hittin' the road

so i'm no longer a scared lil' betty, white knuckles, clenching the wheel of my mini-car, creeping at grandma speeds, constantly fearing deportation. i finally passed my driver's license test. woohoo!

bring the heat...

so aunt sissy patty left last wednesday. sniffle, sniffle. we had a fun and exhausting time trekking around the country and we managed to get into some really interesting things. after i get all my pics hosted i'll write more about all that.

in the mean time...
liz and i headed to tokyo for a 'hot, hot, heat' concert on 9/9. i almost wet myself when i saw they were playing here and the show was not a disappointment.
the venue was fairly small and intimate, and we arrived early enough to get right up front.

i danced and sang until my evening wear had the sweat stains of a marathon runner. afterwards some of the 'try to be tough' bouncers were demanding we move from near the club. as the bar's doors open onto a really busy sidewalk in harajuku, where hundreds of people pass every minute on weekend nights, we paid him little mind, arguing we should be allowed to stand there if tons of others can. we blended in with the throngs while making some plans, then scooted down a side street to retrieve our things from a coin locker and discovered what all the hub-bub was about. the singer of the band was just chilling, talking with a couple of peeps, by a back entrance. we complimented his show and he called us over to chat. i'm not the star struck type, so i was pleased to discover he's not the stuck on himself rock star type. it was really satisfying to watch the big ole' bouncer glare at us over his folded arms while we hung out shooting the shit with the talent.
we were starving and bee-lined for outback restaurant, our guilty pleasure in tokyo. we washed down that huge plate of cheese fries, salad with real ranch dressing and peppercorn-crusted burger with a pitcher of margaritas. all the while explaining to passers-by who were giving us the 'you came all the way to japan to eat at an american franchise restaurant' look that 'no, we didn't. we live here. and you guys don't use enough cheese in your cuisine. and we don't want to get osteoporosis.' nevermind the faulty logic behind getting your daily dose of calcium from a meal like that. then we made the rounds to two tiny hip-hop clubs. family, where we'd never visited before, had a lounge with old school beats and a dance floor that eventually became the venue for a bunch of live emcees. then it was off to gas panic, a free and usually lively spot in shibuya that plays mostly top forty booty music.

as the night waned, we weighed our lodging options and decided to try and find a nearby hotel. well, you see... we were in the club and love hotel district, many of which apparently don't allow lesbian couples...unless they saw through our disguises and pegged us as drunk, foreign girls without legit hotel reservations. hmmm... a group of older men on the corner were outraged that a cute couple of 'resbians' [remember they can't make the 'l' sound] like us couldn't find a room so he promptly lead us to a place that obliged. our room rocked. complete with a huge fluffy bed, a slot machine and a bathtub bigger than my apartment.

we past the time taking tons of pics, most of which aren't appropriate for this space. what...c'mon...i mean, it was a love hotel...what'd ya expect?!!

check it...

so i have a stat counter on this page that allows me to waste a whole bunch of my free time checking out statistics on who’s been visiting here, how often, from where, looking at what, etc. it really is interesting. i’ve got faithful readers in germany, italy, singapore, australia, canada and, of course, japan and the u.s. 3,564 people have viewed this page since i started keeping track a few months ago. how mind blowing is that?!? thanks guys. one way people stumble upon this site is by doing keyword searches. often i am not what they are looking for at all and i’m betting they don’t spend too much time poking around once they discover that. i often get tickled by what landed peeps at my page. here’s a recent funny one:

key word search for “sex with japanese girl with kimono”

sorry dude.

this and that...

wow. there’s been so much going on. aunt patty’s here which is just fabulous. we went on a tokyo rampage before heading back to joetsu for some fun in the countryside. tomorrow we’re off again so i wanted to jot down a bit before we head out.
my list of things i wanna tell you about is spiraling out of control… i don’t have time to do justice to the earth celebration, the recent funeral i attended or the insane fish market so… you’ll have to settle for these tidbits.
a couple friends had a birthday party a while back at a fabulous cabin in a neighboring mountain town. it was a famous person costume party. i was busy with driving lessons [more on that in a minute] so i didn’t have much time to plan. that’s how i ended up going as tina turner after a fight with ike. complete with teased hair, black eye and torn up stockings.

there was a huge grill that was never empty and an inflatable jungle gym thingy so you know it had to be a blast.

i think carrie gets the most spot on costume award as pregnant britney spears…



the following week was a welcome party in a nearby town, tokamachi. i’ve got a couple of friends there and decided to join them for the festivities.

we did one of those infamous all you can eat and drink things. followed by bar hopping and pool playing.

i am oh so happy to report that i played billiards for the first time since my hand surgery and didn’t completely freakin’ suck. woohoo.


another first…on September 5, carrie and i went to take the driver’s license test in kashiwazaki. i won’t rant about the backwards system that allows foreigners to drive for a year on a license purchased at AAA for $10, and then forces only americans and south africans to pass a ridiculously difficult test that is the source of fear and loathing nation wide. other foreign nationals are simply allowed to transfer their home country's license. i will however rant about the fact that i spent about 12 hours and nearly $300 studying for the aforementioned test only to fail for no good reason. no melodrama…seriously. i dutifully took hours of lessons from a little old, almost toothless man who would remove his shoes, sit cross-legged in the passenger seat and chain smoke as he told me all the little tricks for passing the test. he continuously complimented my driving, and told me i didn't need to worry about the test. well... the driving license center employee scribbled furiously on his secret clipboard as i inched my way around the closed course, just as i’d been taught, announcing everything i was doing in japanese…downshift to second, blinker [winka in japanese] on, pump the break, check left and right, wait to turn, stay close to the left side of the road, check the mirror, obstacle in the road is dangerous, check blind spot, etc… he told me my driving was "umai, jouzu" which means skillful and well done but…get this…i didn’t use my left mirror enough. what the freak. it’s a damn racket. so carrie and i went out to have a ‘let’s learn from failure’ beer as she didn't pass either.

since the test is only administered on mondays and patty is here now, i must wait until 9/26 to take it again. can you all cross your fingers please.

carrie and i furiously sending we failed, bitch-fest emails from our cell phones. a year ago i laughed aloud at the sight of two people out for a social occaision who were using their keitais at the same time. now we’re turning japanese…

woohoo!!

sissy patty arrives in 3 days. can hardly contain myself.

ruv

so i was at the hospital the other day, waiting around for my rehabilitation, when i witnessed both sides of the dichotomy that is marriage in japan. there was an older couple, she was dutifully accompanying him to rehab, he was barking at her while she stood in a non-confrontational fashion staring down at her slippered feet. i started scribbling, then began making rhymes and before i knew it i had this. although it's not a pulitzer piece, it does give you some idea of how i see the conservative, traditional unions in japan.

a relationship built on lies, based on truths that aren’t your own.
silent glares, vacant stares. it’s not important if anyone’s there.

the clothes are folded, the children are fed,
disinterest has driven you to different beds.

an existence that’s become strictly functional,
a bond drained of all that’s emotional.

but in your eyes i see no hate or pain,
perhaps it’s liberating you must no longer feign.

the culture of your marriage i cannot understand,
rarely a man bothers to wear his wedding band.

from this current system you can look back through the years,
and see it as a culmination of necessity and fear.

historically because of social and political strife,
later, personal obligations made you my wife.

forfeiting your family and all your personal time
to care for his aging parents and encourage his blood line.

perhaps it’s paralysis based on societal expectations,
perhaps your perceived lack of options mires your inclinations,

or perhaps it’s an arrangement that works very well
to keep society’s cogs turning and make the economy swell.

in any case,
it’s a life sentence i can’t face.

it motivates me to encourage young lovers
who appear to really have feelings for each other.

the conditions are different in the country today
marriage no longer has a strictly practical role to play.

when in the park i see students holding hands,
i’m hopeful the true merits of love they’ll grow to understand.


to be fair, in the same visit to the hospital i saw a couple that's a fixture there. he stumbles along behind a walker on twig like legs as unsteady as those of a newborn calf. she walks backwards in front of him, urging him on. not sure what happened to him, but he was in rough shape...discolored patchy skin, deteriorated muscles too weak to move his limbs. we often talk when we're seated at the same table. it's unreal to watch his tenacity about recovery. he's doing so much better. maybe, as huey lewis and the news would say, 'that's the power of love.'