journal | music | travel | about
J O U R N A L
.......
Saturday, July 31
[Within]posted by peter at 21:32 .......I've realised that now, after 8 months, this city has become navigable. I don't feel swamped by it anymore. It seems possible these days.
This small epiphany took place in one of the supermarkets on my train line.
Whilst I could construe this sudden manageability as a sign to move, realistically I think I'll be here at least another year. And then I doubt it'll be back to Australia for me... something about this overseas thing has taken hold, so to speak.
This of course ignores the possibility of being swept off one's feet, but love ain't exactly knocking on my door right now.
.......
[Occupy]posted by peter at 16:51 .......Moreso than ever before, it is now that I must cling to that faithful old adage: curls are NOT the enemy. Strength to the generations, oh tell it to the whipping wind and the brewing clouds.
I am obsessed with vending machines. I am busy making a mental map of all contents and locations, particularly those that stock a particular locally made iced lemon tea, or failing that, the Twinings equivalent. I'm quite fussy.
Kamakura was excellent yesterday, but Marc and I never actually made it to the giant Buddha because we got detained drinking beer in a beach hut.
.......
[With wings]posted by peter at 12:58 .......There are some truly horrific insects here, but at least they leave you alone. Most of them are big enough to possess near-sentience, and (fortunately) only seem interested in going about their own business, though not necessarily quietly.
The detritus of crushed exoskeletons on the path every morning bears best testament to the horrors that lurk in those darker, more inaccessible places.
.......
[World citizen]posted by peter at 19:37 .......So New York is off.
Few things do I hate so much as a change of plan, but there is simply no way I can do New York without sacrificing a very expensive plane ticket to Australia.
Have I mentioned this before? Maybe. Basically the moneygrubbing agency who hired me recommended that I buy a return ticket (with pricey extra baggage allowance) while conveniently forgetting to mention that the ticket would expire before my contract would.
Oh dear.
Yes I should have been more cautious, let the buyer beware and all, but in my haze of my my I'm going to work in Tokyo, such things escaped my mind. Silly me. And so I am stuck with a return ticket that I must either use or lose.
Therefore I am most likely heading back (temporarily) to Antipodean shores in October, at the expense of the long-anticipated New York adventure.
Still, it's not all bad. At least I can have my wisdom teeth wrenched out in an English speaking environment.
I plan to spend time in Melbourne, Adelaide, perhaps Sydney and I'm even toying with the idea of Perth, although maybe there is no point. I need to have a medical check too I think. Perhaps I can aim to undergo some sort of medical procedure in each of the State capitals. Now wouldn't that be wonderful?
.......
[To the departed]posted by peter at 18:52 .......Familiar faces are dropping like flies, but their forms are not forgotten. Pale spirits hide in subway alcoves, and somewhere high in the night sky, a black butterfly opens wide its mouth and screams.
.......
[Work is living]posted by peter at 10:13 .......Do you know what? I can do humidity. Yes I fucken hate it, but I can so DO it!
All this comes as a surprise after nearly liquifying in Singapore, vaporising in Malaysia and, I kid you not, superheating past all triple points in Fiji. Must be something to do with being eased into the disgusting weather.
This week Tokyo experienced the hottest day since records began. Of course I was here for this. Of course.
I made up for it by buying some extremely wonderful new sunglasses, very dark brown, almost black, quite big and with a very cool white highlight thing going on at the edges. Add to that some very spontaneously purchased Gap slim boot fit dark blue jeans and we have all the trappings of a young and interesting lifestyle, with a hint of preppiness thrown in for irony.
Normally I have Fridays off, but today I am working because Sarah is in Hokkaido and coerced me into a shift swap. So, what awaits? Up to 24 smiling faces in small cubicles in an earthquake prone building, which normally I quite enjoy, but as we all know, enthusiasm diminishes exponentially after but one day off and an evening spent drinking red wine in a cafe. Give me strength.
.......
[High morning]posted by peter at 10:20 .......Here, outside a yet-to-be-open supermarket on the world's hottest morning, is not the most enviable place to be.
I am going to buy blueberries.
Last night brought another video with the urban family and a good few cups of cranberry juice, but I swear it's not what you'd think. My only hope is to destigmatise food products, because it's actually a very refreshing drink when served with ice.
.......
[The commute]posted by peter at 19:32 .......Tokyo is the most beautiful colour tonight. Fireworks fell like smashed neon as my train washed over the Tamagawa, streets radiating from the station in glimmering traces of habitation. Above them lingered a forest of wires, shaken by the afternoon's quake, which I'm told was only mild.
These are tropical clouds, luminous and sad, blue as a photographic filter. They are motionless for the evening, and I guess there's no real need for anything otherwise.
.......
[Roll like thunder]posted by peter at 10:09 .......Surreal extracurricular activities continue at my Japanese class, oh I cannot believe I forgot to mention the violin and piano concert we witnessed last week (it was actually very good), and then last night I attended an origami party.
I made a paper crane and a 'ball'. Meanwhile one of the old Japanese people had fashioned single squares of paper into intricate dragons and demons, complete with fingers and facial expressions. By contrast, my paper crane lacked a straight beak, let alone the feather texture and foot mites that the more adept origamists (?) would consider part and parcel of the simplest bird model.
Three Japanese ladies forced me to take the dragon and the demon home, maybe as a reminder of my own origamic (?) inelegance or else as a symbol of all that is evil in the world.
In other news, Momo and I tripped on out to Ueno park yesterday to witness the massive lotus (I'm guessing here) ponds before getting rained on and taking refuge from the resultant humidity in a rather well known chain coffee establishment. Afterwards I watched some very glorious bands play in Mizonokuchi (them kids love the Strokes methinks) and finished reading The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, which is quite simply one of the most wonderful books I have ever read.
Only 75 pages left to go in Anna Karenina... eventually we can achieve everything we want to in life.
Harajuku wants me today, I can feel it.
.......
[Bizarre things to strangers]posted by peter at 18:49 .......Learning a new language is simultaneously one of the most fun and frustrating things I've attempted. Not being the doyen of patient living, I find it agonising that I don't have every single linguistic resource (including vocabulary, grammar and cultural understanding) immediately available at my disposal, and consider this absence to be rather limiting.
But I enjoy the actual study; you know, making connections and parallels and all, and *gasp* having actual conversations in Japanese. The alien writing systems don't help matters much, but I am making progress there, one way or another.
And nearly every day I recall the fact that I have forgotten every piece of German I ever knew, apart from "ich moechte ein milchcafe" (probably wrong and misspelt), which also irritates me.
Interestingly, I care much less about the understanding of collision theory, triple integrals, recursive code and binomial expansion that is slowly but surely slipping out of my brain.
.......
[Overtime]posted by peter at 21:47 .......I wish I didn't let materialistic things impress me so much, but I just spent the evening chatting to a former Dior designer, and she was lovely.
A good end to a 12 lesson day, really.
.......
[A type of update]posted by peter at 13:20 .......How rare and unusual that I be able to use the computer, let alone use it while it is actually operational. So let us savour the moment.
Yesterday I completed the trinity of Aoyama's vegetarian cafes, during and after which I caught up with a couple of friends, albeit separately. The shopping spree has continued with a new tote bag, and I don't think I ever mentioned a tshirt I bought some time ago with a weird tree, a rainbow and some mushrooms on the front and another small portion of the design on the back. Nor the pinstripe demi-flares nor the wonderful military green shirt with a kind of peasant neckline that is tied up with shoelaces nor another light-coloured outer layer with multicoloured widely spaced pinstriping, strange neckline and denim trim.
Fun for the whole family, really.
Today I am on a bit of a mission to suss out near-city apartments and also to buy a stainless steel fan because I am sick of using my air conditioner while I am sleeping because it creates dry, stale air and wastes untold amounts of electricity. Mind you, I don't know if a fan alone will be sufficient to overcome this tropical climate.
The biggest and best thing is that I am starting to formulate concrete ideas for my New York trip, which until now has been little more than an abstract notion that I haven't obsessed over thus far lest I become all quixotic about it.
Anyway, now I'm starting to obsess over it. I love looking at all the alluring placenames on my map of Manhattan...
.......
[Tellin' ya]posted by peter at 00:33 .......More powerful motivation to get out of this vile house as soon as possible in the form of an angrily scribbled note from our manager that was slapped on the shower-room door with sticky tape:
"It is not TOILET here.
No shit. No piss.
Never."How absolutely 100% disgusting and violating. Of course I had heard the rumours but now to have the confirmation...
[For you]posted by peter at 00:04 .......Today I received a lemon yellow Polo Ralph Lauren tshirt from a student as a souvenir from New York. I think I'm going to have to cut it with scissors or scribble on it with texta to punk it up a bit... no room for preppiness in my current wardrobe.
At least it makes up for the fact that Jordy found my enormously expensive shoes – which are already wearing out I might add – for half price at the Marui sales. Life can be very cruel, but unexpected pleasures (like a free scone from Starbucks) make it that little bit more bearable don't you think?
.......
[Red cherries]posted by peter at 19:34 .......Fibrous vessels to catch the blood that issues from my nose, help yourself to humidity and ambient particles. Again Cat Power's last album is bringing inexplicable and untold happiness. Brooke? Gone. Reiko? Gone. Makiko? Farewelled last night somewhere minimalist in Shibuya. But hello share house in Shimokitazawa (soon I'm told) and what a delight to meet Momo! It wouldn't really be the Orient without the yins and the yangs. But this is all about tonight: a dinner in Shinjuku and then a whole world of sleep to enjoy.
.......
