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The phone ringing in
The phone ringing in the night is a demon screaming. As a kid, my parents drilled into me that people don’t call in the middle of the night unless its bad news. I don’t think that we ever had one of those calls when I was a kid–news of a death in the family, or…
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Last night after dinner,
Last night after dinner, Tod & I stopped for coffee and dessert at a coffee shop that captured our eye. The sign was decorated with a mosaic of elephants, and carved wooden elephants lined the display case. The name of the shop is “Zou no ko” which means Elephant Child. One middle-aged man tended the…
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The sun rose early
The sun rose early this morning. Maybe I just went to bed too late. The entire country is one time zone–pretty impressive for a land that spans 20 degrees of longitude. That’s about the same as New York to St. Louis. Hokkaido has it worst. Not only are they at the eastern edge of Japan,…
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A week after arriving
A week after arriving home from Italy, my brain is still swaddled in in the wooly feel of jetlag. This morning I slept until 8:10. I had to get the trash to the pickup point by 8:30. So I leapt out of bed, quickly gathered all the trashcans and other garbage and made a run…
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The cupboard’s been bare
The cupboard’s been bare since we moved in, so yesterday afternoon I shopped along one of my nearby arcades. I bought one item at each of four or five stores. The old ladies who ran the tiny shops were pretty calm about a foreigner coming to buy katsuobushi, kombu and mikan. But when I pointed…
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Expats come and go.
Expats come and go. That’s a way of life here. You have to make friends fast because they might be gone in a couple of months. But when expatriates leave, they have “sayonara sales” to sell off the furniture, appliances and other items they don’t want to ship back. So we get good prices on…
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Thank goodness for our
Thank goodness for our electronic Japanese dictionary. We carry our Canon Wordtank everywhere. Last night at dinner with friends it came in handy several times. What’s the Japanese word for “brisket”? Kantan means simple, but so does tonboku. Which one is better? How do you say “nuclear physics” in Japanese? All these hurdles came up…
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Our phone has started
Our phone has started talking to us. We tried to configure our ISDN terminal adapter to do what we wanted–route our two phone numbers to separate phones. Doesn’t seem like a big challenge. But we still don’t have it right. All of our phones ring no matter which number is dialled. The phone displays caller…
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Anniversary
Today is a full moon, Friday the 13th, and our 11th wedding anniversary. Normally on our anniversary, we visit the place where we were married–Pittsburgh’s South Side–to stroll the streets, windowshop the antique stores and dine at Dairy Queen, just as we did on the day we eloped. This year, we strolled over the Ponte…
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Phone call
Sometimes a phone call is the most wonderful thing. During this short jaunt to the US, I’m keeping busy helping with wedding preparations–always a lot of last minute details–so I don’t have a chance to catch up with friends. But I called one today and chatted for a few minutes. Hearing a voice I love…
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