- casting dreams on a fishing rod -

...whoa.

Um, blame any madness whispering through the previous post on lack of sleep and reading Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves before bed? It's an interesting book - crazy and pretentious in places but ultimately addictive and a tangled mess of a narrative(s) that twists beautifully. I'm enjoying how half the story is in footnotes (actually, I think the real story's in the footnotes) and the jeu de langue employed throughout - not-so-random words colour-coded, plays on myth and legend, the absolute uncertainty because the two narrators you're given are certainly unreliable - still, there's a reason I don't read anything suspense-y. Sigh for overactive imaginations.

So. Life in Japan.

Life in Japan and its everpresent state of electing some level of bureaucracy is interesting ... colourful language fails to describe the campaigning process in the rurbanity I call home. Imagine if you will an ice-cream truck or van sized vehicle, sometimes with a small car or group of cars following it as it plods along at 40 km/hr (obeying the speed limit is key). People wave in a genki manner out of the windows if it's warm or behind them if it's cold as vintage loudspeakers on the roof of the van blare out anything from the candidate's name again and again or what probably wouldn't be a catchy slogan even if I understood all of it or odd music choices like the Battle Hymn of the Republic. (No, seriously. I was running for my train at the time and it stopped me cold. Beat the time that some of my punky kids proudly played a recording of revving motorcycle engines to the tune of the Wedding March for me instead of doing their worksheet in class. Yes, that Wedding March; oh, I managed a watery smile at the time but even the memory makes me laugh.)

Best of all is that any time after 7 AM seems to be fair game to start blaring their messages to the world. Eyesores that they are, give me lawn signs in a heartbeat over waking me up half an hour before necessary! Fortunately, election time is over in my corner of the world, but early morning trains and commutes have showed that that isn't the case elsewhere. Poor schmucks. (See, Japan? Another solid reason to insulate your houses and apartments - soundproofing.)

Completely unrelated, but holy man, sauteed shiitake mushrooms? Love. Mom, that Hokkaido butter that you thought was cheese was absolutely worth the exorbitant amount you paid for it, even though it's lived in my freezer for the last handful of months. I wish I felt the compulsion to cook more often (no local cuisine expert am I, sadly) because it almost always turns out well (as long as I don't have to bake - microwave cookies I'll leave to others' expertise!) Too often, this whole cooking-for-one thing is way too much work, which means a lot of living off of insta-food. I'd love to have people to cook for/with, as domestic and silly as that sounds, but everyone is so busy that it seems an unlikely possibility.

And as allusions to this holiday in Canada recently cropped up in e-mails from home but I can't remember just when it was (how quickly we forget...) -- Happy Family Day, whether you're family or soul-family or simply wandering through.

Cheers. ♥