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What is that hook for?
I learned something this morning. The TV people were actually talking about the best place for a young child to do their homework -- at the study desk in their room, a folding table in the living room, or perhaps in the dining room with mom? Along the way, they happened to mention what happens when the child comes home. Apparently in most cases, ( Read more... ) -
What do you call that?
Well, that was funny. At the Christmas Eve service, we met a young mother we know, and her two boys, about five and three years old. Mitsuko had bought a present for them, four little play trucks. The boys had a great time playing with them. But the mother asked me what they were called in English. Which is when I realized I wasn't sure!
I ( Read more... ) -
Is that really a problem?
I think I'm missing something. One of the news items we have recently had here in Japan concerns a young couple and their child. They apparently went to the government, trying to get the child added to their family record, as is customary here. That's where the trouble started. Apparently the government so far is arguing that they cannot register ( Read more... ) -
What is Musee Platinum?
I've seen a pile of these ads, with a young woman wearing what looked like earmuffs of curled braids, and then the various sheep in the background, often with some kind of large numeral one. One had her and the sheep apparently going into the base of the one, towering over the field. Usually the ad ends with the name Musee Platinum. But there was ( Read more... ) -
What-dun-it?
We've got some new television shows starting up here in Japan. One of them that caught my eye apparently is a remake of an older show. From the ads, it is a TV mystery/police show, with the twist that the team -- they keep saying the SRI team -- gets the supernatural cases. For example, the ads show a man dissolving, and in one ad the team is ( Read more... ) -
The Lucky Bean
At a meal with a large group the other day, we had a dessert that was a kind of white Jell-O with some kind of beans in it. One of the men said he thought he got an azuki, a sweet red bean, in his dessert. They started teasing him, because everyone else was pretty sure they had kuromame, black soybeans, in the dessert. Someone dug out one of the ( Read more... ) -
A Different Kind of Fishing?
Recently the TV had a short piece on a kind of fishing that I had never heard or seen before. Apparently it's fairly well-known here in Japan, though ( Read more... ) -
He doesn't like anyone to hold his hand!
A little while ago, Mitsuko, my wife, and I went to pick the beans on our little farm plot. The University has a green lab, which consists of a couple of greenhouses, several little concrete rice paddies, and a whole series of small plots that they encourage members of the University to use for vegetable farming. They are small, perhaps 5' x 10' in ( Read more... ) -
Is your cup half-full or half-empty?
The other day during a discussion where the other person was telling me that America is drowning in paranoia, I happened to mention something that I observed over several years visiting America ( Read more... ) -
Doing One Extra
The other day, I took the time to take a trash bag from our house and pick up the leftover trash in our little local park. It had been there a while, and I just wanted to take care of it. I know some people had advised me that I didn't need to do that. But... I did it. And felt a little happier afterwards. Then I got to thinking...
I was ( Read more... )