You know that feeling of being in just the right place, doing just the right thing for yourself and your life?
Today, surrounded off and on by Japanese people who live and work in Texas (mostly as language teachers) and a few non-geeky-but-maybe-a-tad-dorky-about-Japan US Americans, I found myself in just that feeling…
And it was delicious, and perfectly timed. 🙂
Post-a-day 2019
Tonight, I ate the same food at dinner as I used after dinner to scrub my body in the shower.
Slightly absurd and utterly intriguing, is it not?
I’ll just tell you: It is.
You see, when I was living in Japan, I learned first in Okinawa about how this food that was regularly a side dish in Japanese meals was also found as the base for certain jiggling and super-foaming soaps – trust me, this was a very odd and confusing conversation for me to be having, especially in Japanese, as the shop workers tried to explain to me how something that sounds like the Japanese pronunciation/version of a drinking alcohol is actually a food, and that this food is what makes the jiggling, funny soap here in front of me.
Suffice it to say, I bought a few of these spectacular soaps, mind partially blown by the soap itself and partially by the whole discovery of its being something I somewhat often ate.
(The next time I use one, I’ll share photos, I’m almost certain – it is really cool!)
Now, this plant is called konjac, and is pronounced just like the alcoholic beverage.
Therefore, in Japanese, they are both pronounced the same way and written in Roman characters the same way: konnyaku.
(The signs had the Japanese written, too, but it wouldn’t have been the first time that I’d seen a foreign word written as though it were a Japanese word [e.g. using hiragana instead of katakana], so I didn’t trust it entirely.)
However, I eventually understood what non Earth it was – sort of, anyway – and suddenly started noticing it more and more around me in life.
Tonight, I cooked some “konnyaku threads”, which look like little knots made of about seven white strings of rubber each, and had them with some other Japanese-esque food I prepared.
Then, for my shower, I happily pulled out for the first time my “Natural Konjac Puff”, a body scrubber similar in size, shape, and texture to a cut loofah… except that it went from the rough and crispy of a loofah to the soft and squishy foamy of a sea sponge, once it was wet and soaped.
Also, when I first opened the package for the puff, I smelled the puff, and it had a very similar smell to my konjac food from shortly beforehand- that rubbery, slightly salty, and weird smell that isn’t exactly bad, but isn’t delightful either…
Totally odd and crazy experience.
P.S. Here is a great page that talks about konjac in mug more detail.
Post-a-day 2019
I am bursting at the seams with joy and delight tonight!
Remember just the other week, how I kept running into 渡辺 謙 (Ken Watanabe) things all over the place?
Remember how one of them was that quick-change from the Tony Awards, and how it made me really wish I could see that performance of his, in “The King and I”, even though it ended, like, over a year ago?
Believe it or not, due to a reason I know not, that production is, for two nights only, being shown in select movie theaters here in the USA.
Obviously, I (re)arranged everything, and I attended tonight’s showing of the performance.
It was spectacular, and almost even better than an actual live theater performance, because everyone and everything was so much bigger and easier to see, up there on the big screen. 😛
And, let’s be real here, I hadn’t seen the show since I was itty bitty, so I totally balled my eyes out at the end…
Also, the curtain call always makes a show feel complete – this one was no excuse – and I think that’s what’s missing from regular films, is a curtain call… a tiny nudge back to real life after the show, and a chance to show one’s extreme appreciation for the performance just given.
Plus, clapping and cheering and hollering, with a glint of tears in the eyes, is a totally fun way to end the event.
Anyway, thanks, whoever you are, who decided to show this performance for me tonight – miniature dream just came true! Woohoo!
Post-a-day 2018
I found myself thinking of (and, of course, missing) my ballet class in Japan.
I was the tallest by a lot, and it was mostly older ladies (not old, but definitely older), and everyone was super sweet and happy and even a bit giddy every class.
And the teacher and I had an unwanted but accustomed distance-by-language-barrier, because my technical Japanese was utterly iffy, and her English possibly below that… that is, we had this distance until the night that we delightfully discovered that we both spoke French rather fluently… then we got on quite comfortably, and even more familiarly than I did with any of the others, because we could say so much to each other now.
I had always asked on occasion for the teacher to repeat something she’d said or done (in Japanese, of course), and I continued that…, but now I could and would ask for clarity at times when I still wasn’t certain what the goal or instruction was (if you’ve ever done ballet, you can understand how important it is to understand what muscles are doing what in a movement), and that part would be in French.
All in all, Monday nights at ballet class were always great, and I miss them now, especially with it getting cold outside (that was when I’d first started going to the classes).
Post-a-day 2018
Japan is on my mind and in my life right now. Recall that I watched the film “The Last Samurai” a few weeks ago. I then watched it with the director’s, Edward Zwick’s, commentary the other day. I had a cry-fest the first time, and was utterly touched and in love with samurai even more so than I already had been – I’d respected their skills and revered them as a whole function of class – and then I had a mind-whooshing wonderful exploration and discovery with the second, specifically leading me to appreciate even more the talents and passions of 渡辺 謙 Ken Watanabe*, the man who plays the lead samurai in the film and who plays ‘the Japanese English-speaking character’ in almost every Hollywood film these days – a man I’d already appreciated for his acting skills in “Inception” and other Hollywood films**. And so, here I am, weeks after first watching the film, and I’m still thinking about the samurai, and I’ve added 渡辺 謙 (Ken Watanabe).
Therefore, when selecting what to wear for today that was unique and warm – the weather is suddenly chilly here, though it was genuinely hot and humid two days ago – I settled on one of my haori (use 羽織 to search online and get the right pictures on Google), the sort of winter jacket piece for kimono***. The half turtle neck I usually wear with it was unfindable, and so I selected something else that was the same color, but textured really neatly (and then found the other shirt, but preferred the textured one, anyway).
That’s all my own conscious doing.
Today at work/school, the classroom we were using for the yearbook class for which I was subbing was an English classroom. I happen to sit in a student desk, instead of the teacher’s, and what is directly in front of me?
This:
I asked the students what book possibly was being read that had this on the board, and they concluded that it was a history book. That is, students had merely used the board in the classroom during a free period, and had put up notes in preparation for a test or quiz in history class that was on that time period. I was totally ready to read whatever novel it had been for English class, though… Oh, well…
And then, this evening, I found myself sitting in a coffee shop with my mom – her having the intention to read and I to work on my paper for school, but both of us kind of just chatting and catching up on things for the first almost-hour – explaining my outfit to her, one that she has declared to be genuinely great in terms of style and in terms of how it looked on me (and which multiple people had done throughout the day, including people who never comment on my outfits, which was really funny and cool all at the same time), and it turns out that the textured shirt I’d selected, though I hadn’t realized it when I’d selected it, was also from Japan. I’d just remembered that I hadn’t worn it yet, but had been wanting to for a long time, and just hadn’t found the right situation and clothing combination, and had genuinely forgotten that it, too, was from Japan. My mother, as we chuckled about the specific funky shop where I’d bought said shirt, then says that, ‘See, there are things you really liked about Japan.’
I agreed with her entirely, and mentioned how I know I want to go back and visit plenty; I’m just not so sure about ever even considering living and working there again. However, I’ve just had a lot of Japan on my mind lately. Learning about 渡辺 謙 (Ken Watanabe) and his language situation for the filming of “The Last Samurai”, made me consider whether I could be that kind of person in Japan, in Japanese film. I have a natural tendency to pick up on accent quite well, and Japanese was no exception to this for me. Could I go back and model and act successfully? It’s definitely possible, but is it very likely? Could I get the visa to give it a go, even? Hmm… These are the thoughts that have been on my mind the past few days (though not for the first time). I want to go back to Japan, but I also want to have something to do while there, even though I’ll only be visiting, technically.
And so, I suspect that I’ll just keep this all in mind, and, eventually, I’ll find a way back to Japan (and have a spectacular time while there). Perhaps, either here or there, I’ll find a way to meet 渡辺 謙 (Ken Watanabe). Maybe he’ll let me do an interview with him. That would be stellar. And possibly a really good idea. Hmm… Well, we’ll see. For now, I’m just surrounded by Japan, intentionally, unintentionally, and even from outside sources… and I kind of like it…
🙂
*Yes, the Japanese version is with the last name first, read Watanabe Ken. And I tend to say it that way now, though I didn’t do it intentionally and I didn’t used to do it. I guess it is just automatic for me now, after having lived in Japan, to say a Japanese name ‘Japanese style’, so to speak. In my head, every time, I say “Watanabe Ken-san”, but I already tend to leave out the -san with people who don’t understand it, and so the same happens with 渡辺 謙.
**When hearing what Edward Zwick had to say in the commentary of “The Last Samurai”, it had me question if that film had been 渡辺 謙’s (Ken Watanabe’s) first real role in a Hollywood film, thinking that it quite likely must have been. I found it amazing, because I feel like I’ve known him as an actor for so long, that it must have been before 2003 that I first saw him. After some consideration, though, I realized that, seeing as how 2003 was 15 years ago, it did actually make sense. Sure enough, after dong a bit of checking, it seems that “The Last Samurai”, in 2003, indeed, was his first Hollywood film.
***Fun Fact: Kimono literally means “wearing thing” or “thing one wears”.
Post-a-day 2018
ハナですよ
これはいいでも
花じゃない
………
Hana desu yo.
Kore wa ii demo
Hana jya nai.
………..
Translation:
I am Hannah.
This is good, but
I am not a flower. / Am I not a flower?
Post-a-day 2018
I met a Japanese person today, and we used Japanese together, and it was spectacular.
When I called to my mom to have her come over at one point, I even used the Japanese version of “Mom” accidentally, I was so engrossed in the Japanese conversation.
It was really good.
Post-a-day 2018
When you know Japanese Kanji just enough to recognize the everyday ones, but can’t really write much of it…. that’s when you see marks on a zucchini, and think at first that you are seeing Kanji (possibly related to ‘love’ or ‘rice field’).
Post-a-day 2018
Tonight, we saw a Taiko performance, we wore kimono (again), I spoke Japanese, and I bowed some (with bows in return).
It was a spectacular night.
I am incredibly happy and grateful to be living in Houston (the most diverse city in the USA, with one in four people having been born abroad).
Hashtag diversity, divercity
Post-a-day 2018
Another letter I found regarding my early time in Japan. I’m not so sure that I ever sent this one either. I think they both were intended as drafts, but time kept passing and more kept happening, making me want to add even more… and so I never sent anything. 😛
………………………………
hannah ananas 