Autumn and Local Color
I skipped posting last week, yeah. I had this great plan to go to Osaka two weekends ago, but then Aunt Flo came to visit, and I was not about to drag her on a train for hours. Anyway, I was then thinking I could join my boys for their planned weekend events, the hot rod show and the robot show, but no, I couldn't face hours of standing and milling about in crowds. So, could I have posted pictures that Jeff took of the events? Sure, but I'm bitter and it's my blog, so screw it.
Moving on.
Last Friday was Miss Cynthia's birthday. She's a lushy sort (as all my favorite girls are), so I figured dinner would be a relaxed affair for me. To my surprise, the guests were mostly teachers from the kids' school, including M's homeroom teacher and the vice principal (his name is Mr. Hole. His email address starts with "ahole@". No kidding. Nice guy, really). I didn't think I could relax around these people.
That's a big problem I am having here. Not feeling like I can really be myself, because I am surrounded by people from different cultures, and I don't know how they are gong to take my Sandiness. I feel like a freak, like I haven't felt since I was a teenager in Cleveland and people yelled things out their car windows at me. I at first missed that feeling when I moved to Seattle, initially, where funny hair and tattoos are totally commonplace, but I have since gotten comfortable with that anonymity. Freakiness has become more and more mainstream in our era, mind you, where the likes of Avril Lavigne and her peers have brought Hot Topic to every mall and pink and black striped shirts with glittery skulls to every store in Harajuku. The bite has completely gone out of it and it's as threatening as Punky Brewster.
That being said, that sort of fashion is the realm of the teenager, and it's only temporary and surface, as easily taken off as a pink pleather studded belt. In Japan, it's still weird for people to have tattoos, and even weirder for girls. And the attitude does not come off, either. I do not know how to act like a Japanese woman. I don't even look very weird, (tho I have been labeled with "goth," which boggles my mind) I am pretty tame, being an old momlike thing, but I just feel so other all the time. Kids and old ladies on the street stare and scowl at me, respectively. I always feel like I'm on display, like I am being watched to see if I will do something bizarre or incredibly rude, and I would probably not even know it if I did.
Whew. I don't know where that came from. It really is beside the point. Yeah, the usual tattoo questions happened at dinner (does it hurt? how long does it take? what does that one mean?), but my anxiety came not from that stuff, it was more like, can I get comfortably drunk around my kids' teachers and vice principal? They all hang out together and drink together and are peers, but I am a mom of students they see every day. Would they look at me and say "oh, that's why M & D are the way they are"? Could they relax around me, either? I felt like I was infiltrating a secret club or something. They are a mix of nationalities, too, and I've noticed that most ex-pat teachers are of a certain temperament. I guess they are kind of freaks, too. They didn't feel like they belonged in their own country. Anyway, they are mostly (with some notable exceptions) pretty sedate people, non-partyers, early-to-bedders, but maybe they are different in small groups of themselves.
All my anxiety was soon irrelevant, as they toddled off to bed right after dinner (pretty good Italian food), Michael & Shingo showed up, and the rest of us (including OSamu and some random older Japanese guy Cynthia invited sort of accidentally) went to the local hip-hop bar. This really wasn't as bad a sit sounded. Yeah, the music was as expected, but it was really just a decent-sized, interestingly-decorated casual place. It was covered floor to ceiling with what looked like Sharpie-and-White-Out sketches by someone not without talent.
There were also very realistic-looking gun lighters at the bar. They can get away with that sort of thing in Japan. They have super-realistic-looking pellet guns for kids, too. Could never get away with that in the states. Someone would get shot by a cop. These were hours of entertainment after the rest of our party left and it was just Cynthia and me.
Our drinks kept getting replaced by the random guys at the other end of the bar. Sometimes there is an advantage to being so visible, and with the birthday girl. The result of this was that I slept through most of Saturday while Jeff took the kids off to do some shopping in Ooguchi.
Sunday was a lovely day, so we headed to the Sankeien Gardens to hopefully catch the tail end of the autumn colors. Fall comes later here. I know it's supposed to be winter, but for the first time in my life, the season follows the calendar, and winter doesn't really seem to happen til the end of December, and the trees don't start changing until mid-November. The main part of the park was mostly full of already-bare trees and I was initially disappointed, but other parts lived up to my maple tree dreams. The kids had fun feeding the creepy ravenous koi and brave foot-nibbled ducks,
and I went into my meditative state of looking at the pretty colors and snapping pictures.
See all the pretty colors here.
Changing gears now. There's your segue.
Jeff and I had spent an entertaining night last week drinking and watching funny old Cleveland stuff on YouTube. There is an advantage to marrying someone who grew up in the same place at the same time. We have a lot of shared bricks in our foundation. If you are not formed from Cleveland in the 80s, you can't realize what a unique place it was, filled with DIY spirit in music and entertainment, with many endearing quirks. ANYWAY, this evening started me on a brief binge the next day of watching 80s music videos. I forget, as much as I love my New Wave, how horrible most of the music was. However, I came across the video for Cyndi Lauper's "She-Bop." This was the first time I'd ever seen it as a grownup. Everyone said it was about masturbation at the time, but I thought it was in a vague coded way, like Tori Amos' "Cornflake Girl" supposedly being about female circumcision or in an in-the-know kinda of way, like "The Day The Music Died." (actually, there is a cool breakdown of the symbolism here) But no. It's really obvious, and I just never really got it as a teenager, especially the bit at the end, where she can't catch the hat and cane, because she's blind. It's actually really funny. Check it out:
Wow, is it obvious that I haven't been doing that much? Perhaps excessively wordy to compensate for lack of action? Mmm-hmm. I'm resting up for Cleveland and the holidays. We put up our fake xmas tree over the weekend, too, and D had the idea of decorating it with popcorn strings. I'd always wanted to do that.
We are having a little family pre-xmas here on Sunday. There is one of those fantastic (read sarcasm) community events at the local public school, and then we are going to exchange our family gifts so we don't have to take them to Ohio with us or wait until we get back. I don't think I am getting anything, because I waived my right to xmas and birthday presents this year so I could get my tattoo in Okinawa, but I'm excited to give Jeff and the boys their stuff. The kids sure are getting older, because their presents are getting more expensive and sophisticated. You'll see next time!
Moving on.
Last Friday was Miss Cynthia's birthday. She's a lushy sort (as all my favorite girls are), so I figured dinner would be a relaxed affair for me. To my surprise, the guests were mostly teachers from the kids' school, including M's homeroom teacher and the vice principal (his name is Mr. Hole. His email address starts with "ahole@". No kidding. Nice guy, really). I didn't think I could relax around these people.
That's a big problem I am having here. Not feeling like I can really be myself, because I am surrounded by people from different cultures, and I don't know how they are gong to take my Sandiness. I feel like a freak, like I haven't felt since I was a teenager in Cleveland and people yelled things out their car windows at me. I at first missed that feeling when I moved to Seattle, initially, where funny hair and tattoos are totally commonplace, but I have since gotten comfortable with that anonymity. Freakiness has become more and more mainstream in our era, mind you, where the likes of Avril Lavigne and her peers have brought Hot Topic to every mall and pink and black striped shirts with glittery skulls to every store in Harajuku. The bite has completely gone out of it and it's as threatening as Punky Brewster.
That being said, that sort of fashion is the realm of the teenager, and it's only temporary and surface, as easily taken off as a pink pleather studded belt. In Japan, it's still weird for people to have tattoos, and even weirder for girls. And the attitude does not come off, either. I do not know how to act like a Japanese woman. I don't even look very weird, (tho I have been labeled with "goth," which boggles my mind) I am pretty tame, being an old momlike thing, but I just feel so other all the time. Kids and old ladies on the street stare and scowl at me, respectively. I always feel like I'm on display, like I am being watched to see if I will do something bizarre or incredibly rude, and I would probably not even know it if I did.
Whew. I don't know where that came from. It really is beside the point. Yeah, the usual tattoo questions happened at dinner (does it hurt? how long does it take? what does that one mean?), but my anxiety came not from that stuff, it was more like, can I get comfortably drunk around my kids' teachers and vice principal? They all hang out together and drink together and are peers, but I am a mom of students they see every day. Would they look at me and say "oh, that's why M & D are the way they are"? Could they relax around me, either? I felt like I was infiltrating a secret club or something. They are a mix of nationalities, too, and I've noticed that most ex-pat teachers are of a certain temperament. I guess they are kind of freaks, too. They didn't feel like they belonged in their own country. Anyway, they are mostly (with some notable exceptions) pretty sedate people, non-partyers, early-to-bedders, but maybe they are different in small groups of themselves.
All my anxiety was soon irrelevant, as they toddled off to bed right after dinner (pretty good Italian food), Michael & Shingo showed up, and the rest of us (including OSamu and some random older Japanese guy Cynthia invited sort of accidentally) went to the local hip-hop bar. This really wasn't as bad a sit sounded. Yeah, the music was as expected, but it was really just a decent-sized, interestingly-decorated casual place. It was covered floor to ceiling with what looked like Sharpie-and-White-Out sketches by someone not without talent.
There were also very realistic-looking gun lighters at the bar. They can get away with that sort of thing in Japan. They have super-realistic-looking pellet guns for kids, too. Could never get away with that in the states. Someone would get shot by a cop. These were hours of entertainment after the rest of our party left and it was just Cynthia and me.
Our drinks kept getting replaced by the random guys at the other end of the bar. Sometimes there is an advantage to being so visible, and with the birthday girl. The result of this was that I slept through most of Saturday while Jeff took the kids off to do some shopping in Ooguchi.
Sunday was a lovely day, so we headed to the Sankeien Gardens to hopefully catch the tail end of the autumn colors. Fall comes later here. I know it's supposed to be winter, but for the first time in my life, the season follows the calendar, and winter doesn't really seem to happen til the end of December, and the trees don't start changing until mid-November. The main part of the park was mostly full of already-bare trees and I was initially disappointed, but other parts lived up to my maple tree dreams. The kids had fun feeding the creepy ravenous koi and brave foot-nibbled ducks,
and I went into my meditative state of looking at the pretty colors and snapping pictures.
See all the pretty colors here.
Changing gears now. There's your segue.
Jeff and I had spent an entertaining night last week drinking and watching funny old Cleveland stuff on YouTube. There is an advantage to marrying someone who grew up in the same place at the same time. We have a lot of shared bricks in our foundation. If you are not formed from Cleveland in the 80s, you can't realize what a unique place it was, filled with DIY spirit in music and entertainment, with many endearing quirks. ANYWAY, this evening started me on a brief binge the next day of watching 80s music videos. I forget, as much as I love my New Wave, how horrible most of the music was. However, I came across the video for Cyndi Lauper's "She-Bop." This was the first time I'd ever seen it as a grownup. Everyone said it was about masturbation at the time, but I thought it was in a vague coded way, like Tori Amos' "Cornflake Girl" supposedly being about female circumcision or in an in-the-know kinda of way, like "The Day The Music Died." (actually, there is a cool breakdown of the symbolism here) But no. It's really obvious, and I just never really got it as a teenager, especially the bit at the end, where she can't catch the hat and cane, because she's blind. It's actually really funny. Check it out:
Wow, is it obvious that I haven't been doing that much? Perhaps excessively wordy to compensate for lack of action? Mmm-hmm. I'm resting up for Cleveland and the holidays. We put up our fake xmas tree over the weekend, too, and D had the idea of decorating it with popcorn strings. I'd always wanted to do that.
We are having a little family pre-xmas here on Sunday. There is one of those fantastic (read sarcasm) community events at the local public school, and then we are going to exchange our family gifts so we don't have to take them to Ohio with us or wait until we get back. I don't think I am getting anything, because I waived my right to xmas and birthday presents this year so I could get my tattoo in Okinawa, but I'm excited to give Jeff and the boys their stuff. The kids sure are getting older, because their presents are getting more expensive and sophisticated. You'll see next time!
posted by Sandi at 8:50 AM
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