You Say "Kitchen," I say...

Recently I was teaching a group of children a lesson about rooms in a home. Most of them can read, but one is still learning so he was remembering by using the pictures. The first picture was a room with a bed in it: bedroom. The second was a room with a bath: bathroom. The third was a picture of a woman taking a turkey out of the oven. I asked him what it was. He thought for a moment and then got a big smile on his face, happy because he finally knew one. "Ah! The chicken room!"

Analyze This

Last night I was a gun fighter in the wild west. Except when I wasn't in the wild west, like when I was reliving a memory of the future. My father had given me two new guns, a rifle and a pistol, and I was using them with decent success, only it was happening many years prior. Most of the time. But I kept running out of ammo and having to use this big knife to kill before being killed. It was pretty gruesome. At one point I couldn't seem to get it right... just kept stabbing this guy. His wincing face seemed to be saying, "Could you get it over with, already?" The problem was that the blade was slightly curved, better for slicing and hacking than stabbing. I'm not sure why I insisted on the latter method. Anyway, just as I had finally managed a good one, the stabbee, who was my senior by five years or so, mentioned that we were actually brothers. After he explained about the secret of our shared parents and convinced me, I criticized his poor timing, took his knife from him and left.

Later I was being chased by a couple who wanted me dead, but again I was out of ammo. And when I say later, I guess it was about 100 years later, because I drove a car to a shopping mall while being pursued by the murderous duo. As luck would have it there was a big store specializing in hunting supplies. While I didn't remember ever seeing such a place in a shopping mall before, this was not the time to question it, so I accepted my good luck and went inside. Somehow I had managed to buy a little time, and I was confident that no one knew I was there.

Unfortunately, the pistol my father had bought me was very special, and the lady behind the counter said she would have to make the bullets one at a time, at a rate of about a dollar a piece, but she could be done in about 20 minutes. I reluctantly agreed, and shopped around a bit while I waited. My eyes fell on a nice straight knife that would be good for stabbing, and I decided I had to have it. Also I took a look at another pistol, one with cheaper bullets, but it wasn't in my budget to buy another gun. It was made in the U.S.A., and at $868, it was the cheapest model available.

Then I was in a small house in a rural setting, with a good friend. He was giving me advice on my weapons problems, when a crooked cop came by and started bullying him around a bit. I was ready to solve the problem but my friend restrained me. So rather than kill him I began mocking him incessantly. I have to admit it felt more rewarding. Somehow this approach worked for him, and he became friendly.

Then, while standing in the kitchen shooting the breeze, we were informed that we were going to sing a song, with the police for back up singers. My friend and I shared a knowing laugh when we both said, "The Police?! Oh, wait, that's 50 years from now. Ah! Shhh!" Not really the wild west anymore, but no shopping malls either. While we waited my friend and our hostess, the lead singer, shared a cigarette Lady and the Tramp style. I don't know what else to call it. Both ends were lit, even though one end was the filter, and they would suck simultaneously. I don't see how physics allows for this, but at the time it only seemed slightly odd. We had a bit of a panic because we needed something to give us the starting note for our song, and our backup police band would be arriving shortly. None of us had perfect pitch, and there were no musical instruments to be found. It didn't occur to us that the band would have them. So I came up with a brilliant plan. We would play the theme song to "Dukes of Hazzard," and then we would all decide which note to start on from that song. That way we would be able to check it again later, from the same song. I was really proud to have thought of such an inventive idea. How resourceful of me.

Then I saw myself on TV! I was sitting next to my cousin watching an American football game. There was a short interview and the whole crowd knew me and laughed at my one of a kind humor. Our team won, 42-0, but my cousin later commented that they played horribly. I took issue with this, but I let the conversation die because I didn't want to argue anymore. Also, I was preoccupied. I was thinking that if one bullet cost a dollar in the wild west, it would be like $100 now. That didn't seem right at all....

Then I was eating tofu and praising it's culinary virtues to a skeptical friend of mine. He said we needed to have the TV repaired. So I called my wife and son in our Manhattan penthouse and told them that Chip and Dale would be dropping by in the afternoon to have a look at it.

Pictures as Penitence

In an attempt to attone somewhat for my lack of pictures and posts of late, here is a link to a plethora of photos of my neighborhood, taken by a friend of a friend when he visited recently.

These pictures are interesting because they show Japan from a visitor's perspective. I have lived here long enough that I am rarely surprised by things that would have once produced shock and/or uncontrollable laughter. I am pretty dang desensitized, I reckon.

Also, they will have sentimental value for Billy and especially Gomiyage.

For those of you who have never been to Japan, welcome to my world.

Bonus points if you can find the picture with me in it. There are also a few of my good friends Ian and Ulala, who recently became engaged to be married. I was there for the event with my video camera trained on them both the whole time, but later discovered that I hadn't actually been recording. Oops. But that's another story altogether. Oh my head.

Click on the title of this post to go to the pictures! And thanks to "DJ Bolivia" for all his hard work. His blog is pretty interesting too; you might want to check it out.

"Not now, Honey"

I snapped this shot on a weekday afternoon in an underground shopping area near a subway entrance. At first I was afraid to get too close to take a picture, but I eventually concluded that this couple was not only unconcerned, but most likely unconscious.

Now, who can think of the best caption for this post? I will arbitrarily choose the winner and honor him/her by using the caption as the title.

Silence of the Ham

Sometimes I don't blog because I'm lazy. Sometimes I don't blog because I'm hazy.
This time it's been the latter of the two, sorry if I have inconvenienced you.