Temporarily Grounded

As much as I'm sure everyone is dying to know what winter in Japan is like, I just can't bring myself to 'talk about the weather' on this, what is supposed to colorful and exciting documentation of my life. I would be lying though, to say everything is exciting right now, I have gone into more of a hybernation here then ever before, namely because of the lack of central heating in my apartment. I have a few space heaters, but they are really only good for heating one room, so there I stay fortified with English movies and the occasional torture of Japanese TV.*

*Japanese TV comes with 8 basic channels, at any one time at least four of these channels will be airing a show about food, any show about food will consist of a woman dining in a restaurant by herself, there will be a tight close up of a quivering piece of glossy gelatinous food pinched between chopsticks, then the enormous bite will disappear into her mouth, 2 seconds later she will exclaim in estactic delight, "OOOOOOOIISSSSHHHHI!" (Japanese for delicious), she will chew some more, and repeat the cry again. At first I was fascinated and sat through several of these programs back to back, now I can't bear to watch and wish the Japanese could consider varying the word for, tastes good. There is 'UMAI' but only men are supposed to use it, and as I said, these shows only involve women...

A big night out is to the supermarket, which has also become slightly torturous due to SUPERMARKET MUSIC, canned slightly electronic, slightly elevator, wordless covers of some of the worst English songs ever made, "Welcome to The Jungle," anything by the Carpenters, one store only plays a pop version of the Rocky theme song, over and over and over.

Please feel free to donate English materials to my mountain top....