Sofa Buddies

What is it about sofas that makes them such a comfort?  I mean this question in a specific sense, though I am not actually looking for any specific answer.  Many a time, growing up, I found myself frightened in my bedroom, and so went down/out to the sofa in the living room to attempt to fall back asleep (usually passing out somewhat promptly each time).  Even nowadays, there is still something so comforting about the sofa, I regularly have a sort of desire to snuggle down and fall asleep on it, instead of getting up and going into my bedroom to fall asleep.

Perhaps is it the residual psychological and emotional link between the sofa and getting to watch cartoons and movies, and being snuggled by the dogs or my siblings or parent, and late-night movies when we didn’t have to get up early the next day, and enjoying summer vacation.  Perhaps it is the foot rubs my dad and I would exchange as we watched tv together in the evenings.  Perhaps it is because we always seemed to have amazing blankets to use on the couch.  Perhaps it is none of the aforementioned, and perhaps it is all of it, and perhaps even more still.  I don’t know what it is that makes sofas such a comforting, cozy, happy place for me.  But there is something about them, I just love hanging on the sofa, which is why I am now writing about it, as I lounge on my own sofa bed and notice my feelings of not wanting to get up and go get in my own real bed to go to sleep (although I am actually quite tired).  🙂
Post-a-day 2017

Magic in our pockets

Tonight, I have dance class (at long last).  But that is not exactly the point… merely a piece of the mix.  I am on my way to dance class now, writing this, as I listen to the lady’s voice coming through the hidden speakers on the train, announcing clearly, “Please off your seat to those who may need it,” at which I inwardly chuckle/cringe each time.

Before I left home for class, however, I was baking cake cookies, while watching a film.  The film was “Kate & Leopold”, and it was showing on a laptop near me at my convenience.  It was well past time to leave, but the film was not quite finished.  However, I had finally finished my cake cookies, and so had no real excuse to delay my departure – the film could pause and wait just as easily as it could continue playing… Perhaps even more easily, as it required no power source from my apartment to do that.  Though, that is not the point here.

So, I paused the movie, once I saw that it had a good ten minutes remaining in it, and it therefore would not finish in the time it took me to go to the bathroom and put on my socks.  Now, I know how the movie ends.  That, too, is not the point.  The point, my dear readers is this: I didn’t have to stop watching the film, despite my then immediate departure.

How crazy a world is this one in which we now live, where I don’t have to stop watching the film that is at home, when I leave my home?

I could have easily pulled up Netflix on my phone, just as easily as I checked the time when I was slumbering down the stairs outside – which was, indeed, how Inhad even had the idea – , and immediately resumed the film where I had paused it.  Just by opening the website (or app if I’d bothered to download it), I could have simply clicked the play button and continued my film as I was heading to the train station.

It seems so simple and normal and standard, because people do this all the time.  I see people watching TV shows and movies almost every time I am on the train.  And yet, having experienced this particular situation tonight, I suddenly see how bizarre and futuristic a concept this is.  A movie can travel with me in my pocket, even if ten seconds ago, it was on a huge TV screen or a computer or wherever.  It’s like shapeshifting or magic, and we’re all carrying it around with us, as though it’s a cup of coffee or a slice of bread.  Or an apple.  Literally, I guess.  (Though I’d definitely intended that one to be a reference to its connection with the magic of physics.)
Post-a-day 2017

Being my own parent?

Now that I’m on my own and in charge of my own schedule, I find that I regularly wish I had someone to be a sort of accountability buddy. I’m essentially being the parent and the non-compliant, sneaky child all at once.  I tell myself that I really need to go to bed by 9:30 each night, and around 11:45, I start to be all concerned and upset about having not followed my desired bedtime.  When I had an enforcer (e.g. Parents or siblings), it was much easier actually to get a good night’s sleep than it is now.  No matter what the excuse back then, it almost never mattered – I went to bed anyway.  Nowadays, I don’t even have to try to convince myself to stay up.  I’m just so distracted by whatever it is, I don’t even seem to realize that an hour has passed, and I’m still not even close to ready for bed.

So, this leaves me either wishing for an accountability partner for my sleep, or, essentially, a parent or babysitter, who can make me go to bed on time.

To be fair, though, when I actually set a rule for myself, I follow it.  For example, I have just this week decreed that I need to be finished with computer and tech stuff by 9pm each night.  This includes writing for this weblog.  Hopefully, that means I’ll start getting to work on it much earlier in the evening or day each day, giving myself more time to have it meet my own standards again.  That’d be nice, hmm?  (I think so, anyway.). Anyway, it’s two ’til, so I’m off!  Goodnight and good day, folks! ❤ 
Post-a-day 2017

Math class in Japanese

Have you ever tried to do math in a written language you don’t know?  I have.  Forget about the part where you might have to wrack your brain, in order to recall certain mathematical formulas and rules from a decade or three ago.  What good does a formula do you, when you understand neither the givens nor the question?  Plus, how do you even find a formula, without knowing what you want to do (like what is being asked of you)?

I think we tend to be consice with our words in math problems in English a good amount of the time.  Sure, we have word problems, but the non-word problens usually are quite short on wordage.  For example, the following:

  • Find the following:
  • x = __  y – __ ∠A – __ lineAB – __
  • Given x = √7, find y.
  • Solve for b.

That sort of thing.  In Japanese, however, I’ve been unable to solve the problems, simply due to the fact that I can’t figure out what the problems are!  Usually, as soon as someone shows me what’s being asked on these Japanese math problems, I know the math to solve it.  However, the sheer magnitude (is that applicable here?) of words in the math problems throws me entirely to the sharks.  I’m usually quick with math, but I’ve never been slower than I am now with Japanese math.  Aargh!  😛  Haha  😀

 

P.S.  Just for reference, do recall that I am not actually in school as a student, but am a teacher.  And yes, it was normal for me as a teacher back in the US to join math classes.  Because I love it, really, and I can’t imagine life being quite so exciting as it is when I get to do fun math.  😛  I’m a total nerd, I am aware.  😀

 Give it a go!  These are even a bit easier than what I had in class. 😉

Post-a-day 2017

 

Empty Nest

Who knew one could get Empty Nest Syndrome in one’s 20s and without children?

My mom hasn’t even landed in the US yet, and I already feel the emptiness in the apartment.  Going slowly from solo to four in the apartment a few weeks ago was somehow so easy, it felt like I had always lived with at least a couple others in the apartment.  They then slowly trickled away, just as they had come, my mom staying about two weeks after the other two (and the rabbit – I’d forgotten about the rabbit.).

And today, with my apartment finally empty of everyone except for me, and my book being finished, I can’t seem to figure out what to do with myself.  And all I can think about is moving into a house or flat with a couple other girls, and occasionally having tea together in the living room, talking about life and boys and girls and everything there is….

…

But I still don’t know what my job is in this scenario, which is the only thing about it that gives me a lack of ease and shortness of breath right now.
Post-a-day 2017

Happy Tampons

My tampon purchase yesterday boasted new packaging.  If this were the US, I likely would call a bit of BS on the packaging.  However, seeing as this is Japan, and tampons are somewhat of a rarity, and very uncommonly used, I understand the aim of the packaging.

The individual wrappers declare, “LET’S ENJOY!”, “HAPPY”, “FUN”, and “LOVELY”, alongside pictures of women jumping for joy, shopping with “strong” arms, playing games, and running together (all in dresses or skirts).


Like I mentioned already, very much targeting a Japanese audience and not US here. 😛

Large And In Charge…?

I feel like a huge person in Japan.  In many ways.  I am tall and wide and hip-y and buxom and prepared.  My knees form a significantly-less-than-90-degree angle when I sit in chairs and on trains.  My back hurts from bending over so far all the time for sinks and countertops and desks.  Rooms feel small due to their shortness and my easy ability to jump and touch the ceiling, and doorways feel like Willy Wonka, when I could almost bump my head on them a good amount of the time.

5’6″
Size 8.5 shoe
Size 5 pants
Small tops
33″ ribs, 37″ chest

Therefore, though I am quite average, even small, for the US, I am huge in all ways in Japan.

Post-a-day 2017

Inner Physics

Physics is one of the most intriguing areas of the sciences to me.  One aspect of it that I really love is what I call “inner physics”.  Inner physics to me is the physics that happens internally, often without our notice, but still produces results outside of ourselves.

Hand-Eye coordination is part of what I call inner physics.  At first, we have to work hard when catching and throwing a ball or frisbee – we think and calculate consciously.  After a while, though, it becomes a natural, almost thoughtless process.  It becomes easy and innerly calculated, without the intentional help of our consciousness.  If someone tossed me a ball right now, and I caught it, I could not explain the mental process of calculation for how I had caught the ball.  “I just caught it,” would be me likely reply.  It was like second nature to me.

That in mind, perhaps you can begin to see all the other things I see as inner physics – aka physics calculations we do without being aware of having done them, or having the slightest idea of how to write out the mathematics used for them.  Things like managing to walk a straight line or keep from falling over; carrying something without spilling it; giving high fives, scratching a spot in our own head without blinking the hand into the head; hopping; jumping off of something; properly aligning q-tips to clean our ears; not poking ourselves in the face with our toothbrushes; not spilling water when we bring the glass to our mouths for a drink… those sorts of things.  I find them all fascinating.  Most of them involved such complex physics, that I don’t even know how to write out the equations for the various situations.  And yet our brains are accomplishing these tasks by doing these mathematical equations almost automatically.

The one piece of inner physics that never ceases to amaze me, though, is how on earth we manage to sit down on a toilet seat, especially at night.  We can not see it, we are not touching it, and yet we somehow land gracefully in just the right spot as we sort of fall backward and downward.  Some people struggle to catch a ball that is visible in front of them, yet most everyone can turn ’round and squat perfectly down to a toilet seat.  We are mathematical magicians with that stunt, I swear.

I love inner physics.  I also enjoy when we have a little blip in our inner physics – like hitting our face with the straw or spoon, instead of it going seamlessly between the lips.  I always enjoy that one.  🙂
Post-a-day 2017 

Sick at work, and no one cares

Today, I woke up around 2:30am, throat sick.  Lots and lots of pain, a desire for water that could not be satisfied due to extreme pain when drinking, and total exhaustion.  I woke up once (or was it twice) more before my actual alarm, needing to rush to the bathroom from all the water I was drinking.  I contemplated just going to the doctor’s office instead, and getting a sick leave day, but my mother, who is visiting, convinced me that it was best to go to school, since I hadn’t been there much lately and would be gone the rest of this week, too.

And I discovered more of the Japanese views on work and illness while I was at work today.  Almost no one seemed concerned that I was sick and at work (and could barely talk).   Having to sit around at work after I finished all my classes was even more rough than the start to the day.  And finding compassion for being ill and stuck at work was rather impossible from a people who practically would work on their deathbeds.  (For those who don’t know, Japanese teachers don’t take off work for almost anything, including illness.  Only the flu gets them all ruffled up into a panic, where they force you to stay home for a week.) 

It was an odd day for sure…
Post-a-day 2017 

A change in plans

Today, instead of going shopping as we had planned, my mom and I went to the Thai Massage place around the corner, in the building next to mine.  We each got 20-minute foot massages, one after the other, and lost all desire of going shopping afterward.  We finished our warm teas with delight and peaceful ease, and slowly walked back around the corner, up the stairs, and into my apartment.  We began bedtime routines almost immediately, feeling wonderful.

I want to do that for people.  Now, I’m considering spending a month-ish in Thailand to learn Thai Massage next year.

Post-a-day 2017