my week of sunshine, memories and lame excuses

Every year it happens...the Japan Meteorological Agency announces the official start of the rainy season. Then, the next day, it starts to rain....sunshine.

Gloriously hot and partly to mostly sunny weather have been the norm for the past week.

A shortage of rain will lead to a summer with a low water supply. Although this is not such a good thing, I couldn't help but be happy since I finally got to hang out the futon!

I know you may not be interested in my blankets, I just thought I'd show you how Japanese people 'hang out their laundry'. ;^)

As you might be able to tell from the above picture, we live "pretty high up" so it can be freaky to hang things over your veranda, but this is the way it is done, complete with huge futon pins to keep the covers from blowing away. THAT would be dreadful...

Anywhoo...

The great weather also meant I could do a little more digging around in our "still unopened boxes room", ie: the den. What should come out of boxes? More boxes! This is a small portion of the boxes I have accumulated over the past couple of years...

I got to air them out...and then put them back in boxes....lol. I think I need "help"...

...

Then I found an old suitcase, and lo and behold, Tulsa circa 1975!

My passport photo.

I didn't take this picture for posting purposes, it was just a random thing I did since I am practically glued to my camera these days. But when I looked at it later, I realized that I had my picture squeezed in between East and West....My first Japanese fan that I used when I was learning traditional Japanese dancing and my infant dress.

With this first passport I came to Japan with my mother to meet her side of the family for the very first time.

My grandmother's house is in a place that resembles the scenery in the Japanese animated film Totoro, so on that first trip I felt like an Asian version of Alice In Wonderland.

Instead of following a white rabbit, I would follow white butterflies. Instead of meeting a caterpillar I met koi. The Cheshire Cat... well, let's just say...my Aunt was there.

I look at that picture and think, who IS that girl?

That little girl wanted to be a veterinarian. She ended up being a... vegetarian...

She also wanted to be a movie director ended up being a radio show director.

She also wanted to be an author...and well, still does.

I had a great elementary school teacher who taught me the pleasures of reading and story telling.

My mother also played a big part in my love for books. With her "unique" English accent she would read me bedtime stories and I would memorize them. The next day, I would be the story teller.

We come up with so many reasons to let go of our dreams...not enough money, not enough time, too many worries... I've used them all too. But I've also been able to do many things that I dreamed of...

I've met some pretty famous people too... so I wonder why I shy away from the things that I want to do the most. Fear.

Fear of failure.

What a lame excuse...

I think I'll air that out too.

Airing out my fear of failure as we write.

....

Upcoming "i-ro-ha series" will be on the Japanese character "ho".
Coincidentally, a word that starts with "ho" is:
"hosu" = to air, to dry

Hope you have a great weekend, wherever you are!

2 things you get for "free" in Japan

Free number 1:

When you walk around town in Japan, particularly places near train stations, there are people handing out "pocket tissues".  

The tissue packets are all about the same size, just small enough to place in your "pocket"... Why are people handing out free tissues?  It has nothing to do with it being the time of year for hay fever (I have a terrible runny nose right now because of, not hay, but cedar pollen...)

The tissue bags all have advertisements on them.  

the Mickey Mouse is for an Insurance Company (I wonder what Mickey thinks about that!)

the one in the middle is for a gym

the one on the top right is for a dating service (!?)

and the two on the bottom are for a mobile phone company...

(It seems that the handing out of pocket tissues with ads on them started sometime during the late 1960s in Japan.  A man got the idea from matchboxes...)

Although the tissues aren't as rough as they used to be, they are still not the super soft kind.

However, having them stashed in your purse can be very handy!

(The dating service types can be kind of embarrassing depending on who you are with when you decide to blow your nose...)

Free number 2:

Cash...

Warning:  If you have Numerophobia (a fear of numbers) then you may not want to read this...

The Japanese government decided earlier this year to hand out cash benefits to EVERY Japanese person... ¥12,000 per person (about US$122 or Australian $175).

This is supposed to help "the people" out during these difficult economic times.

So, I'm thinking...I'm not a Japanese citizen but I pay all the various taxes...

My husband (who usually takes a million years...to..do...anything...was unusually quick at finding out if I get a piece of this "handout" too.

.....

I do!  

IF you are a "registered alien" like me, (registered by February 2nd of this year).  

However, we have no idea when we get to receive this cash benefit.  Smaller towns with small populations have started handing them out at the local city and ward offices.  The city I live in is rather large with 461,932 people (includes the 6,559 registered foreigners) so it is expected to take awhile.

The forecasted amount the government has to prepare for this benefit is two trillion yen (US$20,384,242,980 or Australian $29,296,234,011).  Well, not really prepare...it is tax payer money after all...

The interesting thing is that along with the above forecast, the government has also released the following numbers: 82,500,000,000 yen... 

(US$840,850,022 or Australian $1,208,469,652)

?

The amount of money it will take to actually distribute the money.  You know, envelopes, receipts, stamps...pens...overtime...

Wow.

I hope this cash benefit handout thingy works.  I do have an opinion on this but I'd rather not explicate ;-)

However, if all else fails, there's always...

...photo taken today at the mall in Sanomiya, Kobe.

Spider-Man Train

I had to work on Saturday but was rewarded with an interesting view of one of the trains that take you to Universal Studios Japan.  There are several different types, but this one has got be my favorite...

Spider-Man!  

I have had archnophobia ever since I looked a spider in the eyes at the age of 9.

It happened on a nice summer day.  I was looking outside a window gazing at the small patch of yard outside when I noticed a hole the size of a pea, in the windowsill.  I was a daydreamer from birth, so I imagined a small fairy living inside the hole, and with a big grin on my face I peered inside.  I will never forget the dark glassy eyes staring back at me, probably in fear, after all I was much bigger than the spider.  But the little creature beat me at the stare down.  It took only a few seconds for me to realize what I was staring at and bang my head against the window as I ran away screaming, hands flailing abut.

But I have always liked Spider-Man and although I did consider reconsidering my "fanship", the super hero spidy has always had a place in the comic-nerd section of my heart.

When you travel to different places in the world you get to find some mighty cute trinkets like the mobile phone strap to the left of the above picture.  Spider-Man is up on a castle roof with a "shachihoko"- a mystical creature with the head of a lion and body of a carp.  This was a present from my husband from when he went on a business trip to Nagoya - a place famous for chicken wings, miso nikomi udon (udon noodles in a miso broth) and of course, golden shachihokos (check here for a picture http://opencage.info/pics/large_1232.asp).

The Amazing Spider-Man comic with President Obama on the cover is something I found at a comic book store in Kobe.  I went to the store in search for Coraline related stuff and came home with this instead.  It was kind of expensive (about US$8) but thought it would be something neat to have.

American comics are pretty popular in Japan but maybe not as popular as manga is overseas.

I went through a manga phase as well.  More or less for necessity.  I came to Japan in my teens and when you need a conversation starter, manga is a good way to go.  It also helped me to learn how to read Japanese.  I still think that comics/manga are a good way to learn languages.

However, my passion now lies with novels and non-fiction, so my manga collection is tucked away in boxes.

Phobias you don't want to have when you live in Japan...

Hope you aren't afraid of fish....

Xenophobia: the fear/dislike of people or things from foreign countries

I looked but couldn't find anything on specific fear or hatred of Japan... The "closest" one I found was Sinophobia: The fear or dislike of China...

Either way, it is sad to know that there is such a phobia.  I can understand the fear of the unknown and can only imagine that the two mentioned above stem from the same root.  

(I couldn't find anything that specified on phobias of the unknown in general...everything was explained as xenophobia, which I guess means my point is somewhat correct....)

Unfortunately when you live in Asia, you hear a lot about past wars and no matter how much I might hate to talk about this, what happened in the past carries a lot of weight too. 

Traumatophobia: the fear of war or physical injuries.

As I was looking for a phobia of raw foods, I came across the phobia of cooking : Mageirocophobia.  I won't go so far as to say that I have this... but there are times when I am afraid of my kitchen!

Omophagiaphobia: fear of eating raw flesh. There are places in Japan where you can eat raw beef and raw horse meat...so beware!

Ichthyophobia: fear of fish.   This too could be a BIG problem since Japan is an archipelago, and the main source of protein has been fish for a very long time.  

This is the land where, if you can afford it, you will be able to eat sushi, or sashimi (raw fish) while the fish nerve system is still moving..... The first time I saw this I nearly fainted!  

(Oh, and two years ago, I went to a dinner with my husband's side of the family and they had raw blowfish....the fish's tail was flipping about...and the 'loving' aunt kept pushing the dish towards me.... The conversation I had with myself, in my head, at that moment was NOT healthy or fit to post!)

The fear of fish would also be sad because then you wouldn't be able to enjoy the beautiful koi.

Here is a picture of some poor koi at a small shrine in Kyoto....I hope they get to go for walks...

                                              

Koumpounophobia ... how on earth could I forget to mention this phobia

If you are afraid of buttons, or Neil Gaiman, you should not watch this video. You have been warned.

 
 

Dear Diary, part 2 My Aha moment...

Well, as it always, goes....had absolutely NOTHING to worry about.  Actually had FUN working.

I realized before going to work, that I have a phobia...phobias, to be exact.  I'm afraid of being late, and I'm afraid of making mistakes.  I didn't realize that it was so bad that I actually get heart palpitations! BUT, the realization, turned out to be the first step.  After acknowledging my fears, they acknowledged me too.  

Fears: So, you finally figured us out.

Me: Yeah, you've always been there?

Fears:  Since kindergarten.

Me: Hmpf.

Fears: ...

and that was it.  I didn't care anymore.  They might come back again, but I think I 'll be alright, since now I know what to look out for.  So, I'm thinking maybe I should make a journal (or blog) only about phobias...there might already be one out there!  I'm gonna go check!

OK, I checked...there were several...but they don't have ALL the phobias listed.  Some have more but others would have a different variety, etc.  My two BIG phobias, turned out to be :

fear of being late : ALLEGROPHOBIA

fear of making mistakes : Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Mistake Phobia ...they both sound wrong...will have to look harder, they sound like mistakes.

Atychiphobia: Fear of failure.
That sounds more like it, I suppose. But it still doesn't sound correct. Wow, I need help!