Adult Conversation Class

Every Tuesday, I go to the community center to talk with the five people in my town who like English. I really lucked out with this group because they love to talk, and they often help me. Today, Emiko told me how I can get rid of my old car, which kicked the bucket recently. Sometimes it would just stop working in the middle of an intersection, and I'd have to fiddle with the battery to start it up again. So Emiko asked a car shop in the area, and told me how to dispose of it. It's going to cost $100 to throw it away!

I can also discover interesting cultural tidbits from them. Today I learned that in Japan when a child loses a tooth, they either throw it on the roof or the ground. If it's an upper tooth, they throw it on the ground. If it's a lower tooth, they throw it on the roof. I told them about the Tooth Fairy.

The best thing is that I actually get paid to do this...it feels wrong somehow!

Our Third Gig

We played 8 songs Saturday night:
Fingerprints & Heartbeats (original, see video below - sorry for bad quality!)

I Turn My Camera On - Spoon
Song 2 - Blur
Gold Lion - Yeah Yeah Yeah's
7 Nation Army - White Stripes
Fugitives from Conventionality - original
Just What I Needed - The Cars (I totally screwed up on this one!)
Say It Ain't So - Weezer (by far, my favorite song to play)

It was our best gig by far! Also check out the pictures on my Flickr...just ignore my death-warmed-over look because we had no time to get ready!

We did a Revolution DJ night for the after-party,
Gasolina (remix) - Daddy Yankee Ft. Pitbull & N.O.R.E.
Do I Look Like a Slut? - Avenue D
North American Scum - LCD Soundsystem
Just Let Go - Fischerspooner
Romantic Rights (Jesper Dahlback Remix) - Death From Above 1979
Atlantis to Interzone - Klaxons

Second Set (the last one of the night...so a bit random)
Like a Lady - The Sounds
Suffragette City - David Bowie
Electricityscape - The Strokes
Bohemian Like You - The Dandy Warhols
Just Like Heaven - The Cure
The Killing Moon - Echo & the Bunnymen
(...I think!)


My DJ name is now GiMp!!

Space cadets can do tea ceremony, too

I've always had this foggy awareness that my short-term memory is not what it should be. When I was 4th grade, I got a very bad grade in Social Studies. I just couldn't remember to bring in a newspaper article every week, so my teacher gave me an "F." At the time, I didn't realize the importance of good grades. All I remember is being yelled at, and how awful it felt. These memory lapses have continued to haunt me in my adulthood, but thankfully never with serious consequences.

When I came to Japan, I had a list of things I wanted to try: calligraphy, ikebana, karate, taiko, origami. Tea ceremony appeared nowhere on that list, so when the local teacher approached me and asked me to learn, I was reluctant: it's my worst nightmare, having to remember a detailed series of actions. I often went begrudgingly, performed the tasks that I perceived to be mechanical without thinking and always messing up, and was relieved when it was over.

A year and a half later, it finally clicked.

Tea ceremony is not mechanical at all. It is about comfort, beauty and simplicity. The way the tea bowl is held, carefully wiped, and heated is all meant to make your guests feel comfortable and special. Where I once performed the tasks to get them over with, I now go out of my way to make my movements fluid and beautiful. I think my tea teacher noticed...she doesn't speak a word of English but we somehow understand each other.

Japan, you are modifying my brain...for the better.