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Fashion has never made sense Monday January 30

Question: You have too many t-shirts, too many jackets (for all seasons), three pair of socks, one pair of shoes (that don't go with every outfit), not enough dress shirts, and only a couple sweaters. It is the middle of winter. You go clothes shopping, and you have little money. What do you buy?

1. New shoes to match the other half your outfits


2. More sweaters to help keep warm


3. Some dress shirts that can be casual or business


4. Another jacket you don't need and a new t-shirt you also don't need

Answer: 4. Sometimes you can't help yourself: sure, you went looking for shoes and shirts, but they didn't have any that jived with your style, size, or whatnot, and then you found quite possibly the coolest jacket you've ever owned. Far cooler than the other five you already own.

Yes, I fell to raw consumerism today. In a moment that I suspect possibly only Todd can understand, I walked into the store, tried it on, asked them if they took credit cards, and bought a jacket I really shouldn't be able to afford. The beauty (and the evil side) of consumer credit.

It also did not help that there was a young woman with me, and she was a strong advocate of aformentioned purchased jacket. Let the record state that when an attractive woman tells you how good you look in something, and you have an interest in said woman, there is no alternative, and you will beg on the streets, if that's what it comes to, to buy that thing. This is one of the ultimate secret powers the female wields, and she knows it.

The power of the "If You Were Wearing This Instead, You Would Have Better Chances With Me" charm. Everyone knows that this charm is not based in reality, and that our clothing really has little or nothing to do with our chances. In fact, it may even be the opposite: I'll introduce Todd's observation once that the times you are most in need of a shower, or the times you are most in need of a change of clothes, that those are the times things go your way regarding the opposite sex.

But men occasionally submit to the charm, logical or not. While it's not the full reason, it's definitely part of why I now own the coolest jacket I've ever owned. The rest of it, is, well, the jacket.

恵まれている

土曜日の未明、始発を待ってデニーズに寄った三人の一人だった。話の流れはっきり覚えていないが、ある瞬間にくみこが「私が恵まれている」と言った。最初の思想は、「『恵む』って、先週ばかり学んで、ちょうどいいな」だった。そしてやっぱり、「僕も恵まれている」と反省した。当時にくみこに言わなかったが、確かに。リストを作ろうとしても数え切れないほど恵まれているだろう。兄弟、両親一同に愛されるし。体が健康だし。勝手に何の興味であっても（例えば大学専攻変更）、家族に縛られていないし。だからこそ、縛られている。一ヶ月で二回ぐらい電話しないと息子としての義務を果たしていない感じだ。祖母に手紙を送って喜ばせるのが僕に大切。縛られているというか、自分を縛るという方が適当かもしれない。全然気にしなくて義務を果たす。恵まれていて、「これしか出来ない」という感じ。

デニーズの話に戻ろう。だんだん、日本語の話で分からないところは言葉不足による点しかなくなってくるらしい。にもかかわらず個人的な話だったら、もう分かるべきなのに絶対ある。ところが、あったら何も言わなくて分かったふりをする。なぜかというと、話を割り込んだら、やはり話題が日本語あるいは英語自体になってしまう場合があるからだ。決して言語だけ勉強しているわけではない。人々を抜いて言語自体には文脈が入っていない。いつも言語に関連する話ばかりだったら、言語用語専門家になるが、ほかはない。知りたいのは言語ではなく、人で、言語はツールだけだ。いわば、言語に乗って行き先に行くことだ。

恵まれていると言われた瞬間、意味ともとより感想が伝わった。同母語同士の中でも、それは時々難しいだろう。このポストは祝うことではなく、むしろ感情を言葉で伝えるのは時々難しいことを認識するためのポストだ。言葉と概念は一対一の関係ではく、聞き手、話し手の体験によってばらつきがありそうだ。いつも言葉をはっきり定義しようとすると、時々文脈がなくなって意味が分かっても、相手が言いたいことが分からない。

デニーズで、電子辞書を持っていない僕が普段より話が分かった。言葉のあいまいさは人間の素晴らしさか、失敗か、決められない。どちらかというと後者を選ぶだろう。

Back to Normal Monday January 23

Things are more-or-less back to normal after vacation. Bike to school, update the blog, check the yen-dollar exchange rate, study some characters, class, lunch, class, bike home, make dinner, do work, sleep, and start the whole thing over again.

However, due to a large intake of caffienated beverage yesterday, I've decided that I'm also going to redesign the front end of pitchpipe. What is currently up there does little to describe what it is that I actually do, and this summer, I am definitely going to rely on some secondary income from programming work to live comfortably. I need to be able to convince new clients that I know what I am doing.

Things on the social front have been progressing well, but slowly. Michael and I were at a family restaurant yesterday afternoon amid many, many college students gathered for some reason. As I looked at these people, I thought, "well, I like Madison [the izakaya near my house] well enough, but it would be cool to spend time with people my own age..." Might be time to expand my social network a little further to include people my own age who aren't Center students.

I apologize for the poor update, and the lack of substance in this post. I've got a lot to do today, and I wrote "blog post" on the todo list, only realizing right about now that I have nothing of value to say.

Udon Sunday January 15

Over winter break, I learned that my former host family's father -- Nakayama -- is actually quite a chef. He taught me how to make udon, which is called udon in English. Udon are the thick Japanese noodles, not the thin ones (soba). I don't know if udon should take a plural verb like that, but it seems to be holding up all right so far.

The resulting lumps of dough


Rolling out the dough


Folded & cut into 1/8" strips

We made these noodles from scratch, and today, you will too.

Ingredients

• 600g All-Purpose Flour
• 30g Salt
• Corn Starch
• Soumen Sauce*
• Scallions
• Raw Ginger

Preparation

1. Measure the first two ingredients and mix in a large bowl. Because we're making noodles here, and not stirfry or something, exact measurements are recommended.
2. Add 250mL of water to the bowl and begin to mix it with your (washed) hands. Mix in the bowl until you have a lump of dough that takes up all of the flour-salt mixture in the bowl.
3. On a flat, clean surface, sprinkle corn starch to keep everything dry. Knead the dough on the surface. The goal is to make the dough more flexible and well-mixed.
4. After about 15 minutes of kneading, cover the dough with a damp towel and let it rest for 15-20 minutes.
5. Knead again for 10 minutes, and then cover the dough for another 10 minutes. You should notice that after uncovering the dough it has naturally become softer.
6. Overkneaded dough will result in tougher noodles, so when everything is well-mixed and soft (you'll see what I mean naturally), flatten out the dough as much as possible on the surface using your hands. Try to make it even.
7. Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough further. It should be a few millimeters thick when you're finished. Take a look at the picture. Spread some corn starch on the surface.
8. Fold the dough to a size so you can cut it with a kitchen knife. Cut the knife into 1/8" inch strips and unfold. As you unfold, make sure to separate the noodles if they are at all stuck together.
9. Add the noodles to boiling water. Cook for seven minutes.
10. While the noodles are cooking, mince the scallions and use a grater to make ginger "paste". Open the container of soumen sauce if you haven't already.
11. Do not drain the noodles. Remove from heat and place the pot in the center of the table on which they are to be served.
12. Mix 1 part soumen sauce to 1 part water, and fill each person's soup bowl with this mixture. Each person can add ginger or scallions as they see fit, and everyone can help themselves to the noodles.

Notes

* Soumen sauce is very similar to soy sauce, but weaker. It should look like the same bottle, except that it'll be called soumen sauce, or tsumen, or something like that.

Hong Kong & Thailand Highlights

Let's hope that my return flight from Hong Kong isn't an omen for the coming year. It was rainy in the Kantou region today, so it was one of those landings where you don't know the ground is right there until it is, uhm, right there. That wouldn't have bothered the cabin passengers so much, I suppose, if they could have believed that the pilot did indeed know where the ground was.

We hit the ground so hard that a couple of the overhead panels (containing the lights, the seatbelt indicator lamps, and oxygen masks) popped out of place and dangled down in the row behind me. I think something went awry on the plane after the jolt, too; while we taxied normally, we had to be towed into final position at the gate.

Japan is cold, rainy, and windy right now. Nonetheless, it felt good to be "home". Living out of a suitcase for three weeks can be rough at times. Moreover, I don't like the feeling of not being able to understand anything, and in that sense, Japan was a welcome return. Just not the weather.

I'll skip the "we did this, we did that" of my trip; most of that can be seen through the photographs. However, there are a few larger thoughts that I want to address here, since no one picture can capture them effectively.

• Cantonese. Labeled possibly one of the world's most difficult languages to learn, this version of Chinese is spoken in southern China and Hong Kong. If I had only tried to learn it when I was surrounded by Cantonese-speaking people for three years straight during high school. What was I doing wasting my time chatting with Kaila and Melissa while peeling peapods? As a side note, Nancy's fake Cantonese-English accent is the best impression I've ever heard, but I suppose it's no contest because she speaks both.
• Group Travel. Our trip to Thailand was a group tour. Given that I knew nothing about Thailand and wanted a safe, secure way to see parts of it, it worked out well. Unfortunately, since you pay for a guided tour, the guides feel as though they must keep you busy 100% of the time in an effort to prove that they deserve your money. Couple this fact with the fact that it was a Chinese tour group. A bus full of Chinese people, and then Kevin and I not understanding a word that the guides were saying. I feel like I missed out on some explanations about Thai culture.
• Chinese Medicines. I don't want to hate on Chinese people, but I will say this: they love their medicines. This root cures this affliction, that food will solve this health problem. As such, since there are certain roots, barks, birds nests, and whatnot in Thailand that are cheaper than in Hong Kong, we stopped along the way every time we went somewhere long distance to have someone try to sell us health products in Cantonese.
• Thai Massage. Obviously, I didn't take any pictures of this, but I got the best two-hour full body massage ever. In the middle of said massage I had to get up and wash off the exfoliate they used...in a bath topped with fresh rose petals. Now that's what I'm talking about.
• Hong Kong. Hong Kong is an amazing place. It's definitely not that large, and the result is that everyone builds up. Near the equator, it does not really have an earthquake concern. I stayed in a sixty-three story condo building. Despite the bustling city center, you can easily take a bus to one of the beaches on the far side of Hong Kong island -- the beaches are free, the buses cost about a dollar (USD), and you can see the beauty that attracted people there in the first place. When I have a good fifty million to spare, I'll pick up a condo on the shore.

Anyway, I'm sure there's a lot more that I could say. If you're interested, send me an e-mail; I'll tell you more about whatever you ask.

Chance, Part II Wednesday January 11

I'd like to thank everyone just once again for being so supportive of my family. Many people have written me saying how much they liked Chance, and how difficult they know it is to lose a pet.

I also know that Chance hears it too, and he's smiling about it.

I will get back to Japan on Saturday evening; I am safely back from Thailand and currently in Hong Kong. Pictures to follow sometime this week.

Chance, 1994-2005 Monday January 2

My mom called on New Year's to tell me that Chance had passed away. He was eleven years old. He loved people, acting human, and of course, food. Chance watched me grow up from a teenager into an adult, and last year he helped me through a particularly rough part of my life. I don't know if he ever knew that or not, it doesn't really matter. He was a good dog, despite being such a bad dog. I'm sure you're chasing after Cooper in doggie heaven right now with that smile on your face that tells me that yes, you really do understand English.

I love you Chance, and I miss you. I didn't think that August would be the last time I'd kiss your nose. Don't worry, your figure will stay on my stove right next to Otto, and you're still with me everyday, even if only by the picture on my phone.