Going to California With an Aching In My Heart

I don’t know if I was just dozing off or heading in the opposite direction. I have this faint memory of just a moment earlier, thinking that I shouldn’t have chugged that last bit of water, and that I should not have had that Coke. I have a real aversion to using restrooms on airplanes. No idea why. I was sleepily doing the math: what’s 1 liter + 12 oz.? I think that thought ended – interrupted by something resembling sleep. Then sleep or whatever ended – interrupted by something that sounded like a garbage bag full of bottles crashing to the ground (and mostly shattering). What a strange sound on an airplane.

Something about that rude awakening (or whatever) was a catalyst for a rapid series of thoughts. Not really thoughts. More like introspections? I was reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and now my own voice sounds all deep (in the mystical sense, not in terms of pitch). Mostly I just want to capture all the things I thought in the span of a few seconds before they’re gone. These thoughts always seem so profound when they occur and then seem dumb later. It’s hard to tell if that’s because grogginess makes them seem valuable, or if some significant part of the thought process is forgotten once all the senses are fully recovered.

What’s on my mind, secondarily, is my mom. What’s on my mind, primarily, is blogging. Addressing this primary thought, I’m concerned with wanting to do it, doing it, people reading it, and wanting (or not) them to read it, in no particular order.

I guess I should take a step back and assume that YOU are reading these blog entries like chapters in a book.

No, wait. Before we even do that, let me say that there’s a good chance this is going to be a really long entry. Continue at your own risk (since there seems to be a fear of reading things online that are more than 200 words or so, I must presume there are consequences – actually I presume no such thing, and am merely being an obnoxious combination of sarcastic and condescending).

Okay, so stepping back in case YOU have some expectation of continuity in the Arian’s Adventures blog. As you may discern from the dates of the posts, a lot of adventuring has not been recorded. The last entry being from the morning of the day of my departure from Japan. To that end there are two things worth sharing here. One is some description of what has happened since then, and the other is an attempt to explain why I’ve failed to capture any adventures in blog form since I returned.

First things first. I returned from Japan to a humble apartment in New York City, which is shared by my fiancé (see earlier posts), and future sister in law. I had a couple months worth of adventuring there, before Susan and I spent most of the summer in Florida. I was there (FL) to keep the grandma out of trouble while my pops and step-mom took a road trip. None of those plans really went according to plan, and the focus (if there was one) of my time in Florida shifted. I won’t try to recall ten weeks worth of activity – even in a long blog post. Suffice it to say that I got to spend some real quality time with family and friends, and it was all over simultaneously too soon and not soon enough.

I returned from Florida to NY around the middle of August. Since then I’ve been hammering away at professional endeavors, practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at the Renzo Gracie Academy, and generally adapting to my surroundings. Earlier today, in my mind, I referred to that last bit as looking for Buddha in the sewer. If you look for him, you won’t find him. If you don’t look for him, you won’t find him. But he’s there. Faith!

Okay, so the second thing I was going to address is the act of blogging itself. More specifically whether I want to, and if so, why don’t I do it? The fact is, I think about it often and feel compelled to do it. The problem is that I get tangled in a complex web of ambivalences.

I just have to interrupt myself to mention how annoying I find the endless pilot and crew announcements. Don’t these guys have anything to do besides talk?!

Anyway, ambivalences. On one hand I want to share my thoughts and experiences. On the other hand, I’m embarrassed to admit that any part of me has the arrogance to think that anyone cares. If no one cares, isn’t it rude or at least pointless to share it? Separate from that, I also find the conventions of blogging a bit frustrating. As a rule, everyone knows you shouldn’t write more than a couple paragraphs, or no one will read. But sometimes I feel like I can’t make a point without a whole lot of words. That’s another embarrassing weakness.

Anyway, the solution I’ve come up with is that I’m doing this for me. I don’t think anyone is reading. It’s probably better that way.

Well, I was definitely right to anticipate that once the cobwebs cleared, the above doesn’t sound particularly purposeful. I’m going with it anyway.

So now that I’ve gotten the background stuff out of the way, it’s time to get on with today’s “adventures”. I’m flying from New York to Los Angeles. Once I land, I’m picking up a rental car and driving to Monterey, CA. My mother was born near there.

At this point there is an important fact that I’m not sure I ever shared in a previous post. If there is anyone reading, this fact is likely already known to them (you). Last summer (July ’08) my mother passed away rather suddenly.

My aunts and uncle have planned to scatter her ashes near the place of her birth. I’m on my way to meet them. So, this is the thing that was on my mind when I awoke from that crashing sound earlier. I feel so strange. I don’t mean I have a strange feeling, I mean that I feel like I am strange. I feel a little anxious about this event, but I’m not sure why. I think I feel suspicious of this ritual. What is its purpose? I suspect its purpose is to create some kind of sense of closure. My first reaction to that is that I don’t need any closure. But I think it would be more honest to say that I don’t want any closure. I think about my mom often, and at those times I miss her. It’s not a heavy sadness, and it’s not at all a burden to carry. I think I’d just as soon continue carrying it indefinitely. That’s probably not a healthy solution, but that’s just what I feel like.

What is it about me that is strange? I doubt the feelings I’ve described are very strange. I think I feel like I’m strange, because I have a tendency to analyze my feelings. Not just observe them, but really take them apart. Look at them from every angle, and poke and prod them like a biologist examining some kind of caterpillar. I dissect them into so many pieces. But then I find all these contradictions and even uncertainties. I end up being at once super-aware of my emotions and feeling very little.

I just need to get off this plane and get on the open road. Even though I’m arriving late, I plan to drive for a couple hours before settling into a hotel. I want to get to I-5, north of The Valley while there’s no traffic. Plus, there is nothing more relaxing than a couple hours on the open road and a night in a cheap motel room.

Last Day!

Ok, so I admit... I'm the worst blogger ever! I wanted to post a new blog entry, before leaving Japan, but I didnt' get to it. I will post it - I still have a little more to say about Tokyo! Anyway, since I have to leave to go to Narita airport in about 3 hours, I'll just settle for the following video. This video was taken by my buddy/roommate, Aaron. It shares what I've seen every day for the last three months, as these are typical routes for us.

Ok, video won't upload for some reason (prob too big). Get back to you on this one.

Anyway, be home in 18 hours!!!

Peace.

P.S. Yes, I know this makes me the all time worst blogger... jeez... get off my case!

Just Another Day

For the first time in a while I managed to get up fairly early today. The plan was to take Shiela to the Kinokunya bookstore in Shinjuku, so she could get an English-Japanese dictionary. This bookstore is AMAZING! It really makes me wish I could read Japanese. Luckily, at least one of the eight floors that make up this monolithic Barnes & Noble dwarfer is dedicated to foriegn language books. Most English language books are pretty pricey, making it generally a better deal to buy them on Amazon and have them shipped (even express international shipping is cheaper). But, if you just want to pick up something that's not very expensive to begin with (e.g. dictionary), then Kinokunya is the place to go.

The plan was to follow that up with a local English language yoga class, that I found through an ad on Facebook (apparently I'm the first to respond to that ad that displayed a month ago). As it turned out, the bookstore didn't open until 10am, and the yoga class started at 11am, so we decided to save the bookstore for another day. I still got up at 8:30am, despite getting to sleep at 5am.

The yoga class was ok. I think I had much higher expectations because this guru spent five years studying with BKS Iyengar, whose books on the subject of yoga are some of the most highly regarded. I'm used to doing a broader selection of poses than we did today. The interesting thing is that I enjoy doing the most challenging poses, because the discomfort helps me to mentally detach, and spiritually focus. On the other hand, we only practiced very rudimentary poses today, but I discovered that I still stand to improve greatly on those. This discovery created a kind of discomfort of the ego, which ultimately had a very similar effect. In any case, I'm sure I'll try it again next week.

Afterward, Hampton and I found a neat little cafe that provided Japanese style seating. It's sort of sitting on the floor, except the 'floor' is actually an elevated platform. Shoes are left on the real floor, and you sit however suits your comfort, in front of what is essentially a coffee table. As always, the food was great.

Aside from all that, I've been working on a 'flash card' web application to help me accelerate my Japanese language study. I already built the basic functionality when I first got here. Now I have an enormous list of words that I want to be able to upload into the database via a CSV file. As always, it's just one cryptic error message after another. I'm thinking about dropping Rails and going to PHP. Probably won't though.

Anywho, I think this all might be a bit mundane for a blog entry, but sometimes even Arian's Adventures are mundane.

Getting in the Raivu Hausu

When The Kap’n was here visiting, we pushed it pretty hard. I mean, this city is so dense that by the end of my three month trip I’ll have barely covered the shops, bars, restaurants, cafes, museums, parks, etc., that reside within a five block radius of my apartment. So to try to squeeze in a comprehensive set of experiences in just a week is impossible, but we tried anyway. Combining that with pulling a few all-nighters for work, and a few all-nighters in the local bars, left me with a nagging cold that has persisted since he left. This hasn’t really slowed down the adventures (or stopped me from hanging out in bars), but it has caused me to sleep a lot more.

Aside from sleeping more, there are a few other noteworthy developments that have taken place over the last several days. First, we got a new roommate. She’s an Australian girl that is here for a month as a consultant for a new waxing salon. Going forward, if she comes up, we’ll call her ‘Sheila’ (since I don’t typically use real names - I don’t know why… I just don’t). Sheila is replacing our former roommate - a Taiwanese girl, studying graphic design here in Tokyo. We’ll call her ‘Queenie’, if she comes up (but she probably won’t, since she moved out).

Secondly, I noticed some advancement in my rock climbing skills. Unfortunately, I have mixed feelings about this activity. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s pretty good exercise. Unfortunately, it seems to mostly work the muscles in the hands and forearms, which makes playing guitar very difficult.

Thirdly, we discovered a new favorite neighborhood Chinese restaurant. When I worked at LMB, they catered our lunch everyday. On days which we had Chinese food, it was so bad - imho - that it literally ruined Chinese for me forever. I simply couldn’t imagine eating it anymore - good or otherwise. In Tokyo, it’s the opposite, but the same problematic outcome. The Chinese food is so good that it has ruined Chinese food for me forever. I can’t describe it. It’s the same familiar dishes, but with flavor and texture so extraordinary, that to this point I never believed something so delicious was even possible. Of course, extraordinarily delicious food is the standard here. Interestingly, it seems that some restaurants have an elegant theme, and some have a casual theme, but this doesn’t affect the price or quality. Quality is always as good as possible. Price is always pretty normal for a casual restaurant in LA - $12 - $18/plate. Mind you, there’s no tipping in Japan. So, it really evens out, even in cases where the price is a little higher than the US.

Lastly, we found a favorite (tied for like top five favorite) neighborhood bar. It’s called Daze, and I definitely recommend checking it out if you’re ever in the Harajuku area of Tokyo. Although seriously, good luck finding it. Everything in this area is obscure. It’s just a vast, endless, network of tiny, one lane streets, that combine every kind of shop and residence, like the organized chaos of a Zen garden. I even know of a custom clothing shop that is upstairs from a small bar, and can only be accessed by entering that bar and going up the stairs in the back. However, that bar can only be entered by first entering another bar and passing through to the hidden entrance in back. That street facing bar, is on the corner of two tiny, one lane streets/alley ways, and all together there are no signs for any of these businesses. For that matter, these streets - like most streets in Japan - don’t have names.

Let me add that I usually don’t enjoy going out to bars very much. Here it is quite different, though. The bars are very small, usually only accommodating between six (small bar) and fifteen (large bar) people. And, I mean - that’s it! It’s like hanging out in a big closet with a bar in it. The benefit is that everyone in the establishment tends to socialize. Everybody ‘cheers’ together, and engages in one large group conversation, etc. The only downside is that there are no smoking bans in place here (except outside, for some reason), and everybody in Japan smokes.

Anyway, I digress. We found this place called Daze, which is tucked away on the third floor of a building that sits on a small alley between two parallel allies. It holds about 12 people comfortably, and has an upscale vibe to it. As is often the case, the bartender is also the owner. But, he’s also a part time sound/recording engineer. He supports many bands in “live houses” (what they call live music venues) around Tokyo. After mentioning that I play and teach guitar, he asked (maybe in a somewhat challenging way) if I’d like to play a guitar that they already have set up with the house PA system. Being just drunk enough, I accepted. He seemed to like my playing, and on a subsequent visit, has offered to get me gigs here the next time I visit (as long as I play his place first). Sweet! That is exactly the kind of connection I was hoping to find.

Those are the adventures for today! Peace, yo!

Battle of Roppongi Hills

Wow, so much has gone down since my last entry that I don’t even know where to begin! I guess I’ll begin with where I left off in my last entry!

So, The Kap’n came out to Tokyo for a visit. This really represented a turning point in my experience here, because showing him around was my first experience with trying to be really self reliant in this country. I pulled it off quite well indeed, if I do say so myself. My ability to speak Japanese is still no where near conversational, but it does seem to be adequate for survival. I can order food (not so easy, being vegetarian in this country), get directions, shop, ride the subway (also quite complex), etc.

What did we do with my amazing travel guide skills? Mostly we hung out in bars every night until the sun came up. Good times! We did also manage to squeeze in a visit to Meiji Jingu, which is a fabulous Shinto shrine dedicated to the 19th century emperor Meiji, who is considered the father of the modern era of Japan (and unfairly villainized in the movie The Last Samurai). We also strolled the grounds of the Imperial Palace (where the current emperor lives), which I must admit was more than a little underwhelming. It seems that the best - and presumably only interesting - part is closed off this time of year. We tried to go to the top of the Tokyo Government Building, which has an observation deck with a supposedly spectacular view. I asked how we could get to the top and I was told that it’s not possible. Huh? Oh, closed. When is it possible? Huh? What’s that word? Suiyobi… that sounds familiar… hmm. 10 minutes later - oh … WEDNESDAY! They’re closed on Wednesdays… of course! Sheesh. Anyway, no matter, because we also went to a museum in Roppongi, followed by a trip to the top of Roppongi Hill (see picture), which is another incredibly tall building with an observation deck and a stunning view. We were also pleased to discover a great modern art museum and a really swank bar at the top. More good times! We finished up by hitting the main strip in Roppongi. Let me just say that if you ever visit Tokyo, don’t go to see the nightlife in Roppongi. Holy geez, what a jarringly unpleasant experience compared to the rest of the city. FYI, it’s considered a ’gaijin’ district. That is, it is filled with foreigners, hence being the only part of town filled with rude, pushy, obnoxious, dirt bags, and signs that say “beware of pickpockets”!

At this point, I have to share a really unusual phenomenon. Japanese people are generally very courteous and polite and mild mannered. Apparently there is a need for pushy con-artists that cannot be fulfilled by their culture. Thus, African migrant workers to the rescue! In any of the areas of ultra-heavy foot traffic there are African immigrants posted at various corners and doorways that randomly engage passersby and try to solicit them. The solicitation varies depending on the neighborhood, but generally ranges from going to some particular strip club, to getting a “massage”, to “hey, come with me if you like to have a good time” (I don’t know if this is for prostitutes for drugs, or just to go get robbed in an alley). My understanding is that these migrant workers are actually more like indentured servants, employed either by more successful African or Russian “businessmen”. They are annoying, but generally tolerable in most of the places I’ve been. But, in Roppongi it was a nightmare. We were literally accosted by about six different guys in the span of about ½ block. And, each one of them was determined not to take “no” for an answer (even though they seemed equally determined to make the question totally unclear).

Anyway, the bulk of our adventures took place in the wide selection of small bars that populate my neighborhood. But, I’ll save that for my next installment!

In the mean time, I had a special request to discuss any experiences I may have had with “eastern style” toilets. Okay, so for those of you that don’t know, these are basically a hole in the floor. They are a minority, but not totally uncommon in public restrooms. I really don’t understand the concept at all. They essentially require the user to squat down, but they don’t provide any hand rails or anything. In theory they are supposed to be more sanitary, because the user doesn’t actually make contact with the commode. But that theory fails in practice because a.) there are aim issues that make the surrounding floor less sanitary; and b.) the hover technique has been providing a no contact solution in the western world for thousands of years (that’s an estimate). Anyway, I personally have not had any experience with these, aside from seeing them in some public restrooms. While I’m on the subject, however, I’ll add that the western style toilets here are actually more clever than those in America. First, the handle flushes both directions - one way is “big”, and the other is “small”, thus enabling water economy where possible. The second difference is that when flushed, the water that fills the tank actually pours first from a faucet, into a small sink, and then into the tank via the drain in the sink. The value of this is that the user can wash their hands with the water that is used to fill the tank. Unfortunately, this too fails in practice, because it has never occurred to the Japanese to place a soap dispenser/dish or towel rack anywhere near this little sink. Instead those things are placed next to the “real” sink, which is usually just outside the room that the toilet is in (the toilet has its own room, as opposed to the multi-purpose “bathrooms” we’re used to).

I hope that answers your question Ambular.

Anyway, I have a LOT more to write about, and only three weeks left in my trip. So, I’m quite sure I’ll be a much busier blogger over the next few weeks. I hope I still have a few readers left to look forward to the next exciting installment, when I wrap up the details of my week long fiesta with The Kap’n.

Guilt

Ok, so I was feeling a little guilty that I haven't posted anything recently. I've been working around the clock - literally! I had a few days there where I got back to sleeping from 12am - 8am. It was great. But then I worked from 10am - 10am, and I was all messed up again.

I've really settled into a routine here. But, things are about to be shaken up! My buddy The Kap'n is coming out to visit for a week. The adventure will begin in a few hours, with me trying to make my way to the airport. The timing is perfect, as I've just finished the bulk of the work for a huge project, and the rest of this week should be fairly mellow as far as work is concerned.

Anywho, I need to get what little sleep I can. I just wanted to throw something out there for you - mostly because of the guilt I mentioned above.

Between Beginning and End

The current ongoing adventure is uncontrollable, erratic sleep patterns. But, since that in and of itself is not particularly interesting, let me instead paint a picture of my daily life in Tokyo.

I wake up sometime between 9:30am and 4pm. This literally changes dramatically from day to day. I then spend a few minutes checking all my online conduits to the free world (several email accounts, Facebook, and maybe Linked In), and a few more minutes chatting with various people (you know who you are) for both personal and professional reasons.

After 30 - 60 minutes of sitting on my floor mat (where I sleep) with computer in hand, I have a 30 - 45 minute yoga session. I cannot over express what an excellent way this is to start the day. It rids all the aches, pains, stiffness, sleepy cobwebs, etc., and gets the breath steady. It also recalibrates physical, mental, and spiritual attentiveness for all that awaits in the new day. This is followed by cooking a hearty breakfast - cereal, fruit, potatoes, tofu "scramble", toast, V8, and coffee.

The rest of my "day" is a mosaic of various activities. I am spending many hours working, which currently consists primarily of building web pages, but also includes a bit of establishing marketing relationships for clients. I work from home and in different cafes throughout my general area in Tokyo. On one hand, I prefer to be out integrating with the culture of the city around me. On the other hand, the only cafe that does not permit smoking is Starbucks, and they don't have wifi. Without wifi I can't work. So, I work in other cafes as long as I can stand the smoking, and then I work from home. By the way, if you are a smoker - please quit.

Besides work, of course there are the usual household chores: grocery shopping (which I do frequently because we have a tiny refrigerator), mailing letters, I don't know... whatever chores you do around town, I'm doing them too. Of course, I use a bicycle to get around when I'm doing them. And for that matter - you should too.

In the evening, I've also been going to a rock climbing gym a couple days a week. But, when I'm not doing that (which is most of the time), I usually just cook some Asian themed dinner (some combination of noodles, beans, mushrooms, and seaweed - just add sesame seeds!) and then either work more, go out drinking, or study (yoga, web programming, zen Buddhism, Japanese language are the main topics currently).

I was feeling a little guilty that I haven't been doing more shopping or sightseeing. I will do those things (and have done some already), but that's not the kind of experience I came here for. I really wanted to know what it's like to live here - not be a tourist. It's basically a lot like my life in America, except filled with new insights and a lot of asthetically pleasing details.

At the end of it all I manage to hit the sack sometime between 4am and 8am.

Japanese Vegetarian Bike Cops

I had a bit of an adventure today. I’ve been in Japan for less than three weeks, and I’ve already had a run in with the law. We parked our bicycles where we weren’t supposed to, and they were impounded. This is a little trickier than it sounds. There aren’t really very many places where locking a bicycle is allowed. However, bicycles are in heavy use in Tokyo, and they are parked everywhere! There are even other bicycles parked where ours were parked, but I guess we were made an example.

Anyway, the police left a note for us, but this was hard to decipher, as we don’t read kanji. We figured that our locks had been cut, so we returned to the bike store where we bought them, and while there we got an employee to read the note for us. From there it wasn’t a very big deal. Just a two mile walk to the impound, and 2,000 yen each to get them back (about $20 USD).

Next to the impound we found the Japanese counterpart to the Asian grocers found in America - a ‘western’ grocer, so to speak. This was pretty exciting, because they had a few things that are hard to find anywhere else - particularly tortilla chips. So now I can buy an $8 avocado and make the most expensive guacamole of my life.

From there we discovered yet another awesome restaurant/bar. It was quiet, dimly lit, well stocked (Hoegaarden on tap), and easily made me feel underdressed in jeans. The food was fantastic, as usual, and they had some great jazz playing on the radio. Now as I write this, we’re listening to more great jazz, and hanging out in our favorite haunt - a little café called The Brown Sheep.

This leads me to a few more of the many observations I have to make about Tokyo. First, there is jazz EVERYWHERE! I mean, not just every restaurant, every bar, every café, but even 7-11, book stores, wherever. If they have music, it’s jazz. This has reinvigorated my love of this music in a way that I haven’t felt for a long time. And, I don’t mean smooth ‘jazz’, or fusion, or some other pseudo jazz. I mean, Bird, Coltrane, Joe Pass, … Wynton Kelly at this very moment.

On the subject of going out, I should discuss two other topics: getting around, and being vegetarian.

Getting around is pretty easy, in the sense that everything you need is easy walking distance from wherever you are, Tokyo is bicycle friendly, and there’s great public transportation. It’s difficult in that it’s hard to get and keep your bearings. All the roads are very windy, and most of them don’t have names. Plus, many of the signs for stores are written in kanji, so it’s hard to create any landmarks. Also, I find riding (my bike) on the left side of the road to be very unfamiliar to the point of being confusing. Making a right turn is still hard for me to wrap my head around. Also, when crossing the street, there’s a tendency to look the wrong way for oncoming traffic!

Being vegetarian in Tokyo isn’t as hard as I feared, but it’s not without a bit of challenge. I’d heard from many people, and read online, that it’s impossible to be vegetarian in Japan, because no Japanese food is vegetarian. This is half true. Very little Japanese food is vegetarian. However, there’s way more to Tokyo than just Japanese food. It’s a huge city, and they have everything - Thai, Chinese, Indian, etc. They have many familiar restaurant chains - Subway, Pizza Hut, Dominoes, McDonald’s, etc. There’s even Shakey’s Pizza! Of course, I don’t want to come all the way to Tokyo and just eat American fast food. So, much of what I’m eating is unfamiliar. In those cases, it’s difficult to communicate my vegetarian preference, as it’s a rather foreign concept to the Japanese.

Another foreign concept here, is the idea of being flexible with the menu. If it ain’t on the menu, you ain’t getting it. At a curry restaurant I saw one curry meal that came with rice and salad. There was another that just came with salad, which is what I wanted. Unfortunately, I couldn’t order the curry flavor I wanted without the rice, because it wasn’t on the menu that way! All that said, I’m so far managing just fine, and in fact, having some of the best food of my life. Also, I’m able to get most of the groceries that I need to cook great meals at home.

That’s all for now!
P.S. Comment your questions if you got ‘em!

Even Better Than the Book

Okay, I’m back, and I’m staying back. I wanted to leave some space between my last entry and this one, so nobody would miss the last one. At this point I think all stragglers are in.

Now, you get to hear about Japan. Aside from the fact that I’m in Japan, I haven’t really had any “adventures” in the way that I mean that word in the title of this blog. However, this is an incredible place, and I’ve had a tremendous amount to soak up in these first two weeks. If you know me well, you know I’ve always been a bit of an Asiaphile, specifically a Japanophile. I’ve been dreaming about living in this country for nearly 20 years!

In coming here, my concern was that I’d built it up too much. Sort of like a movie that can never live up to the anticipation, I half expected that being in Japan really wouldn’t feel as remarkable as I expected. I predicted this, especially because my interest has always been mostly in traditional Japanese art and culture, which I already knew is not exactly what Tokyo is all about. Well, I’ve been pleased to discover that my experience has so far greatly exceeded all my expectations. I don’t know if I was Japanese in a past life or something, but I really feel at home here. It took me three years to feel that way about L.A., and about three hours to feel that way about Tokyo (don’t worry Ormond, you’re still my main squeeze)!

So first of all, what have I been doing? The first whole week was mostly spent shopping for things to get settled in. I’m not in a hotel or anything, I have an apartment for three months. So, dish soap, towels, groceries, etc. Plus we were shopping for a couple bigger items: I had to get a cell phone and plan that I could use here, and I had to get a bicycle to get around. This whole process also took an unusually long time, because we had to find places, get acquainted, and stop and check out every neat thing that came across our path.

By the way, by “we” I mean me and my buddy Aaron. He’s lived here twice, for a total of about 18 months, and has visited like five other times. He speaks Japanese fluently, and knows his way around our neighborhood pretty well. This trip really wouldn’t work for me without his help. I’m pretty resourceful, but I don’t think I could have nearly this complete of an experience.

Once we got settled in, we began filling our days with a variety of activities: cycling, yoga, rock climbing (bouldering actually, and in a gym, not on a real rock), Japanese language study, cooking, drinking in bars, and working. Just so you know, two of the business ventures I’ve moved into are moving forward already - panning out better than expected! We also met up with an American friend of Aaron, who happened to also be here. On that occasion we went to Meiji Jingu, which is a temple erected in honor of the 19th century Emperor Meiji, who is credited with modernizing Japan. It’s an extraordinary temple, set on grounds the size of Central Park (if you haven’t been to NYC, trust me, that’s big)! And, it happens to be right down the street from our apartment - the perfect location for a bit of jogging.

Okay, so I know many of you are dying to know about how Japan compares to America - what’s different? Well, this blog is already kind of long, and this is a long topic. So, I’ll give you a couple tidbits, and then I’ll spread the rest out over future posts (which I promise will be much more frequent).

The first thing I noticed is how clean this city is. Americans, we really need to get it together and take a little more pride in the way we care for our surroundings. I mean, this city has four times as many people as NYC, and there is nary a piece of trash to be found - not even a cigarette butt! I saw one piece of paper on the ground by a store that had probably just been dropped accidentally, and a policeman walked over to it, picked it up, and carried it to a waste receptacle! Trash is actually kind of complicated here. Everywhere - including my apartment - there are multiple containers for paper, plastic, and other. Everybody respects this system, and discards their waste accordingly. I can’t picture every customer in an American McDonald’s removing the lid and straw from their cup, to throw them in one bin, while throwing the ice and liquid in another, and then the paper cup in another. But, it works here. People just do it. Amazing!

Here’s a little difference - a subtle small thing to remind you you’re amidst a foreign culture. In every store, or restaurant, or whatever, every cash register has a little tray next to it. That is where you place the money. You don’t hand the money to the cashier. You place the money on the tray, and then they pick it up. Oh, and along those lines, some of the more sophisticated stores don’t even open the register. They just insert the money into a slot, and the register spits out the correct change! It’s so cool!

Alright, this is a major blog code length violation. I’ve got tons more to say about the ways in which Tokyo differs from American cities, but it will have to wait. For now just know that I’m having a great time. I already know for certain that I will come here again many times. And at the same time, I miss you all!

P.S. Thanks for the push Shayla. Now you don’t have to kill me.

Very Special Entry

Those of you that have been following along will notice that I've just posted several entries at once, in an attempt to fill in the gaps in my adventures over the past few weeks. One thing that's difficult about maintaining a blog about one's daily adventures is that the adventures themselves sometimes interfere with allocating time for the blog. Anyway, we're mostly caught up, except that I've been adventuring in Japan for a week now (which is mostly the point of the blog), but we'll get to that soon enough. Before I proceed however, there is something else I want to share - the embarkation into my greatest adventure of all.

First, let me acknowledge that although my life has been full of adventures, I've heretofore not been a particularly adventurous fellow. That is to say that I've spent most of my time busily planning and organizing. But, if you know anything about ducks, you know that it's pretty much impossible to get very many of them in a row for very long. The point is, I've come to believe that nothing ever gets done if you always wait for the conditions to be "just right". If you really want to do something, just do it. Some of you may be skeptical, but let me tell you - it really is as simple as that.

Anyway, this story is the fruit of that realization. For years I've been wanting to move forward, but always waiting patiently for the conditions to be "just right". Even in the past few weeks I had a vision of "slightly compromised" conditions that I decided would be "good enough". As life would have it, even these "compromised" conditions failed to materialize. Enough.

We were cutting it so close to missing my flight from Orlando to Detroit (from which I flew to Japan). Susan suggested that she should just drop me off at the curb, but I insisted that she park. We checked my bag. From there I walked directly to the most serendipitously placed jewelery store, bought the only ring that fit her, and proposed. She accepted. We bid farewell, and I raced through security.

To you readers, I'm sorry to say that I don't expect to have any adventures that top that. Luckily, it's just the beginning...

On the Road Again, Just Can't Wait...

Wednesday, Jan 7 we finally managed to get on the road (more than a week later than I intended). I stopped for gas about 50 miles into the trip, and discovered a fuel leak (there goes that travel curse again). Luckily we were at a full service gas station, and the fix was fairly simple and inexpensive. Unfortunately, it required a part that we couldn’t get until the next day! So, we got a hotel room there in Riverside and got our first good night’s sleep in weeks. Special thanks to Brian at that Shell station off I10 in Riverside. He really went out of his way to expedite the repair (originally it looked like we wouldn’t get the part for three days)! Also, he was just a warm and considerate guy, which hasn’t always been my experience with mechanics (and I used to work with them).

Anywho, we were off again on Thursday morning, but we didn’t even get through Arizona before we ran into another snag. I stopped for gas, only to discover that I’d made a miscalculation and let the balance of our checking account get down to $0 (-$227 actually)! We had only $6 cash, no credit card, no gas, no food, and no place to stay! What I did have was a few checks in my pocket that clearly should have been deposited sooner. It was now the middle of the night, and there was seemingly no way to straighten this out. As it happens our bank will credit the first $100 of an ATM deposit immediately. Of course, making three separate deposits with my three checks would only get us into the positive by $73, which could buy us gas OR a hotel room, but not both. Luckily for us, I have an elaborate budgeting system that involves having three checking accounts and three separate debit cards. I was able to deposit the money into the other accounts, and we were on our way!

We trucked on until 6am - clearing El Paso - before we stopped to rest in the car for a couple hours. Back on the road by 8am, we didn’t stop again until Shreveport, LA! We got a room for the night, then on the last leg of the drive we went from Shreveport all the way to Ormond Beach, FL - arriving at about 8am on Sunday, Jan 11. Whew!

The rest of the week we just relaxed at my Pap’s place, and visited some good old friends.

Packing Parties

We slept in pretty late on that Monday, but once we got going we were full steam ahead on the packing. This kept up for all of two days, until New Year’s Eve, at which time we collaborated with our neighbors (friends) to throw a New Year’s Eve party. There was little planning, and we offered next to zero notice to everyone. Naturally, nobody in L.A. has no plans on this day. Well, nobody except my buddy James - thanks for coming over homie!

Although small in terms of attendance, this was a HUGE party in terms of the self inflicted damage from alcohol consumption. It wasn’t that I drank a lot, just that I drank a lot of different things. Everybody knows this to be a mistake, but somehow at the end of the night I found myself having consumed about 10 different kinds of alcohol! After the stroke of midnight, our party somehow migrated to our friend’s cousin’s place down the street. They were having a real shindig over there, and it turned out to be a great time - especially when me and the Kap’n destroyed Gizmo at some weird version of beer pong.

On the 1st we were back to packing for real. This proved to be the longest, most tedious packing experience of my illustrious career of moving. We loaded everything into a shipping container that is 6’x7’x8’. To give you some perspective, our sofa set filled exactly half of the space. So we had to be very meticulous in our sorting and packing in order fit every other of our combined worldly possessions into the remaining space that was equal in volume only to a sofa set!

We celebrated the shipping off of our things with a happy hour get together at McCabe’s - my favorite pub in Santa Monica. There was a great turnout of our L.A. friends, and it was really gratifying to see that we’ve been blessed with so many great relationships in just the few years that we’ve lived there... we're really going to miss you guys!!!

MMArry Christmas Maniacs

The first full day that we were back in L.A. was Christmas Eve. I think we were both a little cranky from all the traveling, and not at all in the mood to begin packing. I won’t go into details, but suffice it to say that there wasn’t much Christmas spirit happening in our home. However, on Christmas day we rallied. Susan made an enormous and delicious holiday feast, and we enjoyed that along with wine and classic holiday films. We didn’t have a tree, or decorations, or even presents, but I think we had a merry Christmas just the same.

On the 26th we finally got around to packing, but that didn’t last long. The 27th was the night of the UFC fight card of the year! Wanderlei Silva and ‘Rampage’ Jackson proved that one or both of them is not the same fighter they were the last two times they stepped into the ring together, ending with ‘Rampage’s’ brutal knockout of Silva. Frank Mir delivered a major upset by not only out boxing Nogueira, but also serving ‘Nog’ the first knockout of his career. Lastly, the main card of the night was a bit of a disappointment to me. Forrest Griffin failed in his first title defense against Rashad Evans. Not only was I cheering for Forrest, but I feel like he got robbed. He clearly won the first two rounds in terms of landing strikes and controlling the fight. Although looking a little more winded than his opponent going into the third round, he was still leading until he accidentally slipped while throwing a kick, at which point Evans pounced on him and quickly finished him. Evans is clearly a really dangerous fighter, but I’ll need to see him pass at least one more serious test before I’m convinced that he’s great.

A few of my good friends managed to come over to watch the fights. After they finished at about 11pm, in his typical fashion, Flo came up with the crazy idea to go to Vegas. Susan had never been, and I’ve got a blog of adventures to maintain, so I said “what the heck, let’s go”!

The four of us (me, Susan, Flo, and Flo’s roommate, Yotam) embarked on the four hour drive at about 11:30pm. We hit the strip about 3:30am, and by about 4:15am Susan and I were each down about $100. Being fairly experienced blackjack players, we quickly decided to move away from that table. Flo suggested we try craps. I’d never played before, and didn’t even know how. I figured it was a good time to learn, because beginner’s luck is common in gambling. Man, was that the right choice. I still don’t really know how to play, but I just copied everything Flo did. It helped that we were at the hottest table in Vegas history! It took me all of a couple hours to win $1200.

Experience has taught me to quit while you’re ahead, which can be difficult with all the temptation in Vegas. Luckily, as Susan had never been there, we were able to have a pretty fun time just walking around the strip and checking out all the cool casino attractions. We ended up checking into a hotel room at about 11am, and getting a few hours rest. Unfortunately, we rested in shifts, so once Susan and I got up again, we had to wait for those other two drunk maniacs to sleep it off. We got back on the road to L.A. at about 11pm - 24 hours older and $1000 richer than when we left. It was a loooooooong drive back, but quite worth it.

P.S. thanks to Flo for the clever title of this entry.

Susan Sings Songs and Sabotage in the City

Trip to NY:

It’s been a few weeks since I experienced these adventures, so now I guess it just makes sense to breeze through a few highlights. After my hassle ridden flying experience was over, the rest of the stay in NYC was fine. There were a few inconveniences with difficulties catching cabs, etc., but nothing worth writing about at this point.

As for the highlights, I got to hear Susan sing twice: once with her Baroque chamber ensemble, and the second time performing opera scenes. Both performances were excellent all the way around. Of course, I expect an enjoyable performance from her, but you never know what to expect from the rest of the performers. In this case I’d say that she seems to be immersed in a great pool of talent.

Aside from Susan’s performances, I also got to hang out with my old friend Gumby (yes, that’s a nickname). He came to the second of Susan’s performances, and afterward we had dinner at a GREAT Asian themed noodle restaurant in the Time Square neighborhood. Then after that we managed to hit a really cool neighborhood bar - the kind only NYC has to offer. It goes without saying that a LOT of drinking ensued, and a great time was had by all.

Returning to LA:

Once again the Arian travel curse struck. We had major transportation problems getting to the airport, and caught our plane by the skin of our teeth. From there it was just one delay and/or inconvenience after another. It was a great relief to finally be back home.

Needs

Nothing inspires more than moving when it comes to reflecting on the relationship between one and one's possessions. Which is really the owner and which is really owned?

I've just finished packing my possessions more than a week behind my intended schedule. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that this project consumed more than 300 man hours! I'm sure most of you have had this experience. Packing is an almost supernatural phenomenon of perpetually diminishing progress. That is, on day one half of your things will be packed. On day two, half of the remaining things will be packed. On day three, half of the remaining things will be packed. And so on, ad infinitum. The whole time you're thinking "where the heck is this stuff coming from? How did I ever come to own so many things"?!

Now that I'm finished, I'm really puzzling over a better solution. Seriously, I'm looking for some help here. Is there an ideal quantity of possessions? I've gone through purging phases in the past, in which I've discarded nearly everything, only to discover that sleeping naked on the floor of caves became unfashionable for a reason.

As soon as I realized that I was finished with the packing project, I started trying to imagine the least amount of possessions that could fulfill basic human needs practically. I found the path of my own thoughts to be interesting, and so now I'll share them with you.

Using Maslow's hierarchy of needs as a model, I'm interested in considering only some of the most fundamental necessities (in order of urgency): air, water, homeostasis, food. Before we even discuss material possessions, we have to assume some sort of shelter (although toting them around in a shopping cart is also common in L.A.) - in this case an apartment. Well, this conveniently fulfills the first three needs. As you'll see, food becomes the rub.

While food does technically 'grow on trees', they are no longer the most practical access point. Nowadays we have to buy it at a store. Right off the bat I need a vehicle (bicycle in my case) for transporting my food, and thanks to modern social conventions I need some clothing to wear when I'm buying the food as well ("no shoes no shirt no service" as they say). Once I get it home, I'm going to need some pots & pans and minor appliances to prepare it in, AND a spice rack to help me make it delicious. After cooking it we're going to need some dishes and utensils with which to eat it. Although I did spend a couple years in college eating all my meals on the floor, it sucked, so now I realize that a table and some chairs are really the way to go when it comes to dining. Well, now we've already transcended the most primitive eating experience, and it's time to actually enjoy it. This means: with company, add music (ambience); without company, add television (surrogate company). Okay, so add an entertainment center and some CDs and DVDs to the list. It goes without saying that after the dining experience, we're going to need a variety of cleaning supplies for washing dishes, etc. I don't mean to be vulgar, but after the digestion experience, some books and/or magazines might be nice. Then there's the toothbrush and complimentary hygienic supplies that maintain my eating equipment. Last, but not least, I've now got to burn off the calories I just ate, which means a myriad of skateboards and soccer balls to get some exercise with.

There you have it. 300 hours and thousands of dollars later, I've managed to package nothing more than and elaborate food management system.

P.S. I know I promised to start filling you in on the missing Christmas week, only to follow with another undocumented week of adventures. I'll pick up filling in those gaps next time. What can I say... moving across the country while preparing to spend a season on the other side of the world is time consuming!