Won't Miss #515 - the toilet seats

At the risk of inviting comments about fat American asses (any such comments won't survive the moderator, just a word of warning), I have to say that the toilet seats in Japan were generally thin plastic affairs which tended to crack over time. This happened not only to the seat we used in my apartment, but also to the ones that were used by the offices that I worked in. This happened because,

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Will Miss #514 - skinny Santas

Santa didn't used to be fat. This is something that I learned with a little research. It seems that the image of Santa which has become quite popular comes to us courtesy of Coca-Cola. They thought that a jolly, chubby Santa was more fun than a severe, skinny one. I don't know if the rotund Santa is popular worldwide, but I do know that that is the only way that I ever saw him growing up in

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Random Memories #31

This is the thing that got me my first job in Japan. 



Note: This is somewhat of a continuation from my previous post about getting jobs in Japan.


Some moments in life are burned into your memory with perfect clarity. This is not so strange. What is odd to me is that the ones you recall with photographic-memory-like clarity are not necessarily the ones that are the most meaningful. For

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Won't Miss #19 - lack of whole grain foods (reflection)

A selection of lovely bread products from the excellent bakery, Antendo. 


There were all sorts of foods that I was looking forward to trying in America, and none more so than the plethora of whole grain bread options. The idea of walking into a store and grabbing a bag of Orowheat bread instead of having to make my own sounded pretty awesome. And it was, but the truth is that I'm still

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Will Miss #19 - New Year's being a real holiday (reflection)

One of the things my students used to tell me was that they were interested in how I viewed parts of their lives as remarkable. We don't know what may look weird or unique to others until we experience another perspective. This was absolutely one of the best things about living in Japan. It made me feel more alive every day to be so aware of my surroundings.



Of course, as time goes by, you

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Random Memories #30

In an e-mail recently, someone asked me how I got my jobs in Japan. It wasn't until I'd written my reply that I realized that the manner in which I scored the few jobs that I had are actually pretty outdated by modern standards. Over the years, some things about job-hunting have changed, and others have stayed the same. Women are still preferred for jobs when teaching children is the work.

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Won't Miss #514 - kamaboko

Sometimes you'll go into a market or convenience store in Japan and see pretty pink and white or green spirals with scalloped edges that look like some sort of candy. In fact, they bring to mind slices of potato candy, a concoction of peanut butter, mashed potatoes and powdered sugar which sounds horrible, but is tasty in a way that is hard to describe, especially when you're a poor child and

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Will Miss #513 - culture of luck

When I was a kid, I remember finding an odd fuzzy, finger-shaped thing with a metal cap and a beaded key chain on one end at my grandparents' home. I asked what it was and my grandmother said that it was a rabbit's foot. I asked her why she would have such a thing and she said it was for luck. These days, I doubt that many people have the decapitated body parts of unfortunate lapine creatures

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Random Thoughts: Imperfect Among Equals

I audited (took, but didn't get credit for) a class on psychopharmacology at my husband's graduate school during the previous quarter. This is one of those things which I can do here that I couldn't imagine being able to do in Japan. I somehow doubt that spouses can take part in their partner's classes, let alone do so for free.

This experience was an interesting way of being immersed in a

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Won't Miss #18 - high price of fresh fruit (reflection)

One of the things I've had the luxury of doing since returning to the U.S. is consuming a steady diet of strawberries, grapes, pineapple, and clementines. I can buy them in copious amounts at Costco for reasonable or cheap prices (depending on the season). What is more, I actually own a refrigerator which is big enough to accommodate the large volume containers.



What is that you say about

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Will Miss #18 - strange station art (reflection)

I've been on public transport relatively little in America, and that's because there is relatively little of such transport. What little "art" I tend to see related to such areas tends to be graffiti which has been scrawled by bored miscreants. While I do believe that some graffiti art is quite impressive, the vast majority is balloon words with faux depth and hastily scrawled words.



In

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Random Memories #29

Studio Alta, around spring of 1989.


I once read a book written by a woman who believed she remembered past lives and could access future lives. The book was published quite some time ago, and one of the things she talked about enjoying in the future was interactive displays at stores. At the time the book was written, that seemed on the futuristic side. By the time I left Japan, such things

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Won't Miss #513 - crowded graphic design

After 3 years in Japan, 2 of which I spent teaching English at Nova conversation school and the 3rd of which I spent recovering from surgery, I started to work for a company that sold and produced correspondence lessons. During the busy times, about half the year, I corrected student homework essays and talked to them on the phone for 5-minute "lessons". During the other half of the year, I

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