(no subject)
A rice field in the middle of a street by Mike's apartment.
The monsoon season started only a day or so before, and this empty, muddy lot was full of water. I was so surprised to see these new rice plants in perfect lines so quickly. The solution: apparently they are planted like that, already several inches tall. The strangeness of having medium to large size gardens in the middle of streets has worn off. Just next to Mike's apartment, for example, (which is right next to a train station- imagine this next to BART!), there is a good-sized garden with rows of corn. When I go for bike rides, more often then not I see older men tending them. I don't know if they are public, or what. There just isn't an American equivalent.
Other developments:
-In a recent discovery, the grocery store carries aloe-flavored yogurt. Horrifying.
-My confidence in Japanese is improving. My fear of embarassing myself is overcome by my independence. The result: now I want to be the one to ask the video store whether they have the movie, I want to ask the woman at the coffee store how you say "to go" in Japanese by myself. Also, I frequently interrupt Mike's Japanese conversations to ask "What did you say? What does that word mean?" These might seem like pathetically small advances, but to me they feel big.
-Kishiwada is famous for its Danjiri festival, which is a massive parade of floats. It's pretty dangerous, because these huge wooden floats on wheels, with people dancing on top of them, are turned VERY quickly. Danjiri happens in September. Hence, the park is full every night with crowds of young men running laps en masse, with periodic whistle blowing and loud yelling in unison, while they train for Danjiri. It is surreal to hear this when I bike by at night.
The monsoon season started only a day or so before, and this empty, muddy lot was full of water. I was so surprised to see these new rice plants in perfect lines so quickly. The solution: apparently they are planted like that, already several inches tall. The strangeness of having medium to large size gardens in the middle of streets has worn off. Just next to Mike's apartment, for example, (which is right next to a train station- imagine this next to BART!), there is a good-sized garden with rows of corn. When I go for bike rides, more often then not I see older men tending them. I don't know if they are public, or what. There just isn't an American equivalent.
Other developments:
-In a recent discovery, the grocery store carries aloe-flavored yogurt. Horrifying.
-My confidence in Japanese is improving. My fear of embarassing myself is overcome by my independence. The result: now I want to be the one to ask the video store whether they have the movie, I want to ask the woman at the coffee store how you say "to go" in Japanese by myself. Also, I frequently interrupt Mike's Japanese conversations to ask "What did you say? What does that word mean?" These might seem like pathetically small advances, but to me they feel big.
-Kishiwada is famous for its Danjiri festival, which is a massive parade of floats. It's pretty dangerous, because these huge wooden floats on wheels, with people dancing on top of them, are turned VERY quickly. Danjiri happens in September. Hence, the park is full every night with crowds of young men running laps en masse, with periodic whistle blowing and loud yelling in unison, while they train for Danjiri. It is surreal to hear this when I bike by at night.