Dead-end philosophies on location
Last year I was reading Douglas Coupland's Microserfs during the first week of January. This year, I'm reading Douglas Coupland's All Families Are Psychotic (which was sent to me packed with Adam's receipts and ticket stubs from New York and bearing a faint smell of coffee I never want to go away). Continuity is my bitch.
So my newest workout regimen has started, conveniently enough during the same week of heightened pulse that everyone else in the world starts their newest workout regimens. Sometimes this is okay; it makes me feel a little less 7000 miles away. Today was one of those days when I couldn't stop thinking, I'm in JAPAN. I'm BIKING in TOKYO. I LIVE in EAST ASIA. It was the first time in a while that I considered the hugeness of what I have done, and my eyes pricked with tears a little at the thought of it. There has been more time here for consumption than contemplation (evidenced by my tight jeans and bulging closet), and it was refreshing to have my mind eclipsed by a Big Idea as I cruised down the familiar street by the station and attempted to outrun a Toyota on my bicycle. The novelty of everything came rushing back, and I remembered the first night I stepped out of the Minami Gyotoku station, seeing the row of bicycles outside the pachinko parlors and having that "oh my, I'm on another continent!" feeling, which is something that's sadly difficult to expound upon. So, Laurie, you're on another continent. That's true. Thank you for stating the obvious details of your location. Now, what else do you have on your mind today? But sometimes I just want to repeat it over and over: I live in East Asia. I live in East Asia! I live in East Asia!
I actually had a goal for my hourlong bike trip today, and that was to end it at the Seiyu in Gyotoku, where I would buy groceries, because the Seiyu in Gyotoku always has good deals on tofu burgers. Shopping there also ups the aura of georgraphic dissonance a little more because they're either a.) somehow affiliated with Wal-Mart, or b.) ripping off the Wal-Mart smiley face and "rollback!" symbols for some other reason. And the "rollback!" / smiley face signs aren't all over the store, but only on certain displays, so you're not sure exactly what their advertising campaign is, except that they claim to be cheap. And they are! Four tofu burgers for 100 yen.
When I arrived home with my two bags of groceries in the bike basket and my purse hanging precariously on the handlebars, I thought I might go and write a sonnet sequence called "Biking in Tokyo," but then I remembered that I had perishables to put away.
So my newest workout regimen has started, conveniently enough during the same week of heightened pulse that everyone else in the world starts their newest workout regimens. Sometimes this is okay; it makes me feel a little less 7000 miles away. Today was one of those days when I couldn't stop thinking, I'm in JAPAN. I'm BIKING in TOKYO. I LIVE in EAST ASIA. It was the first time in a while that I considered the hugeness of what I have done, and my eyes pricked with tears a little at the thought of it. There has been more time here for consumption than contemplation (evidenced by my tight jeans and bulging closet), and it was refreshing to have my mind eclipsed by a Big Idea as I cruised down the familiar street by the station and attempted to outrun a Toyota on my bicycle. The novelty of everything came rushing back, and I remembered the first night I stepped out of the Minami Gyotoku station, seeing the row of bicycles outside the pachinko parlors and having that "oh my, I'm on another continent!" feeling, which is something that's sadly difficult to expound upon. So, Laurie, you're on another continent. That's true. Thank you for stating the obvious details of your location. Now, what else do you have on your mind today? But sometimes I just want to repeat it over and over: I live in East Asia. I live in East Asia! I live in East Asia!
I actually had a goal for my hourlong bike trip today, and that was to end it at the Seiyu in Gyotoku, where I would buy groceries, because the Seiyu in Gyotoku always has good deals on tofu burgers. Shopping there also ups the aura of georgraphic dissonance a little more because they're either a.) somehow affiliated with Wal-Mart, or b.) ripping off the Wal-Mart smiley face and "rollback!" symbols for some other reason. And the "rollback!" / smiley face signs aren't all over the store, but only on certain displays, so you're not sure exactly what their advertising campaign is, except that they claim to be cheap. And they are! Four tofu burgers for 100 yen.
When I arrived home with my two bags of groceries in the bike basket and my purse hanging precariously on the handlebars, I thought I might go and write a sonnet sequence called "Biking in Tokyo," but then I remembered that I had perishables to put away.