An Ex-Expat’s blog

Literally ‘stupid strength’  but it is one of a number of Japanese words, whose meaning I grasp and I can use correctly  in Japanese, but for some reason am stumped when I attempt to render it into English.

My son has his PE credits out of the way for graduation, but in his junior year, he decided to take weight training: guess he wants to be the uber dude of dudedom.

So on his first day what does he do?  He did 45 squats per rep @3 reps.  Towards evening he, or I should say his thigh muscles were screaming in pain, so much so that he had to soak in an Epsom salt bath for a bit.

Nothing like the hard way to learn.

Wahoooooooooooooooooooo!

Of the school in the DC Metro area, Va schools start the latest, the first day after Labor Day, which can be a blessing if Labor Day is on a Friday, but like this year, it sucks (at least from my son's point of view).

He spent most of his last day of 'freedom' as he called it,  in the following state of repose. He'll be in for a bigger shock once he joins the other working stiffs.

Now, how do you really feel

But he did get up in time to take care of some house-sitting and get  out the door ready to catch the bus at 06:40.

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It'll be nice to have some quiet, i.e., not having to listen to nagging about why he is lying  about.  It was not really his fault. He tried to get a summer job, but he found as I have found, that it is tough. 

Have started rereading (to save myself from the ordeal of daytime TV programming)  one of the books I  purchased from a used book store, which was published during WWII.

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The book was written by a free spirit, who decides to take the long boat ride East before the war broke out.  From the distance of the many decades which have passed since he traveled, then wrote and had this book published, it is hilarious and poignant too.

The funniest moment I think was what he did when his ship docked at Yokohama.  On the immigration form there was the 'Reason for visiting Japan' (Things never change do they?).  He decided to put down, 'To kill the Emperor'.  Now remember, this was prewar, The-Emperor-is-God, Japan!

I have always wondered if the author is still alive: he'd be quite the geezer if he is.  But if he is and if he has his wits about him, I think it'd be interesting to spend an afternoon with him.

Have no idea if this book is still in print, but if you ever  come across a copy, get it and read it.

I’ve been asked at times where a good Japanese meal can be had in the DC Metro area, and honestly, I can’t give much of an answer since evening fare is usually Japanese, like what you see here

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But generally, and perhaps surprisingly, the quality of food served here at many of the Japanese restaurants is really not that great. Not bad, but I’ve had much better Japanese meals at restaurants around Ann Arbor or Novi Michigan actually.

NYC has great Japanese food; no different from eating somewhere in Japan and of course LA has no shortage of decent places too.

Part of the reason I was told (by a Japanese) that around DC, there may be 3,000 or so Japanese households, while NYC for example has 3 times that number.  That could account for lack of a good Japanese grocery store or book stores around here too.

I'm an unabashedly morning person and am up early.  Had the door leading out to the deck open this morning  to let some cool air in and heard close by the cry of a hawk (technically it could be something else, but it is a bird of prey so,..) circling about overhead.

The area I live in is by no means rural, its just one of the many subdivisions just outside the Capital Beltway, but given what appears near our door, a doe and her 2 fawns, a fox and her two kits, who I think make it a point to come as close as possible to the house in order to drive our golden retriever nuts, and a neighbor says he has spotted a coyote.

Suppose we'll be spotting bears next?

Got a call from my brother, Pound Salt. He usually doesn't do this, but he was on a high.  He had decided it would be a great 'date' to take his wife out to a local dog track on Saturday night, and he had won a bit of money.

I don't gamble, not because I think it is morally wrong or evil,  but that given the Laws of Probability, gambling is pretty much a sucker's game. Whenever I have gambled, I've gone in with a set amount and with the intent that I will most likely lose most of it.

Nor is gambling, at least as I've seen it, suave or mysterious.  The clientele I've seen in casinos tend to be a bunch or older folks busily spending their children's inheritance. 

And last, a dog track is one of the last places I would take a date to.

Had an e-mail exchange with one of the Sake Dojo Alumni, during which, ’Oh yeah, whatever happened to______?’ came up.  Turns out this person, an Anglo, stayed on for a while, studied Shakuhachi, was bestowed by his sensei, a Japanese 芸名 (?), which I was told he now prefers being addressed as even though he still has his western given names and lives in the U.S.

I’ve always shaken my head when I hear of or read about something like this.  ‘Going native’ here as opposed to ‘going native’ Japan is very different.  Here one can be ‘American’ but still also be, and most importantly accepted as, Raoul, Ahmed, Jacques, Ravi, Dieter, etc., along with the cultural heritage you have.  Becoming Japanese means first off, having to jettison your western name for a Japanese name.  A small thing perhaps, but the implications are large to me for it means subscribing to mores, values, culture, a ‘system’, what have you, that means to ‘become’ one must also exclude everything else.  This was I think, one reason behind the decision to bring our son here to grow up. 

Here, he can be what he is, part Japanese (his first name is a Japanese name) and part western. He is aware of his dual heritage and the gratifying part for me is that he does not feel the need to suppress or hide either part of what/who he is.   Had we chosen to remain in Japan, I think he would be under a great deal of pressure to downplay his western, American part of who he is.

Actually it’s not too bad:  more often, I send in my resume and hear nothing, good, bad or indifferent.  Having been on the hiring side of the table, I can understand the ‘whys’ of not responding: the sheer number of applicants is one reason, and another is how comfortable a firm is in replying to an applicant is another.  A badly crafted reply can lead to a applicant feeling they were not given a fair chance, then questions perhaps from the EEOC, and…...  

But I am on the side of sending something out.  It allows closure, at least for me, and in a world in which through my experience, most potential employers don’t bother to respond, it is good relationship building, i.e., I would probably respond more favorably about a firm which did send me a letter, than one which did not bother.

Have not heard about another government affairs position open, at a nearby university either.  Did notice the job posted again on a local jobs website..hmmmm.  One thing The Auto Babe told me was that the market is now crowded as Bush appointees, looking to 01/2009, are also now out looking for future employment.  

Perhaps I should make good on the joke I made at a going away party in Japan, when asked what I was going to do. I replied I was going to open up a 屋台 in front of the White House. Hope it doesn’t come to that.

Besides driving us both crazy this summer, my son has been interning with the local pro lacrosse team as event staff during their home games.  It’s pretty tough, he works from 08:00 and everything does not finish up until 23:00, and he hasn’t moaned or groaned about it.

At the last and final home game of the season, he had a good time. He was assigned to escort the mascot around. Got to try on the mascot's head and  I guess he got some attention too.  He was so pumped that he called me immediately after the final whistle to tell me what was going on and to ask if he could have some of the Bud Lite that was lying about. 

Told him twice ‘no’ as he is still underage, and amazingly, he did not drink any (had it’d been me, I’d not have asked in the first place and snuck a beer or two off)

Been wondering if part of why I told him ‘no’ is that if he is gong to drink beer, he can do waaaaay better than a Budweiser product.

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My son and wife are fairly late sleepers, so more often than not, I'll come downstairs fix a cup of coffee and have some quiet time for myself (and things like this). 

Thanks to my time in Japan, I have a taste for very strong coffee, the kind that makes other memebrs of my family wince when they take a sip.

The wife is going out later this morning, going to show a Japanese woman who has rcently moved in close by, an Amish market (she goes there as they will slice meat thin for things like 牛丼, etc.) and to show her where one of the better Japanese grocery stores are.

Home alone, Wahoooo! ;-)

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