Writing introductions is a bit tedious so....just take a look at my first post if you want to know more....

....and if you get curious about the name of this World or my posts, check out the second one.

chimera chord

I caught a cold this weekend. Well, really I was catching it over the previous week too. Somehow, I don't really mind though. It's a good excuse to do nothing on a Monday holiday like today. I managed to wait until after my amazing debut as a Japanese pop star anyway so that was good.

sad to have lost the pic that was here, it was me & my wifey after our "concert" at the international center. we looked hot.

One of the greatest moments of my time here in Japan was walking off that stage and having a little old lady with squinty eyes and no teeth shake my hand and smile like I was a "real" star. Someone worthy of being proud to say "I shook hands with her!" about when she went home to her grandchildren. And then the whirlwind of Pin and Sarah hugging me and saying "You were great!" over and over. Like a dream. Just like Nana. In the cold rain of the afternoon I could think of all the mistakes I and my accompanists made during the performance, but no matter how many times since then I've pointed them out to someone they've all just laughed and said I was being too critical. It's nice to be loved.

Thanksgiving came and went. No food pictures yet, but many were taken. Much was eaten and all who attended seemed to enjoy themselves. The hole left by those who were absent was almost unnoticeable. Almost. Still, Sarah was happy with things, so I was too. I made use of my ninja skills as best I could. The mistress makes the guests happy, the ninja makes the mistress happy so that she can do her job right. And catches the chocolate sauce when she squeezes the bottle too hard and the top pops off all over someone's pumpkin cheesecake.....

The thing that made me the most satisfied with this Thanksgiving was in the end my friend's 7 year old son Kai. He's a shy little guy, probably owing at least partially to the fact that he's one of the rarest minorities there is: African American/Japanese. His mom asked me if he could sit by me while I played DS when they first got there since we get along pretty well, but he hadn't brought his for some reason. Lucky for us about 4 of our other friends had theirs so we stole Sarah's for him while she was cooking. Soon enough we had a 4 player MarioKart tournament going and when I had to go back to the mistress I knew he was in good hands with her boyfriend, his own father, and a couple others who he'd started to accept by that time. I couldn't play with him much after that, but I got the best video of the night when he started playing battle tops with 2 of the guests on the kitchen floor. He was laughing like I'd never seen before. He almost sounded like his dad when he throws his head back and opens his mouth wide and everyone can see he's completely at ease and in love with his surroundings. Seeing Kai-kun cheer and yell and giggle like a real kid warms my heart like nothing else.

Dregs of Hypnosis

I have a problem with being obsessive. My otaku personality demands it. I finished playing Final Fantasy III nearly a month ago and I still can't stop thinking about it. As far as I can tell no other RPG out there is as good. This is probably due to the fact that it's ridiculously old and no other RPG is made like it anymore. Still, I'd like to go back and play it again, but somehow it seems hollow. If you already know what's going to happen, what's the point? Then again, why read books more than once? There's something comforting in the familiarity of every phrase, every chapter title, every emotional moment. Maybe I'll take it home with me and play on the airplane, no guide this time....

For the time being I'm content to contemplate the likelihood of drawing pictures of my friends in FFIII garb. I just can't seem to pin down who any of them should be. I like to categorize, organize, and summarize. I like to fit things into neat order so I can understand them and characters are something I understand very well. Real people on the other hand.....not so much....

Upon reflection, my 6 friends maybe weren't so appropriately matched after all. It seems as though the three of us in the middle, the links if you will, chose to pull the others together for our own sake. We wanted the security of belonging to something in this crowded island country where we'll never belong. No matter how hard we try to be happy with that, enjoy the perks of being different, us sentimental types really need a family of sorts to be comfortable. So we pulled them together, tried to sew and bind them to each other in order to keep them by our sides. To give us an excuse to be together we gave it a name and made holiday plans. I even became Nana and tried to machinate a romance to keep someone in my own little garden. They didn't want it, not one of them. I suppose to their credit they care enough about at least one of us to have given it a try.

Curse Named Love

Last Friday, I had nothing to say. Nothing was happening here in the city called "Silent Hill". Last Saturday, things happened. I thought about them, but because more things happened on Sunday I had to let those things go. Then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday ticked by. In a few more hours it'll be Friday again. All the things that happened, all the words I'd thought about, all the analyses are still there vaguely floating around in my mind but not nearly as crisp and neatly organized as when I'd originally thought to write about them. Every night I thought, "I should do that," but I didn't because it was more important to go and be with the people who for some reason or another keep me around.

at one time there was a photo here explaining the next paragraph, but it's lost...

I am in love with these two girls. The Umi and Fuu to my Hikaru. The Hachi and Misato to my Nana. My Nichole and Beth of Japan. Stacey and Sarah. On Tuesday we were all at a horribly boring teaching seminar and during the last speech of the day Sarah decided to lay her head on my shoulder. This isn't a new occurrence, people do it to me all the time. I'm tall. I'm used to it. But for some reason I had the most panicky feeling. Like I couldn't breathe. Well, more I shouldn't breathe perhaps.........I asked the boys if they get that way and got three of the best, most 気にっている answers ever out of them. Brian, the perverted joker answer, Mel, the sneaky liar answer, and of course Pin, the sentimental thinker answer. I love my boys too.

Wednesday was Stacey's birthday. She's 23. It seems like a million years ago that I was 23. Can't say I miss it really, but she'll be happy there. I was proud of myself yesterday. All I wanted was for her to be happy and I think I did good.

I'm glad it's nearly Thanksgiving. We need our Passover. Our moment of solace and cohesion. It's getting cold outside. Maybe I can't save everyone by myself, but if I can give them all a little of what they need maybe they can save each other.

urge for unite

Happy Birthday Mr. Obama. Errr.........or something like that. And a Happy Election to all you Republican suckers out there. I've never felt so American in my life as I do right now. People in Japan are surprisingly interested in the US's political dealings. They always tell me, "It's because we don't get to vote like that." and I want to say, "Our votes don't do shit in the end." but maybe, just maybe today my faith has been restored. With the redemption of my own home state (thanks for 8 years of screwing with people Jeb Bush...) and the rise of a new era of Democratic power I might just see my way back to the land of the free sometime in the next 5 years or so.

On the subject, but a smaller scale my friends are giving me a bit of cause to worry recently. I have a pretty solid group of six (well, 6 including me that is) that I hand out with. It couldn't be more ideal really, 3 girls, 3 guys, different ages, different races, different backgrounds and apparently nothing at all in common yet somehow it works. If we're not all together than almost always in some combination of 2's or 3's or 4's. The last month has been hard on everyone in different ways though and the strain is starting to show. The splinters are poking out and driving themselves in between us. I remember thinking, "this can't possibly last," back in the end of summer when everyone was ridiculously happy for no reason at all. And so I tried to enjoy it. Let it go the way it would. But now....now, I want it back, inevitably. And who wouldn't? Those idyllic moments of laughter, drunkenness, and just simple togetherness were good. Better than good. They were real. And real is something I haven't experienced much, even in 29 and a half years. I can't be the only one. I know it. Can we have a little solidarity please?

Blockin' Beast

I am in love with this bear.

Another thing I'm in love with is taiyaki. I can't remember what the 'tai' means at the moment, but 'yaki' means grilled. It's a kind of bready substance, almost pancakey in it's consistency that's filled with either custard or sweet red bean paste and shaped like a little fish. Its' about the best food ever and I really don't know what I'll do without it if I ever move out of Japan. There's pretty much no bad point to it. It's small, easy to hold, usually only around 100yen, sweet, filling, and reasonably nutritious. Even if the outside is a little too brown, or the anko on the inside is a little too chunky, or the whole thing is a little too cold there's still nothing like biking up to the grocery store on an empty stomach and seeing the taiyaki man's stall outside. There's a permanent stand in the basement of the train station too and the proprietors of both of these know me well by now. In Japan eating outdoors is somewhat frowned upon, but when it's something bought at an outdoor stall (and you're a foreigner) it's excusable. I don't see much point in not eating it while it's hot, it's almost an insult to the man who made it and that first bite never disappoints.