japan and america are very similar in that their insistense on propriety and fear of relaxation is generated by shame over the speed and methods through which they have become modern.
i like going to the public bath alot. it's nice to see so many old flawed bodies with circular cupping marks on their back walking around naked in such a natural way.
also, i don't have to talk to anyone.
i think one of the major conflicts in my life stems from the fact that ultimately, i probably should have been a dancer that is, i feel like my body should be responsible for my income, which is why dealing with japanese housewives after a fourty minute 9 oclock in the morning drive is not good for me
being a walking courier would probably work. which is i suppose, what waiting tables involves.
my snot is yellow. some of my students say yellow is their favorite color. i don't know how anyone can name as their favorite color the color of bodily fluids in a state of disease.
i teach some doctors at a hospital. the neurosurgeon, as expected, is the most aarogant, and properly spouts the party line about japan's general superiority...
people rage about american nationalism, but when i travel, i'm always struck by the fact that other people, ordinary people whom one would expect to have a much higher degree of skepticism are almost invariably far more connected to, supportive of and generally in tune with their national identity... whereas most of the americans i know tend to be at least a little apologetic, if not utterly ashamed and disconnected. of course, it could just be the americans i know. but the doctors man, they kill me. and they treat the one young female doctor in the class as if she were a nurse, poor thing. japan is the most deliciously delicious circumspect enjoyable country in the world.
everybody is taught the word delicious here, because the way one says food is good uses a food specific word, o i shi, and it's impossible to convince people that english speakers do not run around saying dericious when they take every bite... it's also difficult to convince them that people say please and thankyou constantly, and tip.
i start a class of two year olds in a two weeks.
yosei had a dream last night that i left him for julie delpy. really.
i don't want to change the kerosene in my heater, though i suppose it would make taking a shower far more pleasureable
