More to come...

Homeward Bound, I Wish I Was

Well ring a bell or bang a gong folks, because come December 22nd the lovely wife and I will be crossing the Pacific--eastward this time--and back to the old U.S. and A. Our feet will be tickling Maryland's fancy until January 3rd, when we will rotate the globe a hair counterclockwise, to Seattle, where we will dodge torrential rain for about a week. Then, on the 14th, back to the future, tomorrowland, Japan. We can't wait to see you all.

In other news, quite literally, I will be appearing on Japanese television this Friday, sometime between 6pm and 7, NHK channel 3. One of the teachers at my school is going to Qatar to referree an international basketball meet and a local news crew is doing a short piece on him. To show off his English prowess, the news crew wanted to know if I could do a little interview with him. Of course, this was all sprung on me unexpectedly this morning, as I came in late to school, unshaven and a bit rumpled after sleeping through my alarm. It went well though. I asked him a few questions about how he came to be a referree and what he is looking forward to seeing/doing in the Middle East. I also mentioned Julianna, that she was born in the region. The reporter then interviewed me a bit, asking what I thought of the teacher and his English abilities. Hopefully I'll post a video of the clip here after it airs, so watch out for my ugly mug.

Hey Ho, Let's Depart.

Keegan and Saya will be coming up to Sendai this weekend, and we're rightfully stoked to see them. I'm going to put these gnarly fake tattoos all over Keegan's face as he sleeps, tattoos of American flags and peace signs decorated like American flags. Then I'll do the old dip-yer-buddies-hand-in-warm-water-as-he's-snoozing trick. Bazaam! Saya will get whipped cream in the hand and a feather to the nose. Heck, Julianna better watch out, lest I duct tape her eyes shut or something.

I love having people over. Now I don't need any excuse to plastic wrap the toilet.

...

Oh yeah, the real point of this post. I will be making a new Myspace music site this weekend for the songs that Louise and I are recording. More on that later.

Audi-Five Thousand

Notes on Today

The cold is coming in through the thin windows and wrapping about the ankles my too-short pajama bottoms leave bare. It's just starting, this crisp snap. The wind bellowed up around lunchtime today, stripping branches, the leaves making knife-sharpening sounds on the asphalt. I walked to 7-11 to grab a hot dog and some milk tea, a cheap and comforting lunch, but had to stop twice along the way to rub out errant bits of leaf and dust from under my contacts. At the store, with my eyes watering, one of my students mumbled a timid hello behind me in an aisle as I compared brands of chips (I went with a Nabisco Pringles rip-off, a mistake). He asked me a few carefully considered and stiltedly phrased questions and I watched his whisper of a mustache. The conversation was awkward for both of us. His mind churned away, dredging up infrequently-used English with an effort I can't seem to muster when it comes to language learning. I turned the canister of chips end over end in my hands. I have encounters like this all the time and they're never really boring, unless I'm tired. And I was tired today.

When I got home I scrubbed the shower grouting and cleaned the floors in the kitchen and toilet room. Julianna came home late, wet hair, wet jacket, the bottoms of her pants dripping, glasses fogged. She brought McDonald's, wisely packed in a plastic sack, two cheeseburgers apiece and fries to share. We ate and watched Okusama wa Majo, a Japanese version of Bewitched that appears on Wholphin #2 and features invented sub-titles by writers of the Daily Show. I could only take about fifteen minutes of it. The subtitles were funny, but the characters' voices were grating and the special effects of the hey-wow-another-blue-screen-comp-shot variety. Normally this kind of low-brow, ha-ha-the-subtitles-are-fake-and-they-slipped-in-some-good-Engrish-jokes humor is just fine by me but, like I said, I was just tired.

Julianna went into another room to do Juli-things (like a baby, I have trouble imagining others' actual existance when they're out of sight--this is no insult, just a lack of imagination and full-helping of laziness) and I sat down to track some guitar so Louise could have something to sing over tomorrow when she comes by to record. The third string, G, felt tight as I was tuning and just as I nestled the pitch within the LED - 0 +, the string snapped up past my face and then fell jangling across the others. No luck tonight. I took a long shower, in the newly clean shower, but I had to dry off with a towel damp from this morning's rinse. No luck tonight.

I'm not sure why I'm not in bed yet, the cold air wrapping about the ankles my too-short pajama bottoms leave bare.

Lebanese Stuck in Traffic...in America.

Teenage Boys Do a Halloween Mad-Lib

Responses are in italics.

It was a coloudy (weather adjective) and clear (weather adjective) Halloween night and my friend Keisuke (a friend's name) and I were getting ready to go trick-or-treating. At first, we wanted to dress as Chainese (plural costume), but we realized that would be too black (scary adjective). We decided to go as only panties (plural costume) instead. We headed to the old (scary adjective) house in the poor (adjective) woods behind our neighborhood. When I knocked on the rich (adjective) door, Mr. Mori (male teacher's name) opened it! At night, he was more red (adjective) than usual, and he was holding a yellow (adjective) cat. "I feel troublesome," (greeting) he said. "Would you like some candy?" Sad (emotion adjective), we skipped (movement verb) away to Yosemite Natioral Park as fast as we could!!!

The Timid Gentleman, or The Evidence That Would Have Put Me In Jail

Here's a short, depressing bit of digital trickery to remind you that murder is socially irresponsible. Oh, and you get to see Gid take one to the kidney with a screwdriver.

Posted By:Josh

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

This was filmed a few years ago by Josh, Gideon, me, and a bottle of Hershey's Special Dark. Note Josh's splended editing (though I liked it better when the soundtrack was Godspeed You Black Emperor). Good times.

Responses to: "If you could create a new Halloween monster, what would it look like? Describe your monster using as many adjectives as possible."

The monster's name is "Mr. Sugai." It is little shorter than a usual man, and it always says to us, "Bow." It teaches us English that is easy to understand. Its story is interesting.

The monster's name is "GOZIRAIAN." It is very short, but very strong. It can breathe blue fire and it can fly. It often eats a very big meat.

This monster's name is "Mr. Solar Eclipse." He is cheerful and dark. So he is not scary. And he has a sister named "Lunar Eclipse." She is always angry. She is more scary than "Mr. Solar Eclipse."

My new Halloween monster looks like a beautiful woman. She wears a white kimono and her hair is purple. She has a very big scythe and use it to kill the children. She eats children's souls. When you see her, please run away.

My new Halloween monster looks like vampire. But he doesn't suck at blood. He sucks at many kind of juice because he likes juice very much!! He have on short and wear long cloak. Those color are profound blue. He is a very nice monster, I think.

The monster has three big heads and only one small leg. It has dark green faces with two red eyes and one black eye. It is nocturnal. It lives in cold places. There is no danger for person, but probably the person who sees it will be surprised, get scary and run away soon. But the monster just wants to play with you. It is easy to make a friend with it.

It is a very small cat and it is only yellow. It has blue eyes. And mouth is very big and half of face. It eats human in the night. It doesn't have house and isn't liked people. Today, people were killed by the cat.

The monster looks very big and dirty. His body is black. He is stronger than any other monster. He gathers a lot of garbages. No one goes up. He attacked us easily. He lives in dumping ground. But he has weakness. It is that he weaks beautiful things.

It's the largest of all monsters. Its body is red like blood. It has very big hands, mouth, feet, and eyes. Therefore, it looks very stern. Children who see it begin crying.

It has teeth look like crocodile. And it has eyes look like bird, body look like bear. It has wing look like bird. But voice is very pretty.

It looks very positive, sociable, beautiful, grand, polite, fresh, divine and healthy.

The monster has a lot of keys but he doesn't use them.

It looks like a cat. It's not only big, but also beautiful. However, it's always angry, so sometimes people is killed by it. People are scared to death it. In fact, it is easy to control it. Just give it fish.

The monster is fat. The monster's look is very terrible. But he is honest. You'll like him soon.

My monster is big and strong. He has gold eyes. He looks a terrible, but he is very tenderhearted.

A new Halloween monster look like ghost. It is very big, and it has loudly voice. But, its face is pretty, and it likes to take a bath.

Ebisu, Pumpkin, Apple, Pokemon, Gozira.

Egg-Shaped and Winged Japanese Children Sing, Hug a Bipedal Dog

Posted By:Casey is "Sonny Angel," Mayo Baby

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

I can't express just how happy this video always makes me.

You American? Gary Cooper?

Posted By:Sonny Angel, Mayo Baby

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

This slightly inebriated man approached me outside of Sendai Station, pulled out his songbook, and began to sing. The video speaks for itself.

Let me know if you want more, because I've got a slightly longer video that has him doing a little shuffle and hand-motions.

YahooBB

So I finally got my apartment plugged in to the internet, but I have a dillema. Whenever I try to log into my hotmail or yahoo e-mail accounts, I get a message saying that the server cannot be located. I'm not sure what to make of this and would appreciate any help you might be able to give!

Casey

Walking Marathon

Despite the two massive blisters that blossomed on my right pinky and left ring toe, respectively, the walking race was great. I got to talk with many students beyond the classroom barrier (amazed at how confident they were speaking English outside of class), and I shot three or four rolls of film in my Holga. I now feel like I truly know my way around Sendai, and if I ever got lost at midnight in Nagamachi Minami, I could probably wander home on foot just as easily as taking the bus. That is, if I didn't mind walking for six hours.

But the potato soup I mentioned? Yeah, well. It was tonjiru, or pork soup. Since when was pork soup an incentive for walking fifteen miles? Potato I can understand, but pork? And the last four kilometers the girls were all chanting ton-ji-ru, ton-ji-ru as if they were about to recieve manna from heaven.

Julianna and I went to see The Black Dhalia at The Mall, but I came out feeling a bit underwhelmed. It was nothing new, really. The same old noir. We did find out, however, that they will be playing Marie Antoinette sometime next month.

I'm off now to the Mediateque to meet up with a few students from the movie club here at school. I've been asked to head up the club when they graduate next year!

A letter to a former professor, currently on paid leave, regarding an unusual confusion in the naming of muppets.

In reference to your latest blog entry, the one concerning "green" in its many forms, I'll assume you know our froggy green friend is "Kermit," and that by referring to him as one who lives a hermetic life of solitude you were actually making an allusion to your current sabbatical.

Granted, Hermit the Frog would make a terrific addition to the foam and felt cast of Jim Henson regulars. I envision him holed up in a box or ratty tenement on the south side of Sesame Street, an Oscar-the-Grouch minus the stench and with the astringent piety that comes from deep religious conviction. Perhaps he could take Ernie's rubber ducky obsession one step further and keep bronze icons of lily pads and horseflies barb-wired around his thin-skinned chest, close to his small, slowly beating heart. Was he driven to this solitary life of sackcloth by his cold, moist, amphibian lust for Miss Piggy, that voluptuous and porky sometime paramour of his older, more charismatic and socially-mobile brother, Kermit? If this sexual rage did not drive him to live in rags and sleep on bags of coal (and I'm sure it did), his lonely lifestyle can only be explained by what I presume to be a humble reverence for, and servile obedience to, whatever watery gods inhabit the ponds and soggy bogs of frog-dom.

Sincerely,

Casey